Mark & Patti November 2024 Prayer Requests

* There may soon be funding to start an Old Testament translation project for four additional Quechuan languages. Pray for Mark as he sets up computer paths with dictionaries and rules to adapt from the published Old Testament to the languages in this new project. This is a lot of work! His colleagues in Peru, who will be administering the project, would like him to have some materials ready for their first workshop, which may happen this month.

* Praise God for his mercies, especially in relation to their daughter’s improving health situation. Patti was able to spend five weeks with Emily and her family babysitting and doing the myriad chores that keep a home running. While Emily still can’t lift baby Addie, she is able to move about and do much more than before. With the intermittent help of church friends, she and Blake trust that they will be able to continue forward.

Thank you for your continued prayers!
Mark & Patti

Mark & Patti October 2024 Prayer Requests

* Mark will be checking the books of 1 & 2 Timothy and Philemon for the Sihuas Quechua team. These are their last three books to complete for the New Testament. He will also be working on the book of Joshua for the Panao Quechua team.

* Patti hopes to be back in Ohio sometime after the middle of the month. She’s helping daughter Emily and family in Australia. Pray that friends from church will continue to support the family when Patti leaves.

Mark & Patti September-October 2024 Beans'talk

Download a printable version of the September-October 2024 Beans'Talk with photos: Microsoft Word - Beans'talk 09-10 2024 .docx (parksidechurch.com)

Mission accomplished

Thanks for praying! Our trip to Peru last month went well. Diana and Eliset, two translation-consultants-in-training from Venezuela, got lots of practice as they checked the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Ruth. Mark oversaw the checking process and all our goals were met.

The church matures

Both Sundays in Peru Mark spoke at Spanish missions conferences in the city; one for a group of churches on one side of the river and the other for a similar group on the other side of the river. We were so impressed with the excitement about missions, the preparation put into skits and the presentations about needs in the world.

From Peru to the world

Most striking each Sunday was the emphasis on other nations needing the gospel, particularly the need for God’s word in the language that people speak. People beamed with pride when a video clip was shown from a young couple that their denomination supports in Indonesia. The wife is from the “state” of Huanuco!

All those shown below are taking classes about missions. Most won’t ever travel far, but they want to be prepared to reach out to others and join the task. There is still a lot of need to teach the Bible out in Quechua speaking areas.

Already traveling again

After 7 weeks in the hospital and rehab with a broken back, our daughter Emily made it home to her family. While she is pleased with the progress she’s making, she’s limited in what she can do to care for her family.

The other grandma has been on hand to help for a long time. Now, it’s my turn to help. I’m writing this before taking off for Australia, but I should be there by the time you read this. Depending on a number of circumstances, Mark may or may not be joining me after a few weeks. Thankfully his work is totally portable.

Praise and Prayer Requests

• Praise for the great translation progress while in Peru.

• Praise for Emily’s good attitude in the face of limitations.

• Praise that grandson Jeremiah, who missed over a year of school due to leukemia, just began attending school in person once a week.

• Little Adeline is in the blue hat in the photo above. Her August check showed slight deterioration in the function of her only kidney. More tests are scheduled for November.

• Continue to pray for Emily, Jeremiah and Adeline’s health.

• Pray for energy, health and patience as I help care for Emily and her family. Pray for wisdom about Mark joining me in Australia or not.

Thank you for your partnership with us. Our adventures continue and God faithfully sees us through each day.

Mark & Patti

Mark & Patti September 2024 Prayer Requests

*Early the second week of September Patti hopes to catch a flight to Australia to help daughter Emily's family. Emily continues to recover from multiple fractures of her spine. In addition to praying for Emily's continued recovery, pray for Patti to have extra energy, strength, patience and love as she cares for two preschoolers, a baby, the home and meals.

*The third week of September Mark's regular checking work will be set aside as he participates in another on-line training for new translation consultants from Latin American countries. He will continue working from Ohio for that. Then, by the end of the month, he'll decide whether or not to travel to Australia and work from there.

Mark & Patti July-August 2024 Beans'talk

Download a printable copy of the August 2024 Beans'Talk.

A language tidbit

One interesting feature about the Quechua language family is how efficiently it uses its word roots. Instead of coming up with new words for different verbs, one often adds suffixes to create new words. Take the suffix -tsi for example, which means to cause or to allow (or -chi or -si in neighboring varieties.) So, if you have the verb root wanu- (to die), what do you think wanutsi means? English needs another verb: to kill.

Your turn to figure some out!

So, let’s say you’re learning a Quechua language. How would you translate the following verbs once the -tsi suffix is added to them? (See answers on page 2.)

