For the past week, I have been reminding myself that the girls and I need a haircut.  Last Saturday as I was driving down Main Street here in Duncanville, I saw that there was a new hair salon that was advertising $8 haircuts.  Being one that likes to save money and support local businesses, I decided to try them out.  I stopped by one day this week and found the salon door locked.  There are other places to get haircuts, but I felt compelled somehow to try this new one.

This afternoon the girls and I went into the new salon.  We were welcomed with a warm smile by the new owner and some of her friends who were visiting. A sign on the wall with a Christian theme gave me a hint that maybe the owner was a Christian.

I told her that I had seen the $8 sign last weekend and wondered if the special was still going on.  “Well, no.  That special is finished,” she said slowly.  “But, there is a new special going today – $5.99.” Some how I think she might have dreamed up the new special on the spot! Emily sat in the chair and the trimming began.

As we chatted about her business and why she had chosen to start a business here, it soon became evident that she is a strong Christian.  She shared with us how she left a hair salon chain so she could open this shop and have more of a chance to share her faith and have a ministry.  She also shared with us that this morning she had prayed with her friends asking God to send some customers her way.

We left her shop with nice hair cuts and feeling blessed by her heart for ministry and the Lord’s leading in her life.  Yesterday I was wondering why I felt pulled to this new salon, but this afternoon I knew that it was a divine appointment.  Sweet.

Sarah, Martha and Emily

(Apparently Emily is spending a little too much time with her dog, Duke and is starting to look a bit like him…)

Yesterday afternoon the girls and I were blessed to be able to visit a church in North Dallas where I spoke to a group of mothers who meet regularly for Bible study.  Emily and Sarah worked with the kids while I was with the adults.

During the prayer request time, one of the women shared about how she has had the opportunity to share her faith with a Muslim woman.  They talk about various topics and the Christian woman points out various Bible references to explain what the Bible teaches.  The Muslim woman has a Hindi Bible and she goes home and looks up the verses and reads them in her mother tongue.  She also reads her Koran.

It was exciting to hear about the opportunities that this Christian woman is having to share with her Muslim friend and exciting that this woman is reading the Bible.  I was reminded again that the Bible has power to change lives, it’s alive and it can speak to this woman.  The Koran is not God’s living word.

I needed that reminder yesterday.  I’m excited to be a part of helping to bring God’s living Word to all the language groups around the world.  There are those like this Muslim woman who are searching for the truth and others who haven’t heard the truth yet.

It’s our heart’s desire that we have our financial support up to a sufficient level soon so we can begin our new assignments with Wycliffe.   We appreciate prayers for that need.

By the way, there is a new ‘button’ (Give Online) at the top of our website which is linked to a page on the Wycliffe site and makes it easy to make a financial donation if the Lord leads you.

Tim meeting with the International Literacy Office staff

Last week as I was at a prayer meeting with my ladies’ Bible study group, I prayed that Tim would find just the right place to plug in and use his skills within Wycliffe.  When I returned home I learned that Tim had received a phone call from Dr. Susan Malone, the International Literacy Coordinator, who asked him to meet with her at the literacy office.

Susan has a residence in Bangkok but more often than not, she is traveling to many parts of the world where she serves as a literacy consultant to governments and various organizations.  Often her travels take her places where there is poor internet connection, making it hard to keep up with emails and running the office in Dallas.

Susan has asked Tim to serve at the Assistant International Literacy Coordinator here in Dallas.  This will involve managing the office, answering emails and interacting with people who call or visit the literacy office.  In addition Tim will work on editing and organizing many of the papers and other documents that Susan has written on the subject of multi-lingual education and organize them for a website.

We are excited about this new position for Tim which suits his gifts, abilities and interests.  Tim will be able to begin this assignment as soon as we reach 100% of our financial support.

Literacy Course staff and students

Tim helped teach the Literacy Megacourse – a course for preparing people to work in literacy overseas.  He enjoyed being in the classroom and sharing his knowledge and experience.  The students are heading for West Africa and Brazil.  At the end of the course, these are some of the nice things the students said about Tim:
“You’ve been a great blessing of insight and wisdom.  Thank you for investing in our lives and the Gospel.”

“Thank you for sharing your expertise with us.  I was blessed by your insights and discussions!”

“Your openesss and teaching have been packed with experience and insight.  I am so thankful for your part in this course.  You are sensitive, patient and encouraging.”

“Tim, thanks for all of your input and wisdom that you were able to bring to the table.”

We recently shared that the renters in our house in Honiara moved out. So far we do not have new renters lined up. In addition to that we just learned that the house had to be treated for termites. This is all very discouraging. We have wanted to hold on to the house so we have a place to live if we are able to go back to the Solomon Islands in a couple of years.

We need wisdom in what to do about the house in Honiara. It would be great if we could get renters in the house. Please pray that good renters will be found or that we will know what to do next.

This week Tim is in Albuquerque attending a conference on Multilingual Education. We are excited that he is able to represent our organization and increase his understanding of this important topic.

Our experience in the Solomons taught us that kids that learn to read and write in their own language will do much better in school. While Tim was able work with the Solomon Islands Ministry of Education and start to develop language policy, he often wished he knew more. While we are in the USA, multilingual education is an area that he would like to learn more for the future. This conference will help Tim get a better understanding of the issues and meet others involved in multilingual education.

What does multilingual education have to do with Bible translation? Kids who learn to read and write in their mother tongue will be able to access God’s life changing Word in their heart language and that’s a good thing!

Sunday evening we heard the disappointing news that the renters in our house in the Solomons will be moving out at the end of the month.  Apparently they are happy with the house, but the neighbors have been noisy and there has been a lot of littering.  Sigh.  This is discouraging news.

Please pray that we will be able to find someone to rent the house again.

Martha gets her dolly at last

I have a special friend in the Solomon Islands who was named after me.  Recently I had the opportunity to send her a dolly for her birthday.  In the photos you can see her delight in getting her dolly which she has named…”Martha”.

In the Solomons you can only get ‘white’ baby dolls so it was fun to try and find her a dark skinned dolly here in the USA.

Catch up on our news with our recent newsletter:

Matzke April 2010

This week Tim and I are making a trip to Michigan for a missions conference at my home church.  Since the girls are in school, they are staying here in Dallas and an ‘aunt and uncle’ (friends from the Solomons) are coming to stay with them while they are gone.  We appreciate prayers for our safe travel and the girls as they manage school and life without us here.  It should be an adventure for us all!