MICHEALS’ MEMOIRS Update
Dear Friends and Family, How do we pass on to all of you our continued thanks for your support of our work? First, a huge thank you to all who have stood in partnership with us with your prayers, letters and emails and financial gifts. Little did we think when we first joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1985 that we’d still be involved today, but because of your generous support we have and are able to continue our work with Wycliffe. We continue to ask you to pray for continued support of our work since we are today, as we were on our first day with Wycliffe, dependent solely on the gifts of God’s people. Details on how you can do that are found at the end of this newsletter.
Translation Needs Continue To Drop!!! In May we reported that there were 1,859 languages that needed Bible translation work started. However, the new figures have just come out and that number has dropped to 1,778 and it is going to drop even lower as Chuck this year recruited two couples join Wycliffe as Bible translators!!!
That means in the last year over 80 Bible translation projects have been started. We praise the Lord for new Bible translation work in these languages!!! Recruitment Update Your continued support of our work not only helped reduce the number of languages needing translation work, but also allowed Barb to work with a dozen young people who took short term trips this past summer to Papua New Guinea (PNG). It also allowed Chuck in the last three years recruit over 50 support personnel to assist in our work! We give praise to the Lord for these new workers! Several new members Chuck recruited are serving as organizational consultants by helping new Bible translation organizations in Latin America get started. Several are serving as teachers and boarding home parents for missionary children in PNG. Others are taking on work as accountants in the Philippines and PNG, as an audio/video technician in Australia with language communities, doing government relations work in Washington D.C., serving as a physician to assist new missionaries heading overseas, helping manage regional centers in PNG, serving as the Dean of Students at our linguistic/Bible translation school in Dallas, TX, doing training in Conflict Resolution and another serving as an Aviation Safety officer in PNG.
Our aircraft fleet in PNG – Flying Bible translators to some of the world’s most remote locations in PNG!
New Bible Translation Needs List
One of the significant things the Lord has helped us in is to learn how to do recruitment at a lower cost. In the past, at times it has cost Wycliffe $ 5,000 to recruit a new member since it often required travel to meet interested people. Since Chuck does recruitment work from our home and does almost all his recruitment by Skype, email or by cell phone, he has been able to bring down the cost for recruiting one new member this year to just $170!!! We praise the Lord for the use of technology to help contain recruitment costs.
Bible Translation Progress In PNG
The Mussau people live on a smaller island off of the larger nearby island of New Ireland Steve and Carol Jean Gallagher and their children at the dedication of the Bariai New Testament in 2012
You may wonder what Bible translators do when they finish the translation of a New Testament. Many translators continue to work on Old Testament translation, but that isn’t always the case. Since all translations have to be checked by an experienced Translation Consultant (TC), often translators who have finished a translation go on to be certified as a TC so other translations can move to publication. That is partially what the Gallagher’s are doing for the Mussau New Testament (NT) project that John and Marjo Brownie are working on. The Mussau NT is now 82% consultant checked with just four books left to check: Romans, 2 Corinthians, Hebrews and Revelation.
The Gallaghers continue to work with the Bariai people by writing a book dealing with the practices of sorcery and an ongoing set of classes on the topic of Culture Meets Scripture, which helps them understand their culture in light of the Word of God! We had the opportunity to serve both of these families when we were in Papua New Guinea. Now we continue to serve them by recruiting personnel to support their work in PNG. A good number of the people Chuck has recruited these past three years have headed to PNG to support ongoing Bible translation work. FOR SUPPORTING US FINANCIALLY BY MAIL Wycliffe Bible Translators P. O. Box 628200 Orlando, FL 32862-8200 Make check payable to ‘Wycliffe’, put on a separate sheet: “Preference for Wycliffe ministry of Chuck & Barb Micheals, # 221879.”
TO SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY ONLINE www.wycliffe.org/partner/cbmicheals VISIT OUR WEB SITE OR ‘YOU TUBE’ CHANNEL: Our Web Site: www.cbmicheals.ning.com Our ‘You Tube’ Site: www.tinyurl.com/cbmicheals
The Bariai people live on the island of New Britain
OUR HOME ADDRESS Chuck & Barb Micheals - 5167 Poinsetta Ave Winter Park, Florida 32792-7229 Tel: (321) 278-2225 Email: Chuck_Micheals@wycliffe.org, Barb_Micheals@wycliffe.org