The Higby Herald December 2008 Edition

Submitted by doug on Tue, 2008-12-16 16:39

Dear Friends,

Last month Wycliffe received a gift of fifty million dollars from an anonymous donor, the largest single donation in our 75 year history! The gift is earmarked for Wycliffe’s billion-dollar Last Languages Campaign -- a full-sprint translation effort to start a language development and Bible translation program in the remaining one-third of language groups worldwide that need one by the year 2025. What does this mean for us? Here in Africa, we have been funding African-led translation projects through project proposals that are submitted to funders each year. These projects have been strapped for cash for salaries and equipment in recent years, in fact, a number of them have been cut back or rejected due to lack of funds. The Last Languages Campaign hopes to change all this by allowing us to put together strategic funding proposals without fear that they will be rejected. The economy may be in a downturn, but praise the Lord, Bible translation just received its first economic stimulus package! Wycliffe’s president, Bob Creason said, "A gift towards Bible translation and language development is perhaps the surest investment anyone can make in these uncertain financial times."

Our family is happy to be back together again after I (Doug) was away in the US and in Kenya for 5 weeks. I made it home on November 23 just in time to celebrate Roger’s 13th birthday—now all three boys are teenagers! We thoroughly enjoy this stage of life, as we interact more and more with them on an adult level. The highlight of my trip to the US was teaching a course called “Proactive Software Training”. Attendees from around the world were challenged to make software training for translators a part of their field strategy. As Wycliffe is focusing more and more on broadening the workforce for Bible translation, we need to anticipate their needs and to train them in the use of the tools to accomplish the task.

Right after the course, I left for Kenya, but my plane was delayed, causing me to miss my connecting flight in Washington DC. Well, not really. I was there at the gate 15 minutes before departure, but they wouldn’t let me on. To make matters worse, Air France pilots were on strike and one out of two flights were being cancelled. With no flights for the next 24 hours, I was going to miss my Saturday meetings in Nairobi, and I headed to a hotel. With time on my hands the next morning I called Margot and David, friends from the DC area. Since both work, I doubted I’d be able to see them. But as God would have it, Margot was running an errand just a few miles from the hotel when she got my call. To make a long story short, Margot arranged for me to give a presentation on Wycliffe to high school students at the Christian school where she works. High school is where the Lord called me into missions, and it wouldn't surprise me if He chose that moment to extend His call to one of those students that morning…

Back in Burkina Faso that same day, P.J. was the victim of a purse snatching. She parked her motorcycle outside a friend’s house where she was invited for supper, and someone ran up to her, snatched her purse, and took off on a motorcycle. She tried to chase after him, but had a flat tire, presumably punctured by the thief. The most valuable loss was her cell phone, since the thief was "kind" enough to drop off the empty wallet with her driver’s license and important papers in the middle of the night. We are thankful that she wasn’t hurt, but it certainly made the last week of my absence more difficult for both of us. Hopefully we won’t have to do this again.

We wish you the Lord’s blessings during this holiday season!

Partners in the Gospel, (Phil 1:5)

Doug & P.J. Higby

Praise & Prayer

  • Praise God for the large donation to Wycliffe that will help pave the way to achieving Vision2025. Please pray that the Last Languages Campaign would continue to be blessed by the Lord and see much fruit.
  • Praise God for protecting P.J. from harm during the purse snatching episode, and pray for continued protection as theft incidents tend to increase around the holidays.
  • We will be traveling by car during school Christmas break to an animal park in Niger, and will end by visiting the Fulfulde translation team in Benin who are preparing their New Testament for publication. We hear they have a large church and look forward to worshipping in the Fulfulde language again. Please pray for safe travel as we go.
  • Pray for the publication of the Fulfulde New Testament in Benin. With the loss of a key translator, the process of finalizing the translation is in the hands of two busy men with full time responsibilities. Pray that they would be able to make the time to finalize it for publication next year.