Exciting things are happening in our ministry, for which we praise the Lord! Since we began equipping Bible translators with new technology to expedite linguistic and translation work, we have focused our attention on the Francophone countries (where French is the national language). This ministry has been growing, and in March we will have our fourth annual training event for that group of twenty or so consultants from more than a dozen African countries. In Africa, there are actually less Anglophone countries where Bible translation is being done than Francophone, so it was natural for us to start our training in French. However, until now we had done no training for the Anglophone countries and this burden weighed on us heavily as requests for help came in from places like Nigeria and Tanzania.

So for the past two weeks in Nairobi, Kenya, it was a great joy to assist one of my new staff members, Kent Schroeder, in teaching the first group of language software consultants in English. Participants came from five different countries with the aim of learning to train users in their local language projects to use new software. One of the participants reported that he has been doing computer maintenance and repair since 1998 but doesn’t remember a single software training event happening in as much time. Does this mean software from the mid 90’s is still in use?! Technology has come a long ways since then!

For example, the new Bible translation program we taught allows teams to store their translation data in a common repository on the Internet, allowing each team member to create, edit, and improve the Biblical text no matter where they are located! In the past, the absence of a key team member from the project would halt progress until that member’s return. Now? Plug in anywhere in the world and get work done, sending comments back and forth through the software. Such ease of collaboration was definitely not possible in the mid 90’s and the thought energizes us to get these tools and training into the hands of the translators.

We are deeply grateful for your prayers as is evident by the measure of blessing the Lord has been pouring out on our work! We also depend on your financial support to continue on. Lately the dollar has been falling against the local currency making everything more expensive, including the boy’s tuition. We have also outgrown our Nissan double-cab pickup truck, tired of battling with the seat forward and backward to accommodate long legs to no one’s satisfaction! An opportunity came to sell it and replace it with a much roomier Land Rover at a reasonable price increase. Any gifts towards the replacement Land Rover would be appreciated, since this expense is not part of our normal support.

Henry and Kevin are in the middle of a five-day youth ministry trip up to the village of Yako during their October break from school. They will be leading vacation Bible school for a large number of children and assisting with medical screenings. We’ll have pictures and an update on that soon after they get back.

May God bless you as you continue to serve with us as…

Partners in the Gospel, Phil 1:5

Doug & Priscilla Higby

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for the participants who attended the consultant training workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. Pray for these new consultants as they take cutting-edge technology back to their places of work and train the local translators and language workers in its use.
• Praise God for the opportunity the boys have to participate in this outreach program. Pray also for the childrens' lives that they are able to touch on this trip.
• Praise God for the many mission and relief agencies who are providing aide to the flood victims we mentioned in our last newsletter. Pray that the church's witness will increase!
• Pray for the paperwork process to put our Land Rover on the road, which may take up to a month!
• Pray for relief from the financial pressures we are currently under due to the weakening dollar and vehicle purchase.

A week ago Tuesday the rain started at 5:30 in the morning. A good steady rain that just got heavier and heavier. We were thankful that we had gotten the leaks in our roof fixed at the beginning of rainy season. Driving Priscilla and the boys to school, I could see the roads beginning to flood, actually driving through water up to our bumper to get into the school entrance. But the rain didn’t stop. For around 10 hours it continued, and our rain gauge measured eight inches – more than we’ve ever seen in our 15 years in Africa. It was also more than the city drainage system and dams could handle. Many vehicles were submerged and houses flooded or completely washed away. In many zones of Ouagadougou, houses are made out of mud brick which presented no resistance at all to the flood waters. Reports say that over 100,000 people are now homeless. Fortunately, the government is responding quickly with aid and is calling on other aid agencies for help. A number of the employees at our office and at the school were affected and we’ve contributed to a fund to help them rebuild. In a previous letter, I mentioned the battery backup system we were going to install for the Lobiri translation office. Well, the man who imports them woke up to three feet of water in his storage room. So I spent Saturday taking one of the units apart to see if I could salvage it. A missionary friend of ours is doing the same salvage work for the medical scanning equipment at a local mission hospital, submersed in the dirty flood water. The main city hospital is also shut down and medical care is unavailable for many. Please pray for the situation here, that aid would continue to come in and that the victims of the flood would be reestablished soon. Pray for the churches and missions here as they are offering shelter and food for the homeless, acting as Jesus’ hands and feet during this crisis.

It has been a while since I last wrote, following our whirlwind of a summer. At one point, Priscilla and I were at meetings in England, Roger was in Germany, Kevin was in Kentucky, and Henry was in Michigan. Each has many adventures to tell about, and we thoroughly enjoy our family times at meals, savoring the moments together and our family devotional times during Henry’s last year at home. College is beckoning, and this year will hasten by before we know it.

