March is now the month of the moment. For many people, cyclone Yasi is now old news, the troubles in Egypt are ‘behind’ us, the earthquake of Christchurch has been a tragedy and now the world is focused on Libya. What next? Probably Mt Vesuvius will blow up.

Meanwhile we trust that the low pressure system the Weather Bureau expects to become a cyclone early this week off Cairns will not be as memorable as Yasi.

We have a personal interest in the weather now because the Consultant Checking Workshop of the next lot of books will be occurring this week, from Wednesday March 8 to March 18. This follows on from the one we had in November last. This time we will be aiming to complete the checking of 8 books: 1 & 2 Timothy, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 & 2 & 3 John and Jude.

This time we will have some new faces among those helping. Maryann Savage is a very active person in her church. Simeon Harry suggested we call her to see if she would like to be involved. When Charlotte and I called in, she told us that 15 minutes before we had rung, she had been talking to the Lord, and saying she was wanting something to do, and specifically something working for the Lord. When we mentioned the workshop she became rather excited.

Taking a step of faith I visited a church I had not spent much time at before. Having made an appointment with the Pastor and explaining our need for a reliable person to be involved, he said he would ring me the next day. An hour later he rang and asked me to come back to his office. Waiting there was a Islander guy, Chris Thaiday. I explained to him what the workshop was all about and he said that he had only recently given has life to the Lord and spends a lot of time at the church helping out. When asked if he would like to be a part, he said, “Sounds deadly! Yeah I’ll be there.”

And so we have two excited people, not to mention Charlotte and myself.

Simeon Harry will be coming along as before. Percy Misi is being flown down from the Torres Strait. He too is looking forward to this opportunity to meet others who are now involved. Percy was the one who completed the first draft translation of these books 

Last Friday, Charlotte and Simeon achieved the goal they had aimed to reach before the workshop, the completion of the Comprehension checking of 1 Corinthians. But it was somewhat of an anticlimax. At the end of each verse Charlotte would press SAVE. What she didn’t realise was that from the middle of Chapter 16, the last chapter, the SAVE was actually not working. So they kept on till the final verse was reached. But the program wouldn’t QUIT. So I was called in. What ever we did we couldn’t save or copy the file. The joy of Windows software. At Melora’s suggestion I got out my digital camera and took photos of the chapter off the screen. Now to put the photos into the computer, read the chapter from there and then retype it. Praise the Lord we had that option.

But 1 Corinthians is completed. Praise the Lord. Simeon is so thankful that not all the New Testament was written by St Paul. We can sympathise with Simeon.

We now only have four books left to do a comprehension check of: 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, Titus and Philemon.

WHAT TO BE PRAYING FOR

• Pray for this workshop, that we will make the needed improvement to the books, and that all involved will sense the hand of the Lord in this work.
• Pray for Michael who has some Tendonitus in his left hand making typing something of a challenge. Just what one doesn’t need at this time involving a lot of typing.
• Pray this new cyclone will give up and go back to sea.
• Pray for John and Gerna Thompson, our own returning Master Chefs who fed us all so well last time.
• Pray too for the Consultant, Carl Gross as he seeks to find the improvements needed in each of the books.

For those South African Financial supporters:

Please note a change in branch code for Wycliffe South Africa’s bank account. Please make a note of the change as it will delay any support you send to Wycliffe for our support.

New Banking details:

• Standard Bank, Kempton Park
• Branch code: 012442
• Account number: 020263309
• REF: Donor’s name / Recipient

For those Australians wishing to support us financially:

Tax deductible donations can be sent to:

Finance Office, SILAustralia Graham Road Kangaroo Ground Vic 3097 Australia

Michael Charlotte, Melora and Alexis Corden