Dear friends,
We ask for your prayers as Nathan and I both have extended overseas trips during the first quarter of 2015.
Nathan is working in Thailand right now. He is in a workshops with colleagues, focused on software called Graphite, which is a package being developed to be used to create fonts which can display very complex writing systems. Often lesser-known languages are written with different shapes, from the majority languages which are using the same script. Graphite will help provide a way to digitalize these minority languages. This is part of the larger global effort to provide enduring access to Bibles in all languages, including access online and on cell phones around the world.
I leave for Papua New Guinea January 28, and plan to work there until April 1. Nathan will fly from Thailand to Papua New Guinea on February 1, and will be there with me during the month of February. (He returns to Dallas at the end of February, and I will stay on in PNG for another month.)
During my time in PNG, I am planning to work on several projects. For the first 2 weeks of February, I will be doing the final consultant check for 6 epistles in the Apal language, where Martha Wade works as a translator. The Apal New Testament is very close to completion. It is exciting to see this project on “home stretch.” Please pray for careful insight for us as we work, and that we will catch everything that needs to be changed.
The rest of my time in PNG will be spent working with our Aruamu translation and literacy team. Aruamu Old Testament drafters will be working in Madang during this time, so that I can assist them as needed. Some of the team will be working on checking the headings and responsive readings for the Lectionary Year C, which we plan to typeset and publish later this year. The last 2 weeks of February, and then the last 2 weeks of March I will work with teams of Aruamu men to exegetically check the books of Joshua, Ezra, and Nehemiah. During the first 2 weeks of March, my Pioneer Bible Translators colleague Eunice Herchenroeder and I will work with Aruamu teachers on curriculum materials for teaching Aruamu children to read.
I have been working on applying for visas for 2 Aruamu translators to come to the US for 6 months this year. During this time they would be working with me on exegetically checking Old Testament books. You may know that the OT has a total of 23,145 verses. We have exegetically checked 7,900 so far. (This is MORE than the amount of verses in a whole New Testament.) There are 15,245 verses left to exegetically check. So we are prayerfully finding creative approaches to expedite the OT checking along in a way which will allow us to complete the project well.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support and encouragement as we minister.
In Christ,
Marsha Relyea Miles
(For Nathan, as well)
(If you would like to assist financially with funding for tickets and or housing for the Aruamu translators, you can make your check to Pioneer Bible Translators, with a sticky note “Aruamu Translation Fund,” and send to the address below!)
