Mary Esther's father, Wilhelm Baum, is now with his Lord and Savior and we rejoice.  

His prayers and ours were granted in that he died in his sleep and didn't seem to experience any distress or discomfort.

Before going to bed he asked for graham crackers for his night-time snack and sat in bed munching away enjoying his treats.  We are thankful he was spared the move to the Long Term Care facility.  He has now moved to his real home!  Rejoice with us.

For those in the Kansas City area, there will be a memorial service on Sunday afternoon August 2 at Blue Ridge Bible Church.

Thanks for all the help—and so quickly too. Consensus so far seems to be that Jesus was fairly young, anywhere from toddler to five-ish, but probably closer to the younger end of the spectrum. Here is an answer that summarizes the details quite well. If anyone has something to add (or debate), this should be a great place to start.

Here’s a quick question for anyone who’s interested:

How old was Jesus when he came back from Egypt to Israel with Mary and Joseph?  (Matthew 2:20) The Greek could be anywhere from infant (not likely) to pre-puberty. Any other evidence one way or another? Archelaus is a clue, but without a bit of research, I don’t know how he relates to the timeline, particularly the slaughtering of the innocents. I read a novel once in which Jesus was six or seven coming out of Egypt, but don’t know the sources involved.

Why do I ask? Well, commentaries and even translator’s handbooks often don’t answer the kinds of questions that come up in Sign Language translation. SL translation is visual. In natural signing, as often as not, action is shown, rather than told about. So when Joseph  “takes the child “ in draft one of our JSL Matthew, the signer briefly takes on the role of Joseph looking down at a child in his arms. The way he holds the child would be very different depending on the age—past a certain age, he wouldn’t likely be holding the child at all. In draft one, Jesus looks very much like an infant. That didn’t seem right to me, but I would like to have more information on it if possible before discussing changes.

ViBi/Japanese Bible Sign Language Translation (Mark)

·         Pastors Matsumoto  and Minamida are consulting on a SL translation project in the big country west of us. Pray for them and those they work with.

·         Pastor Minamida completed a first draft of Matthew 1-10, 2^nd draft of 1-6. Keep praying for arm pain.

·         Two requests for funding will be decided very soon. PRAY!!

·         Translation helper doing great work. Keep praying.

 Wheelchairs of Hope (Mary Esther)

·         Last minute negotiations got three chairs to Mongolia. We thought it might be zero.

·         Pray for an import permit to be granted

Personal

·         Mary Esther’s dad (age 94) has stabilized, but is still struggling. Pray for decisions regarding his future care.

We planned on sending several wheelchairs to Mongolia on July 7. A few days before the trip, the airline said they would not be able to accommodate any wheelchairs. E-mails and phone calls  flew back and forth between volunteers taking the chairs, the travel agency, the airline, and Wheelchairs of Hope. The travel agent was so impressed with the project that he donated his commission to enable one chair. One volunteer showed up at the airport with only 3 kilos of personal luggage, allowing another chair to go. The head volunteer was an amazing negotiator at the ticket counter, and managed to squeak in a third chair, as the counter agent cooperated by “reading” the scale at exactly what was needed to allow it.

As for Mary Esther, first she brought one wheelchair from the parking lot to meet her group, as it was covered by the travel agent’s negotiations, and she knew it would be sent. When they saw a volunteer with only a small carry-on bag, she quickly ran back to the car and got a second for him to include as his baggage allowance. Just as she arrived with that one, she found out they could take one more. Back once more to the parking lot, wrestling one more chair onto the luggage cart, and pushing it across the hot, muggy parking lot to the ticket counter, you can imagine what she looked like—happy actually. And full of praise as she traversed the parking lot one last time to return home.

We continue to wait for our friends in the large country next door to receive an import permit so we can send a 20 foot container of wheelchairs to them. 

As for her dad, his condition has stabilized and he is now in a re-hab unit near his apartment.  Pray for us and those working with him there to assess well what his future care should be.