| In A Word Winter 2008 |
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 You have probably prayed for us during this year; you may have contributed financially; you may even have volunteered your talents, your time, or your service to our ministry together. I would like to share all of the great things the Lord has done for us, but it is impossible to list them all… in a word. Allow me to highlight a few.w First, I praise God for new team members! Four prospective consultants are in pre-field ministry, one to become the head of the Text Production department. One bookkeeper, a projects coordinator for Africa/Europe and his wife, and one administrative assistant have joined the ranks alongside our loaded but devoted staff. w New staff arrives, but present staff continues either to receive or to provide training such as continued sessions for translators overseas, seminars for current and prospective consultants at our headquarters in Grand Rapids, teaching sessions at a partnering Christian college, completion of required reading lists, participation at scholarly seminars, production of articles, etc. Our most cherished time, as always, has been the spiritually refreshing BI staff retreat at the end of August. w In finance, though losing our stewardship manager earlier this year, the Lord has prospered the work of our tireless representatives and dedicated stewardship staff with satisfactory results to fund our operations. For instance, our Harvest Dinner in October was a great success; the quarter-million-dollar fundraiser for the India Translation Center has been completed, and construction of the complex is progressing; the cornerstone for the Chad Translation Center has been laid; additional work has been done on our complex in Papua New Guinea. w The Lord has protected our staff during their hundreds of thousands of miles crisscrossing the world to assist projects. Let me give you some samples of what is happening with our projects: In Ghana, the final review of the Dagaare NT is completed. Final checking process and formatting should lead to printing in 2008. The revision of the Sango Bible in the Central African Republic is ahead of schedule: a draft of the NT is completed; great progress has been made in revising the OT. The Songhai team in Mali is, in their words, “ahead of the game.” Last August, in Togo, a workshop was conducted on the Kabiye NT, and two workshops are scheduled for 2008. w For Myanmar or Burma, the Falam Chin NT is being formatted, whereas the Tedim Chin and Zobya NTs are in final stages of checking and verification. Final checking for the Manipuri Bible is nearly completed in view of formatting in 2008. Cross the Pacific to South America, and you will see that the final checking for the Quechua NT will be completed in December 2007. Go up to the Caribbean, to Haiti, where 33,000 copies of the 2nd edition of the Creole NT were sent recently. The prospective translator for the OT will complete his second master’s degree in the U.S. in December, get additional training at BI in January, and begin work with the Creole OT in February 2008. w Space is not left for us to talk about all of our other translation projects, our Bible storybooks, our literacy projects, our prospective Scripture-in-Use endeavors, our development in technology, our corps of volunteers and adjunct consultants, our generous supporters, and more. May you be encouraged that you are participating with us in this ministry. Receive this report as a great thank-you. And may God grant you a blessed and merry Christmas.
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