Our daily prayer calendar for October 2023

To get this prayer list formatted as a calendar for printing out, click “Download” below:

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October 1 Pray Todd will quickly get over jet lag & adjust to the US time zone & stay healthy after his trip to Serbia

October 2 Pray for Todd & Daniel attending monthly book study with other church men, to be a blessing to them

October 3 Pray for God’s guidance & empowerment for Todd & the other elders of our church (meeting tonight)

October 4 Pray for Todd teaching men’s Bible study Wednesday nights on 1 John at our church

October 5 Today is Barbie Hughes’ (Pam’s mom’s) 93rd birthday. Praise God for her health & her faithful sharing of the Gospel

October 6 Pray Todd & Daniel will be a blessing to Todd’s mom, Geri, as they visit her in OKC this weekend

October 7 Pray for Christmas program rehearsal today & 10/28, that songs & script will help participants see God’s trustworthiness

October 8 Pray for safety as Todd teaches Daniel to drive & for good progress to fulfill the mandatory number of practice hours

October 9 Pray for good health for our teammates in Croatia, Andy, Lim, Sergej & Želka & for the encouragement of spiritual fruit

October 10 Praise God for progress in piano lessons for Ariela & for her teacher being so good & kind

October 11 Pray for Todd and the team as they check the translation draft of the Gospel of John in the Gurbet language

October 12 Pray for Todd traveling to Dallas & attending Bible translation conference through 10/17

October 13 Pray for Pam & Ariela at a campout with American Heritage Girls, for godly mentoring

October 14 Pray for Todd to learn much thru Bible translation conference & have fruitful meetings with other translators there

October 15 Pray for Pam as she teaches Sunday School for Jr. High & Sr. High girls, for good learning in Exodus 7

October 16 Pray that many Roma will read & listen to the Scriptures now translated into their languages

October 17 Pray for donors to pledge $545 more monthly for our missionary support (due to increase in health insurance & property taxes)

October 18 Pray for wisdom as Pam writes the curriculum for next summer’s VBS in Croatia incl. crafts to prepare ahead of time

October 19 Pray for wisdom for Todd as he prepares to consult on the translations of Gospel of John in the Arli, Gurbet & Chergash languages

October 20 Pray for adults & teens in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, to come to know Christ personally

October 21 Pray for Elizabeth as she runs a half marathon this morning & for a growing daily walk with Jesus

October 22 Pray we can reconnect well as we speak at North Cedar Baptist Church, Cedar Falls, IA, this morning

October 23 Pray for God’s mercy of salvation for family members who need it

October 24 Pray for Todd and the team as they check the translation draft of the Gospel of John in the Arli language

October 25 Praise God for giving us good health, safety & energy to serve God & love others

October 26 Pray for Todd and the team as they check the translation draft of John in the Chergash language

October 27 Pray for Pam hosting a Sunday school girls’ event, for good connecting & mentoring of the girls, along w/ the two other teachers

October 28 Pray as we speak at the missions conference of The Master’s Community Church this weekend in Kansas City, KS

October 29 Pray for our kids who know Jesus to have a growing delight in Christ & God’s Word

October 30 Pray for salvation of Roma in Sisak, Croatia, the village where we did VBS this summer

October 31 Happy Reformation Day! Pray for revival & reformation among the Roma of former Yugoslavia

Flying out to Serbia tomorrow (The Prices Write)

Dear praying friends,

Tomorrow I travel to Jagodina (which means “strawberry”; shown on map above), Serbia, to teach a class on biblical exegesis for a week. The Roma translators I consult are taking this course on how to discover the meaning of a Bible passage as part of their training, and they will be joined by a new team from Albania. That team is launching a project to translate the Bible into another Roma language spoken in Albania. I will lecture three hours per day, Monday through Friday, teaching in English and being translated into Serbian and Albanian. We will be looking at principles that will help the Roma translators find the original meaning of the verse they are translating, introduce them to reference materials that can help them in that process, and also practice together on numerous Bible verses.

Todd’s 57th birthday

We recently finished checking James in the three Roma languages, and have started on the Gospel of John. James took about three weeks and we anticipate that John will take about four months.

Last weekend we spoke in Sully, IA, (pictured above) where we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Sully Community Church, one of the churches that has faithfully supported us in prayer and monthly financial support for about 30 years! We enjoyed seeing many friends and getting to know our host family, who took us kayaking (pictured below).

Ariela (12)
Daniel (15)

I’ve had the privilege of teaching a couple of Equipping Hour classes at our home church. One was on how the New Testament was copied, and another was on Belonging (and Loving Your Church). You can hear the audio of these messages at: https://www.crosswaybible.org/equip.

