Martins' Memos |
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| Duncanville | Texas, USA |
December 2017 |
No! I (Bill) am still working on Adapt It development and helping to provide software and hardware resources for Bible translators – especially for those doing Bible translation in Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.
In September I turned 70 and started collecting my Social Security benefits. As an increasing number of our financial donors have retired - or have gone on to be with the Lord - those benefits help to supplement our donor income enabling us to stay active in the work of Bible translation. We believe that there is much we can still contribute to the work that God called us into 40 years ago. We are especially grateful to those of you who enable us to continue in this work through your prayers and financial gifts. We are confident in God’s promise in Psalm 92:12-15:
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
One of the items that has been on my bucket list for a long time is to witness a total solar eclipse in person. It had been some years since we had seen our friends Lisa and Corey Keehn, and Grant and Jenny Keehn. Both Keehn families live in South Carolina within the path of totality. They invited us to visit them for the occasion, so we drove back there and shared the experience with them at their “eclipse party” on August 21st in Walhala, SC.
Photo Copyright © 2017 NASA
The Lord provided us with a clear sunny day to witness His marvelous handiwork through one of the most spectacular events of His Creation. At 2:38pm the disk of the sun was totally darkened, the street lights came on, and Jupiter and Venus were clearly visible as the moon’s shadow raced over us at 1,500 miles per hour! Amazing!
This is the time of the year we reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior. We often reflect on the prophetic words of Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” There are over 300 names, titles and descriptive words that are used in the Bible to refer to Jesus (see: https://www.wholesomewords.org/etexts/ross/names.html).
Among the descriptive names attributed to Jesus, He is also referred to as the Bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16) – in which the Scriptures compare Him to Venus, that morning “star” that rises just before the sun rises and appears most glorious as the darkness recedes and the bright sun fully illuminates the day. Significantly, Jesus is also given the descriptive name Sun of Righteousness who “will rise with healing in its rays” (Malachi 4:2). So, Jesus is described as both the Bright Morning Star that precedes daybreak, and the Sun of Righteous that shines most gloriously at mid-day.
When we observed the total solar eclipse on August 21st, the sun did not cease shining during that period of totality. The moon merely came between us and the sun, hiding the bright disk of the sun with its fleeting shadow of darkness that lasted less than 3 minutes. That experience reminds us of how the world can try to hide the glory of the Sun of Righteousness, but even if it seems to succeed – ever so briefly - the Bright Morning Star appears as bright as ever in the midst of that darkness. May the face of the Lord of Glory continually shine on you this Christmas!
Anne, Jason, Torin, Caellum, Kaya and Jachin
at our tree-decorating party
Rebecca, Joel,
Lily, Mari and Sam
observing partial eclipse from Texas
We thank you for your prayers, partnership and encouragement!
| Your servants in His grace, |
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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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