The Prices Write (June 2025)

There are nine summer teamers going to Croatia with us from June 18-28. This week, we met (pictured above at our house) to begin learning the songs and Bible story skits, and discuss logistics for the VBS and teen clubs we will be holding for the Roma kids. 100% of the funding we needed to send our family has been donated! PTL! Thank you to those who prayed and gave for that need!

Price prayer letter for 06-2025 page 1Download
Price prayer letter for 06-2025 page 2Download

Broken nose, travels, Easter, Mother’s Day, four play performances, 560 verses consultant checked, and more…

So much has happened since I last wrote! I’ll save you time by summarizing with bullet points and pictures below. And as always, thank you for being so faithful to pray for and support us!

  • I fell and broke my nose Sunday morning before preaching at a supporting church in Illinois. After holding the services, the ER confirmed that it is broken and I will have surgery on Wednesday, 5/28
  • We’ve enjoyed speaking at three churches in Iowa and Illinois, as well as locally at a Bible college prayer meeting. It is a joy to have so many people interested in learning about Bible translation who are praying for us and supporting us in this work!
  • Some of our translators held a Bible camp recently with 150 young people and used our newly translated Serbian Arli New Testament!
  • The Serbian Arli team is now recording the New Testament with plans to publish and distribute the NT in print and audio this Fall or early Winter.
  • The Serbian Arli NT is being used in a new church started among Roma in Germany. One lady said she had been reading the Bible in Serbian, but after understanding the meaning of “love” in the Serbian Arli (Roma) language, she grasped the idea of God’s love and came to Christ.
  • Another woman had been reading the Bible in Serbian for over 20 years, but when she read the Genesis draft in the Chergash language (her Roma mother tongue), she understood it for the first time.
  • 100% of the funding we needed to send our family to Croatia from June 18 to July 3 for outreach with Roma kids (VBS and teen) camp has been donated! PTL! Thank you to those who have been praying for that need.
  • Pam finished writing the VBS curriculum, and this Saturday we will begin practicing with the summer team to learn the songs, skits, and verses.
  • So far this quarter, we have consultant-checked 560 verses, including chapters in Genesis in Serbian Arli, and Matthew in Macedonian Arli.
  • Pam enjoyed a Mother’s Day outing with the kids in Kansas City, and I visited my mom in the nursing home in Oklahoma City.
  • Daniel has been making lots of repairs on our home, including replacing the front porch supports and railings.
  • We enjoyed celebrating Easter together. He is risen!
  • Ariela acted and sang in “Junie B. Jones”, giving four performances at their school, Mighty Roots Academy, while Daniel ran the sound.

In closing, here are a few prayer items:

  • Pray that our colleagues in Croatia and Serbian can find translators to continue the translation of the NT in the Bayash and Ludari languages.
  • Pray for the summer teamers as they learn the skits, songs and verses, and raise their needed funds for the June trip to Croatia.
  • Pray for a successful nose surgery for Todd on 5/28 and for quick healing
  • Pray for wisdom for the teams and Todd as they translate Genesis, Jonah, Ruth and Esther in Serbian Arli, Gurbet and Chergash, and Matthew, and 1-2 Timothy in Macedonian Arli.

Thank you for your love and support.

Todd & Pamala

Two languages which may need Bible translation

Last summer in Croatia: Ariela with one of the Roma girls who received the Gospel of Luke in her language. (See pictures below of others who also got a copy of the Gospel of Luke in their heart language.)

As you may recall, though we are making good progress in translating the Bible into several Roma languages, there are two languages in which we were only able to finish translating Luke. For these two languages, Ludari and Bayash, which are spoken in Serbia and Croatia (including the villages we will be in this summer), we could not publish more than Luke since we lacked translators.

Our partners are now exploring whether we can restart one or both of these languages to get more translated for these two language groups. Would you please pray for them for:

  1. wisdom whether the Lord would have our organization take on more translation in Ludari and Bayash;
  2. funding from generous partners who would provide the finances for one or both of these long-term, costly projects;
  3. God to raise up the needed people to run the project:
    • mother-tongue translators able to take on the task to be trained in translation and to commit their time to this long-lasting project,
    • exegetes/translation advisors who can guide these translation projects,
    • local churches and influential leaders in these language communities who have a desire to see the New Testament or the whole Bible translated into these languages;
  4. God to guide upcoming conversations and field trips for our colleagues who are exploring the possibilities of restarting these two language projects. This will be a multi-month process of exploring the feasibility of translating the whole New Testament into Ludari and/or Bayash. Please keep them in prayer for the remainder of this year.

