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My last meeting in IL for a while

September 27, 2011 by proftroy

I’m thankful for the good services I enjoyed at Windsor Baptist Church in Loves Park, IL. Pastor K.D. Bodwell invited me back with the hopes that a second visit would stir even more interest in my ministry. That appears to have happened, because many said that they hope to see me back. One dear lady reported that she caught the lesson quite well Sunday night about how complicated my ministry is. That was one of my purposes–I want people to pray more for us and to realize that Bible translation necessitates such an organization as ours. We’ll see how the Lord leads!

I have a few more days here in the Rockford area, and then I head back to MN by way of IA.

I can now report that my support is up to 85%! Ashley Baptist Church notified me a number of months ago that they would be doubling their support, but that didn’t kick in until this month. Praise to God for the increase!

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Where am I?

September 20, 2011 by proftroy

I sometimes have to ask myself that question since I’m often at multiple places in a short period of time. This evening I’ll be staying with my sister Lori in Yorkville, IL, my seventh place of lodging in seven days! Ever since I left the Linscott’s in Marshall last Tuesday, I’ve been staying in one home after another in two different states. Praise to God for grace and safety in all my travels. The schedule won’t let up for the next few weeks either, though I will be staying in some places for 2 nights in a row. Won’t that be nice!

The Lord really blessed my time at Central Baptist Theological Seminary last Friday. Dr. Jeff Straub gave a very stiring introduction to my speaking, drawing the students’ attention to the great needs of unreached peoples around the world. Dr. Sam Horn, the new president at the seminary, championed my cause and urged the students to contact their pastors about my ministry. The students showed genuine interest and asked thoughtful questions. We’ll see what fruit the Lord produces from that visit in the years to come.

I also made some good contacts at the Minnesota Baptist Association’s Men’s Retreat last weekend. What particularly interested me was my conversations with Ron Caasi, a missionary in southeast Asia. He said that there are 6 slots for missionaries to come to the island where he is serving but that 5 remain unfilled. There are 50 million people in his side of the island but only two fundamental churches. What needs! He mentioned that the Bible of his people has serious translation issues. They translate baptizo as “religious cleansing” (an obvious capitulation to the Muslims) and glossalalia as “Spirit speech” (a clear accomodation to the charismatics). Maybe BI can help these people get an accurate, conservative translation some day! There are definitely other translation needs in that country, where there are around 730 languages. Maybe I formed a friendship that will produce translation fruits in the years to come!

My time at Shannon Baptist Church in Shannon, IL, and at Parkwood Baptist Church in Chicago, IL, went well yesterday. It was a full day, since I spoke in all three slots at Shannon during the first part of the day and then presented in the evening at Parkwood, after a three-hour drive traveling from one to the other. I praise the Lord for giving me strength and grace to minister. The people really seemed to catch my burden.

Ken Beckley, our missionary contact in Benin, mentioned in his latest prayer letter that he is developing a Dendi dictionary, beginning recording some messages (presumably, in Dendi) for radio broadcast, and is preparing a NT survey class for the Dendi Bible school in January. It’s a blessing to see developments connected with our Dendi NT.

Dan Gillette, a missionary in Asia and an adjunct consultant for BI, has recently returned to his field. He reported in his recent letter that in the language that he is working with, a speaker of that language has gotten saved. This language is not a BI project yet, but if we can see a church formed up, we will soon be able to help this Bible-less language group. Very exciting to see the “firstfruits”!

Joshua Hedges, one of our consultants in Chad, Africa, wrote about one of the quality checks he’s helping with on the Rito and Dagba NTs–the numbers check. He does a good job of explaining why such a check is needed:

You may wonder why numbers can be misspelled during translation.  Well, you are going to have to use your imagination.  First, imagine that you are translating the Bible in English.  Now, imagine that the Bible is the first book to ever be translated in English.  It is up to you to decide how to write numbers.