Due to inflation, an increase in our property taxes and an increase in our health insurance premium, we currently lack $545 in monthly pledges. We are very grateful for two new individual monthly supporters and for one of our supporting churches and an individual supporter who increased their monthly pledges recently. Please pray for the remaining pledges we need. If you would like to give or increase your giving, please see the giving information at the bottom of the page.

Thank you to all of you who faithfully pray for us and financially support us in the work of Bible translation for the Roma!

Todd & Pamala (Kirsten, Daniel & Ariela)

“Don’t eat strangled animals” (Lost [and Found] in Translation, Installment #16)

Screen shot from a recent Zoom session checking the Bible translation into the Gurbet language

We recently finished checking Acts in the Arli, Gurbet and Chergash languages. It was a four month process, fun to do, but also with many challenges.

One of the challenges in Bible translation is what to do when there is implied background information that we know was clear to those who read the New Testament in the first century Roman empire, but which we think that our 21st century Roma in Eastern Europe will not know. How can we make sure that they understand through our translation what was clear to the original readers, but will certainly not be caught if we make a very literal translation?

“Godfearer” mentioned in a mosaic inscription at the synagogue of Sardis, ca. AD 365 (c) bibleplaces.com

For example, in several places in Acts, reference is made to “those who fear God” or simply “God-fearers”. What may not be clear to today’s readers is that this was a semi-technical term that referred to Gentiles who worshipped the God of Israel. These Gentiles had not fully converted to Judaism (perhaps they had not been circumcised) but they worshipped in the synagogues and sought to obey Yahweh.

A literal translation of Acts 13:16 would say, “Then Paul stood up and made a sign with his hand and said, ‘Men, Israelites and those who fear God, listen.” What might not be clear to contemporary readers is that Paul was addressing a crowd with two groups of people, Israelites/Jews, and Gentiles who were favorable to Judaism. To make this clear in our translation in the Roma languages, we translated it as “Israelites and you others who fear God”.

Meat offerings depicted on bell-krater, late 5th century BC (c) bibleplaces.com

Another passage which sounds strange to our ears, but would have made sense to the original readers is Acts 15:29. In the Arli language, the translators had made a draft that said, “to abstain from food which is intended for idols, from blood and from meat from strangled animals and from fornication”. As modern readers, we might wonder what was wrong with eating an animal that had been strangled. But their are two important points: First, under the Jewish law, the throats of animals had to be cut and the blood drained out before an animal could be eaten; if an animal was only strangled, and not slaughtered, the blood would not have had a chance to drain out. Secondly, strangling and eating an animal was often used as part of pagan idol worship. Thus it makes sense for this to be forbidden since Gentile converts to Christ would need to make a clean break with pagan idol worship which often involved eating a non-slaughtered animal, drinking blood and temple prostitution, thus fornication.

Now, we can’t bring all of that out in a translation (since we are not producing a study Bible with notes). But we did adjust the Arli language draft to say “to abstain from food which is sacrificed to idols, to not drink blood and to not eat meat of strangled animals whose blood was not shed/drained and to not commit fornication”. But making that adjustment to the translation, it makes clearer some of the cultural background which our modern Roma readers would otherwise surely miss.

Roma translations of Luke & 50 Bible stories in 5 Roma languages

Stay tuned for more “lost (and found) in translation” installments. And please pray for the Bible translators and for me as the translation consultant to have much wisdom and insight to know the best way to translate, especially in situations like those I’ve just mentioned. We want the Roma of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina to hear God’s word with understanding. We are just finishing up James and beginning the Gospel of John. We appreciate your prayers.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support for Bible translation!

Todd

Our daily prayer calendar for September 2023

To get this prayer list formatted as a calendar for printing, click “download” below:

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September 1 Pray for a fruitful online Bible translations conference today for The Word for the World

September 2 Pray Todd & Kirsten will be a blessing to his mom, Geri Price, as they visit her in Oklahoma City this weekend

September 3 Pray for Pam teaching Sunday School youth girls today on Exodus 1, followed by a teachers’ lunch meeting

September 4 Pray for wisdom for Todd preparing to teach Exegesis for Bible translators later this month in Serbia

September 5 Pray for the first American Heritage Girls’ meeting of the year to set a great tone in Ariela’s class as Pam leads

September 6 Pray for Todd and the team as they check the translation drafts of Acts, James & John in the Gurbet language

September 7 Pray for Todd and the team as they check the translation drafts of Acts, James & John in the Chergash language

