It's not ONLY about translating verses

Our work here in Tanzania is not ONLY about translating words and sentences. One of the core values of our organization is "building capacity" which means we focus on equipping Tanzanians to continue the work of Bible translation. For example...

This is my friend and co-worker Magesa. Magesa is a Jita translator who has a passion to see God's Word in his heart language of Jita. Magesa expressed a desire to receive further education in principles of Bible translation so we enabled him to attend modular-type classes at a college in Nairobi, Kenya. This picture was taken on the day we celebrated his graduation, after three years of studying.

Another way we build capacity is through in-house training courses.

Last year, I had the great privilege and joy of helping organize and teach an Exegesis course for some of the translators in our office. We had seven translators attend our 16 week course. I loved teaching topics like the historical and religious background of the New Testament, chronology of the New Testament, how to study key terms, and challenges facing the early church. But the most important topic was the spiritual preparation necessary to study and understand God's Word. We discussed the importance of prayer and the centrality of the Holy Spirit.

I had so much fun teaching and learning!

Then, a few months later, the students became the teachers. Three of the students from the class taught their own Exegesis course to the rest of the translators in the office. How exciting! Our goal is to see Tanzanians equipped to become Translation Advisors or even Consultants, helping other language groups receive God's Word in their language.

If you didn't get the email...

Here's our latest email BLAST! We sent this update to everyone who signed up on our email list. If you didn't receive the update and would like to receive them in the future, please send us your email address.

Happy New Year!

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season with friends and family. We were blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with family who visited from America and friends here in Tanzania.

We're so thankful to God that in 2014 Ben was able to help the Jita team translate the books of Acts and 1, 2 and 3 John into the Jita language. They also translated and recorded the JESUS film into Jita. One of Ben's highlights was traveling to Jita villages and seeing Jita people excited about reading and hearing God's Word in their heart language. Jeannette was a huge help to the teacher at the missionary-kid school last semester and she organized the school library. One of Jeannette's highlights was throwing a birthday party for Neema, the lady who helps Jeannette around the house. Neema had never experienced a birthday party before. Jeannette gave her a Bible and told her she loved her. Neema had never experienced that either.

In 2015, we're praying for God's wisdom for Ben as he takes on extra work responsibility. Because some missionaries have left for furlough, Ben will be supervising another translation team. He also oversees the budget and compiles progress reports for the entire translation department. But he's most excited about helping the Jita team translate Titus, Thessalonians, Timothy and Philemon. Jeannette will continue to help at the missionary-kid school, homeschool Jenna and experiment with cooking Indian food.

Please pray for God's grace:

as we train our kids to love Jesus and serve others
as we plan to begin furlough around August of this year
as we endure many health challenges

Thank you for your love, prayers and encouragement.

Love,
Ben and Jeannette

South of Scorpion Pass

In our family Bible time we're reading the book of Joshua. Last night we came to Joshua 15 about Joshua dividing the land of Canaan for the tribes of Israel. Did you know that the southern border of the tribe of Judah goes past the Ascent of Akrabbim, or in other translations: Scorpion Pass?

We all thought, "Hmmm. That's an interesting name." And we moved on.

Later that night, I stepped out into the garage and saw this:

In two and a half years we have never seen a scorpion. And now suddenly... That's just weird!