Greetings! I came back from Mozambique last Sunday (April 13th). I’m happy to say that they were doing well since we trained them 2 years ago (2022). They have completed 6 books in New Testament so far. Last week they were working on 1 Corinthians book. I was overseeing them to check if they follow steps of translation methodology. They were doing really well by making sure all passages are correct in translation. I was really encouraged by their work. Hopefully, they will finish New Testament by early next year. See the pictures I took during the workshop below.

Thank you for your continuing support and prayers!

Greetings! I have gone to Mozambique 2 years ago for Bible translation DOT training workshop. They have been progressing well since 2 years ago. They did John, Mark, Luke, Acts and Romans so far. So, they are more experienced now. I’m planning to go there again on Saturday (April 6th) for a week to do follow up their work and see if there is anything that they need help for their translation work. I also will copy their work on videos and place them on our system. I’m looking forward to see them work on their translation.

Prayer requests:

1. To arrive there safely
2. Wisdom and guidance during the workshop
3. Encouragement and support they need
4. Make sure that they follow their steps of translation methodology

Greetings! I did study Multicultural Theology Bible Institute in Orlando for four years and graduated in 2021. Now I taught 14 deaf students on Zoom for a course about cross-cultural communications in missions. The best part is I can teach them while living in Brazil on Zoom and most of my students living in USA. It was an awesome 4-week course. They have learned a lot from this course. It was a great experience for me. It’s a blessing to be a part of this course. I may teach more courses next season. I’m looking forward to it!

I’m happy to report that our mission in Maracanã was a success! It was a little unusual event for me because there weren’t any deaf involved in this workshop. Normally, there were a large number of deaf attended in SUN events. The reason that there weren’t any deaf participating is all participants are hearing missionaries from various cities in Brazil. We trained them well and they were very eager to learn SUN and LIBRAS (Brazilian sign language). They are committed to help deaf to learn God’s Word through SUN materials when they come back to cities or wherever they called to. This workshop was located in missionary base called Campos Brancos. It’s a great place for missionaries to be trained. Sometimes they stay there for a year before they get ready to go and train disciples.

Campos Brancos Missionary Base in Maracanã

We trained them for the SUN program. There were 17 participants.

They trained each other in groups. They also made new cards for symbols. We made them to play games every day to make this event even more interesting!

We all talked about how wonderful to train them and they gave their testimonies that how much they love to learn SUN and LIBRAS. We took a group picture in front of the large sign “Eu amo Missoes” which means “I love Missions”.

It was a blessing to train them and getting to know them. I pray for them that they will do well with deaf people in Brazil.

Greetings to all! It’s been a while since I went on a mission. Next week, my wife and I will go to Maracanã, Brazil, located north Brazil, about 3-4 hours drive from Belem. The workshop there will start next week for SUN training. We will train people from various cities in Brazil and then people will go back to home to train deaf people for this program. We are exciting to have this opportunity to train SUN so deaf people would know about God’s Word through symbols.

Our prayer requests:

• For everyone who will participate, directly and indirectly, coaches, leadership, participants, kitchen staff, cleaning, administration, drivers and everyone involved, may the Lord cover us with His powerful Hand, delivering, guarding and guiding in everything.
• May the students to have open minds and hearts and to receive and retain all past knowledge and instructions.
• For the instructors, who have wisdom, dexterity and ability to teach all the content of SUN.
• May the Hand of the Eternal to cover, sustain and guide everyone who attend.

Thank you for your time and support! As usual, I will update on blog about this mission after we complete this workshop.

Missionary Base in Maracanã, Brazil

Greetings! I was thinking about my reflections on 2023. First of all, I can’t believe 2023 is almost over, it’s way too fast for me, LOL! But it’s been a great year with a lot of changes. I met my wife who is a Brazilian online last year and we were constantly communicating each other and we did visit few times before we got married in September 2023. The European honeymoon trip was amazing for us. I also did move to Brasilia, Brazil this year to live with my wife. The adjustments of moving to different country wasn’t difficult for me. Being a missionary for about 8 years has helped me to prepare to live abroad. It was actually a very smooth transition. 

As for my missions in 2023, I did go to Turkey for DOT workshop (we trained Russians there), Nigeria for SUN workshop, Kenya for deaf conference, Uganda for DOT workshop and SUN workshop in Belem, Brazil. All missions were very fruitful and it was beneficial for me personally and spiritually. I’m very grateful that I had opportunities to meet a lot of awesome people in the places that I have traveled to. I have been working hard to build relationships with leaders of their current DOT projects and will continue to build more new relationships in the future. 