Thank you!

Below: Bayash children in a new village receiving a copy of the Gospel of Luke and 50 Bible stories in a new Bayash village last summer

Our daily prayer calendar for May 2025

Price prayer letter for 05-2025 page 2Download

May 1 Pray God will raise up a team & churches to translate the rest of the NT in the Bayash language (only Luke has been done)

May 2 Pray for good weather for Ariela & Daniel’s school play held outside today & tomorrow

May 3 Pray for enough time for Todd to prepare for teaching Wednesday Bible studies & Sunday Equip Hour lessons

May 4 Pray for a fruitful & edifying members’ meeting this evening at our church

May 5 Pray for our Croatian teammates, Sergej & Željka celebrating their anniversary on Wednesday

May 6 Pray for wisdom for Todd & the Arli language team working together to check their translation of Genesis

May 7 Pray for Todd leading a men’s Bible study on 2 Peter tonight at church

May 8 Pray for the Arli, Chergash & Gurbet language teams as they complete the final edits & formatting of NT in preparation for printing

May 9 Praise God for raising up 9 summer teamers to go with our family to Croatia this summer to run a vacation Bible school for Roma kids

May 10 Pray Todd will be a blessing to his mom, Geri, visiting her at her nursing home in Oklahoma City this weekend

May 11 Praise God for the wonderful mothers in our lives and God’s enablement for them. Happy Mother’s Day!

May 12 Pray for Sergej & Željka as they translate the skits and puppet show scripts Pamala wrote & record them in Croatian for our VBS

May 13 Pray for Todd & the other elders of our church, meeting tonight, to lead our church in a way that is always pleasing to the Lord

May 14 Pray for Sergej & Željka recording the puppet scripts in Croatian for our VBS

May 15 Pray for fruitful meetings with our summer teamers to practice Bible skits & songs & prepare for our Croatia trip

May 16 Pray for God’s guidance for Todd & the Macedonian Arli team translating Matthew into their language

May 17 Pray for us traveling to Freeport, IL, today to speak tomorrow, for God to use us to bless Zion Church & spread a missions vision

May 18 Pray as we speak at Zion Church, Freeport, IL, this morning & for safety traveling back home

May 19 Pray for Todd for wisdom as he writes materials for training others to become Bible translation consultants

May 20 Praise God for a great year of American Heritage Girls for Ariela; they meet tonight for a final time for this school year

May 21 Pray for wisdom for Todd coaching, mentoring & training others to become Bible translation consultants

May 22 Pray for a refreshing & rejuvenating early celebration for our 36th anniversary (which is on the 27th)

May 23 Pray for the Arli, Chergash & Gurbet teams for wisdom as they translate Genesis, Jonah, Ruth & Esther in their languages

May 24 Pray for $5,00 remaining to send our family to Croatia June 18-28 to run a VBS & teen day camp outreach to Roma

May 25 Pray for a good transition to a new piano teacher for Ariela since our current teacher is moving

May 26 Praise God for the engagement of our son, Jonathan, in California to Sky

May 27 Praise God for our 36th anniversary & for Him keeping us safe in our many travels

May 28 Pray for the Aromanian, and N. Macedonian Arli teams as they translate various NT books in their languages

May 29 Pray God will raise up a team & churches to translate the rest of the NT in the Ludari language (only Luke has been done)

May 30 Pray Matthew’s insurance will approve a new prosthetic arm for him

May 31 Praise God for a good school year for Daniel & Ariela (and Pamala teaching)

Takeaways from my time in Africa

receiving certificate of completion of our Train the Trainers Workshop
20 attendees from 14 nations

I’m home from Ruiru, near Nairobi, Kenya, and have recovered from jet lag. Thank you for your many prayers. God was gracious in answering prayer when my ride to the airport picked me up very late, and then there were problems with my ticket at the counter, such that I barely made the flight from Nairobi. Also, I’m thankful for the answer to prayer that I could sleep on the longest of the three flights (14 1/2 hours) despite cramped quarters.

The training was very instructive and practical for me as a Bible translation consultant, coordinator, and mentor for others who are becoming consultants. What did I learn there? What are my takeaways? Let me present some of them as prayer requests and ask you to pray for the Lord’s wisdom and enablement to implement what I learned.