The Outilingua program of training language and translation software consultants across Africa has been very effective in the French-speaking countries, but this year we are finally able to extend the training to the English-speaking countries as well. Kent Schroeder is working with me part-time from Kenya and together we are organizing the first consultant training workshop in English for three weeks in October. Lord willing, this will extend our reach to the English-speaking countries where translation into the minority languages is being done, such as Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and a number of other countries. Kent and I are busy preparing the course content and a website to keep it readily accessible at all times.

We started on Genesis nine years ago with the life of Abraham, and through the work of Ketil Vestbostad in Mali, the rest has been completed. Priscilla is almost done formatting the book of Genesis in Fulfulde and soon we will send it to the printers.

We hope your summer was enjoyable, and we wish you God’s richest blessings in Christ. We are grateful for your continued support and prayers as you partner with us in the vital ministry of Bible Translation.

Partners in the Gospel, (Phil 1:5)

Doug & Priscilla Higby

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for the addition of Kent Schroeder to my team, enabling us to begin running an annual consultant training workshop in English as well!
• Praise God for safe travel this past summer, for bringing us back together again, and for the richness of our family time together.
• Pray for the flood victims without food, housing, or medical care. Pray for the rapid distribution of aid, and that the churches here would be places of refuge, caring for those in need at this time.
• Pray for the participants who will attend the October 12 consultant training workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. It has been very difficult to find qualified people to train, and one of them recently backed out. Pray that the training we offer will get to the most strategic people who can then train others.
• As Henry considers colleges, please pray for wisdom for both he and us. We'll be depending heavily on scholarships, and need to be on time with our applications. We trust that the Lord will supply.

Greetings from Burkina Faso! Cloudy skies are bringing cooler weather but with increased humidity as we enter the rainy season. Our kitchen refrigerator lost the battle with the tropical heat of the past few months and we had to get a new one. Having now learned how to read the sticker on a new refrigerator, I (Doug) realized our mistake with the first one: it was only rated ST for subtropical instead of T for tropical climate, up to 110°. What a difference with the new one—things stay cold even with three teenage boys opening and closing the refrigerator door!

For two weeks in the middle of May, I taught a first-of-its-kind workshop for a number of our language teams here in Burkina Faso. All of the teams are involved in a Bible translation project and were looking to work on the lexical data that they collected through the years. Often, these are lists of words and definitions collected in a haphazard manner. Our new lexical database is called FieldWorks and has much to offer to keep the data consistent and allow for easy printing of a dictionary. Since this program was completely new to most of the students, I watched their reactions closely. They were most impressed by the ability to click on one of the words in their scripture translation and have a dictionary definition pop up for that word. Secondly, they were really wowed when I showed them that by linking their computers together in a small network, the separate computers could work together on the same project simultaneously—yes, even on the same chapter!

The Lobiri language team hopes to benefit from this technology in their village office, but they currently have two desktop computers that crash every time the power gets cut—which is very often. We’d like to pay them a visit the first week of July to install a network and battery backup system. I could use some help, got any spare vacation time?

P.J. & our growing men Henry, P.J., Kevin, Roger

Henry and Kevin are passing the six-foot mark, with Roger anxious to catch up. This past year the younger two have discovered their musical talent! Roger has taken to the trumpet and has made his way to first chair in the school band. Kevin has taken to the guitar and has even composed his first song. Both performed in the school concert and made us proud! We need to find them instruments of their own in the US this summer. If you have any that are collecting dust in your attic, let us know—the boys would be interested.

The school year is almost over and we are all scattering in different directions. Henry and Kevin to the US for summer jobs, myself to Dallas for specialized software training, and then P.J. , Roger and I take some vacation time in Belgium on the way to meetings in England. The vacation will be very welcome because we have both been a bit stressed out and are looking forward to a slower pace in July. We will be visiting with some friends.

We asked you to pray for the lawsuit against SIL in Côte d’Ivoire. The court date was changed 3 or 4 times before finally taking place May 29. Unfortunately, SIL’s appeal of the first ruling (where they were not allowed to represent themselves) was not upheld. As a result, SIL has to pay $22,000. Although they have the option of trying another appeal with the Supreme Court, something tells me all this time, effort, and frustration aren’t worth it. This has already dragged on for over a year. Please pray for our colleague and branch director Tim Tillinghast as he works to resolve this situation. We know that our Lord is sovereign and that His plans are for the best. We thank you for standing with us in prayer both for this specific request, and for our various ministry endeavors. May God be glorified through your lives!