September 8 Pray for wisdom for Todd studying to prepare to teach men’s Bible study on Wednesdays

September 9 Pray for a great first rehearsal of the Christmas program and wisdom for Pam leading it

September 10 Pray for Todd teaching adult Equipping Hour & Pam on worship team this morning at our church in Blue Springs, MO

September 11 Pray for Todd & Daniel attending a men’s monthly book study held at a fellow elder’s house, to learn & to be a blessing

September 12 Pray for Todd and the team as they check the translation drafts of James & the Gospel of John in the Arli language

September 13 Pray for Todd leading a men’s Bible study through 1 John at our church on Wednesdays

September 14 Pray for wisdom for Todd as he prepares to consult on the translations of Gospel of John in the Arli, Gurbet & Chergash languages

September 15 Pray we will be a blessing & help spread a missions vision this weekend speaking at Sully Community Church, Sully, IA

September 16 Pray for donors to pledge $565 more monthly for our missionary support (due to increase in health insurance & property taxes)

September 17 Praise God for Daniel’s tuning our piano, repairing things at home & 3D printing key chains for youth conference

September 18 Pray that each of our children will walk closely with the Lord & bring glory to Him in their daily lives

September 19 Pray for wisdom for Todd & the other elders at our home church (meeting this evening)

September 20 Pray for safety as Todd teaches Daniel to drive & for good progress to fulfill the mandatory number of practice hours

September 21 Today is Todd’s 57th birthday! Pray for the Lord’s wisdom & empowerment in all aspects of his life & ministry

September 22 Pray for wisdom as Pam writes the curriculum for next summer’s VBS in Croatia incl. crafts to prepare ahead of time

September 23 Pray for Todd flying to Serbia today, for rest on the flights, to make all the connections & bags to arrive on time

September 24 Pray Todd can quickly adjust to jet lag & have energy to teach Exegesis in Serbia all this week

September 25 Pray for God’s guidance & enablement as Todd teaches Exegesis to Roma Bible translators

September 26 Praise God for Daniel’s reading teacher & his progress through challenges of dyslexia

September 27 Praise God for protecting Jonathan from California wildfires as he had to evacuate last month

September 28 Pray that many Roma will read & listen to the Scriptures now translated into their languages

September 29 Praise God for one of our supporting churches increasing their monthly financial support for our work

September 30 Pray for Christmas program rehearsal, that songs & script will help participants see God’s trustworthiness

The Prices Write (September 2023)

Dear praying friends,

A lot has happened since we last wrote. Pam and I taught the missions section of Vacation Bible School at our church in Blue Springs, MO. Pam continues to serve on our worship team at church, team teaches youth girls’ Sunday School and is writing the upcoming Christmas play which she will direct. This school year she is also the leader for the 7th and 8th grade girls at Ariela’s American Heritage Girls club.

Pam teaching missions at VBS

We enjoyed celebrating Ariela’s 12th birthday here, and sending goodies to Matthew in Atlanta for his 25th birthday. We also enjoyed having nieces from Texas visit us. A highlight was a family reunion in Des Moines, Iowa, with many of the younger nieces and nephews from Pam’s side of the family.

Ariela’s 12th birthday!

Ariela loved her Paris-themed birthday party

Family reunion at Living History Farms in Des Moines, Iowa

Our family visiting a log cabin at Living History Farms

Pam with her mom and 3 sisters (L-R: Val, Kim, Barbie, Ruth, Pam)

Pam enjoyed the special time with sisters

Todd enjoyed a retreat with the other elders for our church and taught an adult Sunday school class explaining how manuscripts of the Greek New Testament were made. He was also able to visit his mom in Oklahoma City.

He finished checking the book of Acts in the Roma languages, which we have been working on for four months, and started consulting on the Roma translations of the epistle of James. He is also attending parts of an online conference with colleagues from The Word for the World Bible Translators.

Thank you for your encouraging words, generous financial support and faithful prayers.

Eternal blessings to you as you invest in work for his Kingdom,

Todd & Pam (Kirsten, Ariela & Daniel)

Our daily prayer calendar for August 2023

To get this prayer list formatted for printing out, click “download” below:

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August 1 Pray for wisdom for Pam at American Heritage Girls’ meetings & for parents to volunteer to help as she helps lead older girls

August 2 Pray for healing for Daniel’s shoulder injury; praise God for our chiropractor

August 3 Pray for wisdom for Pam preparing for the new home school year

August 4 Pray for the seeds of Truth sown last month in Sisak, Croatia, to bear Gospel fruit of long-term disciples

August 5 Pray for a special time with one of Pam’s nieces visiting us this weekend

August 6 Pray as we speak this morning at The Road Church, Grain Valley, MO

August 7 Praise God for helping us teach missions at our church’s Vacation Bible School last month

August 8 Today is Ariela’s 12th birthday! Praise God for the special girl she is & for her heart for people!

