Download a printable January-February 2021 Beans'Talk with photos.

A heavy heart?

If you heard that someone had a heavy heart, what would you think would be the problem?

a. Their heart was too big for their chest and dangerously heavy.

b. They were stubborn, not budging.

c. They were studious, full of knowledge.

d. They were sad, not easily cheered.

Those of us who are native English speakers would choose the last one, d. A person might have a heavy heart upon giving or receiving bad news, or upon the death of a loved one or the death of a dream.

Right now I’m reading through Exodus. Many times the Hebrew literally says that someone had a heavy heart.

I am thankful that all of our English translations choose to be faithful to the meaning rather than to the literal word. Pharaoh is the one with the heavy heart. You will find that English translations describe his heart as hard or hardened, stubborn and unyielding. Pharaoh was not sad in the least. He was stubborn, choice b for Hebrew!

It’s a classic example of a common translation problem. Often one could translate literally, because the words exist—like “heavy heart”. However, the meaning would be incorrect.

A vast crowd

The book of Revelation gives us an incredible picture of what heaven is going to look like: “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9a, NLT).

Check out Wycliffe’s new YouTube video “A Vast Crowd” (runs for just one minute forty-four seconds) and see how across the world, Bible translation changes everything.

Ready, set, mentor!

What does it mean to mentor? How can you mentor someone in Bible translation? These are questions Mark is exploring with an online class. He is joined by other translation consultants and consultants in training, many of whom come from Latin America. That means that all the instruction and course interaction takes place in Spanish. Fun!

After the mentoring course comes a two-week workshop for the translation-consultants-tobe. The idea is that after the workshop, they will be mentored as they continue training. Mark is tentatively assigned to mentor a man from Guatemala who worked on translating the Old Testament into his language and is now revising the translation of the New Testament.

Sauerkraut

Mark continues consultant work by checking new scripture translations, adding audio to Scripture apps, adapting Bible studies for other Quechua varieties, improving his Hebrew, etc. Did you know that he also makes sauerkraut? He usually has a couple half-gallon jars of cabbage fermenting, while we eat sauerkraut from a third. Mark introduced our grandson Nathaniel (not yet two) to sauerkraut. He loves it! The two of them eat it plain and on just about anything.

Texas family update

Sunday, January 24th, our daughter Emily, Blake and family head back to Houston. After three and a half months together, we will definitely miss them. They have a lot of challenges ahead as they try to figure out how to balance the normal details of home, work and little ones while Emily is still limited physically.

Praise and Prayer Requests

*Praise: for meaningful work to extend the kingdom. Pray for a positive relationship with Mark’s mentee and that Mark might be a godly encouragement to him.

*Praise: for the opportunity to serve our daughter and family. Continue to pray for patient endurance, expectant hope and creative solutions to daily issues as they launch out on their own during this slow process of healing.

Thanking God for his goodness,

Mark and Patti Bean