Prayers Answered
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Thank you for those who have been praying for renters for our house in Honiara. At last we have renters. We had to drop the rent price significantly, but we are glad that soon it will be generating income rather than draining it! Whew! Thank you, Lord!
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 10:30 PM
Renters Needed
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Our house in Honiara has sat unrented since we left in late May. We have lowered the price and still the right renters have not come along. We just don't know what to do about the house. The price is appropriate according to local friends, but there just don't seem to be people looking for a house in that price range at the moment.
We were really counting on some kind of income from that house to help us buy our house here in the USA. Prayers for renters in the Solomons are appreciated!
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 11:23 AM
Our world turned upside down
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
After a long hiatus I am going to try getting back into blogging. Please forgive my lack of communication!!!
The last few months have been pretty crazy for our family as we have had to make some hard decisions and we feel like the sign above, we have been turned upside down. For more than a year, Emily has been going to school with a internet based curriculum - NorthStar Academy. It's a great school program, but it has been pretty lonely for Emily at times. So in cooperation with our administration, we have decided to return to the USA in June so that Emily can finish high school in the USA and better prepare to transition into college.
This has not been an easy decision and we are struggling with having to leave the Solomons. We expect to be gone from the Solomons for at least 3 years to allow Emily time to finish high school and get settled into college. In the meantime we will rent out our house here.
In order that we can stay connected with our international offices and the girls can enjoy the fellowship of many other MKs (missionary kids) we will be settling in Dallas, TX. There are many unknowns as we take make this (sometimes frightening) move!
We covet your prayers for this time of transition for our family. We are working hard to sell or give away many of our possesions here and prepare the house for rental. We are in the process of looking for a house to purchase in Dallas with the help of a realtor there.
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 3:38 PM
Prayer Request
Thursday, October 18, 2007
We shared in our last newsletter our need for a new computer. We are thankful for 2 special gifts that were given to start off our computer fund and are have some income tax refund to put toward the project. We trust the Lord to bring in the rest of the needed funds for the computer.
A Solomon Island friend is in the USA for a visit and returning to the Solomons in November. He has agreed to bring back a computer for us if we order it and have it sent to him in Washington state. Will you pray with us that we will be able to find a good computer online and that it will get here safely? It will be a blessing to have a computer that can handle the desktop publishing that I am doing now without crashing all the time.
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 9:14 PM
Off to the hospital
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Timmy is off to the hospital this morning to be admitted for surgery on Friday. Just before he left for the hospital, I gave him this Beany Kid I brought back from the USA. As you can see, he has a 'broken arm' as well! Timmy's parents, Patson and Judy would appreciate your prayers. I think they are pretty nervous about this upcoming surgery. The hospital staff here were trained by a highly skilled Swiss surgeon so Timmy is in good hands.
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 9:20 AM
On my way to the USA
Friday, May 25, 2007
It's Friday morning May 24th. This afternoon I will be on a plane headed for Fiji where I will overnight. On Saturday evening I head out of Fiji for LAX, arriving Saturday afternoon - before I left Fiji.
I will be in the USA for about a month. The purpose of the trip is for me to represent our group at the Wycliffe conference in Orlando. As a side benefit, I will be seeing family and friends in Michigan as well as friends in California and Florida. At the end of June, I will attend the wedding of one of our Solomon Islands colleagues before coming back home home. While I am in the USA, I will have a cell phone and can be contacted at: (248) 730-5869.
We would appreciate your prayers for our family as we are separated. Tim will be busy with continuing to work on many important projects while single parenting.
Labels: Prayer Request, travel
posted by Martha @ 6:41 AM
Remember the car accident?
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Some of you who have been reading the blog for a while will remember that fateful day in March when Tim got in a car accident. We asked you to pray for a speedy repair and resolution to that situation. Well... nearly 2 months later, we are still waiting for the repair quotes so we can take them to the insurance company. Sigh. All the parts have to come from overseas so it just takes a while to track them all down. We are talking daily to the mechanic to see if we can't move things along, but it is excruciatingly slow!
Please pray that we will soon get the quotes so repairs can happen. In the meantime we are driving a vehicle that belongs to our group. We pay by the kilometer to use that vehicle. We are thankful to have that option!
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 8:58 PM
Important Workshop
Sunday, April 29, 2007
A very important workshop is starting on Monday, 30 April 2007. Twelve national translators from around the country will be gathering to review the Pijin New Testament which was first published about 20 years ago.
The Pijin Old Testament is nearly complete and the entire Pijin Bible is to go to print later this year in time to be launched in July of 2008.
