We’ve been back from furlough for about two weeks now, and are getting back into the swing of things, including Spanish. Our first week here Mike and I felt a little bumbly in the Spanish department…and so did Trinity. After spending two months in the U.S. and hearing almost exclusively English, she had lost much of her Spanish vocabulary. Some of her first outings in all-Spanish settings found her talking to everyone in English, which caused many puzzled expressions and a lot of explaining on my end.

After that cautious start, I’m happy to report that this week she has done remarkably well. At our church service on Ash Wednesday (an all-Spanish setting), she told me, “I want agua please.” I knew we were getting somewhere.

This morning, she told me, “Quiero teta (I want a bottle).” She has also picked up on other important words, like adios and paleta (lollipop).

With Trinity being a third-culture kid, I sometimes worry about the stresses that we place on her with two languages, traveling between two countries and cultures, etc. Fortunately, she tends to go with the flow very easily. And in a couple of months I’ll probably be wondering if she is getting enough English, rather than Spanish!

The WELS Missions family is quite large and spans the entire globe! For more information on WELS Missions, explore this blog for firsthand accounts of life on the mission field or visit archive.wels.net/worldmissions

Mark 11:24: “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”

WELS Ministry of Christian Giving puts together this monthly prayer calendar using requests from people leading WELS efforts around the world.  Download the March 2009 requests.

Please include the following petitions when you pray for Multi-Language Publications:

• That our publications serve the most important needs of our mission fields.
• That our staff — Jan Gamble, Pastors Gonzalo Delgadillo and Paul Hartman — serve the Lord faithfully and well.
• That our part-time translators, editors and layout people serve the Lord faithfully and well.
• That the Lord bless the efforts of missionaries, translators and other part-time workers so that dozens of new publications are produced and distributed so that full use is made of the offerings and grants given to this work.
• That through multi-language publications, also, the gospel is proclaimed clearly to many thousands of people.
• That through these publications faith in Jesus Christ is strengthened in the hearts of many and created in the hearts of many more.

Read the current MLP newsletter to learn more about their gospel ministry.

For three years Multi-Language Publications has been furnishing books in the Urdu language in Pakistan for children and adults to study in a Bible Correspondence School. During these three years over 50,000 Christian books have been distributed and over 17,000 persons, both Muslim and Christian, have been enrolled in the program. The goal in Pakistan is to reach another 50,000 enrollees during the next five years.

Note to us it may look like the boy has the book upside down, but in Urdu the order of the book is reverse from what we are accustomed in English and reads right to left, not left to right as we do in English.

To support the gospel ministry through literature work of Multi-Language Publications donate online .  Find Multi-Language Publications listed under World Missions.