Mark & Patti April 2026 Prayer Requests

* Continue to pray for careful attention to detail as Mark checks over translation work for different Quechua teams. For the PN Quechua team he's checking Ecclesiastes and Daniel. For the group of four Quechua teams he'll be checking the second half of Joshua.

* Pray for Quechua speaking pastors and church leaders to do the hard work of learning to read fluently in their own language. Pray for them to begin to use newly translated portions of Scripture.

* Praise God for the opportunity to spend time with their middle son and his family.

Mark & Patti March 2026 Prayer Requests

* March 5th & 6th Mark will be giving three presentations to other translation consultants for Latin America - presentations that they may want to borrow or tweak as they help local translators understand biblical concepts. Mark will be presenting on purity, holiness and the sacrificial system. Pray for his presentations to be clear and helpful to others.

* March 9th through 27th Mark will be up in the mountains helping guide a "comprehension check" for four teams - as they read passages to fellow speakers and ask questions to see what is actually understood, or possibly misunderstood. They hope to finish checking Genesis and do all of Ruth and Jonah. Additionally, the teams will be going over the notes Mark wrote up for corrections they need to make to the first ten chapters or so of Joshua. Pray that the men involved in this C4 project will continue to grow in their abilities to read, write and teach others in Quechua.

Winter 2026 Beans'Talk

Download here a printable version of the Beans'Talk

Teamwork

Quechua speakers value teamwork. The photo shows men working together in a potato field, mounding the soil up around the plants. Teamwork has many advantages, including the opportunity to build into others, encourage others, and model life for others.

Teaming up to get the Word out

The members of the C4 Quechua translation project (C4 = 4 Central Quechua varieties) are still new at reading, writing and translating in their own language. Not only do they share ideas about wording, but they are also teaming up to promote the translation work at different Quechua churches. They have trips scheduled every weekend in February.

Mid-January they had an initial outreach, piggy-backing on a multi-church gathering. The denominational leader was impressed! He invited them to return and present a more in-depth session just for pastors and leaders. That’s exactly what we want to do: help leaders read and use the newly translated Scriptures!

Consultants team up, too

Translation consultants often come up with presentations to help local translators and churches understand biblical concepts. Instead of each re-inventing the wheel, they team up and share their resources with each other. Early March translation consultants for Latin America will gather in Lima. Mark has been asked to give presentations on purity, holiness, and the sacrificial system.

Instead of only one or two people training new translation consultants, many of the consultants will continue on in Lima to train the newbies. Mark, however, will head up to the mountains for the next C4 Quechua translation workshop, beginning the second week of March. It lasts three weeks.

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Mark & Patti February 2026 Prayer Requests

* Pray for upcoming reading seminars in each of the four areas represented in the C4 translation project. Each week in February our Quechua co-workers will hold a seminar in a different area to help pastors and leaders get acquainted with reading in Quechua. The goal is to help prepare them to be able to read and teach the Bible in Quechua.

* For the Panatawa Quechua team, pray for Mark and Pablo, the main translator, as they keep going back and forth polishing the book of Nehemiah and other OT books. Ecclesiastes will be the next book for Mark to check.

Mark & Patti January 2026 Prayer Requests

* This month Mark will be concentrating on the book of Joshua for the C4 project (4 Central Quechua languages). They set the book of Leviticus aside last month, and began Joshua.

* For the Panao Quechua project Mark hopes to finish the book of 2 Samuel and then get into Ezra and Nehemiah.

* Continue to pray for the different participants to not just grow in their abilities to read, write, teach and translate, but especially to grow in their love of God and his word.

* Last month Patti accepted the request to walk a new-to-Wycliffe latino couple through a couple years of orientation and getting started in their first assignment. She's not sure yet which of two couples will be assigned to her. Pray for a good connection as she begins walking alongside them this month.

Mark & Patti December 2025 Prayer Requests

* This month Mark will be finishing up the book of Exodus and hopefully beginning the book of Leviticus with the C4 Quechua project.

* For the Panao Quechua project, Mark anticipates reviewing 2 Samuel.

* As always, continue to pray for insight in how to best translate passages. Pray, too, and that God's word will impact the participants as well as those they share it with as they take it out to read to others.

Fall Beans'Talk 2025

Download a printable copy of the Fall 2025 Beans'Talk.

Missing a word for that?

What do translators do when there is no word for something? Do you know what they did when the Bible was first translated into Eng lish and they got stuck looking for a word? Of ten, they coined new words! For example, they couldn’t come up with a word for angel, so they just borrowed the word from Greek into English and then taught what it meant. Simi larly, sometimes we borrow a word from Span ish when Quechua doesn’t have any creative way to say something.

There are many English words which occur for the very first time in a Bible translation. Be lieve it or not, they include words like female, beautiful, consume, crime, appetite, puberty, excellent and liberty!*

*Stanley Malless and Jeffrey McQuain. Coined by God: Words and Phrases that First Appear in English Transla tions of the Bible W.W.Norton, 2005.

One year in

The month of October marks one year since the C4 Quechua translation project began. C4 stands for 4 Central Quechua language areas. It has been a steep learning curve for the men involved. They didn’t really know what they were getting themselves into! They were nomi nated by their denominations to do the work. Most didn’t know how to read in Quechua. Some had never preached or prayed in Quechua. That just wasn’t a pattern that had ever been modeled for them. Besides, there’s a lot of cultural pressure to use Spanish to show that you are educated.

Each language area is represented by two men. Plus, there are Wilmer and Walter, who worked with Mark for years. They handle workshop lo gistics and guide the group through the pro cess. This group of ten men has been a safe place to practice reading and praying in Quechua. As they rotate giving devotionals each morning, the new men have gradually started teaching in Quechua, too.

So, what do they have to say now that they’re a year into the process? Here are some of their comments.

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Mark & Patti October 2025 Prayer Requests

* At the last minute, bags packed for Peru, we learned that our passports didn't have the required six months remaining on them to be able to enter the country (a new rule for us!). In spite of having to work from home, Mark and the Panao Quechua team made great progress. They not only made it through the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel and the first 13 chapters of 2 Samuel with members of the community, but they had fun in the process. Lots of laughter and good conversation. They even finished before the two weeks were up.

* October 6-24th Mark will be working remotely with the project that's made up of 4 related central Quechua languages. Mark is busy preparing computer-generated drafts for each of them. They hope to finish adapting Exodus and start on Leviticus, and continue working on outstanding issues in books they've already worked on.

Mark & Patti September 2025 Update

Our bags were packed, we were ready to go!

Like John Denver's song, we were ready to leave on a jet plane. Then, out of the blue Delta informed us that our passports were not valid. What?!

It turns out that Peru, like some other countries, now requires a full six months left on one's passport in order to be admitted into the country. It doesn't matter if you only plan to stay a few weeks. It was so unexpected that we found ourselves grinning. Wow! God has so many ways to redirect and guide his children. This one was pretty obvious!

Thankfully, we haven't lost anything in the process except being with the Panatawa Quechua team in person. We have cameras and mics set up so Mark can work with them virtually.

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Mark & Patti September 2025 Prayer Requests

* The first two+ weeks of September we will be in Peru. Mark hopes to check the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel and chapters 1-13 of 2 Samuel for the Panatawa Quechua team. Pray not only for good concentration and attention to detail while checking Scripture, but also for protection over schedules, health and rest.

* Pray for the people who will eventually receive these books. May they be hungry to know more about God and find him in his Word.