Let’s say that you come across the number “60.”  Remember, you have never seen this number written in letters.  You sound out the number out loud and write down what you hear.  You write down “sicksty” the first time.  A few months later, you come across the same number again. Now, you think that it would be better to spell the number more like you spelled “6” so you write “sixtee.”  Then, a few weeks later, you write it as “sixty.”  But, occasionally, you return to the spelling “sixtee” by mistake.  So when you are done translating you need to go back and make sure all of your spellings of the number “60” are consistent.

You can tell that I’ve been reading prayer letters today!

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More of Minnesota

September 15, 2011 by proftroy

Fall is finally here in Minnesota! The cooler weather arrived on Wednesday, and I welcomed it with open arms. I thoroughly enjoyed driving on country roads through the western side of Minnesota. The topography changed from prairie to rolling hills and more lakes. The pastor in Detroit Lakes said there are over 400 lakes in the 20-mile radius around his church. Now I see why MN is the Land of 10,000 Lakes!

I finally had my meeting with the church that initially got me to come to Minnesota. Pastor Greg Linscott, his family, and his church were very gracious hosts to me last weekend. It seems that the Linscott kids (at least the older two) grew a foot since I last saw them in 2008, but that didn’t keep me from still bullying them around! We got along so well that I almost consider myself to be their uncle now.

My long country drive yesterday took me up to Detroit Lakes, which is quite far into the state. My main purpose in going to the church up there, Berean Baptist Church, was to meet a boy I’ve been exchanging letters with for 1-2 years. He has an interest and ability in languages and missions, so I’ve been trying to encourage them in those areas. Since I was close to his neck of the woods (only 3.5 hours away!), I decided to pass by his church. His pastor, Pastor Riley, graciously allowed me to present my ministry at his church. He and his people showed genuine interest in my ministry and were a real encouragement. Before leaving the area this morning, I spent some more time with my pen pal and his family. We had a fun time exchanging stories!

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at the chapel of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Pray for wisdom as I prepare this evening and for effectiveness as I speak tomorrow at 9:40-10:10. I’ll be going to a men’s retreat Fri-Sat before heading back east to Illinois.

No word on support increases yet. Keep praying!

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Minnesota

September 5, 2011 by proftroy

My meetings in Minnesota have gotten off to a good start. Pastor Groschel and the believers at Prior Lake Baptist Church in Prior Lake, MN, received me well last Wednesday. Though the group was fairly small (20-30), they were all attentive and inquisitive. We had a great time of fellowship. I also enjoyed extending my time with the Groschels for a few days and had the opportunity to speak to the high school Bible class about languages and translation. Some of the students seemed sincerely attentive, and others may have been as well, even though they didn’t show it in their faces. Only God knows what sunk in!

My second meeting in MN also went well. Pastor Seiler and his church, Faith Baptist Church in Albert Lea, MN, were already well informed about BI, since a retired stewardship representative, Paul (& Edwina) Lobb, attends this church. BI’s director and another consultant had also been here in the recent past. I was pleased to discover that this church gives funds to support the Haitian Creole OT project, the project for which I am the main consultant. It was neat to tell them details about the very project they are supporting.

I’m looking forward to a two-day vacation in Mankato, MN, this weekend. It will be good to get some R & R after a very busy and hectic summer.

Please pray for the Lord to give me an increase in support soon. Though I added two supporters in the summer, I had one decrease their support, so essentially I’ve seen no increase since May. Pray for an increase soon so that I can report one in my next prayer letter!

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A Vortex of Activities

August 28, 2011 by proftroy

Wow! It’s been over two weeks since I’ve posted. Normally, I post once a week. The past two weeks were like a blur, so I had very few opportunities to post. Soon after arriving back in the US on Aug. 9, I had to drive to the title company to complete the paperwork for my mortgage. The rest of the week was filled with BI meetings and getting my house ready for moving in during the weekend.

