February was a busy month with ministry, family visiting, Matt’s birthday, and Angie especially being sick for several weeks. We are praising God that we are all healthy now!

Matt… I spent much of February working on getting financial reports to our team members in Vanuatu. I am continually trying to learn to use the finance software. I am also trying to do a good job of delivering reports that make sense and are easy to read. It has been a blessing to be here in Dallas. When I have a pile of questions about how to do this or that, I can just head over to the finance office and ask someone.

I have been doing research and data collection related to writing the grant proposals for translation funding. When the current group of 15 mother tongue translators graduate from VISTA in October, their projects’ funding will come from a new set of grants. Even when you are applying for a continuation of funding, there is still a lot of work that goes into writing a good proposal. (At least that’s what I learned from watching Angie work on them for years.) I also was able to help another teammate write a grant proposal that, if funded, could provide for Sunday School teacher training in Vanuatu. 

I (Angie) try to divide my time evenly between the Global Partnerships and Development departments. In Global Partnerships I have just finished filling out Personnel Profiles for everyone in PBT Ukraine. Next up is working on the Professional Development Plans for several people for our Field Ministries Officer. I know it sounds like a lot of paperwork – and it is! – but as I read through these people’s files I am continually struck by how God has used the past years, and in many cases decades, to prepare each of them for the role that they are now doing or preparing to begin.

In Development we are getting ready to send out 63 Verse By Verse certificates next week letting people know which verse and people group their gift is going toward. I say “we” because it takes a team of volunteers to address the envelopes, put the photo and certificate into the cards, etc. I also sent out about 15 on my own last week and missed my volunteers! 😉 Several donors have already told us that they LOVE how personalized each card is and I am loving getting to be a part of it!

One project that Matt and I are working on together is an article for the next issue of PBT’s The Latest Word magazine which will come out later this year. We’ve been asked to write about how animistic beliefs in places such as Vanuatu impact people’s everyday lives. We look forward to sharing how long-held animistic beliefs hide in plain sight in Melanesian cultures.

Thanks for everything you do to make Jesus famous!

Angie & Matt (and the kids)