Please pray for me for

  1. wisdom to be able to assess what up-and-coming consultants need to learn, so I can help them in their role of maintaining quality assurance in our Bible translations
  2. wisdom in preparing written training materials that I can pass on to the consultants-in-training, which would be helpful for them as they check Bible translation drafts in various languages
  3. wisdom to know the individual needs of each mentee so that I can help them develop the skills they lack and give constructive and helpful feedback as I supervise their work
  4. insight to know how best to encourage those who are not progressing as fast as they had hoped in their growth plan of becoming consultants, and discernment to know the best way to encourage and empower them in the role God has for them
  5. and knowledge to use blended learning (in-person supervision, reading assignments, video training, etc.) to effectively equip new consultants-in-training.

Thank you again for your faithful prayers.

Todd & Pamala

panel discussion at the Train the Trainers Workshop in Ruiru, Kenya
everyday sights on the streets near Nairobi

Greetings from Kenya!

Swahili for “Welcome to Kenya”

Bible translation requires many hands on deck. Our organization’s goal of seeing the Bible translated into 1,000 languages by 2050 means there is a lot of work to do. That means that in addition to checking the translation of verses in specific languages, I need to help train others to be qualified to check verses in other languages, too. To help equip me for this task, I am attending a “Train the Trainers Workshop” in Ruiru, near Nairobi, Kenya.

Here, we are learning how to run training workshops to train others to become translation leaders and consultants. We’ve studied how to design quality and engaging instruction materials, use interactive training methods, facilitate meetings and deal with problem participants successfully, use blended learning techniques, plan and organize a training event, give and receive feedback from those we coach, and how to flourish as a mentor.

We’ve also enjoyed informal conversations over coffee and meals, an excursion, and prayer time together. We are 20 participants from 14 different countries, a very enriching and very multi-colored gathering.

God is at work, getting his Word to those people who still do not have it in their heart language. Please pray for us, that we would successfully serve others in the ongoing tasks of training those who can train others, until the whole world has heard.

Please also be in prayer for our preparations for our summer outreach in Croatia. Below are several specific prayer items:

Please pray for:

  1. good health and a safe trip back home to Kansas City on Saturday and Sunday for me (Todd)
  2. much wisdom from the Lord to apply what I have learned as I mentor others who are in the process of becoming Bible translation consultants
  3. insight and time to write a specific training manual that I’ve started working on to give practical advice and checklists to those learning to become translation leaders
  4. Pamala as she continues to write the lessons for the Vacation Bible School and teen camp we will be leading in Croatia June 18-28. Pray specifically for wisdom as she writes the puppet show scripts.
  5. Praise God that we have commitments from seven people to come with us to Croatia. Please pray for one more young man (preferably aged 18 to late 20s) who will join us.
  6. Praise God for recent donations toward the cost of sending our family to Croatia this summer. Please continue to pray for the remaining $5,000.

Thank you for your prayers!

Todd (from Ruiru, Kenya)

Todd traveling to Africa

(The pictures are from Wikipedia since I haven’t arrived there yet!)

Tomorrow, I leave for an eight-day trip to Nairobi, Kenya, to attend workshops by The Word for the World Bible Translators as part of my training to teach others who are becoming Bible translation consultants.

Please pray for the following:

  1. For safety in travel, good health the whole time, and quick adjustment to the time difference (8 hours ahead of KC). It is the rainy season with lots of mosquitos and Nairobi is on the equator. I’ve never been to sub-Sahara Africa so this will be a new experience for me. There are three flights each way, the longest of which is 14 1/2 hours non-stop, so please pray for endurance for my back and legs and for good sleep.
  2. That I and the other attendees will learn all the Lord has for us and become better equipped to train others to do quality assurance in Bible translation. The conference is called “Training the Trainers.”
  3. For safety, good health, great fellowship, and Bible teaching for Daniel and Ariela as they attend the Young Christians’ Weekend at Silver Dollar City with our youth group this weekend.
  4. For wisdom and efficiency for Pamala in KC as she writes the curriculum for our summer VBS and teen camp for Roma this summer in Croatia. Pray as she writes Bible story skits and puppet scripts, chooses memory verses and crafts, and makes out the schedule.

Thank you! Todd

Sermon on Matt. 9:35-38: “The Harvest is Plentiful but the Laborers are Few”

On Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at Fellowship Bible Church in Oskaloosa, Iowa, on the topic of “The Harvest is Plentiful but the Laborers are Few” from Matthew 9:35-38. You can watch it at the link above. (The sermon begins at 26:51.)

I pray it will challenge you and stir you up to love, good works, and an increased passion for world missions.

The sermon focuses on vv. 37-38, “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest‘” and closes with the following prayer. May it be the prayer of your hearts as well.

