Petersons' Prayer Guide - December 2007

“…Yet a ruler will come out of you (O Bethlehem), one whose origins are from the distant past…. He will be highly honored all around the world. And He will be the source of our peace.” Micah 5:2,4b & 5

There is something so very special about this time of year. I love the decorations, the music, the special gatherings and events, the holidays and time to look back and look ahead. My prayer for you, along with myself, is that in the midst of the busyness, we will enjoy some precious, private moments with our God to adore Him, to thank Him, and to listen to Him. What an amazing, incomparable God we have!

Last month I mentioned that we were trying to plan a little vacation. I want to thank those of you who prayed that God would work out the details for us. We found an unbelievable deal on a hotel in Clearwater and were able to spend two nights over there. Friends gave us free tickets to go to Disney World as a family – a really fun day! We had Thanksgiving here at home and several friends joined us for parts of it to help celebrate Gary’s birthday as well. There was time for some shopping, watching some good movies, and taking a boat ride to see dolphins playing in the waters of the Gulf. We packed a fair bit in, and thoroughly enjoyed this time out as a family. Thank You, Lord!

In the midst of everything else, we did a big push and managed to get our patio roof replaced before our building permit expired on the 13th. It’s a good feeling to have that job completed!

Thank you too for praying for Gary’s full schedule last month. There were a lot of great contacts made.

One of the biggest events on his plate for the coming month is a first for the Wordspring staff. They’re calling it, “Christmas Around the World” and are inviting the community to come and experience Christmas from a cross-cultural perspective. It will be a Public Relations event, and there could be as many as 800 guests. Gary will be heavily involved in preparations and on the days it is being held (Dec. 14-15). Please pray that there will be a good response from the community, and that it will open doors for future involvement with Wycliffe. Pray that the staff will be flexible and work well together as a team.

There are school groups coming for a program on Dec. 4th & 6th. Gary will also assist with orientation for new Wycliffe recruiters on the 6th, and will be giving the morning tour on the 7th and 18th.

For the rest of December he will be the main person on call for special tours, filling in where needed most and responding to inquiries. Last December we had many guests around Christmas, and we hope we will have many this year, too. A lot of tourist attractions in Florida (except the major ones like Disney) have had a downturn in visitors this year, partly due to the price of transportation. Wycliffe has been affected, too. Though we’ve had many more kids and youth for our Education program this year, our regular visitor numbers have dropped off some.

We have a tradition of giving small gifts and cards to teachers and neighbors at this time of year. Please pray that God will use these efforts to shine His light and love in the lives of those we touch. Pray that we’ll be sensitive to the opportunities He brings our way and that we’ll do a good job of pointing people to the Reason for the Season.

Please join us in prayer for the people around the world who will be hearing or reading the Christmas story in their own language for the first time this year. Pray that God will speak powerfully and lives will be changed as they encounter Him and His great love for mankind. Pray, too, for missionaries who are working overseas and who are separated from their loved ones during this season. It can be a lonely and difficult time for them.

We’re so grateful for your invaluable prayer support during 2007. May the blessings of Jesus be on you and those you love as you celebrate His coming and as you live out His life in the year ahead. Robyn & Gary Peterson

Praise God from Whom all Blessings flow!...Nancy Pryor

Dearest Friends, November, 2007

It’s our prayer and hope that your Thanksgiving celebration was one filled with the joy of family and a spirit of gratefulness to the Lord. This holiday was a mixture of food, fun and jet lag as I just returned from 3 weeks in Mongolia late on November 20th. What an incredible trip with the International School Project to the third largest city in Mongolia, Erdenet. The city is located just 250 miles south of the Russian border and was covered in snow. A novel sight for this Southern Californian!

Over 650 teachers attended between the two conferences and the response to the information given was very positive. Over 98% in attendance said that what they had learned would be very useful in their classrooms and that they gained much needed encouragement as teachers. My interpreter, Tuya, asked me during the second week of conferences, “Nancy, would you say for me special prayer for Jesus?” In all my years of sharing Christ with others, I’ve never had someone come to me and ask me if I could pray with them to receive Christ. What a joy and privilege to lead this lovely young woman to the Savior and to see her very destiny and life change. Tuya went home that evening and talked for a long time with her good friend, Oona, about her decision to trust Christ and change her worldview from Buddhism to faith in the one true God.

Just two days later, Tuya brought Oona to the hotel and led her friend to Christ through the translation of a simple prayer of faith. Praise God, she said that she just can’t stay quiet about Jesus and desires for her husband and children to come to trust Christ, too. Already a multiplying disciple!!! Please pray for Tuya, Oona and their continued growth in Christ. The good news is that the New Life Teachers Movement with Campus Crusade for Christ, Mongolia will be following them up!