In spite of the rain 15 minutes after beginning the unloading process on Saturday and the loss of power 15 minutes later, we were able to unload the truck in 3 hours. Then began the long process of settling into my new home, and that still continues to today. But what a wonderful feeling it was to sleep in my house for the first time! I actually experienced that first on Friday night, since the sellers were so gracious in leaving their king-sized bed (which I bought from them) ready to sleep on. I slept on my new mattress in my new master bedroom for the first time that Saturday night. How my heart was filled with gratefulness to the Lord that night as I was finally in MY OWN NEW HOME!

I was able to do a little more unpacking in the days following, but I also had to wrap up things from my 5-week overseas trip (i.e., writing expense reports). And I had to prepare for the 3 days of the BI annual meeting at “The Shack”, a bed/breakfast located 1.5 hours north of BI. That was on Tues-Thurs of that week after I moved in.

I couldn’t return to packing that Friday, because the Consultant Seminar began that day. Being the head consultant, I lead these seminars each year, and the first two days are usually given to departmental issues. That meant I led most of the sessions that first Friday. Though I had more preparation to do for the next week of the seminar, I also had to keep preparing my house for moving in, since I would be housing two of the seminar guests in my house. They arrived on Monday and the second one left just this morning. It was a blessing to host guests in my new house for the first time! It also gave me incentive to get my house in order.

I hope to do a little more unpacking on Monday, but I also have to begin getting ready for a deputation trip to Minnesota and Illinois. I’m thankful that my mom will be coming up in early October to help me finish the process of getting settled into my place. Now you can see why I haven’t posted in a while!

The Consultant Seminar was truly a productive and profitable week. In addition to dealing with many necessary departmental and projects-related issues, we also grew much as consultants. Dr. Bill Smallman, a retired administrator with BMM, taught us how to more effectively teach cross-culturally. Glenn Kerr, the Chief Translation Consultant, taught us about Hebrew discourse analysis. Birch Champion, the BI IT Coordinator, gave us more training on Bibledit, BI’s translation editor. And we also made good progress on various BI projects. This year was the first year that the literacy/linguistics consultants split away from the translation consultants so that each could focus on their line of work. We accomplished so much more by doing this!

Pray for me as I get back into deputation mode. Pray also for my support to go up. I’ve been at various churches that are quite interested, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

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Adventures in the Philippines

August 10, 2011 by proftroy

Before I explain my adventures in the Philippines, let me just say how thankful I am to be back in the USA! After being overseas and living out of my suitcase for 5 weeks, I’m so glad to be back. And I’m thankful that I can now move into my new home, the first home I’ve ever owned. I praise the Lord that the loan paperwork was finalized on Thursday at 1:30pm (US time). That’s when I officially became the owner of the home in Jenison. I look forward to moving into it this week.

I also praise the Lord for the support increase I found out about today. Tabernacle Baptist Church of Virginia Beach, VA, voted on Sunday to begin partnership with me. That brings my support level to 83%!

Now to my adventures… The first adventure was my trip to the US Embassy to get mortgage paperwork notarized last week on Tuesday. At first it seemed I was going to have problems getting the paperwork printed on legal size paper (US standard) since the Philippines has a slightly different standard size. But thankfully Gospel Light Baptist Church, where the translator training took place, had the right size in their office.

The fun began on Tuesday. The plan was to take a taxi to the embassy, hoping that the trip would take no more than an hour and a half. I had an appointment at 9:30am, so leaving at 8am would have been sufficient time, even with heavy traffic. But we didn’t plan on the monsoon-type rains. The rains were so hard that morning that public schools cancelled classes–the flooding causes major traffic issues. It delayed my co-worker’s and my departure from our place of lodging that morning by 15 minutes. These issues meant that we needed to change our mode of travel. My Filipino friend decided we needed to take a jeepney, two trains, and a taxi in order to arrive on time. Well, after rushing through those modes of transportation we did arrive right on time.

The difficulties began when I presented my paperwork to the notary. She flipped through all 51 pages and found no where to sign. I assumed she was going to find something, so I didn’t know what to say. She said I could come back later. I told her the earliest I could come back would be Thursday, but if I waited until then, I might as well just wait til I got back to the US the following Mon (8/8). So she told me to select the papers needing notarization, but she warned me that it would cost $50. So I chose 12 pages. I handed them to her, and she notified me that it would be $600 to get them notarized! My heart dropped. I couldn’t believe it! She said that it was $50 per page. What was I to do??? I decided that I had already come so far that I needed to go ahead and “bite the bullet.” But the sickening feeling was that I wasn’t even sure if I was getting the right papers notarized, since the directions I was given weren’t extremely explicit.

When I left the embassy, I was confronted with the heavy rains again. The umbrella did little good. We finally found a taxi (taxis become rare during heavy rains). The taxi couldn’t go very quickly because of the heavy traffic (no wonder they go in hiding during the heavy rains). I saw that the meter continued to run even though we were hardly moving, so I told my traveling companion that we should just walked. So we sloshed through the flooded streets along with many Filipinos, wending our way between the vehicles. We stopped at a KFC for lunch, needing to walk through almost knee-deep water to get there.

As we were heading to DHL, I realized I probably needed to print off two copies of the documents (still not knowing exactly what needed to be done since the directions were not extremely clear). So we returned to the church to get that done. Then we were ready to head to DHL. I had asked the church office personnel to ask about overnight service with DHL. Well, I found out that they forgot to do that, because we were shocked to hear once we got there that they don’t do that. So, we had to go to Fed Ex. That was quite an ordeal. The DHL was at the University of the Philippines, and we were trying to find a taxi right when many, many other students (probably around 50) were also looking for a taxi. But thankfully, the Lord provided one without us having to wait too long (I kept thinking about the fact that if we send the docs too late in the day, they won’t arrive overnight).

When we got to Fed Ex, we found out that they also don’t overnight to the US. No shipping company in the Philippines does that any more! Here I spent $600 and now my docs won’t even arrive very quickly. The closing would need to be delayed yet another day! So, I went back to the church with this thought: I spent a large amount of money on notary services, transportation, and shipping, and I don’t even know if they will arrive in time or if they will even be correctly completed, even if they do arrive on time. I was overwhelmed, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I had to take a nap that evening and read some Scriptures in order to recover.

Late on Thursday night I received word that my docs were received on Thurs AM, US time. Praise the Lord! But the lady asked me if I could print off more docs, sign them, scan them, and send them back. How would I do that at 11pm in a city where I am completely unfamiliar with the resources? Thankfully, she changed her mind and just asked me to come into her office once I arrived back in the US. She assured me that I had done all I needed to do from my end in order for the closing to happen.

On Friday morning I woke up and found out that the closing did indeed happen on Thursday at 1:30 pm (US time). At that time I officially became the owner of my first home. Praise the Lord! You can’t imagine how relieving it was to know that! After around two months of work, the process was finally brought to a very satisfying conclusion. I also found out that day that the title company was going to reimburse me for the notary services. Amazing! God is good! Moving day is on Friday! I can’t wait to get settled into my new home!

The other adventure happened on Monday. My flight was supposed to leave at 6:35am, so we had to wake up at 3:00 am to be at the airport on time. When we arrived, we were welcome by a huge line that was going no where. We eventually found out that the plane would be delayed until the afternoon because of a mechanical problem. I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be arriving in Grand Rapids until Tuesday.

Delta actually treated us quite well in order to make up for the inconvenience. They shuttled us to a five-star hotel (Manila Hotel), where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast buffet, very comfortable rooms, and an excellent lunch buffet. They also gave us a $100 voucher for our next flight. In addition, they paid for a hotel that night in Detroit and gave us $6 vouchers for breakfast, lunch, and supper.

