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Overflowing thankfulness!
Dear family and friends,
Sitting at my daughter’s kitchen table the day after International Conference on Missions 2017 is over, I am drinking a restful cup of tea and counting my blessings. They are simply too numerous to count. My cup overflows!
This last month Nathan and I have been deeply blessed and encouraged through connecting with many folks. We volunteered for a two-day Deaf Conference, “Together,” at the Deaf Bible Society, and made a number of new relationships in the Dallas area deaf community. We took a vacation weekend in San Antonio, so that I could speak at the San Antonio Perspectives on World Missions course, and were blessed to meet many new friends. The first weekend in November the Pioneer Bible Translators Board meeting, as well as the dedication of the new PBT Vision Building and John Relyea Prayer Tower happened. What a meaningful time that was! The International Conference on Missions in Peoria, IL was fabulous, as always – my favorite place to fellowship with missionary co-workers. For 4 whole days, you just walk about 10 feet, and there is another person to catch up with, or a new acquaintance to meet. The meeting of the Administrative Committee of the World Convention (on which I serve) happened in Peoria the day before ICOM. It was a lovely breath of fresh air to plan together with my World Convention colleagues toward the Easter weekend 2019 Global Gathering in Swaziland, Africa, and also look ahead to the June 2021 Global Gathering in Warsaw, Poland. My mind is spinning with all of these things for which I am thankful!
I am counting many blessings flowing out of what God is doing amongst the Aruamu people in the area of outreach. Faith Bible College, which the Aruamus established on their own initiative, is coming to the close of its second year. Our PBT co-worker, Joni Bliffen, is assisting Steven Dazim as he completes the paperwork to apply for official registration with the PNG government. Please pray for God’s FAVOR, as Steven submits this application! Also, God has moved the Birtcher Foundation to give a grant to fund the very first permanent classroom for FBC. The timber is being cut and milled this month! SO thankful!
I am counting many blessings on the Bible Translation front! Norm Mundhenk (retired Bible Society consultant and our good friend) completed the final consultant checks on the Aruamu books of Ezekiel and Amos in Madang, Papua New Guinea. So, now, we have 58, of the 66 books of the Bible through the entire process of translation. SO THANKFUL!
We are working toward bringing 2 more Aruamu co-workers (Francis Dagonov and Simon Aroro) to the US in 2018 for 6 months. We plan to do the exegetical checking of 4 books: Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings and 2 Kings. (These books contain a total of 3,353 verses, and will be books number 59, 60, 61, and 62 for our team, out of the 66 books in the Bible.)
We appreciate your prayers as week put things in place for this effort. Visa applications have been submitted online for Francis and Simon. In December our co-worker, Jim Bliffen, will take them to Port Moresby for immigration interviews at the US Embassy. Please pray for FAVOR for them! We are hoping that Jim and Joni Bliffen can bring them to the US when they travel back from PNG in mid-January.
If you are able to make an end-of-year donation to help with funding the airline tickets or room and board for Francis and Simon, we invite you to give through Pioneer Bible Translators, through the Aruamu Translation Fund, details below.
As I continue counting my blessings, I feel extremely grateful for each of our family members. And I feel entirely overwhelmed by the faithfulness of YOU, God’s faithful people, as we team up together in this incredible thing that God is doing in our time.
My cup is truly overflowing!
Marsha Relyea Miles
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