Troozshoes

Dear Friends and Family,

Dave has returned from the anthropology conference in the US, after
braving the fierce snowstorm that forced three of his flights to be
cancelled! :) Rrrrrr. He is impervious to snow. He laughs at danger. :)

The conference was really good, and he was able to meet a quite a few
new people. He enjoyed talking with friends, and making some good
contacts that could help SIL's work. Also very important, and fun, was
seeing his family and the pastoral team and Monday women's prayer group
at his home church! It was a blast to see everyone again!

We are packing up some of our things to take to the village tomorrow. We
will be flying by small airplane to Madang and then by helicopter to the
village. We have packed and moved many times, but it always seems like a
big job and there are millions of details to keep track of.

In this next village stay we will be looking at the translation of Old
Testament portions the translators have finished in the last several
months, going through it with an eye to make sure it is faithful to the
source text and sounds natural in Sam, holding a dictionary workshop for
two weeks, gathering data to continue writing our grammar paper while on
furlough (starting July 2010!), visiting the other two Sam villages,
possibly training teachers for the Sam adult literacy classes the people
have requested, and most of all, aiming for a good closure, such that
the translators and literacy workers feel their time spent has been
effective and important, and there are better things to come! :)

Please pray with us for good health, good times with friends, and
productive work times, with good, willing participants for the
dictionary workshop.

We can praise the Lord for the end of hostilities between our village
and another Sam village down nearer to the coast, which had resulted in
stopping the people in our village from getting to the market and going
to Madang! The people have been reconciled, and they are waiting for the
exchanging of pigs to mark the end of all the bad feelings. We might get
to see this important cultural event!

God's peace to you,
Dave and Sarah