During the month of May, three public forums will be held here in the capital city to allow Solomon Islanders to express their opinions on the choice of some key Biblical terms used in the Pijin Bible, standardized spelling of certain words and any parts of the New Testament that might need editing.
This past week I have spent a lot of time trying to organize the venues for these meetings and then promoting the meetings so we get as many people as possible to come and participate. Yesterday my colleagues and I spent time taking flyers around town and asking people to come. One of my stops was the national radio station where I shared about the workshops with some of the news staff. Not only did they agree to put the workshop in the evening news, the reporter also interviewed me for the news and a special in depth news program!
Please pray for the Pijin team as they review the New Testament and make sure that the Pijin is clear and understandable as well as true to God's Word.
Pray for the 3 public forums that will be held May 2nd, 8th and 15th. Pray that the meetings will be well attended and that they will be productive as well.
Labels: Ministry, Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 9:55 AM
Please Pray
Monday, March 19, 2007
This morning I was looking forward to a full day that I could dedicate to working of the Bible page for the newspaper. I'd collected some more information, downloaded a new font and I thought I was good to go. As I was doing something else in the house, Tim sat down at my computer to check on something and the computer monitor was blank.
After several hours, Tim has not been able to boot the computer despite trying many different things. He has gone to borrow a computer disc from someone else in town that has Macintosh computers to see if that will help the situation. Would you please pray that the computer would boot up and that Tim would be able to get it fixed? I really use my computer a lot! There are no repair shops in country that we know of that can fix Mac computers so if Tim can't get it working, it quickly gets complicated. (I am writing this from Tim's computer.)
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 1:41 PM
Blue Monday
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Yesterday (Monday) turned out to be a bit of a blue Monday. It wasn't just the gray clouds and lack of sun that made it feel that way. When Tim was in town running errands, he pulled out on to the main road and was hit broadside by a car. Tim is fine, but our new (to us) vehicle is damaged and will have to spend time in the repair shop.
We are thankful that Tim and the other driver were unharmed, but we are pretty discouraged about the vehicle being damaged. At the moment we have use of one of the vehicles that our group owns.
The police are investigating to determine who is at fault in the accident. At first glance, it appears that there was probably fault on both sides. We do have insurance - so that's good news, though we are not sure yet just what it will cover.
Thank God with us that no one was hurt. Please pray for a speedy repair of the vehicle. Our experience with car repairs here has shown that it can take a while to get all the parts and for the car to be returned to us.
Labels: Daily Life, Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 10:56 AM
Conference - Feb 23 - March 2, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The last week or so Tim has been busy helping to prepare for our mission group's biennial conference which begins on Friday. All of our members here in the Solomons will come together for 7 days of meetings which will include spiritual 'retreat', team reports, prayer and several days of business meetings.
Tim is the head of the 'Advisory Committee' for our group and has been putting together the agenda for the business meetings. This is a critical time for our group as we look for new ways to approach Bible translation in this country. Traditionally we have had missionary-translators who have come from their home countries and worked in one language group until a New Testament translation is completed. A slowing trickle of missionary-translators, and new computer and translation resources are challenging us to explore new strategies for helping to bring God’s Word to His people here in the Solomon Islands.
One exciting development in the past few years is the number of Solomon Islanders who are interested in doing translation themselves instead of waiting for a missionary- translator who may never come. These dedicated men and women are eager for the Scriptures in their mother tongue and want to learn to translate. While this is great news, we don't have the personnel needed for the checking and editing of the translation before it goes to print. We are looking for ways of encouraging these national translators while ensuring quality Bible translation at the same time.
Please pray for a fruitful week, good discussions and God's clear leading in our planning.
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 6:47 PM
Prayer Request
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Solomon Islands is an independent country under a parliamentary democracy. It is also part of the British Commonwealth.
Last week and this week, parliament is meeting here in the capital city. The primary task at hand is to pass the annual budget. However, last Friday the opposition party put forth a 'motion of no confidence' against the prime minister which is due to be voted on this Friday. If the motion is passed, the prime minister would step down and another member of parliament would be elected to that position.
There has been much political turmoil in the Solomon Islands over the past year. In April 2006 when a new Prime Minister was appointed, riots errupted and wide spread damage occured with a large part of Chinatown here in the capital city. More recently there have been some diplomatic issues between the Solomon Islands and Australia which have caused tensions.
Would you please pray that there will be peace this week in the country and that God's will be done.
Labels: Prayer Request
posted by Martha @ 10:22 AM