Root     Meaning                 Add -tsi     New meaning

yacha-  to learn                  yachatsi

rika-     to see                    rikatsi

tantiya- to understand         tantiyatsi

reqi-     to know (someone)  reqitsi

kawa-   to live                     kawatsi

punu-   to sleep                   punutsi

puri-     to walk                    puritsi

Read more...

Mark & Patti July 2024 Prayer Requests

* Pray that Mark and the Panao Quechua team (one that he consults for) finish up all the back and forth on the books of Deuteronomy, Numbers and Ruth this month in anticipation of Mark's trip down to Peru in August. As he notes places that are unclear or misleading, they return with a correction that may or may not need further tweaking. Thus, the "back and forth" nature of this stage of checking.

* Pray for our daughter Emily who is in great pain in a hospital with a broken back. We praise God for the local church doing so much to help care for the family (two preschoolers and a baby.). Pray that we will trust God-being still before him and waiting patiently for him to act.

Mark & Patti May-June 2024 Beans'talk

Download a printable copy of the May-June Beans'talk with photos.

Rescheduled perfectly

Remember how I (Patti) was too feverish to make an administrative trip in February while in Peru? Well, it was SO obvious that God is the one who rearranged the schedule. When I traveled back to Peru in April, so many things fell into place. People were present who wouldn’t have been in February and events were happening that wouldn’t have been had I tried to visit in February. Praise God for his perfect timing!

Whoa!

I anticipated meeting with one or maybe two speakers of Huni Kuin (formerly Cashinahua) in a major jungle city. They are a remote language group that spills over into Brazil and are not easy to get to. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and discovered that we were eighteen people gathered together! Because of a conference that had just taken place, there were 11 Huni Kuin speakers and representatives from four other mission organizations. They told about bilingual education in their villages, their outreach to communities without the gospel, The Hope movie and accompanying Bible study they’re wrapping up and their desire to one day have the Old Testament.

Language check-up

In another part of Peru, I joined some colleagues for an interactive day with Yanesha-speaking pastors and leaders. My colleagues Ade and Rachel challenged leaders through a series of exercises to discover how they are using their New Testaments that they’ve had for 40 years and what factors need to be in place for any new translation (i.e., the Old Testament) to be well used. (You may not realize from these photos that we are meeting in the local church!)

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Mark & Patti May 2024 Prayer Requests

* Thank you for praying for Patti’s trip to Peru last month. It is obvious that the timing of this trip was orchestrated by God. No wonder I got sick in February! A conference had just taken place in a big jungle city that brought many church leaders together in one place. The language group that Patti met with had speakers from both sides of the border, Peru and Brazil. There were way more leaders from that language than she expected to find. Together we had a great conversation about their language, its use, their mission work among themselves and their desire to have all of God’s word available to them.

* Thank you for praying Mark through the check of Numbers and 2 Corinthians for two different groups. Now, he is working on a consultant check of the book of Deuteronomy. As always, prayer for careful attention to detail is always needed!

Mark & Patti Bean

Mark & Patti April 2024 Prayer Requests

• Praise for feedback from the many groups we interacted with in Wisconsin that let us know your prayers were answered: people were encouraged and challenged by our presence.

• Pray for Patti as she returns to Peru to take care of the administrative trip she had to cancel in February due to illness. She was recently asked to visit yet another part of the jungle to meet with some other people. Pray for all the logistics and safety of those travels and meetings. Pray that she will be an encouragement to those she works with.

• Praise God for meaningful work to do and the health and strength to do it. Pray for attention to detail as Mark checks Scripture. He should be finishing up Numbers for one Quechua language and checking 2 Corinthians for another.

Mark & Patti March-April 2024 Beans'talk

Download the March-April 2024 Beans'talk with photos.

Is your mouse tied up?

Ever been really hungry and not had enough to eat? In Hosea 4:10 the prophet says, “They will eat and still be hungry.” Micah 6:14 has the same warning, “You will eat but never have enough.”

In one Quechua language they imagine hunger pains as a mouse gnawing in the stomach. They have an expression that literally says: You will eat only enough to tie up your mouse. That’s how they say that you will still not be satisfied; it still won’t be enough. A very Quechua way for the prophets to speak!

New video: start and celebration

For those of you who couldn't make it to Peru in person for one of our Bible dedications, we now have a video! In August of 2019, Andy & Ruth made the trip, taking along lots of video equipment. After interviewing us on-camera recently, and with lots of help editing, here’s the result: a ten-minute video that captures the beginning of our work up to the Bible celebrations. Enjoy!

Current work

Mark is still working through the book of Numbers for one Quechua language. He also has the book of 2 Corinthians waiting for him to check in another Quechua language. Additionally, Mark is also setting up a computer program to be able to adapt scripture for four more Quechua languages. Others have submitted a proposal for the languages to be approved as a new cluster project. Mark is beginning to organize data for that.

Read more...