August 9 Pray for the team as they & Todd check the translation drafts of Acts, James & John in the Gurbet language

August 10 Pray for our team as they & Todd check the translation drafts of Acts, James & John in the Chergash language

August 11 Praise God for providing a new monthly financial supporter for our missionary support

August 12 Today is Matthew’s 25th birthday! Pray for Jesus to be very real to him

August 13 Pray for churches & individuals to pledge $615 more per month for our missionary support

August 14 Praise God that Pam’s mom’s health is good & for kind neighbors at her apartment complex

August 15 Pray for our team as they & Todd check the translation drafts of Acts, James & John in the Arli language

August 16 Pray for safety, good health & many blessings at our family reunion on Pam’s side in Des Moines this week

August 17 Pray for salvation of lost family members, Roma and Croatian friends of ours

August 18 Praise for safety in traveling & for cars in good working condition; pray for continued safety in travel

August 19 Pray for safety as Todd teaches Daniel to drive & for good progress to fulfill the mandatory number of practice hours

August 20 Pray for spiritual refreshment each Sunday

August 21 Pray for wisdom for us preparing the curriculum for next year’s summer outreach in Croatia

August 22 Pray for wisdom for Todd as an elder at our home church (elder’s meeting tonight)

August 23 Pray for Daniel & Ariela to be good representatives of Jesus at their Wednesday school (which begins today)

August 24 Pray that many Roma will read & listen to the Scriptures now translated into their languages

August 25 Pray for wisdom for Todd as he prepares to consult on the translations of Acts in the Arli, Gurbet & Chergash languages

August 26 Pray for worshipful music team ministry at church as Pam sings

August 27 Pray for Todd teaching adult Equip Hour at our church this morning

August 28 Pray that each of our children will walk closely with the Lord & bring glory to Him in their daily lives

August 29 Pray for God to bring together a team from our church in KC for next year’s summer outreach in Croatia

August 30 Pray for Todd preparing for & teaching upcoming men’s Bible study at our church on Wednesdays

August 31 Pray for fruitful online Bible translation conference this week for The Word for the World

The Prices Write: Planting the seed of Truth

Outdoor Vacation Bible School in Roma village near Sisak, Croatia

From Pamala: It was as if we were digging holes and placing life-giving, nutrient-rich seeds in the fine Croatian soil. As we sang and acted out the stories of Jesus we were dependent on the ultimate Gardener of Hearts to make the truth understandable to the 60-90 Roma children in attendance each day at the outdoor Vacation Bible School.

Pamala with some of the Roma girls (the second from the right is named Pamela, a very rare name among Roma!)
Teaching the VBS theme verse

It was a joy to be well-received again after three summers of no VBS there in this Roma community near Sisak, Croatia. And the 15 teens we transported two days for day camp at a riverside park and at the ministry center where we were staying were equally responsive, as our summer team college students shared their testimonies and truths of God’s forgiveness.

One of our summer teamers preaching while our Croatian teammate translated
Another of our summer teamers sharing her testimony as our other Croatian teammate translated

A very special joy for us was explaining to the teens how to read their own “mother tongue” which is normally only written for phone texts or social media posts, but has very few printed books. We were able to give them each a copy of the Gospel of Luke and 50 Bible stories in their language (Ludari). Our printed translation uses the Croatian alphabet with one additional Romanian letter, so it is not hard to catch on, as we saw when different teens each read sample verses aloud. Loud cheering ensued by the rest of the group! This was the first time for them to read their very own language in printed form.

Getting their own copy of the Gospel of Luke and 50 Bible stories
Practicing reading Bible stories

Join with us in praying that these teens as well as the adults who have been given the Truth in written form through the earlier door-to-door distribution will pick up and read the chapters from the Gospel of Luke and the Bible stories in this village where usually reading is only for kids at the Croatian schools.

We are already looking forward to next summer’s trip, and hoping we can practice the skits as a team ahead of time with the next summer team so that we will not have to take time in Croatia to prepare. That will give us more hours on Croatian soil to be able to also do a shortened VBS in another Roma village, Palanjek, which speaks the Bayash language. We conduct VBS in the trade language of Croatian, but here again in this village the Roma speak their own Roma language. The 50 Bible stories and Luke are printed in Bayash, and hopefully this would be an open door to give them out in this village.

Acting out the story of Jesus as the Good Shepherd

Please join us in praying for open hearts to the Scriptures in this small village of a few hundred people. It is located by a set of train tracks you cross to drive down the main road. So whenever you cross some RR tracks, please pray for this village and for missionaries to be able to do outreach there throughout the year. The harvest is ripe but workers are few, so please pray for more workers (Matthew 9:37).

Thinking of next summer, Todd and I are brainstorming on the curriculum. We are thinking of doing stories from Luke so they can read the text themselves in their language. In addition to songs and crafts, we want to help them memorize Scripture verses through games. I’ve already started a notebook for these things as we carefully consider which themes and stories will be good, plus refine the schedule. I find my front porch swing a wonderful place for inspiration from God!

Thank you for your prayers and financial gifs which God used to plant the seeds of His Word in the hearts of the Roma.

For the advancement of the Kingdom,

Pamala, for Todd, Daniel & Ariela

Days 12-14, Croatia trip: visiting church, friends and translators

Thank you for continuing to pray for us on our Croatia trip.

After taking the summer team college students to the airport in Zagreb, the capital city, we spent a few days in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, where we used to live.

We went by the house where we used to live, saw the storks that live on our old street corner, went to a lot of the shops where we used to go, enjoyed coffee and ice cream on the walking strip in town, saw the parks the kids used to play in and the place where Ariela took ballet.

We also went to church at the Croatian Baptist church we used to attend and gave them an update on our family and ministry, had supper with another summer team from Nashville who do an annual outreach with the church, and were able to hang out with some of our Croatia friends, and Ariela got to spend the night with her Croatian friend.

Our Croatian teammates took us across the border into Bosnia and treated us to a special lunch of ćevapi. We also visited the families of some of the former and current Bible translators who live in Slavonski Brod and Vukovar, Croatia.

It was great to be with our “old” team and church in Croatia. Below are pictures of the sights and our friends.

Tomorrow morning we get up very early for our return flights to the US. We’d appreciate pray for a safe flight, rest on the flights and good adjustment back to our US time zone. Thank you for your constant encouragement and prayers.

Gratefully,

Todd & Pamala

Days 10-11, Croatia trip: tourism day, debrief, departure of summer teamers

Thank you for your prayers for our time in Croatia. Yesterday, we and the team took a day for tourism and went to a beautiful national park in Croatia, full of lakes and waterfalls. It was about an 11-hour outing so we returned exhausted, but the views were gorgeous and the change of scenery was refreshing.

Today we took the summer teamers to the airport in the capital city of Croatia, Zagreb, and they are now winging their way back to the US.

They were a fantastic team of college students and it is clear from our debrief time with them that the Lord really worked in them and taught them many things. We know they had a great impact on the Roma kids and teens and look forward to eternity to know the total impact.

Thank you for praying for them and for our family. We will be staying on a few days to visit friends and colleagues in Slavonski Brod (where we used to live) and in Vukovar, Croatia.

Todd & Pamala

Day 9, Croatia trip: 2nd day of teen camp

Thank you for praying. Today was the second (and last) day of the teen day camp and 16 teens attended. We drove them from the village into town to the ministry house where we are staying. After praying, we sang a couple praise songs, then one of the summer teamers, Patrick, gave a short gospel sermon from the conversion of Saul in Acts 9, and another summer teamer, Kate, gave her testimony. The kids listened well. We ate lunch together of hot dogs and chips. The weather was nice and they played ultimate Frisbee and capture the flag outside, and made name bracelets inside.

Before the teens left to be driven home, we gave them each a copy of the newly-translated Gospel of Luke and 50 Bible stories in their language. Todd explained to them that there are three parts to the book we were giving them: 50 stories from the Bible, the Gospel of Luke, and a small dictionary which explains special words in the Bible. Then we had them practice reading the first three sentences of the story of creation. It was such a joy to hear them read in their Roma language, some of them for the first time! Would you please pray that they would read these (it is not at all easy for them to read in their language) and/or listen to the audio recordings of these that are available free from anywhere on the Internet, and share it with their parents?

The pictures below are of our song time, Patrick preaching and Kate giving her testimony, the kids making bracelets and playing outside, and Ariela and Pamala preparing lunch, signing each others’ T-shirts, playing table games, handing out the Bible stories and Luke, and teaching them how to read them, and giving them a small gift bag at the end (with chips, cookies, a popper toy, gel pens and an Easter coloring book in Croatian and Ludari).