Joe and Jerry Snyder - July-Aug 2006 Report

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Joe and Jerry Snyder
Wycliffe Bible Translators
July-August 2006

Here we are again writing a two month newsletter. We confess to not being diligent enough in communicating to you. But I must at least offer up our excuse of being very, very busy�mostly with work but we also took a week and a half of vacation to go to Jerry's nephew's wedding in Alaska. We will try to share a few things of interest.

Joe's Update
Last month, I offered a praise for working with a donor of computers for one of our Africa groups (East Congo). That was a very interesting experience for me, i.e. to work with a donor who wanted to buy a dozen or more computers for a translation project that needed them for their national translators. You can imagine that it would be tough if not impossible for an African to raise the funds to buy a laptop computer (and they are quite a bit more expensive in Africa than here). We were able to bring together several partners to handle the funds, make the purchases, arrange for hand-carrying the computers into the country, and so forth. National translators can be greatly assisted and the work of Bible translation accelerated by the availability of computers for all the workers.

Here is another example. We take all of our surplussed laptops (i.e. about three years old) and offer them to translation projects. Here is a letter that I received back from Ghana (it was addressed to their director):

Dear Mr. W***,
I write on behalf of the Gonja OT [Old Testament] Committee to acknowledge receipt with thanks a lap top computer you donated to the Gonja OT translation programme.
This gift came as an answer to prayer. A lap top computer has been a need when the Gonja OT translation work resurrected two years ago after it has been left dormant since 1984 after the dedication of the Gonja New Testament.
Personally, receiving the computer made me down founded [dumbfounded] without enough words to express my personal joy and appreciation to the donor and to the Lord God for His wonderful ways of meeting the needs of His children
It will indeed facilitate our work when we travel from the village to Tamale to consultant check our translation and also attend translation related programmes and workshops.
Thank you very much for being a channel of blessing to us. This makes us to remember that we have many and varied partners in this ministry.
Currently about 35% of the Gonja OT is in first draft with 7% has been consultant checked.
Due to lack of funding, we use one full time and part time translators.
Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide the needed resources and personnel for the work.
May the Lord richly bless you for being a part of this ministry.
A-R. A******
(Gonja OT Committee Chairman)

What a privilege it is to work with citizens of various countries who are so anxious to have the scripture (or more of the scripture).

Jerry's Update

The Finance department of Wycliffe continues to spend a lot of time adjusting, correcting, and checking Member Payroll. I'm gradually working myself out of the payroll processing business. I am training two others to actually run the month end calculation processes. From the beginning we planned to use the �train the trainer� method for teaching the staff how to do their work in the new system. Most of my time now days is spent teaching others. Originally, there was another person who was to also to be a trainer but she is no longer in the Finance department so I am on my own. This means I have to learn all the details or figure them out and then teach others. I enjoy the teaching part and the staff seems to be picking up the information. Most of the time this is done on a one-on-one basis but there have been some group sessions.

Last week I was talking with the consultant for our Payroll system about all the challenges and errors we have had. From prior experience I felt that we had not really encountered anything unexpected with a new system. She confirmed that we were really doing well considering the complicated system that was installed. She said that this was the most complex installation she had ever done but we were in better shape than other organizations with much less complicated systems. As I reflected on that, I saw even clearer how God used me and others on the team and enabled us to do something we could never have accomplished without Him. Praise God for what He has done!

Please continue to pray for me for energy to finish the task. I'm tired and at times overwhelmed but God is faithful and at those times I look back to see how far we have come. Pray that the right person will be chosen to replace the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The CFO oversees the entire Finance department and a strong leader is needed in that position. The Senior Vice President, Chuck DeVries is responsible to find someone for that position. Please ask God to give him a clear indication of who the right person is for that job. I am really thankful for the vacation time we had inAlaska with my family. It was so good for all of us to be together. I am also thankful for all of you who give so faithfully each month to our ministry. Today, I was reminded of how important the work of Wycliffe is to those of the world who have not heard of God's love. You have a part in reaching out to the lost of the world with God's life saving Word. My God bless you as you have blessed us.

Praise and Prayer requests:

Please pray about being a part of our support team, if you are not already, and, if you are, we thank you for your investments of prayer and funds in our ministry with Wycliffe. Praise God for those who give early in the year for the full year's support. Your prayer support is appreciated as we have experienced the typical summer income slump of missionaries.

Pray for our team that is doing a complete redesign and redevelopment of our web site. Stay tuned for the new www.wycliffe.org .

Jerry has been spending many hours in software testing and training of her staff. Pray for Jerry and her staff. Jerry has worked many hours and through several weekends and holidays this year.

Pray that God can use the laptop computers that we are able to make available to our national colleagues for advancement of Bible translation.

We give thanks to God for the vacation time we had and time with Jerry's family in Alaska.

We continue to be creative in using personnel for our software projects. The IT Department now has individuals in several countries (New Zealand is the farthest) working on projects with us. Some are members of Wycliffe and others are simply volunteers who make their talents available for the Lord's work. Pray that we can be productive.

We would love to hear from you. Email us at:
joe_snyder@wycliffe.org
jerry_snyder@wycliffe.org
Or call us at home at 407.381.1376 or connect through our web site here. (www.wysite.org/sites/snyder)

Contributions to our ministry can me sent to:
Wycliffe Bible Translators
P.O Box 628200
Orlando FL 32862-8200
with a note specifying: "for the ministry of Joe and Jerry Snyder".