Martins' Memos - Merry Christmas! |
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| Duncanville | Texas, USA |
August 2015 |
By early Spring this year Texas was in the midst of a years-long "exceptional" drought. Then came the month of May 2015. The month of May turned out to be the wettest single month on record in Texas (and Oklahoma). That was then followed by another drought - the third longest lasting period of zero rainfall on record for the Dallas area.
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| Lenore's key-hole compost garden - mid May | Our cracked front yard "lawn" - mid July |
Lenore and I traveled down to central Texas to spend the Memorial Day weekend in San Marcos and attend the wedding of Matthew Pfaff (the son of our dear friends and co-workers Jerry and Susan Pfaff) to his bride Callie (Tatum) on May 22rd in Kyle Texas. The wedding was beautiful and a God-honoring celebration. The rain even held off for the ceremony that evening.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, however, there was a huge series of storms that dumped more than a foot of rain along the Blanco River in the Texas Hill country above San Marcos, after weeks of rain had already saturated the ground. Within minutes the Blanco River in Wimberley Texas rose suddenly in the middle of the night to a "wall of water" 44 feet high - sweeping away or damaging over 1,000 homes and cabins and some bridges along the river. Eleven people were lost in the floods in Wimberley, and 25 people were lost state-wide.
Then, on Saturday night after Lenore and I visited her sister Virginia in Seguin Texas, we left to return to our motel in San Marcos about 20 miles north. We noticed continuous lightning approaching from the west, and I thought, "I don't think we should go back to San Marcos the way we came." On our way to see her sister earlier in the day I had noticed evidence of water having washed over the farm roads that we traveled to get to Seguin, so I fortunately made the decision to take the "high road" back traveling on the elevated I-35 freeway - even though it meant traveling an extra 20 miles through the bad weather. We finally made it back safely to our motel through the torrents of rain, thunder and lightning. Interstate I-35 had to be closed down shortly after our arrival due to flooding. Many cars got flooded, including some who had been to the wedding. In another part of town closer to the Blanco River, the Pfaff family had to get up at 3am from the house their wedding party had rented, and drive their partly flooded car and family to higher ground. We praised the Lord for putting us all in the right place at the right time and for protecting us.
Although the Adapt It team members are spread around the world, recently three of the families were able to get together here in the Dallas area for a Saturday dinner and fellowship. Erik and Susy Brommers also currently live in the Dallas area. Kevin and Jann Bradford are currently on furlough from the Cameroon in Africa.
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| Lenore, Bill, Erik, Susy, Kevin, and Jann |
I (Bill) continue to function as lead developer of the Adapt It software development efforts. Erik is doing most of the work on the Adapt It Mobile project. Kevin has helped with the Adapt It project on a part time basis while doing other roles in the Cameroon branch and will also be helping with Adapt It while on furlough. It is an exciting time for us as Erik has just produced an "alpha" version of Adapt It Mobile for testing. Other members of the team (not pictured) include: Bruce Waters, Graeme Costin, (both in Australia) and Jonathan Marsden (in California). Graeme and Jonathan contribute part time to the Adapt It open source project.
Next month it will be a year since our son Jason was bitten on his foot by a juvenile rattlesnake on his front porch here in the Dallas area. We know that many of you prayed, and some contributed to their financial needs, knowing that they had no health insurance. Jason is doing well now with only an occasional ache in that foot. We and they are praising the Lord for how he worked everything out to enable them to come through the whole process debt free and preserving their credit record. Jason's wife Anne has written more about their experience on her blog at: http://anne.martintribe.org/?p=94
On August 20th we gathered to celebrate our granddaughter Lily's first birthday.
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| Lily at 1 |
The new boat and motor have been put into service out on Manus Island. Charles is currently at Ukarumpa along with 3 other Manus people taking a Creative Phonics course there. After they return to Manus in early September, Charles and the chairman of the Manus Bible Translation Orgainzation (MBTO) Pastor Mark Pisil will be traveling around Manus province and encouraging the Manus translators in their work, and recruiting them and other Manus translators to be involved in a province wide Translators Training Course (TTC) to be offered out on Manus Island in August-September next year 2016.
Charles has asked us to come and help run the 2016 workshop on Manus Island. We are praying about it, and ask you to also pray with us about the possibility of making a trip to PNG/Manus about this time next year. It is expensive to travel there (over $8,000 in air travel for the two of us), and we also have concerns about how we might cope with the malaria-bearing mosquitoes and tropical heat.
We thank you for your prayers, gifts and encouragement!
| Your servants in Christ, |
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“And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” (Psalm 127:3)
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