Greetings! I just want to share what we did in Brazil in 2 months ago. When I first moved to Brasília, Brazil last year, we tried to look for a church that has deaf ministry. We went to several churches in Brasília but they all have interpreters for deaf. Nothing’s wrong with them but I prefer to have a deaf ministry that has deaf leaders. We found one church in Taguatinga (near Brasília) several months ago and we go there regularly. A deaf pastor there asked me to preach on Saturday last July and I gladly accepted. Since LIBRAS (Brazilian sign language) is completely different from ASL, I took a LIBRAS course. I wanted to learn LIBRAS. And, I worked very hard to prepare my sermon in LIBRAS. I wanted deaf people in the audience to understand what I said. I asked people to help me to learn LIBRAS on certain words for my sermon. I thought it went very well. For my sermon, I shared my testimony of how God changed my life and share my experiences for my missions. I also preached about 4 soils parables by Jesus. I thought it’s important for deaf people to understand this parable. I felt that the audience was influenced by my sermon. Also, a deaf pastor asked my wife to sing a song. My wife has a wonderful voice to sing. She doesn’t sign on a song but they have an interpreter to sign for her.

My wife sang a song called “Worthy of it all”.

I shared my testimony of how God transformed my life.

Group picture after my sermon

I got a certificate for complete a LIBRAS course.

After my sermon, there was a Brazilian version of baby shower party for us. They celebrated for our upcoming baby. Our baby will be born on late September or early October. They gave us plenty of diapers!

Pray for my wife’s pregnancy will go well and to have healthy arrival of our baby daughter. We named our baby Hannah Alyssa.

Thank you for your time!

Greetings! I’m so glad finally to go on mission for Angola to help deaf to translate God’s Word. It’s been a while but it’s a great feeling to be involved with DOT workshop again! There were 12 deaf translators plus 2 interpreters in Luanda, Angola. They were preparing their chapter assignments before the workshop started. They did a great job to help each other for understanding some passages and worked very hard to translate. They did complete 12 chapters but they are really eager to do more in near future. See pictures for this workshop below.

We have trained them for our methodology in sign language translation. They are following our steps making sure their translation is accurate, clear, natural, and understanding.

They did 12 chapters of Mark and John in this workshop. The translation work can be long and difficult but I’m really proud of them doing a good work for Lord. Their translation will help deaf people in Angola to understand God’s Word in their heart sign language.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:23-24

Pray for them to continue in doing good work in their Bible translation and give them wisdom & guidance for doing their translation work for deaf people in Angola.

Thank you for your time and support!

Blessings!

Greetings! I’m exciting to tell you that there will be a Bible translation workshop for Angola on first week of August (5th to 16th). It’s a new project for them. They have a desire to translate God’s Word into their Angolan sign language. It’s a huge need for deaf people in Angola, it’s essential for deaf people to understand God’s Word in their sign language. We are planning to train them to translate God’s Word and also, train them with technical stuff. I’m looking forward to it!

Prayer requests:

1. Making sure all will be presented at workshop.
2. Wisdom and guidance during the workshop.
3. Encouragement and support for all of us.
4. Making sure they follow the steps of translation methodology (It’s essential for their translation to be accurate, natural, clarity, and understanding).

Thank you for your time as always!

Blessings!

Greetings! Since I have moved to Brazil last year, I have learned a lot about Brazil. There are a lot of differences between USA and Brazil especially culture, food and language. Here is what I have learned so far…

Brazilians want to welcome you into their home and feed you and have a conversation.

Lunch, eating out or eating at home with family. Also, an emphasis on eating a proper meal for lunch. Then, having tea (I don’t like coffee) and a small meal for dinner which I actually like. The food here is more healthy and natural than in America.

Churrascaria (buffet style BBQ restaurant) was amazing!

Fruits like peaches, cherries, blueberries and raspberries are more commonly eaten in the US. In Brazil, tropical fruits like caja, caju, cupuaçu, graviola and caqui are commonly eaten in Brazil and almost never seen in the US. They do have great exotic fruit juices.

Brazilian families tend to be large, tight-knit, warm, and loving. They generally enjoy each other’s company. Many families all live in the same area for their whole life and get together more often than I expected.  The family unit is seen as a support system.

Brazilians are relatively more extrovert, their physical personal space much smaller than for Americans.

Brazilians are much less formal than Americans are.

Brazilians manage time differently – Brazilians are always late, Americans are relatively more punctual.

In Brazil, time just moves a bit slower. People are very relaxed; you won’t see many people rushing around from place to place.

Brazilians value their inter-dependence in relationships, Americans value their independence.

Most Brazilians exercise regularly to stay fit. I have seen many people here have taken a walk to ride a bicycle often.

Driving here is adventureous! If there are no other cars around, most drivers in Brazil speed through stop signs and red lights. This isn’t something that police will ticket drivers for either. There are always motorcycles flying in between the lanes which is really annoying! They have a lot of cameras for speeding in Brasilia. Way too many speed humps here. The speed limit is a little lower in general, which I actually like here. The infrastructure is tricky. Driving here in Brazil is probably my biggest adjustment to make since I moved here.

For Christianity, Brazilian Protestant Christians tend to have high weekly participation and personal devotion rates, higher than in the United States. They do take their beliefs seriously while Americans are becoming more secular.

Most people moved to other country and learn one language but I had to learn 2 languages, Portuguese and LIBRAS (Brazilian sign language). It took a while to learn both languages. So far, I have learned about 50% of both Portuguese and LIBRAS. LIBRAS is quite different from ASL. It’s been fun to learn!

Overall, I enjoy living here in Brazil. There are some places I want to travel in Brazil like Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Curitiba, Florianopolis, and more. I’m looking forward to get some more experiences in Brazil!

Greetings! I would like to share with you for our update for DOT program in Wycliffe Associates. We started a DOT program in 2015 and since then we have trained over 40 sign language groups. So far, there are at least 12 sign language groups have completed their sign language translations on New Testament. For those have already completed New Testament, they are currently working on Old Testament translations. We have not had a group to complete Old Testament yet. Some other projects are continuing to do translations in New Testament, possibly up to 2 years to complete. There are some different projects stalled due to lack of commitment, leadership issues, etc. We are working to revive on these projects so they can restart to do on their translations. It’s essential for deaf people to know God’s Word into their heart sign language. Most deaf couldn’t read due to lack of education, poor education, lack of access, oppression, etc.

We just created our new website and app for sign language translations so the Deaf can have access to these videos and learn God’s Word from their own sign language.

Prayer requests:

1. Pray for all translation projects to continue to use wisdom to understand God’s Word and translate it into their sign languages. And making sure it’s accurate, clear, understanding and natural in their sign languages.
2. Pray for those stalled projects to restart their translations and renew their commitment.
3. Pray for more opportunities for new projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America in the future.

My next mission will be Angola on August. This is a new project for them. We will train them for our translation methodology for 2 weeks. It’s been a while since I trained a new project so I’m looking forward to it!

Thank you for your time and support!

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