In 1990, there were only about 10 known believers in all of Mongolia. Billy Graham said that it was the last closed country on earth. The gospel of Christ has been faithfully taking root in this barren land. There are an estimated 40,000 trained disciples for Christ in the country today and that number continues to grow. This is truly a place where you can witness the “first century” church. The Mongolian believers that I met are truly committed to the Great Commission and are trusting the Lord to take the good news of salvation to every nation where Genghis Khan once ruled. At one time, the Mongolian Empire ruled 3/5 of the known world, so these believers have a big vision. Pray for them. What a privilege to have been able to serve alongside these men and women of great faith.

Boxes of Love...20th Anniversary…changing lives one box at a time!

Twenty years…125,000 + boxes…500,000+ lives impacted with the gospel and love of Christ…thank you so much for praying for the outreach this year. We were able to pack up 5,000 Boxes of Love on Saturday, Oct. 29th just before I left for Mongolia. Over 75 ministries came to help “make and take” their boxes and then used the boxes to reach out to thousands of people in need in their communities. It is always a joy to be able to serve the urban church by getting into their hands resources that will bring a touch of compassion to those in need at this time of Thanksgiving. Soon I will find out from the ministries the extent of their outreaches and let you know of the countless families that were impacted with the love of Christ through this project. The Lord provided so many wonderful donations that we were able to stretch our boxes from 3,000 to 5,000 and thus bring a touch of Christ's love and forgiveness to many more families in need this Thanksgiving than was originally projected.

Dan is doing well and continuing to teach through the gospel of John. He continues to mentor several men from the church and especially is enjoying discipling a man from Tehran , Iran who recently came to Christ an is now attending Plymouth.

Thank you all for your continued support through the years. Your generosity enables me to receive medical benefits and a small salary, but most of all keeps me out in the “fields of harvest”. I so appreciate all of your faithfulness through the years. If you have any year end giving to do, please consider the ministry that God has given me through Campus Crusade. (my account number is 0041641) Your investment is eternal and far reaching…both here in inner city Los Angeles and to the outermost parts of the world.

Blessings abundant, Nancy Pryor

Peterson's November Newsletter

Gary here: You just never know who will walk through your doors. I’ve heard that expression many times at Wycliffe—even said it a few times myself—but this autumn we’ve had some of our most amazing visitors. It started with a phone call from a colleague. “Gary, we have some special guests showing up at WordSpring in 30 minutes from _____ (country name withheld for security purposes). Can you give them a tour and tell them about our work? They know nothing about Bible Translation.” “I’m available,” I replied. Two+ hours later the two men (leaders in the underground church) thanked me again and again and said how much they had learned.
Pray for long term results from this visit.

A week later a colleague, Chris, was to lead the regular 10am tour of Wycliffe. This day no one showed up. She was about to go back to her desk when our visitors center received a call
from someone saying they were on their way, but running late. Chris felt compelled to wait. Eventually 3 Americans and 3 Romanians showed up. Ironically Chris and her husband first got interested in missions after a trip to Romania. It turns out that the three Romanians were gypsies, commissioned by the King of the gypsies to visit Wycliffe and see if we would come
and translate the Bible for his people. He had become a Christian and wanted his people to have
God’s Word in their language. They said there are around 4.8 million gypsies in Romania and 8.1 million throughout Europe speaking many different distinct languages. These are just two stories from the thousands of visitors we’ve had this year, and you have had a part in many of them through us. If you haven’t seen the WordSpring website yet, please check it out: www.wycliffe.org/Wordspring.

I am enjoying my new role as Youth and Young Adult program director at the Wycliffe USA headquarters. We’ve been running our 4.5 hour A-Z mission education program for elementary school kids for several years now, but we haven’t had anything “official” for older students until recently. As word is getting out, we are having more students come to our new “Mission Encounter” program for middle schoolers to College age. It has been a blast to watch them get excited and make comments like “I thought this was going to be a boring field trip about the Bible, but it was a lot of fun—and I learned something too!” Now that’s what we like to hear. In one month alone we had visits from over 200 college students from all over the mid west and east coast. These were hand picked student leaders with groups like the Navigators, Campus Crusade and Campus Outreach. I have no doubt we’ll see some of them in the future joining us in Bible Translation.

Robyn here: Esther had a successful first semester at Trinity College of Florida* and returned in August to continue her preparations for ministry. She is grateful for a part-time job in the college office to help with expenses. She loved the chance to be a part of a team from the college that did a 10-day mission trip to Costa Rica during Spring Break. Using Spanish again was a highlight, and she enjoyed the ministry to women and children. She is really enjoying her studies and fellow students.

Earlier this year Josiah led a Truth Project small group study for 14 weeks. It was a stimulating experience with some 20 participants (youth and adults). He took his leadership role very seriously and did a great job. He expects to continue taking new groups through this thought-provoking, worldview curriculum in the years to come. He also had a special opportunity to attend a 10-day National Student Leadership Conference on US Policy and Politics in Washington DC this past summer. That was a great learning experience! He was excited to meet Florida Congressman, Dave Weldon, during the conference. It’s been fun to see Josiah discovering his passions and interests. He is now a Junior (11th grader) in the International Baccalaureate program. He looks forward to getting his drivers’ license soon.

