Dear Prayer Partners,

Well I am back, and have been for about two weeks now. Below is a brief report of the recent checking "workshop" in South Sudan.

It was hot. The first two weeks it was between 100°-104° every day, with only on-center generator power part of the time. The last week we got a  few rain showers, but it was still above 100° most days. In spite of the heat we got a lot done.

It was productive. The Bongo, Daniel and Mario, did arrive a week late but we were able to accomplish a lot in the week we had. (I was able to use the first week to better prepare for the Laarim.) We did a number of checks on the Gospel of Luke using a program called Paratext. By the end of our time we had Luke ready to publish as a trial edition. It is currently in process to print! We thank God for that accomplishment. In addition, I worked with the Laarim team my final week. The Laarim and I were able to check fourteen chapters of Exodus in only four days! This is a testimony to their hard work, the preparation of a fellow consultant, Wes Ringer, and to God's grace. I am now preparing questions for chapters 15-20 that Wes will ask them.

It was secure. With most of Sudan Branch people at a conference in Kenya for our first two weeks we had some security concerns. Praise God, we did not have any incidents while we were there. And the generator, which was having problems just before they left, worked fine the whole time they were away.

Things also were fine on the home front. Becky had her parents arrive the day after I left. They stayed for about ten days and overlapped for one day with my dad. We are very grateful to all three of them for their sacrifice and contribution to the work of Bible translation in helping our family while I was away.

One specific prayer request: We are trying to work out a trip to Washington State in June to visit churches and friends who support our work. Please pray about timing, logistics and finances. We have not been there as a family to visit partners in almost four years.

Thank you for your faithful prayer support in helping to make this a reality.

Jim & Becky

PS Due to a glitch on our part, this email has been delayed in going out for almost two weeks. But that allows us to share some good news: Jim will be filling in for someone at a different Luke Partnership project in Zambia in July. We don’t yet know how many of these workshops he will need to help out with. Please pray as he makes the transition to a new group.