The plane finally left at 4:35pm on Monday from Manila. We passed through Nagoya, Japan, and finally arrived in Detroit at 10:00pm. When I finally got to bed last night, it was midnight. That means my day that began at 3:00 am in Manila was 33 hours long! What a day! Thankfully, I arrived without incident in Grand Rapids at 10:00 this morning. It was so nice to have a “normal” flight for a change.

Now I think it’s time to go to bed. I just hope my body cooperates, even though I’m still experiencing jet lag. We’ll see how it goes!

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Reflections on Singapore and the Philippines

August 3, 2011 by proftroy

As you can tell by my delinquency in posting, I’ve had a busy time here in the Philippines. Once the training started last week on Tuesday, it got really busy. But before I share any more about the Philippines, I want to share some thoughts about Singapore.

My first time to Singapore was in 2008 when I had a day-long layover on the way to PNG. I had a good, but short, tour of a few different places. On both occasions, I was struck by the cleanliness of the city. I was also impressed by the large amount of vegetation along the busy city streets. Someone said that one issue behind planting trees was to appease the spirits below. Not sure how accurate that is!

This time I gained a much better grasp of where everything is. The city has an excellent public transportation system of buses and trains. You can get basically anywhere fairly quickly. I passed through many, many malls. Malls coming out the Singaporean ears! I also went through numerous parking garages. Parking is surely a difficulty there! In order to keep the number of cars from getting too high, the gov’t has the potential owner purchase a Certificate of Entitlement for $68,000 SGD! Then, you have to shell out the cash for the car. That keeps most from getting cars. But those who do sure do have a good bit of money, and many have lots. I don’t think I’ve seen so many nice luxury and sports cars in a short period of time in my life! Mercedes, BMWs, Jaguars, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porches, etc. Incredible! And most have a house helper that cleans them every day.

Another expensive ordeal is buying a place to live, especially a house. Around 70-80% live in flats (gov’t subsidized apts), apartments, or condos. Only millionaires live in houses, and very few live in stand-alone units. I saw some on the golf course for at least $12 million SGD. Apparently, the Chinese are buying many of these, and many pay cash for the entire purchase! One Chinese man complained that a house cost only $38 million SGD.

I thoroughly enjoyed the food over there. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Peranakan, Indian, local, Western, etc. What a wonderful eating experience! I can’t wait to get back to have some more. I especially enjoyed the Chinese food! And iced milk tea Hong Kong style is incredible!

What was the greatest blessing was the people! How gracious the believers were toward me! I also praise God for His grace shown to me through the believers. My lodging was incredible for all three weeks, allowing me to get good sleep and get lots of work done. I had air conditioning all day and all night–which was quite important since the sun was scorching hot and the humidity was almost overwhelming. I did jog periodically, but I desperately needed a place to cool down afterwards!

The Lord really extended His goodness to me through the churches I visited. The churches gave very generous love offerings and then took care of me in every other way as well. One couple took me to Indonesia for two days and a night. Many other couples took me out for meals. Many bought me gifts–so many I had to have them shipped back seperately!

And most of all, the Lord enabled me to share the burden of my heart for Bible translation, and many caught the burden. I gained many prayer supporters, and at least two of the churches are seriously considering me for support. Both also want to help in some personaly way. Please pray for God to lead. I haven’t seen a support increase in over a month!

Now to the Philippines… Someone asked me yesterday what my experience in the Philippines has been like. My answer: WET! It has rained every single day here, and some days it seems that an hour hasn’t gone by without at least some rain. I got caught in monsoon-like showers on Tues as I traveled downtown to the US Embassy. Manila looked more like Venice!