In May we took on the daunting project of reroofing our house. With a lot of help from friends, we managed to get most of it completed before we left on a 5-week trip. We drove over 9,000 miles and had some wonderful reunions with ministry partners, relatives and friends we hadn’t seen for 4 years or more. The kids traveled with us and it was a rich family time as we shared the experiences and visits together.

My mother was diagnosed with bladder cancer 5 years ago. When tests showed that it had become a lot more invasive and aggressive, and other health issues were a concern, I found it difficult to be so far away. We decided that I needed to return for a visit, to help her and to assess her needs. I left on July 25th and spent a month with her. It proved very timely because she got results that necessitated some big decisions. I was also privileged to help my sister, Jenny, who had a baby boy while I was there. Mum decided to have radical surgery to remove her bladder rather than letting untreated pelvic cancer run its course. She had it on September 21st, and I returned for another month to support her through the ordeal. Apart from some relatively minor complications, she has done really well and is making a good recovery. I’m grateful that Gary and Josiah were willing to have me absent again for this length of time. Gary’s mother came over from California to help out while I was away.

On November 15th, I will officially become a US citizen as I go through the oath ceremony. Thanks to those who have prayed me through this process and helped to make it possible financially. It will make any future overseas assignments a lot easier. I will also be able to retain my Australian citizenship.

Thanks to those of you who write to us. We cherish your friendship! We have seen God at work in so many ways lately, and He has used many of you, our friends, as channels of blessing to us. May you continue to experience God at work in and around you in the coming days.

Love in Him, Gary & Robyn Peterson

* Working with Wycliffe, we often see people wanting to get involved in missions who have large college loans to pay off. This makes support raising a real challenge. Esther has had to take out a loan to help with college costs (though we’re grateful that she has received some scholarships). She has plans to go into missions after college, and we would love to see her graduate without the burden of financial debts to pay off at that stage. If God lays it on your heart to help with this, we would love to hear from you.

Home: 4418 Lake Trudy Dr. • Saint Cloud, FL 34769 USA
Email: Home: gary-robyn_peterson@wbt.org • Office: gary_peterson@wycliffe.org
For Finances:
Wycliffe Bible Translators • PO Box 628200 • Orlando, FL 32862-8200 USA
Wycliffe Bible Translators • 70 Graham Rd. • Kangaroo Ground, VIC 3097 AUSTRALIA

Wycliffe Office Closings

The senior leadership of Wycliffe USA has made the decision to close four of the six remote offices around the U.S. by the end of August, 2008. This month will see the closing of the first of these four offices. We will be traveling to Dallas to help oversee the final details. For the next year, Fred’s responsibility continues to remain the same as he helps each of the managers with the myriad of details required in closing an office. The closing locations and dates are: Dallas, TX (November), Atlanta, GA (February), Temecula, CA (May), and Portland, OR (August). Most of the personnel will continue with their current assignments by working out of their homes. Thank you for praying!

Marilyn continues to enjoy working in Wycliffe’s Children Communication department. She is currently working on several projects including a children’s prayer journal. Another project is learning a software program called InDesign. Please pray for understanding and perseverance.

Nadolski Ghana Trip Report

Thank you so very much for your prayers, especially while I was in Ghana. The focus of the trip was to organize a pump repair program for the people of northern Ghana . At the end of August, there were tremendous rains in the area. Local people say that there were two or three days of intense, non-stop rain and the rains produced tremendous floods. The local people don't remember this level of flooding, even the older people don’t remember such high flooding. The rains and floods destroyed a lot of buildings and damaged/contaminated a lot of the local wells.

I was in Ghana , working with Rev. David Donkor, Living Water International’s local partner. Our goal was to set up a program to repair and decontaminate hand pumps in the area. In addition, Rev. Donkor brought up four lorry loads of food, clothes and medical supplies. We passed out the supplies to the villagers, and these villagers lived a 20 to 30 minute drive outside of town. I didn’t see a local church in the whole area. The local pastors and local Salvation Army organized the food and clothing give away. It was a blessing to see the Salvation Army in action. They were right there, shoulder to shoulder, passing out the food and clothes. In the evening, they showed the Jesus Film to the villagers. Over 85 people came forward and the Salvation Army organized discipleship training for these people, including giving a bible to the adults. After the training, the Salvation Army may start a church with this new group of believers. While in the northern area, I saw a couple of the Rotary tents being used as emergency shelters. It was neat to see Rotary in action.

Living Water International plans to repair 50 or more of these wells and hand pumps. It makes me proud to be able to help these people. At the same time, I am humbled to see what little we do when the people of Ghana have their houses destroyed by the rains and floods.

We also want to thank you for your prayers for Marcia while I was gone. She didn’t sleep much, staying up late and getting up early. But, she stayed busy and she’s healthy. So, that’s good.

I’ve attached a few pictures to give you a flavor of the need in Ghana and what LWI is doing to respond. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want more information.

God bless you, John (and Marcia)