Mike and Silvia Browne

The important work of Bible translation brings God's word to people who otherwise would have no opportunity to learn about the good news of Jesus. In the closing chapter of Matthew's Gospel, The Great Commission, Jesus says:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matt.19-20).

Greetings from sunny Argentina! We are in summer now, so we’re a long way away from your freezing temperatures! We pray you are well, and the life of the church continues to bring many blessings to you all.

This morning we received the lovely Christmas box you sent us, so please pass on a big THANK YOU to all who contributed. The boys were especially pleased with the Lego toys, with Kevin kindly letting Chris choose first, who chose the airplane one. Please find attached a photo of them both, taken this morning (with the Nikon camera you gave us – thanks again!) Everything arrived in one piece (something that doesn’t always happen) and we’ve already enjoyed listening to the first of the Spring Harvest CDs, while the chocolate and sweets have been put away in the fridge to stop them from melting.

As for the translation work, please pray for Michael with still a little more checking to do – in the end there wasn’t enough time in December to get it all done, with the intense heat in Juárez making it impossible to get it finished. We still have to go through 1 and 2 Corinthians and parts of Matthew (the bits that aren’t in the other Gospels). But this shouldn’t take too long, and hopefully it will be in the hands of the Argentine Bible Society by the end of February.

Please pray for our position within SAMS, as we still have no confirmation that SAMS will continue our contract, even this year (due to the Diocese here not putting in a budget request to SAMS for us) nor into the future. From 2010 we hope to continue with a new project to record the Toba Scriptures for distribution on CD, but as yet we have had no news as to whether it will be approved.

SAMs may be contacted at: South American Missionary Society, Allen Gardener House, Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 3QU