March 2006

Memo from the Mortensens

Translating God's Word for the Northern Embera People of Panama and Colombia
January 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Dry season is now starting here in Panama, which means lots of wind and sun with little or no rain. We enjoy the decrease in humidity, but by late March we will be longing for rain because the trees will go bare and the grass will be brown. As we start this new year, we look back at the last few months with thankfulness to God for the progress made in the translation and for events that gave us happy times and good memories. (Click on the pictures to view larger version.)

Highlights of the translation work

Translation Checking. Click on picture for larger image.

In September Doug and I and some Emberas performed a "team check" on the Gospel of Matthew and 1 Corinthians. During this time we agreed on the last changes to be made before sending the material to our translation consultants. Since then Maximiliano and I have finished a revision of the draft of Luke and Doug has finished drafting 2 Corinthians and Romans.

In March we plan to meet with one of our consultants directly and hope she will give approval for Matthew to be published in provisional form along with Philippians, Colossians, Titus and Philemon. If the books are ready in time we can distribute them at the Embera church's Holy Week conference. We are also hoping to distribute provisional copies of the Gospel of John and 1 Corinthians by August. This is because we have Embera calendars with daily Bible readings and the portions in John start on August 14! Thank you for your prayers for our progress. Please keep praying that we remain on schedule in order to publish the whole New Testament by 2010.

Highlights of family life

Danny. Click to view larger picture.

Danny (11th) studies a lot and keeps busy with friends and youth group activities. He's looking ahead to the spring play (Arsenic and Old Lace), a new book club and college tests.

Click to view larger picture.

The school had a walk-a-thon in a local park in November. Danny walked 7 miles with his friends Andrew, Gonzalo and Laura. Our Laura walked 5 miles. Chaz and Helga each walked 2 miles and took lots of pictures.

Laura. Click to view larger picture.

Laura (4th) continues in gymnastics and looks forward to "Psalm 8:2", a church performance team for children, and Battle of the Books. She is the main caretaker for our newest family member, Snickers, a furry little hamster we inherited from neighbors. She is mainly Laura's pet, though we all enjoy her antics.

Laura and friends. Click to view larger picture.
Laura and two friends, Daniela and Elle, in their gymnastics uniforms for a meet.
Click to view larger picture.

One highlight of the Christmas season was a local "snowstorm." A man from the church hired an ice company to come and shave a truckload of huge blocks of ice, then spray it through hoses to coat the ground. The snow stuck even though it was well over 80 that day! Especially fun was watching Panamanians try to engage in a snowball fight for the first time in their lives.

Click to view larger picture.
Kirsten spent Christmas vacation in Washington with her aunt, uncle, cousins and grandparents. Here she is at the top of the Seattle Space Needle with Oma Schroeter.

Kirsten is taking 4 classes this semester, as well as working in the Alumni Association office, singing in the Women's Glee Club and attending meetings of the pre-med and lingistics clubs. She recently declared linguistics as one of her majors. She's also been hired as an RA for next school year and will soon start training for that.

We would like to thank you for your financial support throughout the past year. We never know how much or how little we will receive in a given month but we have never gone without the necessities. Just after New Year's Day I took our 4-wheel drive in to the dealership because it wasn't starting right. They took two full days trying to figure out the problem. Because of this we feared that the repair would be so costly we could not afford it. But it turned out to be a pretty normal repair and wasn't expensive. God is faithful!

Wishing you richest blessings for 2007,

Chaz and Helga Mortensen

Address for all financial contributions:

Wycliffe Bible Translators
P.O. Box 628200
Orlando, FL 32862-8200
www.wycliffe.org

Please send mail (no packages) to:

Chaz & Helga Mortensen
#PTY-7982
P.O. Box 025207
Miami, FL 33102-5207

Email addresses:

chaz_mortensen@sil.org
helga_mortensen@sil.org

Telephone:

011-507-317-0308 or 011-507-6483-9288 (Chaz' cell) or 011-507-6687-2541 (Helga's cell)