I’m blessed to be able to do Lord’s work so I’ll continue on this path in 2024. Hopefully, more opportunities for missions will emerge for me to move forward. I’m really looking forward what God has plans for me in near future!

Thank you for your support and prayers! Of course, I will continue to update with my missions in this blog in 2024.

Ephesians 1:3: “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.”

May the Lord shine His light upon you and bless you abundantly in 2024!

If you are interested to support me, please use these websites to donate: https://mikejournal.blog/donate/ or https://give.wycliffeassociates.org/donate/michael-geckle. If you have any questions, please let me know. 

Greetings to all! We just did a video instructional for DOT (Deaf Ownership Translation) 2 weeks ago. We used this event to create videos of how to translate by using our methodology, use a camera, set up a studio, and editing a video on laptop. We wanted to communicate easily with deaf on these videos so that deaf will see it with more clarity and understanding. We worked hard and made some changes on videos that are easy to understand for deaf. hope these videos will be very useful for tools. We also are hoping to post videos soon. I think they look great. We worked hard and made some changes on videos that are easy to understand for deaf. See pictures below during instructional event.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

If you are interested to support me, please use these websites to donate: https://mikejournal.blog/donate/ or https://give.wycliffeassociates.org/donate/michael-geckle. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Blessings!

Greetings! We did a video instructional for SUN (Symbolic Universal Notation) last week. SUN (Symbolic Universal Notation) is a pictorial language that brings Scripture to the Deaf and Deafblind who do not know how to read or use their national sign language. Using a symbolic system of writing, they are able to read God’s Word for themselves. Wycliffe Associates developed a unique pictorial language (symbols) for the Deaf (completed) and Deaf-Blind community (in-progress). It is now being used in both public and private schools in Africa. So, in last few days, we did an instructional video, how to teach deaf people to use and teach symbols. We wanted to make video for deaf people to understand our instructions. See pictures below. We will post it on our YouTube for SUN soon.

Greetings! The workshop in Belém, Brazil went very well. There were about 100 participants. Some of them are from other cities in Brazil. After they learned symbols in SUN, hearing participants are motivated to teach deaf people who are excluded from society and most of Deaf in Brazil aren’t educated. It’s essential for deaf people in Brazil to know Jesus Christ in their hearts. There were about 25 deaf participants and we really are glad for them to learn about symbols so they can understand God’s Word. It’s much easier for them to learn symbols rather than the words.

There are many deaf living in Belém. They have a church for deaf to attend. The leaders there did a great job to prepare a large workshop.

They started with worship and devotion at the beginning of workshop every day. Then we trained them with symbols. It’s a lot of work because there were about 100 participants. We normally have up to 50 participants in other events.

After we trained them, they did small groups so they can train others. They also learned to do sentences with symbols and created new cards for other symbols.

We did an interview with local news. It was great because hearing people in Brazil needs to be educated about deaf people because Deaf are often largely ignored in society. It was also my first time together with my new wife on mission. She loved it!

Prayer requests for Brazil team…

• More Deaf people in Brazil know about Jesus Christ,

• Our participants need to train others in different cities in Brazil,

• Wisdom, guidance, and plans for leaders in Brazil.

May God bless them abundantly!

Greetings! I’m exciting to tell you that I will have a mission in Belém, Brazil with my new wife, Adriana. It will start on September 19th. This is for Symbolic Universal Notation (SUN) workshop for a week. SUN (Symbolic Universal Notation) is a program that brings Scripture to the deaf who is unable to read and limited knowledge of sign language as well as the deaf-blind. Using a symbolic system of writing, the illiterate deaf who may not educated in sign language as well as the deaf-blind can read God’s word for themselves. It would take years and years for illiterate Deaf to learn alphabet and words. With these symbols, they can learn much more quicker. In a week, they can learn over 150 symbols! In this event, it will be over 130 participants in Belém.

Prayer requests

• Already 2 leaders for this event are unable to go due to injury and family issue. Pray for us that there won’t be any more issue that comes up before/during this workshop.
• Wisdom and guidance to train a large number of participants.
• Help deaf participants to understand God’s Word by learning symbols.
• Opportunity to share God’s Word through SUN program in Brazil. There are currently about 10 million deaf people living in Brazil, only 10% have been in the scholar system.

Thank you for your continuing support and prayers!

Blessings!