Partners in the Gospel, (Phil. 1:5)

Doug and Priscilla Higby

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Prayer and Praise

• We’ve been asked to help typeset the book of Genesis in Fulfulde, and soon after, the life of Moses. Praise God that these Scripture portions will soon be available for the Fulani!

• Pray for Henry as he adjusts to his summer job at Camp Geneva, starting June 4. For those of you in MI, please consider stopping by to encourage him. You’ll find him in the kitchen.

• Pray for safe travel for our family members this summer as we will scattered for the duration of the summer.

• Pray for the Côte d’Ivoire branch as they deal with the court ruling against them.

• Pray for Alhamdou, a Fulani friend from Mali who teaches literacy. He called to say he is going blind, so we invited him to come to Burkina Faso to help him get treatment. Pray for restored vision and renewed faith in Christ. The seed was planted while we were there, but has not been nurtured.

“Can you really train someone to be a language software consultant?” asked a long term Wycliffe member who is a full-time computer consultant for Bible translation teams. “There are so many quirky details to remember for all the different programs, I figured only someone with years of experience could become a consultant.”

In its third year now, the Outilingua [ u-ti-lin-gwa ] consultant training effort has turned this assumption on its head. Now 21 participants from 11 countries, many of whom started with basic computer knowledge, are being trained as the consultants who will deploy software tools across Africa and train translation teams to use them. These new consultants are beginning to master complex operations that even the seasoned consultants have difficulty with. Through the Outilingua consultant training, we are able to bypass the “years of experience”, thrusting Bible translation work in Africa into the 21st century--putting the technology into the hands of every linguist and translator to make their work more effective.

What makes our training effective? Bringing these scattered folks together as peers for 2-3 weeks each year as we worship and learn together enables them to build a sense of vision, community and purpose. Knowing each other in a personal way helps them to collaborate via Internet communication despite the vast distance between them. Already, two weeks after the workshop, there have been several pleas for help – “What do I do when I get this error message?!” But this time, others in the group are beating me to the reply! Praise the Lord for this effective training, and pray “…that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph” (2 Th. 3:1 RSV) through the ministry of these consultants.

We received a report from our former location in Mali where a gathering of Fulani Christians took place. Mary Crickmore wrote to share, “One thing that was a great joy was seeing each of the Maasina [Fulani] believers with their New Testament. The Pulaar [Fulani from western Mali] believers of course had the Futa Toro NT's. They read the passage in both versions.” She went on to say that they moved all the tables and chairs out of the room prepared for them and brought in straw mats to sit on – Fulani-style!

Just last week our boys took part in World Vision’s 30-hour famine. They fasted together with their youth group to raise awareness of world hunger. You may remember they did this last year and raised almost ten thousand dollars to fight hunger here in Burkina Faso! This year they will again do food distribution. If you’d like to be involved, please email henry@higbyfamily.com

In the past month we received two Christmas packages! It may be March, but we’re ready to celebrate Christmas any time of year. A big thanks to those who were involved!

Prayer and Praise

• Praise God for safety in travel for the 21 participants of Outilingua. Traveling from all over Africa, everyone arrived safely and returned home without incident!
• Pray that the language software consultants will go out and implement what they have learned before it is forgotten.
• We would appreciate your prayers as our workload are becoming difficult to manage. For Doug, the number of training workshops he is planning will greatly increase next fiscal year, and he needs to take care that he doesn’t bite off more than he can chew. This past eight week quarter at school has been full of activities during, after and outside of school hours. Not every quarter is as busy as this one was; pray that Priscilla can maintain a better balance between work and home. We need to remind ourselves that the Lord doesn’t depend on our acts of service, but rather wants hearts of devotion to Him. Pray that we may spend more time “being” in Christ and less time “doing” for Christ.
• The time is upon us to begin looking into colleges for Henry in 2010. Please pray for wisdom and for guidance as we look at colleges, scholarships, and financing options.

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Praise and Prayer

• Praise God for the approximately 600 Fulani believers in Niger, and pray for the training of pastors to help lead them in the growing churches.
• Henry just returned from Ghana from his Model United Nations event. This year he represented Japan. Praise God for the excellent schooling and opportunities for Henry, Kevin and Roger.
• Pray for Doug's trip to Cameroon on February 25 and for the 22 students from all over Africa who will be participating in this years' consultant training course. The course has grown each year and the consultants have been making great progress in training the Bible translators in their home countries. New tools and techniques are on the training schedule this year. Please pray for wisdom for Doug and David Rowe who are teaching the course.
• Pray for Priscilla as she manages the school office and runs the household alone for the three weeks Doug is traveling.
• Pray for wisdom for Doug as he budgets for new programs and training events to get the tools into the hands of the Bible translators, and help simplify their task.