November Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

My furlough time in America is now drawing to a close, and I will soon be going back to Chad. As I look back over the past eight months, I praise the Lord greatly for having given me a really great furlough! I’m eagerly looking forward to what the Lord will do as I head back to Africa to continue the Bible translation work there.

Furlough Travels Completed! 

Over the past six months, I have traveled through 15 states, spoken in 25 churches, and logged nearly 9500 miles on my car. In the process, my supporters and I have become much better acquainted with each other, and I have enjoyed reviving old friendships and forging some new ones. In spite of all the traveling, I have also been able to find time for physical and spiritual refreshment along the way.

I spent the last couple months of my furlough travels in Illinois and Iowa. Besides visiting supporting churches, I also had the opportunity to participate in the annual missions conference at Faith Baptist Bible College and Seminary. I spent nearly 6 years as a student there (2002-2007), so it was a blessing to be back and to re-connect with many old friends, classmates, and professors. I also enjoyed meeting some of the current students. Please pray for several Faith students who are seriously considering a future ministry with Bibles International.

I am now back at my parents’ home in Indiana. I’m looking forward to spending a full month with my family, then I will fly back to Chad on December 8. I will spend several days in the capital to renew my visa before finally traveling on to Sarh in the south of the country. Please pray for safe travels.

Scripture Use 

Scripture Use material is anything other than the published Bible translations and literacy materials which is designed to encourage people to use their Bible translations more widely or more effectively, such as tracts, Bible verse posters, Bible reading plans, and materials to aid in Scripture memorization. I will be working with BI and with the Chadian committees to try to produce more such materials in Chadian languages. Please pray for wisdom in this endeavor.

What's Happening in 2017

Here are some of the events planned for 2017:

• 3 translation checking workshops with the Sara Kaba Naa
• 3 translation checking workshops with the Sara Kaba Deme
• 2 translation quality checking workshops with the Day (pronounced “die”)
• Hosting short-term missionary guests: I am expecting at least 8 or 9 different visits from missionaries in 2017. Some will help in the translation work, others will teach in the local theological school. Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell

August Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

Is furlough really a time to rest? With a missionary’s busy schedule of traveling and speaking engagements, furlough may not sound particularly restful! Yet I have found that although furlough may not exactly be a year’s vacation, it has been very refreshing, both through the encouragement from the Lord’s people, and through all that the Lord is constantly teaching me through His Word.

Furlough Travels

Over the last couple of months, I have visited supporting churches from Pennsylvania to Illinois. I have appreciated the encouragement and fellowship in each place. At one church, I enjoyed being reunited with my former roommate from my seminary days. At another church I had the unusual opportunity to help with the church’s float for a local parade (which even won first place)! Other folks have graciously invited me to their homes for meals and good fellowship together. Thanks for your continued prayers as I visit my remaining supporting churches before heading back to Chad in December.

Conferences at BMM and BI

The highlights of these last couple months included several conferences. Baptist Mid-Missions holds its annual conference in July, and it is always a good time of fellowship, spiritual refreshment and biblical challenges. I appreciated the encouragement from interactions with veteran missionaries, who shared insights from their years of faithful service.

Bibles International holds its annual consultant seminar in August. This is a time when our consultants can meet to discuss various matters related to our unique ministry. This year, we learned to use a computer program that will help us to collect linguistic data useful to our work. Besides this sort of technical work, it is a blessing to be able to interact with many of my colleagues face-to-face, when we are usually oceans apart from each other.

Following the consultant seminar, B.I. enjoys an annual retreat for all the staff and their families. Our time together this year was a very great encouragement to me. I am thankful that the Lord has given me such godly and supportive colleagues!

More changes on the Chad field

My coworker, Susan Hossack, has determined after much prayer that the Lord is leading her to leave Chad. She has transferred her ministry to France. Please pray for her as she transitions to a teaching ministry in a Bible institute.

As you may remember from my April letter, my other coworker, Dr Joy Hart, has also left Chad. This means that the Chad field is temporarily without any BMM missionaries on the ground. However, Les and Carol Carew, who spent seven months in Chad before moving to the Central African Republic in early 2015, have determined that the Lord is leading them to return to the field of Chad. As soon as their furlough in the US is over, they will transfer back to Chad in early 2017.

All these changes in field personnel mean that although I will be continuing the same work in Chad that I have been doing, I will be facing a complete change in my missionary coworkers. Please pray for myself and the Carews, that we will be an encouragement and blessing to each other as we serve the Lord in this difficult place.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell

What do you do in your spare time?

Someone asked me this at a supporting church this morning, and I thought it was a pretty good question!  I have several favorite hobbies and past-times, so I'll just list them here.  Some of them I've had to adapt a bit for my situation in Africa, of course.  Anyway, here are a few of my favorite leisure activities, in no particular order:

• Computer games. I especially enjoy puzzle games, word games, board and card games, and a few of what are called time-management games. However, when I'm in a translation checking workshop, I spend so much of the day on the computer that I sometimes find I need a break from it.  Sometimes, a book of word puzzles is just as good as a computer game!
• Reading books: I enjoy novels for light reading material, and sometimes devotional or doctrinal or language books for more academic reading.  I have a pretty good collection of books at my home in Chad, both my own and many books that other missionaries left behind.
• Listening to audio books and sermons: I have quite a large collection of audio books from Librivox and Audible, mostly the same kinds of books I like reading as hard copies.  I also have quite a lot of sermon recordings that I've collected over the past several years.  This furlough, I've discovered the usefulness of podcasts to get profitable or informative listening material, but that probably won't be possible to do from Chad because of our limited internet access.
• Watching videos: My movie tastes are conservative, so I mostly watch family films and old classics and animal movies.  I also enjoy documentaries, especially on animals, science, history, and true crime.  This furlough, I've been enjoying video streaming over the internet, but that is impossible on our slow internet connection on the field.  So in Chad, I have a slowly growing collection of favorite DVDs which I watch over and over.
• Digital photo scrapbooking: I discovered several years ago just how much fun this hobby can be!  But I've steered away from scrapbooking sites that are web-based such as Shutterfly.  Those are too cumbersome and frustrating to try to use on a slow internet connection.  Instead, I use free software from a company called Blurb, because even if they don't have as many fancy trimmings, they do produce nicely bound books.  And best of all, I can work on my books offline as much as I like, and upload them when I am finally in a country with high-speed internet.
• Jigsaw puzzles: I enjoy jigsaws but never get to do them as much as I'd like.  In America, I am usually traveling too much to do them.  In Chad, I am usually too busy to do them during the day, and the lighting at night is too bad to see the the pieces properly.  But I enjoy them when I'm able to do them!
• Table games: I love table games, but rarely have anyone to play them with!  Discovering people who enjoy them is a special treat for me.

Well, those are a few of the fun things I like to do in my spare time.  Do you enjoy doing any of these things?  I'd love to hear about which books or games or movies or hobbies you enjoy!

June Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

After about six weeks at my parent’s home in Indiana, in May I began six months of traveling to report to my supporters. I’ve now been on the road for over a month. Although it isn’t easy to be constantly moving from place to place, there are also many blessings that God provides during this part of missionary ministry.

Travels in New England and New York State

I began my furlough travels in New England by visiting churches in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and upstate New York. The past several weeks have been busy with travels and meetings, but God has given many blessings throughout these travels. In one church in Connecticut, a short but activity-packed missions conference was a great blessing as the folks were full of great enthusiasm about missionary work and Bible translation. In two other churches, I met people who had immigrated to the USA from French-speaking countries, and we were all excited for the chance to communicate in French again. Each church has been a special blessing to me, and I trust that the Lord has also made me a blessing to them.

Upcoming Travels

I am currently staying in a small guest house at a supporting church in upstate New York. Next week, I will move on, making a stop in New York City before heading to Pennsylvania to spend a little time with my extended family in Lancaster County. From there, I will gradually continue working my way west through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and finally Iowa. Please continue to pray for safety on the roads as I travel.

I would like to ask prayer for one specific need. I have four weeks of meetings scheduled in central Illinois for the month of September, and I have not yet found a place to stay in that area. In the past, I used to stay with relatives who lived in Illinois for many years, but as they have since died, I must now seek other options. Although I could stay with my parents in Indiana, the distance would require quite a bit of extra driving to and from meetings in Illinois, which would mean more wear and tear both on myself and on my vehicle. Would you pray with me that the Lord would provide a place in Illinois for me to stay for those weeks? Also, if you know of a guest house or guest apartment in central Illinois (especially in the Springfield, Decatur, or St Louis areas) that might be available for part or all of that month, please let me know. 

Furlough Travels

Here is a rough outline of my travel plans from now through October:

• June: Visiting churches and relatives in New York State and Pennsylvania
• July 4-8: Baptist Mid-Missions Annual Conference in Cleveland, Ohio
• Late July to early August: Visiting churches in Ohio and Indiana
• August 9-19: Bibles International consultant seminar and staff retreat in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Late August through September: Visiting churches in Illinois
• October: Visiting churches in Iowa

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell

April Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

Greetings from Indiana in the USA! Thank you to everyone who prayed for me as I traveled here from Africa to begin my first furlough. I have been in the States for just over a month now, and I’ve been thankful for the time I’ve had to rest and readjust to life in America. In a couple more weeks it will be time to hit the road to report to my supporting churches. I have a nearly full schedule from May to October, so I appreciate your prayers for travel safety as well as for good times of fellowship with my supporters.

Translation Progress Update

In late February and early March, just before I left the field, I met again with the Sara Kaba Deme translators to check more portions of their Old Testament. We made good progress, finishing the remaining portion of Isaiah as well as the books of Hosea, Joel, and Obadiah. The translation work is not fast and requires much patience from everyone, but the translator seems to be making steady progress in preparing the first draft of the book of Ezekiel. Following that, he only has three books left to translate: Ecclesiastes, Daniel and Job. All of these books are quite difficult to translate, so pray that the Lord will give him wisdom. Due to my furlough and other factors, for the rest of this year the translation teams will not have as many checking sessions with the consultants as they usually do. Pray that they will not become discouraged or distracted, but that they will continue working faithfully until we can (Lord willing) resume a more normal workshop schedule in 2017.

Changes for Dr Joy Hart

My missionary coworker, Dr Joy Hart, has served faithfully in Chad as a missionary doctor for 14 years. In the past several months, after very much prayer and seeking of the Lord’s will, she has determined that the door to effective medical ministry in Chad is closing for the time being. She has left Chad and will be seeking a new ministry wherever the Lord should lead her. Please pray for her during this time of transition in her life.

Furlough Travels

My furlough travels will begin in the second week of May. Here is a rough outline of my travel plans from May through October:

• May to early June: Visiting churches in the New England states
• June: Visiting churches and relatives in New York State and Pennsylvania
• July 4-8: Baptist Mid-Missions Annual Conference in Cleveland, Ohio
• Late July to early August: Visiting churches in Ohio and Indiana
• August 9-19: Bibles International consultant seminar and staff retreat in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Late August through September: Visiting churches in Illinois
• October: Visiting churches in Iowa

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell