Dear friends and faithful pray-ers,

First and foremost, we thank you for your support, love, and prayer.  As of last Friday, we received our residency permits for Botswana and thus are now authorized to be here until May 7, 2012.  It is good to have this last preliminary hurdle cleared so we can begin to turn our focus from going to the capital and things there like moving furniture and so forth to the work of language and culture learning.

Speaking of that, I (Rich) have made some progress in language learning.  I now have a language helper a few hours per week to learn Setswana, the national language of Botswana.  There are speakers of Setswana out here so it is somewhat useful, but is also useful on the national level when we travel around for LBT business.  A couple months ago, I was named  to replace a retiring missionary as business manager of LBT's corporate entity in Botswana, the Linguistic and Bible Translation Trust in Botswana (LBTTB).  There are a number of functions this role carries with it on the national level and so Setswana will be useful.  Early in 2010, I hope to transition from Setswana to Shekgalagari language learning.  The goal is to be able to speak Setswana at 'level 2'.  I will write more about what that means on a later post.

Maya and the kids are well, each day brings a new improvement that makes life a little easier out here.  Today's big one was the arrival of fairly regular internet access through our cell phone company.  This will make it easier to do LBTTB business, stay in touch with the LBT Service center in Aurora, and most importantly to stay in touch with all of you to share what is happening in the ministry we share with you in helping make the word of God available to the Bakgalagari people in the language of their hearts.

Take care, R&M