Hello Willoughby Church Family,
Greetings from Tanzania! We have now been back in East Africa about seven months and are getting back into the rhythms of life here. When we arrived, we hit the ground running with attending a conference, doing a language refresher course, and going on a surprise work trip to Uganda. In August and September, Johnny successfully defended his thesis (308 pages!), the last step in his completion of a Masters degree in Linguistics from Trinity Western. Since then, he’s thrown himself into the work of dictionary development for the languages we work with in Mara Region. Ellen returned to work with the surprise of being called up to the position of Literacy Coordinator. This past fall we were able to publish several small books and primers. We also had several encouraging trips to language areas where we witnessed people’s excitement about developing and using their languages.
We are so blessed with the Hilux Surf that we were able to purchase, thanks in large part to the generosity of Willoughby. A few months ago, we took the car on its first big adventure to a celebration event for the book of Luke in the Zinza language. What a time of joy as people got to hear and read the word of God in their own language!
In other very exciting news, we’re expecting a little one in June! Ellen is now through the worst of the sickness and is enjoying the increased energy of the second trimester. The current plan is to have the baby in Nairobi, Kenya, which is about nine hours away by car. We appreciate prayers for a healthy pregnancy and delivery!
Before we say good-bye for now, we’d like to mention a few areas for prayer. For us personally, we ask for prayer for good health, especially for protection from malaria and healing of some sinus issues we’ve both been dealing with. For our office, we need prayer for an ever-increasing spirit of grace and unity. And for Mara Region and the people we serve, we ask for prayer for a grace awakening both in the church and the broader community.
Blessings!
Johnny and Ellen Walker