Dear friends,
This morning at church Nathan and I were part of a worship team, leading brothers and sisters in Christ in songs of praise and thanksgiving. One of the songs was a song sung in many churches lately, “10,000 Reasons.” Some of the lyrics are:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship your holy name.
For all your goodness, I will keep on singing–
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.
Most of this afternoon, I have been counting my blessings. I actually passed the 10,000 mark! Let me tell you how this happened.
I am so thankful for the blessings of your prayers this last month! The last 3 weeks of October, I worked with the Aruamu translation team on exegetically checking the book of Eccelsiastes. It was quite an interesting task to put this very philosophical, artsy, Hebrew wisdom literature into a tribal, Melanesian language. In the past when I have studied Ecclesiastes, I have thought that it is a depressing book in many ways. I had no idea how the Aruamus would view the book. However, they seemed intrigued that anyone would even ASK the kinds of questions that are in the book. Aruamus are not very philosophical, in general. I think that they were actually sort of entertained. There were a few places where they reacted to things Solomon said in ways I could not have predicted. For example, when Solomon was talking about the futility of riches, he says (Ecc 5:15): “Naked a man comes from his mothers womb,and as he comes, so he departs.” The Aruamus burst out laughing at this, to the point they had tears in their eyes. And then they said, “That idea is absolutely true. We just had never thought of it like that!” So, we had an adventure of a checking session! At this point the book is ready to comprehension check in the village. Praise God.
Another lovely blessing was the Women’s Retreat in Leander, TX, November 7-9. I just love my dear sisters of Believers Fellowship. I am honored that they asked me to speak at their “Warrior Bride” breakaway weekend.
Another blessing (although it came with pain!) was my trip to Columbus, OH for the International Conference on Missions, November 12-16. Alas, the first night I was there, I stopped by a Walmart, and fell flat on my face in the dark parking lot, resulting in a broken front tooth, broken right arm, sprained left wrist, and other more minor lacerations. Ugh! So, the blessing of the week was NOT what I had anticipated! Many very special friends and family members helped me get medical treatment and sort out what to do. I am still in the process of healing. Sometimes calamities can help you count your blessings!
Thank you, too for your prayers for Nathan. He had a trip to Athens, Greece to work with colleagues regarding plans for gathering and laying out Bible study resources, such as Bible study notes, maps, outlines, and videos. The idea is that these would be available with digitally published texts of the Bible in various languages, with a view to helping Pastors, Sunday School teachers, Bible translators and students of the Bible to have many resources at their fingertips.
So, during this afternoon, as I kept counting my blessings, of course I kept thinking of our Aruamu folks in Papua New Guinea, for whom we are translating God’s Word, and whom we love so dearly. There are 10,000 Aruamus living in the tropical rain forest in houses made out of jungle materials, such as woven bamboo walls and thatched roofs. I think of Steven, and Watarak, and Anna, and Miriam, and Pais Asuari, and Pais Asefi, and Francis Dagonov, and Siria, and on and on. And, suddenly I realized that I really, literally DO HAVE over 10,000 reasons to BLESS THE LORD this Thanksgiving!
Blessings to you,
Marsha and Nathan
and 10,000 Aruamu-speaking people