“Lord, we come to you, with the same spirit that we have just read about, that our Savior had. We come to you with compassion for those in this world who are harassed and helpless, who are like sheep without a shepherd. We desire that they would hear the words of Jesus that he taught and proclaimed while on earth and had written down in the Bible for us. We are challenged with the truth that there is a great harvest and that the number of people working in that harvest is way too few. So we pray, Lord, that you will send out laborers into your harvest to reap. And we pray specifically for this in the area of Bible translation. For these 1.4 billion people who speak these 5,500 languages, Lord, we pray that you will send workers into your harvest to give complete Bibles to them in the language they understand best and that they will read and listen to it with joy and follow you, the great Shepherd of the Sheep. Give us a heart for this and use us for your cause we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Prayer requests for restarting translation in two languages; progress on Matthew’s house

Bible translation conference in Durres, Albania

In this update, we have several answers to prayer and prayer requests. Thank you for being there for us and joining us in praising and praying.

  1. We’re grateful for Pamala, Daniel, and Ariela’s safe travels to Atlanta and for the good progress they made working on Matthew’s house with him. See the pictures below of their work and Daniel’s birthday celebration since he turned 17 while they were there. (Daniel is staying with Matthew for a few extra days and will fly home on his own on Tuesday.)
  2. We’re also thankful for safety and good health for me (Todd) during my weeklong conference in Albania. In my last update, I shared some highlights from that conference and the workshops on Oral Bible Translation.
  3. We are currently working on Bible translation in five languages and want to restart in two other languages. Let me explain and give some details:
    • For the Arli, Chergash, and Gurbet languages, we have finished doing the quality checks on the translation of the entire New Testament, and the teams are currently working on the final checks, which include formatting and typesetting. They will also begin the audio recording soon. Please pray for them as they work on this and that they can finish the printed and audio versions and schedule the dedication services, hopefully sometime in October or November. During this time, we are also working with them to check their translation drafts of Genesis, after which we will move on to Jonah, Ruth, Esther, and Joshua in all three languages.
    • A new project started recently in the North Macedonian Arli language. That team is currently translating Mark as their first book. When they finish Mark with another consultant, I will begin working with them to check the next book, Matthew. Please pray for the team for a clear, accurate and natural translation and wisdom for me and the exegete.
    • You may recall that we translated 50 chronological Bible stories and the Gospel of Luke in the Bayash language but were unable to proceed with the rest of the NT because we lacked qualified translators and the finances to move forward. Now, the finances have been pledged to restart the project. Please pray that our colleagues, who will be traveling and visiting churches where there are Bayash speakers, will be able to find God’s choice of two translators.
    • You may also recall that we translated 50 chronological Bible stories and the Gospel of Luke in the Ludari language but could not proceed with translating the remainder of the NT for the same reasons: lack of qualified translators and finances. This was especially disappointing since it is the language spoken in the village near where we used to live and in the main village where we do VBS with our summer teams. As a result of the meetings in Albania, we are now hopeful that we can restart the project, but some particular needs have to be met to be able to do that:
      • Pray for large donors to be found to fund a pilot project to use Oral Bible Translation for either a book of the Bible or excerpts from the Gospels in the Ludari language.
      • Pray for 2-8 qualified Ludari translators (at this point, we are unsure how many we will need).
      • Pray for the funding and logistics to hold workshops to train Ludari translators and begin the work and that this will happen in the Lord’s timing (perhaps in the last quarter of 2025).
    • We had asked for prayer for more people to be able to join us for our June 18-28 outreach in Croatia. Since then, we have pretty firm commitments from four more people, including two adults in their 20s who can chaperone the 16-year-old girls on their flights. Now we are praying for at least one more (a male, aged 18-upper 20s). Please pray for the Lord’s provision of personnel and finances so a full team can go with us to Croatia.

Thank you for thanking God with us for the answers and for lifting up the ongoing needs. Enjoy the pictures below.

Gratefully, Todd & Pamala

Marjan (left) and Emruš (right) of the Gurbet Bible translation team

Džonathan (left), Sokrat (middle), Bajram (right) of the North Macedonian Arli Bible translation team

Albania conference attendees (above); worship in the Arli language (below)

Saša (left), Vladica (middle), Ivan (right) of the Serbian Arli Bible translation team

Đena (left), Biljana (middle), Mile (right) of the Chergash Bible translation team

conference attendees, on the Albanian coast

Matthew was so thoughtful to get Pam a dozen roses

Daniel in his element, ready to work

Daniel turned 17 at Matthew’s in Atlanta

Pam laying insulation!

Ariela did lots of cooking and baking to feed the workers!