Higby Herald September 2012

Dear Friends,

God has blessed us so very much in the transition from furlough in the US to our new location in Germany. We are so thankful to you for praying for us and supporting us in this new phase of ministry!

• We are settled into a furnished apartment,
• have a car that is registered, insured, and on the road,
• have bikes to get around in good weather,
• are set up and working in our new offices,
• and Roger has already made new friends.

The Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, is a beautiful area with hiking trails, bike paths, and lots of hills. When we are done at the office, we enjoy hiking and bike riding, determined to drink it all in while the weather is nice. We are very impressed with the Black Forest Academy. It is staffed by over one hundred fifty missionaries who raise their own support to make a safe and caring boarding school environment for children whose parents serve the Lord in difficult or remote situations. The dorms are spread out in small towns some distance from the school in very old and unique buildings. The students will be arriving soon, and Roger has already made friends with other children whose parents live and minister here as we now do. During Priscilla's orientation, she and the rest of the new staff were filmed in a short video clip to show those back home that they made it safely to Germany.

Priscilla has been highly motivated in her German study since her role at the the school will involve assisting faculty and staff with their integration into the local German culture. Her high-school German is making a comeback, and I (Doug) generally hide behind her as she works her way through various social situations we find ourselves in. My German?Nicht so gut. For the fourth time in our lives we find ourselves living in an area with a strange tongue that we can’t understand. An excellent reminder to us that God loved us so much He broke the barrier of communication by sending us His Son, “The Word”. How many people don’t know the Word because it is in a strange tongue, waiting for the day when someone will stand in the gap for them and translate it into their language?

The Forum Linguistik in Eurasian where some of our Eurasia Area personnel work was able to extend some of their office space to me. This is much better than working at home because I get to rub shoulders with them and have a better idea what the technology needs are in that area. It feels wonderful to be back at the helm and able to devote my working hours to exciting projects that had to be put on the back burner during our busy furlough. We invite you to sample a short video of one such project onwww.rapidwords.net, the result of my trip to Ghana in January. The website promotes the Rapid Word Collection method, a way to collect 10,000 or more words in a two-week workshop. Our goal is to inspire field workers to collect the lexical data that will facilitate easier and more accurate Bible translation.

Rapid Word Collection: The Buli Experience from Doug Higby on Vimeo.

We want to thank you again for continuing to uphold this ministry before the Lord.  Our country may have changed, but our committment to the spread of the Gospel through the ministry of Bible Translation is unwavering.  We are thankful for the new opportunities the Lord is giving us here in Germany, serving with you as...

Partners in the Gospel,                  (Phil 1:4-5)

Doug & Priscilla Higby

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for His providence throughout our transition to Kandern, Germany.  Three months ago we had no idea how this was going to happen or how we would be able to afford getting set up here, but God has provided abundantly and affirmed our decision to serve here.  God was encouraging us daily during our final week in Michigan with people helping us move, a perfect vehicle to drive to New Jersey and contact with friends and family.
• Pray that the website and video would help many language projects to see the advantages of the new approach to collecting words, and that those efforts would facilitate easier and more accurate Bible translation
• Pray for success and patience in our German language learning as we try to devote time to this each week.  
• Praise God that our two sons in the States, Henry and Kevin, successfully completed their summer jobs on Mackinac Island and moved back to their respective colleges, Calvin College and John Brown University.  Doug will be checking in with Kevin in mid-September during some State-side meetings he needs to attend.