Higby Herald June 2015

June 2015

Dear Friends,

Our God is Yahweh-yireh—God who provides. Last month we were blessed to spend a few vacation days to celebrate our May 26th wedding anniversary, and as part of the fun I (Doug) managed to make a cairn with 25 stones. When I started, I wasn’t sure it could even be done. But lots of experience playing Jenga caused me to stick with it while Priscilla cheered me on. In the Old Testament, Samuel made such a memorial (albeit a single stone) calling it Ebenezer—stone of help, and saying "Up to this point Yahweh has helped us!" (1 Sam 7:12). We too give praise to God for His help through the twenty-five years of our marriage and ministry with Wycliffe Bible Translators. During that time we’ve lived for a year or more in seven different countries on three continents. We both feel blessed to have been used by God in the ministry of Bible translation, and are privileged to have you as prayer partners, supporters, and friends. And just to confirm that our count isn’t off, we just received this 25-year certificate in the mail from Wycliffe.

Since our last newsletter, there have been a number of conferences and training events that have taken me to the Netherlands, to Australia, and to Papua New Guinea. It was especially encouraging to stay with my nephew Luke Aubrey in PNG and see how Scripture on mobile phones is penetrating what used to be the remotest parts of the world. I could fill this letter up with the details of all those travels, but suffice it to say that equipping our field personnel with technology to aid them in the translation and promotion of God’s Word remains my calling and main objective. But while I’m out traveling, Priscilla is by herself, and that isn’t fun for either of us. She’s been a full-time volunteer at Black Forest Academy for three years now and has only been able to leave to travel with me for one work-related trip each year. After our first year as empty-nesters, we’re ready for something new. So we’re currently praying about a change that will put an end to our home base in Europe, and instead allow us to travel and work together.

We don’t know all the details yet, but after Priscilla finishes handing over her responsibilities at Black Forest Academy we are set to return to the US on August 28 to begin four months there to share our ministry with you all and speak at churches. Priscilla will also begin training for a new position in digital publishing in Wycliffe, the outcome of a week of job skills assessment that she took. Digital publishing involves taking linguistic, Scripture, and other print publications and converting them into a format for the web. Not only should this be a great match for her skills, but it will also allow her to work remotely, as in anywhere in the world. Are you starting to see the connection?

Back in October, my language technology team and I created three position openings for needed roles in my department. For six months nothing happened and I was starting to despair. But praise the Lord, all three positions have been filled in the past couple months. Now the big challenge for me is to learn how to delegate a lot of the things I do to these people and work closely with them. In the end we hope to increase the effectiveness of our training efforts to translators globally.

As we start to balance stone number 26 on top of the others, we do appreciate your prayers for our time closing out in Europe. I have another trip coming up to Cameroon in a couple weeks, but then we will be trying to whittle down our possessions to five suitcases or so, sell our car, and say au revoir to our colleagues here and our friends at La Bonne Nouvelle church.

Our first concern coming back to the US will be to find a trustworthy vehicle that we can put 20,000 miles on in four months of travel. If you have a second vehicle you don’t use or can help us find a good deal, please contact us. It is almost three months away but not too early to start looking. And in our travels, we certainly hope we can cross paths with you and share our Ebenezers together.

Partners in the Gospel, (Phil 1:5)

Doug & Priscilla

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for the 25 years of marriage and service with Wycliffe.
• Praise God for successful training events in the Netherlands and Australia, and for new insights gained in Doug's visit to Papua New Guinea.
• Pray that Doug would learn to work well with his new staff members and learn to delegate more of his job to them.
• Pray for Priscilla as she prepares to hand over her responsibilities at BFA to her replacement.
• Pray for wisdom in planning the months of travel in the US and for good connections with people and churches.
• Pray for a reliable car to use on furlough.