Excerpts from the Martins' Memos -
December, 2008
Martins' Memos |
| Duncanville |
Texas, USA |
December 2008 |
Computer
Technical Conference
From October 25th
through November 19th
Lenore and I were privileged to be able to attend our Computer Technical
Conference 2008 (CTC08) which is held every two years.
Bill & Lenore (with Bruce Waters at Bill's left) at
the CTC Banquet
CTC08 was a wonderful time of fellowship,
encouragement and sharing of technical expertise by over 235 people from around
the world – all committed to seeing God's Word being translated for all by 2025.
It was great to meet face-to-face with dozens of colleagues whom we've only
known as email names attached to computer messages! Bill was able to spend two
weeks updating Bruce Waters on the cross-platform development work and tools he
has been using the last 2 years
Modern day Pilgrim
Is that guy in the hat a genuine
pilgrim?,
No, that’s Jason with the beard he's been
cultivating for the past year. We are all speculating on how long he will
continue to let it grow!
Adapt It
developments
During most of this year I (Bill) have
been working hard to prepare cross-platform versions of Adapt It for
release at CTC08.
Bill Presenting his
Adapt It Update
at CTC08
The Lord worked in many ways to help us
reach that goal, and Adapt It is now available without cost to
translators around the world who are using Windows and Linux computers (and soon
also for Mac computers). My talk was one of over 70 presentations at CTC08. As
with all new software releases, soon after releasing it, we discovered a few
bugs and improvements to work on.
Update on our
financial situation
The state of the economy has also
affected the financial support that many missionaries receive – including us. We
praise the Lord for our faithful partners and we pray for them too, knowing that
God is the one who provides! Join with us in praying that the Lord will
encourage new financial and prayer partners to join our team, and richly bless
those who have so generously shared with us over the years.
Praise
Items: |
Prayer Items: |
þ We praise the
Lord that our son Joel will be able to use his computer skills as a
part-time employee in the IT department at the linguistics center here in
Dallas.
|
o Pray for Joel's
wife Rebecca as she starts her second semester of studies in her Master in
Nursing program at Baylor University in January.
|
þ We Praise the
Lord for the insight he gave Bill to locate the source of a program bug
that has hindered Adapt It from running on Macintosh
computers for the past two years.
|
o Pray for Graeme
Costin in Australia, as he works on getting the Macintosh version of
Adapt It ready to release to translators - now that we've
discovered the long sought-for bug fix.
|
þ We Praise the
Lord for the encouragement and affirmation Lenore's supervisors have given
her to continue tutoring missionary kids who need help in their reading.
|
o Pray
for the two children of missionaries that Lenore has been tutoring here in
the Dallas area. Pray that she will be able to inspire them to become
excellent readers.
|
þ We Praise the
Lord for providing a good Christ-centered church which is edifying its
members and reaching out to the lost.
|
o Pray
that the Lord will bless the home Bible Study that meets weekly to study
the book of 2 Corinthians in our home.
|
þ We praise the
Lord for you, who pray and give financial gifts to make it possible for us
to serve in our roles in support of Bible translation. We praise God who
is the one who provides for our partners' needs too.
|
o Pray
for the Lord to supply additional prayer and financial partners to enable
us and others to continue our ministries unhindered by the current
economy.
|
þ We praise the
Lord for giving Charles such a strong spirit of commitment in the face of
difficult circumstances in his region of Papua New Guinea.
|
o Pray
that Charles' outboard motor can be fixed, and for funds to buy fuel, so
that his work in coordinating translation programs on Manus Island will
not be hindered.
|
þ We praise the
Lord for many encouraging reports of how Adapt It is
helping Bible translation efforts around the world.
|
o Pray
for wisdom for Bill as he has been asked to function as lead developer for
the Adapt It development team.
|
| |
|
|
Gratefully serving our great Lord and
Savior, |
 |
| Bill and Lenore Martin |