But though the weather has been rainy (and extremely humid), the hospitality has been very warm. The people at the church and BJMBC have been so gracious! I’ve been able to reconnect with Dale Trinidad as he and his family have hosted me in the home on the BJMBC’s new property. I’ve also reconnected with many Mt. Calvary and BJU friends–Phil Kamibayashima and family, Rachel Dalhausen, Jolea Jensen, Ruth Potter, Catherine McQuaid, and Rachel Uhler. Am I forgetting anyone? There are so many friends here! And I’ve made new ones as well.

The training started, as I said, last week on Tuesday. Excluding my co-worker, Dr. Sana Singh, and me, there were 7 people in attendance for the training. One stayed for only an hour, so effectively we had only 6. The main translator for the first edition of the Tagalog NT, Ate Malacao, surprised us by her presence. She hadn’t signed up, as far as my records go. She has been such a blessing to have with us, because she has such a passion for getting the NT finished. Her son is with us and shares the same passion. Actually all attendees do! Fe shared how people back at her church are having to share their NTs, because there are no more (we published the first edition in 1998). Her husband’s church has many outreaches, and longs for the completed NTs. In fact, they are expecting her to return with the revised edition! Too bad it will take 3-5 years to complete the revision.

Sana and I were wondering how we would get everything done in two weeks. Normally, we take 3 weeks to cover all the material. But this time, we have only 9.5 days (we did cut out the linguistics training). Well, we began the manual and saw that we would be moving faster than normal. We actually finished the manual yesterday and began doing some application today! Praise the Lord! All the participants have a real desire to learn and have good basic skills. Almost all were somehow involved in the first edition, so they already have some exposure to translation work. We are doing so well that we plan to end at lunchtime on Friday.

Last Saturday I got to visit the largest US cemetery outside the US. It was a good and sobering trip. My grandfather fought in WW2, so it was neat to see the memorials. My gpa didn’t die in the Philippines, but he did pass away before I got to meet him. I happened across a pic of him in the Philippines, just before I left on this trip. On Saturday we hope to go to Corregidor Island. That’s where McArthur said, “I’ll be back.”

I head back to the US on Monday. I can’t wait to get back! Lord willing, I’ll be moving into my new home next week. Pray for the closing to be finalized tomorrow. I did my part yesterday in the Philippines (an exciting story in itself!), and now I’m trusting Fed Ex to deliver by Thurs, US time. Then, hopefully the documents will be finalized.

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Grace Independent Baptist Church

July 25, 2011 by proftroy

The Lord really blessed my time at GIBC this past weekend. I was able to challenged the youth about missions and dedication on Saturday. Around 20 of them crammed in a small room with Pastor Ping and me. I had a little more time than I anticipated (1.5 hours), so I began with questions to get to know them. I quickly moved to my challenge, thinking I would have time at the end for Q/A. But I ended up taking the whole rest of the time! I felt bad when I found out later that the youth were actually encouraged to think of 3 questions to ask me. I wish I would have left some time!

Sunday school went very well. The people seemed to listen well and learned much as I presented my DVD and talked about some translation complications.

The Worship Service was a great blessing. It clearly showed evidences of Ping’s time at Mt. Calvary. What a blessing the music was! I’m thankful for the Lord’s help as I preached.

In the afternoon we had a great time of fellowship over lunch in the church courtyard. I had no dull moments, since many came up to me and asked about my ministry. Many showed a genuine interest in volunteering for BI projects.

The PM service also went very well. Praise the Lord!

Now I’m in the Philippines! Translator training starts tomorrow. I’ll be introducing things, giving a short devotional, and talking about our translation philosophy. Please pray for God’s grace as I prepare.

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Loan Approved

July 21, 2011 by proftroy

I received great news just before I went to bed last night–my house loan was formally approved! After about two months of trying to secure one, I finally have it! The loan guy has to work out some other details, but my closing is finally on the horizon. What a burden lifted! It looks like things will still work out for me to move into my new place as soon as I return to the USA.

