February 2025

“Oh that men would praise Yaweh for His Goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (Ps 107) Our heart’s desire is that this would be true in our own hearts, in your heart, and in the hearts of believers in our churches in Indonesia. Ultimately, our heart’s desire is that the whole earth would be full of God’s people praising Him for His Goodness and wonderful works for and to us all.  

The first month of 2025 got off to a great start for our team working on Joshua. Praise the Lord, chapters 1-8 are in the final steps of the translation process, and we are working on content checking 10-11 and comprehension testing 9-10. We are almost to the ½ point of Joshua!

One amazing story in Joshua is how Yaweh fought for his people against the Amorites in chapter 10. When the 5 Amorite kings came together and surrounded the Gibeonites, Israel came to their defense. During the battle, Yaweh brought confusion and panic on the part of the Amorites, then he sent large hailstones which killed more people than the Israelites killed. Finally, Yaweh caused the sun and moon to stand still in the sky. All this happened in just one 24-hour period allowing the Israelites to gain victory over these Amorites. These are just a few of “His wonderful works to the children of men.” How much more amazing even than that salvation against the Amorites, is the salvation that He provided for us through His death and resurrection.

Thank you so much for your prayers for Oke. She is well now and back home in her village. Her internet has been down a lot this month making communication and translation work together a challenge. Oke’s small supplemental rice field is ripening, so she has begun harvesting a little this week. She didn’t make a field last year and is looking forward to enjoying the flavor of newly harvested rice.

Please be in prayer for Anastasia, one of the girls on my translation team, as we work through Joshua together. She was sick last week so we weren’t able to meet but she feels better this week. In addition to serving on our translation team, she is in missionary training. As a part of her training, she is currently serving in her home church for these next four months. While there she is teaching around 22 children in her church through the Biblical foundations course. Pray for her to allow God to prepare her for where He wants to send her and also pray for the children who are studying with her that they would understand the gospel clearly.

I’m so thankful for the way God has continued to allow me to serve Him in two ways: 1) Serving my parents here in Sheridan, and 2) serving the Semandang church and translation team from a distance by continuing to help them get more of His Word into their heart language. Pray that I would serve whole-heartedly and humbly.

Thanks for praying for my brother Greg’s knee. While it’s not completely healed, he is seeing some progress in mobility. He continues to wear a brace and does daily exercises.

PRAISE AND PRAYER:

• Praise the Lord for progress working through the first half of Joshua.
• Pray for Oke’s internet connection as it has been on and off this month.
• Pray for the 22 children that Anas is teaching.
• Pray for our two Semandang missionaries in training, Anas and Kia, that the Lord would prepare them for where He wants them to serve.
• Praise for the privilege of serving the Lord each day.
• Pray for continued healing for Greg’s knee.

We want to express our “praise to Yaweh for His Goodness to us and for His wonderful works that He is accomplishing around the world” through your prayers,

Darcy, and Ron & Nita Berglund,                                                and Okerianty Awet and Grace