#65 Tessaro Newsletter March 2013

Correspondence

Chuck & Karen Tessaro c/o The Lutheran Church

of Nigeria P.O. Box 495

Jos, Plateau State NIGERIA, West Africa

Contributions

Lutheran Bible Translators P.O. Box 2050

Aurora, IL 60507-2050 Designate: Tessaro Ministry

Please do not send any contributions to Nigeria

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Thanksgiving for faithful partners, who enable God’s Word to reach more and more people.

• Thanksgiving for plenty of activity in Cross River State: audio-visual versions of Luke in use, a workshop to enable language groups to produce their own audio material, and the continued Luke Partnership series of workshop.

• Thanksgiving for Rev. Linus Otronyi, who coordinates the work in the Ogoja area, along with prayers for guidance and safety as he travels, visits, and arranges various activities in various areas.

• Thanksgiving for good usage of the Ikwerre New Testament in Rivers State. The Ikwerre Language Committee has been leading popular ‘Reading & Writing Ikwerre’ days in various locations.

• Thanksgiving for 7 months of life for John David, and prayers that he will grow up healthy in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

• Prayers for upcoming workshops, including preparation by language groups and facilitators: the next Luke Partnership workshop in Ogoja, along with New Testament and Old Testament workshops at the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Greetings! While we're in one of the warmest times of the year here, we recently heard that some of you had quite a snowstorm a few weeks ago. Hope by now that things are clearing up a bit. It should almost be springtime! LUKE – x6 – IN ACTION!

A major thrust of the work here for the past couple of years was working with partners so that six languages could have audio-visual versions of the Gospel of Luke. You may recall that the six versions were dedicated jointly in December. Since that time individual language committees have been sharing the news in their areas, and people have had the opportunity to come to a better understanding of God’s Word and the Good News that it contains. We’re grateful to all whose efforts made this possible in the Bekwarra, Bette, Bokyi, Ekajuk, Kukele, and Yala languages. PREPARING FOR MORE AUDIO MATERIAL

As we’re writing this newsletter, another workshop is in progress in the Ogoja area. The purpose of this workshop is to train people from the language areas how to record and make available Scripture readings, Scripture songs, and other audio material in the various languages. It’s great to see this momentum; join us to pray that the anticipated audio materials will give people more opportunities to interact with God’s Word. LUKE PARTNERSHIP IV

The fourth three-week Luke Partnership workshop ended recently. Representatives of five languages are working to produce (and check several times and test) the Gospel of Luke in their languages. During the just concluded workshop, the teams worked on the difficult poetic material in Luke 1 as well as the part of Luke 2 after the account of Jesus’ birth and a couple of other chapters. As always, each team went home with a small booklet of their work, so they can easily share the new material as well as gather the opinions of others.

Psalm 24:1 in Gokana

Kunù kẽ̀í nè dénè nu e a di boo ní DÕÒ, ẹlẹ ní e a íe bàlà booí nè dénè gbò e a di m é;

The earth and everything on it are the LORD’s,

He is the one who owns the world and all the people who are in it.

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God’s blessings,

PREPARING FOR CHECKING

Part of the mission here is to work with various translation teams to go through drafts of books. While we’re hoping to be able to take advantage of the improving internet situation, currently almost all of the checking is done by meeting together. Making the most of the times together means spending time in advance carefully going through translated drafts. Recently we’ve been going through the Gokana Psalms, in preparation for joint sessions planned in mid-March. Also planned in the near future are two three-week checking workshops at the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust, with one workshop focusing on Galatians and the other focusing on one of the books of Moses. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATE REV. LINUS OTRONYI

Lutheran Church of Nigeria Pastor Linus Otronyi, an LBT International Associate, is a native speaker of the Yala language in the Ogoja area who has been coordinating LBT’s work in that region. He has also recently completed the requirements for his Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics at the University of Calabar. We thank God for his efforts, and pray for continued wisdom and safety for him as he spends a lot of time visiting various language areas to encourage the work. 7 MONTHS

John David recently turned 7 months old; Karen has been carefully taking care of him since the fourth day of his life. Although we never met his parents, his brother and sisters are a bit on the stocky side. John David is following their lead; he’s currently just over 22 pounds. He got his two front (bottom) teeth just after Christmas, and he’s trying to bite everything. Karen has him on a diet of a variety of foods. He’s learning something new almost every day. Yesterday he stood up for the first time in his crib/playpen; we’ll be keeping a closer eye on him now! THANKS!

As always, we greatly appreciate your partnership. Your prayers, encouragement, and support are the lifeline of this ministry.

Rev. Linus Otronyi working with the Ekpari translation team.

John David trying to take a bite of his spoon.

John David enjoying his breakfast.