I’ve had a very productive week again this week. Most of my attention has shifted to preparations for next week. Life is going to get quite busy after I land in the Philippines on Monday. The translator training will begin on Tuesday morning. I’ll begin with devotions, an introductory session, and then a session on BI’s translation philosophy. I’ll also be helping with some of the translator training during the rest of the week, sharing a devotional on Wed, speaking in BJMBI’s missions class for an hour on Thur pm, and preaching in their chapel on Fri pm. I look forward to seeing the Philippines for the first time and reconnecting with my Philippines missionary friends. A month ago my mom and I were looking at old photos, and we noticed one of my grandfather in the Philippines during World War II. My grandfather and the American forces liberated the Philippines from the Japanese. During the next two weeks (and beyond), I’ll get to have a part in helping liberate the Filipinos from  sin and darkness!

Please pray also for my ministry at Grace Independence Baptist Church this weekend. I actually got to minister in this church last night at their prayer meeting. Pastor Ping and I weren’t really clear in our communications, so I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to share a devotional until I got up to speak! But the Lord helped me to recall a sermon that I preached over 80x on deputation. On Sat afternoon I’ll be challenging the youth about missions. Then on Sun I’ll be speaking in SS, the AM worship service, and the PM service.

And Fri I go golfing at Sentosa Golf Club, one of the top 5 championship courses in Asia! It’s gonna eat me alive!

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Translation Prefaces

July 18, 2011 by proftroy

The Lord blessed my third weekend in Singapore. I attended my first Singaporean wedding, which was held at Pasir Panjang Christ Church (the first church on my Singapore schedule). The ceremony was similar to an American wedding, though with a few differences. Instead of the main pastor leading the ceremony, there was an “MC” (and a Mandarin interpreter). The whole bridal party, including the bride and groom, sat down during the sermon. In this wedding, there was an overabundance of photographers (3 still photographers and 1 video) such that it was hard to see the bride and groom at times. The Singaporeans also commented on how unusual that was and how they didn’t appreciate it. But overall, the wedding was quite enjoyable and really exalted the Lord.

After the wedding, Dr. Patterson, our host, and I visited Chinatown and then experienced a relaxing stroll around the harbor. There was an outdoor show going on, so the harbor was hopping with activity.

Sunday’s activities went quite well. I preached in the worship service at Asian Baptist Community Church and also taught in their adult SS class. It was a pleasure to worship and fellowship with these dear believers. That afternoon I had the privilege of attending Grace Independent Baptist Church’s 30-year anniversary. Pastor Ping Ngian has been the pastor for the last 5 years, having assumed that position after Missionary Duane Ott planted the church and brought it to where it is now. Pastor Ott’s many years of faithful persistence through thick and thin have been rewarded by a thriving group of believers. They are now shepherded by a very qualified pastor, Ping Ngian, who, differing significantly from Pastor Ott, can now bring the church through its next stage of growth. I look forward to seeing how the Lord will continue to use GIBC for His glory. I’ll be ministering to the youth this Sat and to the whole church on Sunday.

I’ve been able to accomplish many projects during my stay in Singapore, thanks to hosts who provide a quiet, comfortable (i.e., air conditioned!) room for work. One project is writing a Model Preface that all future projects can follow as they write prefaces to their translations. I want to give each project guidance so that they say what they ought and don’t way what they ought not.

As I’ve been working on this, I noticed the ESV Preface. You can read the entire preface here. I really appreciated one paragraph, since it captured succinctly the problems with a dynamic equivalent translation:

In contrast to the ESV, some Bible versions have followed a “thought-for-thought” rather than “word-for-word” translation philosophy, emphasizing “dynamic equivalence” rather than the “essentially literal” meaning of the original. A “thought-for-thought” translation is of necessity more inclined to reflect the interpretive opinions of the translator and the influences of contemporary culture.

This same thinking underlies the translation philosophy at Bibles International. Our task is to preserve what God has inspired, not to add our own interpretive opinions which have  been shaped by contemporary culture!

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