← Previous page
Posted on February 13, 2020
by Nathan
Bible First Online
At long last, Bible First Online is live! Just last week, we decided we were ready to open the doors to the outside world. First we had one confirmed user, then we had four, and as I write this, we have ten! A couple of users/students have already read through Lesson 1, completed their quiz, and are ready to move on to the next lesson. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we are thankful that so far, things have gone as well as they have!
Our lower-level goals in developing Bible First Online (BFO) are to make it easier for our students to correspond with us by reducing our dependence on paper lessons and the (sometimes unreliable) Ukrainian postal system, as well as to reach the demographic that prefers to do everything online. But our higher-level goal is to open BFO up to other individuals and churches to use in their own ministries. There are only so many of us on our team, and we can only reach so many people. But once we open up BFO to others, the sky's the limit!
Spanish
On that note, we have some friends that are excited about the possibility of using BFO to reach Spanish-speakers. Now that I've finished with the English and Ukrainian text, the next step is to convert the Spanish text into the format it needs to be in to work with BFO.
Meeting Our Students
As I mentioned in our last update, we've been trying to meet with some of our students, face-to-face. Serhii has organized another meeting for this Saturday, the 15th, but this time in the city of Rivne. Be praying that all will go well, and that God would bless our meeting.
Carpathian Mountain Outreach
The deadline for applying for CMO is just two months away, and we already have two confirmed applicants, one application in the mail, and another verbal commitment. CMO 2020 is shaping up to be great year! Pretty soon here, preparations will begin in earnest, so your prayers would be appreciated!
Family
Not much to report on here. We've had a happy, fairly healthy month that unfortunately only had only one snow that was (barely) enough for sledding. That said, our heaviest snows tend to be in February and March, so there's still hope!
If we can't use our sleds, we'll go with our strollers!
Posted on January 13, 2020
by Nathan
Bible First
Meeting Our Students
For a long time, we have felt it would be a good idea to reach out to some of the Bible First students and try to meet them face-to-face. One such meeting finally happened, thanks to Serhii Chepara, who has been helping us run the Bible First course. He picked a city, Lutsk, set a time and place, and invited our students to meet with us.
We weren't really sure what to expect, but three of our students showed up, and we had a good time getting to know each other. They gave us some feedback on the course, what they liked, what could be improved, and we shared some of our plans for upcoming changes to the course.
Nothing earth-shattering happened at our meeting, but it was nice to put a name with a face, and we went home encouraged. We'd like to do the same thing with our students in other cities, perhaps starting with Rivne in the next month or two.
Left to right: Abby, Josh, Nathan, Serhii, Oleksander, Oksana, Lyuda, and one of Oksana and Lyuda's daughters.
Ukrainian Bible First
One of my main projects continues to be preparing the refreshed Ukrainian lessons for print. Fourteen lessons down, six more to go!
Bible First Online
Unfortunately, we didn't make our self-imposed December 31 deadline to begin using Bible First Online, but we're getting close! We haven't given ourselves a new deadline yet, but hopefully soon!
A New Team Member
Allow me to introduce the newest member of the team, Kade Bloom! Kade attended CMO 2019, and decided he wanted to come back and work with us full-time. His current plan is to stay for one year and see how things go, and his main goal for now is to learn the language.
Carpathian Mountain Outreach
It's the middle of January, and that means that CMO is just five months away! We haven't made the official announcement yet, but the info for CMO 2020 is up on the CMO website, and registration is open. I know of a lot of people that are interested, so apply ASAP before we run out of room!
Family
I'm happy to report that Lydia's eyes continue to improve, and it is looking very unlikely at this point that she will need a second surgery!
Now that Christmas is over, our family has finished our "month of celebrations", with Melissa and Briana's birthdays, and Christmas, of course. Now it's time to hunker down and hit the school books! We are still enjoying a warmer winter, which is nice for Jonathan, who plays outside almost every day. I'm sure the girls would like some more snow, however. At least we've had one good sledding snow so far, and I'm sure there are more to come!
Melissa opens one of her gifts.
Posted on November 30, 2019
by Nathan
There isn't a whole lot to report on in this update, but what we have been working on has kept us busy!
Bible First
Bible First Online
Josh and I are continuing to work hard on web development. We are cautiously optimistic that by the end of the year, our students will have the option of doing their lessons online. Still a lot of work to do, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Ukrainian Bible First
Bible First Online is going to be new and cool and shiny, but we don't want to forget our roots! I'm still in the process of checking over the second edition of Lessons 6-20, and making sure they are ready to print.
Family
On October 9th, our family moved to a new apartment. It was a lot of work to pack up, move, and then unpack, but we are really happy to have made the switch. The extra space and improved layout have made everyday life much more pleasant!
One of the highlights of the move (and also our saving grace!) was that my mom came for the three weeks around the move. Now that my youngest sister has her driver's license, Mom has more freedom to travel around, and she managed to work up the courage to attempt her first intercontinental trip. Thankfully, things went smoothly, and she was a huge help!
Mom, the girls, and I in the steeple of a church near our home.
In other family news, Jonathan is finally walking! Our girls all walked at about a year, but Jonathan took his sweet time and waited until he was 15 months. Unfortunately, no sooner did he learn to walk, he had to start wearing his snowsuit. Our warmer-than-average fall came to an abrupt halt recently, and hats, mittens, etc., are standard fare these days. But that's okay, as I'm sure Briana would tell you, because her birthday is in the winter!
Posted on September 14, 2019
by Nathan
Bible First
There are several Bible-First-related things to report on, so I'll break this up
into a couple groups:
Ukrainian Bible First
Lessons 1-5 of the second edition of Bible First in Ukrainian are currently at the printers. We were promised they would be ready
last week, so hopefully in the next couple days…? The next step will be to
check over Lessons 6-20, make sure they are ready to print, and get them off to
the printer.
Spanish Bible First
We finished going through the Spanish Bible First files, and made notes of
everything that needs to be fixed, but we are currently in a holding pattern
with printing prep. Our main Spanish guy, Ralph Villeneuve, is busy with school,
but hopes to work on the issues we found in a few months during his holiday
break.
Bible First Online
Now that we have recovered from CMO, Josh and I are dusting off our web-development
hats and getting ready for the next push on Bible First Online. Hopefully by the
end of the year, our students will have the option of studying online!
Family
Some of you may remember that two years ago, Katelin broke her foot. Well,
almost a month ago, she rolled her foot just like last time, it popped just like
last time, and started to swell just like last time. We went in for an X-ray,
but the doctors didn't feel like it was a complete break, likely just a crack.
We were told Katelin didn't need a cast, just to stay off of it for a while and
rest.
Sure enough, the recovery from this foot injury has been much faster. Last time,
at the three-week mark, Katelin was just getting her cast off. This time, she
was pretty much operational, albeit with some discomfort, and still taking it a
bit slower. For which, we are very thankful!
Both Lydia and Jonathan had birthdays recently!
One other big project we have coming down the pipe is a move to a new apartment.
We have found a new apartment that is a bit bigger, but more importantly, the
space is broken up in such a way as to be more usable. We will be making the
final arrangements this week, and hope to be moving in about a month. So if next
month's update is late, or gets skipped altogether, you'll know why!
Next page →
