Martins' Memos- June 2006

Excerpts from the Martins' Memos - June, 2006

*Martins' Memos*
Fort Mill	South Carolina, USA	June 2006

Lenore's Tutoring

Lenore has been thrilled to see the progress in her student's reading abilities.

Her students will be taking time off for the summer, but they look forward to working together again in the fall.

Adapt It and the Bantu Initiative

After some successful trials, Adapt It is starting to be used as a strategic translation tool among the Bantu languages of Africa. There are approximately 500 Bantu languages spread across the southern third of the African continent. Since Adapt It is designed to help do translations between related languages, it has great potential for assisting the translation process among the Bantu languages, many of which are still without God's Word. Pray for those who are surveying, planning and implementing this exciting new strategy for the languages of Africa.

Update on our financial situation

For the first quarter of 2006 the Lord blessed us with 100% of our partnership goals! About 7% of the financial gifts we received were one-time gifts. We were very encouraged to see many of you functioning as our advocates. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide additional partners to insure that our partnership goals continue to be met in the future.

Possible visit to Papua New Guinea

We are tentatively planning on traveling to PNG for three months in 2007. Our trip there would be to conduct research related to Adapt It, and to assess the viability of starting a multiple language adaptation project in five Manus Island languages.

Discovering the South - Thomasville GA, Orlando FL, and Sumter SC

Our visits to Thomasville GA, Orlando FL, and Sumter SC went very well. We spent part of the time in each location vacationing and part of the time representing the cause of Bible translation.

Jason with Lenore’s brother and family posing in front of
the Troll at Epcot Center’s Norway exhibit.

Lenore's brother and family flew out from California and we met them in Orlando. Jason flew there from Dallas to spend a few days visiting the sights with us.

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Praise Items:	Prayer Items:
þ Lenore's reading students have made great progress this past quarter.	o Pray that Lenore's students will have a good Summer break and be inspired to continue developing their reading skills in the Fall.
þ We praise the Lord for our partners who pray and are making it possible for us to meet our financial goals. We especially thank Him for those who have been functioning as advocates for us.	o Pray that the Lord will continue to provide us with all the prayer and financial partners we need to continue our ministry on behalf of the Bible-less peoples of the world.
þ We really enjoyed our visits to Thomasville GA, Orlando FL, and Sumter SC. It is exciting to discover parts of our home country we've never been to before.	o Pray that we know when to take the breaks and vacations necessary for rest and continued good health as we press on in our roles in support of Bible translation.
þ The Lord blessed Jason with a sense of peace as he decided not to take the Foreign Service Exam this April.	o Pray for Jason that he will know and trust the Lord's continued wisdom and peace as He leads him in the future.
þ We praise the Lord that Rebecca graduated from nursing school and has been offered a job at a local hospital.	o Pray for Joel and Rebecca as they continue to seek the Lord about future missionary service, while Rebecca gets nursing work experience.
þ We praise the Lord for an effective work environment here in South Carolina.	o Pray for us as we plan a possible trip to Papua New Guinea in 2007.
þ We praise the Lord that Charles has been active in promoting use of the Nyindrou Scriptures in the four years since the dedication of the New Testament.	o Pray for Charles and other Manus people as they consider the commitment and resources required for an Adapt It project to become viable -- adapting from Nyindrou to five other Manus languages.
þ We praise the Lord for the successful trials of Adapt It, demonstrating its potential as a strategic translation tool for the Bantu Initiative in Africa.	o Pray for Bill and co-developer Bruce Waters as they work on the Adapt It program and on providing versions suitable for use on low-power, battery operated computers.

Rejoicing in the goodness of our Lord,

Bill and Lenore Martin