Hello, everyone! Happy New Year 2022! My verse for this year is: Philippians 3:13b-14 “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Let’s all keep pressing on!

So, our December ended up looking a bit different than we anticipated. Ecuador changed some of it’s rules for entering the country, requiring a complete vaccine card and c-vid test. Some of the people we were expecting to come to Ecuador didn’t have this, so some things got cancelled or postponed. One was our Church Leader’s Training Course scheduled for early December. It is now rescheduled for January 10th – 14th and will be held in Dureno. Pray that all goes well for the travels for the teachers and the time with the Cofan people for the teaching.

Last November, we took a trip to the jungle with some friends, Robert and Elaine (Waters) Martin. They wanted to visit Dureno and then head over to Limoncocha, where Ron grew up and also our friend Elaine. During our time in Dureno, Ron had a conversation with the church leaders Leoncio and Wilson. They were asking how to go about finishing the translation on the Cofan Old Testament! Ron’s Dad had finished about 25% of the OT translation and we have prayed on and off over the years that the Lord would raise up someone to finish. Many times we and the Cofan church leaders have been disappointed to not find parts of Scripture in the Old Testament for teaching. When we returned to Quito, Ron contacted Biblica (The Bible Society here in Ecuador) to bring them questions about the project. They got very excited and things started moving almost immediately! We were told that some laptops would need to be purchased and the software Paratext would need to be installed. Then Biblica would have a training course for those who would be working on the project. We put word out and so many of you responded and the laptops were purchased in the States (the prices are less than half of purchasing one here in Ecuador). The team coming down for the training course in December were set to bring down the computers…and then it was postponed. Lord willing, the laptops will all be here in the country by mid-January, and then we will be working with Biblica to schedule the training course in the coming weeks.

Another thing to pray about is to find the right team of Cofan translators to work on this. There is a lot of interest, but it will take a strong commitment to complete this project and a heart to properly apply God’s Word to the translation. Pray along with us for this to come together in God’s will and timing.

This year we are hoping to finally have another retreat for our Homeschool Teen Fellowship group. Our last one was in 2019, as the virus forced us to cancel the one planned for 2020. We have our work cut out for us the next months as we plan a fundraiser for the teens to be able to cut the costs of a retreat. The next several days we will work solidifying the dates and plans for the retreat in March or April. Thank you for your prayers.

There is also some travels coming up. Esther plans to fly to Washington state mid-February to help our daughter Julia and her husband Paul as they welcome baby #2! She’s looking forward to spending time with family in the area and get some grandbaby time in!

Praise Items:

• That the Lord blessed us with a good December despite the disappointments of family not being able to visit. That our family is all healthy, employed and actively serving the Lord.
• For the interest of the Cofan people to get the Old Testament translation completed in their heart language!

Prayer Items:

• For the coming Church Leader’s Training Course, Lord willing, being held January 10th – 14th; travels of the teachers and students and open hearts for the teaching.
• For the arrival of the laptops needed for the Old Testament translation project, the training course, and Cofan translation team to come together.
• For the fundraiser and retreat we hope to put together for our Homeschool Teen Fellowship group.
• For Esther’s mom as she is facing some procedures to be done on her heart in the month of January.

All photo credits go to Ron and Sarah Borman; the cover photo is the rarely seen male Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus).