Payton and Grace Downing minister among the Taliabo people of Asia Pacific. “The ladies have started work on translating Sunday school material into their language. We met twice this week for three hours, Monday and Thursday. The plan is to meet for a month like this to see how far we can get and then reassess. There are 84 lessons. That seems like an immense task. We’ve had about 10 ladies come for both sessions. It’s really great to see them working together and trying to figure out how to study and how to put something into their language that the kids will really understand. Most of these ladies have only made it to 6th grade. We have young and old helping. Not only are we working on lessons but also hoping to have ladies who are ready to help with Bible translation checks later. They have a real desire to work and help.

“Pray for unity. Pray for progress so they are encouraged at their work. Pray they are constantly reminded of the importance of the work — I don’t think they’d be here if they weren’t! Pray they also feel free to break from the form of the national language and put it into their own patterns. Pray against family troubles — there have been lots of those lately that have disrupted things. This is thrilling stuff to watch them work!”