Bless the Lord, O My Soul Psalm 103

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!

You, O Lord, have allowed us to participate in translating Your Word for the past 41 years! We bless You!

² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits:

You have given us brothers and sisters a hundredfold around this world.

³ who forgives all your iniquity,

Thank you for letting us repent in young adulthood and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins! And you continue to reveal to us our need for you day by day.

    who heals all your diseases,

Lord, you have healed our family from many bouts of malaria, oncho, hepatitis, shistosomiasis, viral and bacterial diseases, blackwater fever, dengue, blood pressure issues, stroke, and other matters…thank you!

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,

Despite distress and calamity, especially at the deaths of our brother Jonathan and son Thad, You O Lord have comforted us and brought us up from despair.

    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

During ethnic conflicts and weeks under arrest, Your mercy, Lord, was with us to encourage and strengthen us, and bring us out of captivity.

⁵ who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Despite economic collapse in our country of residence, You helped us eat and share with others when supplies were nearly non-existent. Thank You! And now You have provided a lovely home for us, a place of rest and rejuvenation.

————-

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass;
    he flourishes like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
    and its place knows it no more.

Lord, You are the one directing us.  May we continue to serve You in the days remaining to us.

¹⁷ But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children’s children,
¹⁸ to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.

Thank You, Lord, for the ten children You have given us. Thank you for bringing those here on earth wonderful life partners, and for the nineteen grandchildren we have today!

¹⁹ The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.

May Your Word and eternal peace continue to spread throughout the world, and may Your joy be full in all your people.

²⁰ Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his word,
    obeying the voice of his word!
²¹ Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers, who do his will!
²² Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Thanks to all of you who prayed for our travels in South Asia this last two months and for our son Hiram’s wedding with Joyce.

Love and greetings,

Andy & Kate Ring

Family News:  http://www.ringnotes.org/  (see this site for photos)

Financial partnership:  https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/F6B3C9

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”   Psalm 40:16 (NKJV)

Dear Friends,

This day is the 20^th anniversary of remembering our firstborn son, Thaddeus Ring (Sep 16, 1972 – Sep 11, 1996) and the 15^th anniversary of our brother Jonathan Randall’s death (Feb 1, 1959 – Sep 11, 2001 – WTC).  Since they both sought God and loved His salvation, we are comforted that they are rejoicing and being glad in His presence.

Next Sunday we will be on our way to South Asia, to help check 1 & 2 Corinthians with four (4) experienced language teams who are working toward finishing their New Testaments.  Pray we will all be saying continually in our hearts, “The LORD be magnified!”  And pray for good health, stamina and wisdom for us all.  The temperatures will be in the 90+F range, which I (Kate) am not used to anymore!

Our travel dates are Sep 18 – Oct 5.

Please thank the Lord with us for answering our prayers:

• For giving us all travel safety for our family gatherings over the summer,
• For financial wisdom to refinance our house last week,
• For working out our travel arrangements for S. Asia from September-December this year.

And continue to pray:

• For Hiram and Joyce who are planning to wed in December in Singapore.

May the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Love and warm greetings,

Andy & Kate Ring

Family News:  http://www.ringnotes.org/  (see this site for photos)

 

Financial partnership:  https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/F6B3C9

This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.  Ps 118:24

FAMILY – On July 25^th our family gathered to celebrate our son Isaac’s marriage to Amy Miller.  It was a ‘perfect’ time! The couple, with Amy’s daughters, Lorin & Emily, returned to Colorado Springs two days after the wedding.  Four young families (22 in all) stayed with us at Silver Lake for another week.

Our Canadians, Alisha & Stefan, with Katherine (22 months) and Rudy (4 weeks), even stayed for a second week!  They are moving, now, to Eastern Canada for Stefan to finish his college program.  Please pray for just the right place for them to learn and live.

Our son Ben took AND PASSED his MA comprehensive exam on Saturday, August 16^th!

Our son Seth has taken a new job in York, PA.  He, Heidi, and their two little ones hope to settle in Lancaster, PA, near family and friends.  Please pray that he will do excellent work and that they find a good housing situation.

Our son Hiram has finished writing his PhD dissertation!  He submitted it this week on Aug. 29th.  Pray as he looks to God for his next opportunities.

On Wednesday, the 13^th, Mary and Dad (Andy) drove to Dallas, TX, where Mary has enrolled in the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL).  She will appreciate your prayers as she pursues a degree in cross cultural service, hoping to work overseas in the future.

SCRIPTURE – Praise the Lord with us that we have received the first copy of the complete Lelemi Bible (picture above) from the printers in Korea!  (Read more on the right side here – Praying for Upcoming Plans.)

Thank you, dear partners,

Andy & Kate

April-May 2014

Jesus said, “I am the true vine…Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.” John 15:1, 4

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

Andy’s Goals that were reached through the help of your prayers:   I prepared the modular lessons for a 10 step language discovery course, and will have an opportunity to try it out in Asia during the month of June.  The Wycliffe Associate banquets have gone well. Kate & I traveled in Michigan and I completed the banquets in Indiana.

Still pending:  Getting the Lelemi Old Testament Back-Translation underway with a colleague in Ghana.  Setting this up from afar has been difficult.   If we can do it, it will provide an example of good translation in a related language for four Old Testament language teams in Ghana’s Volta Region.  These teams are completing their drafts of Genesis.  The three New Testament teams have also started drafting Jesus’ parables in the Gospel of Luke on new computer equipment!

Kate says:  It was great to be able to travel with Andy for the first week of his speaking tour. The next weekend I was the retreat speaker for a women’s group (May 2-4).  Thanks for praying.  The response was very encouraging.

Mary was invited to join a Christian ballet company in Colorado Springs after a successful audition.  However, she has decided to attend GIAL in Dallas to begin training for cross cultural ministry. Thank you for praying for God’s guidance.

Let’s continue praying that all of us together will bear much fruit.

Love in Jesus,

Andy and Kate

(Believe) God…who…calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17)

Dear Praying Partners,

Andy arrived home from Asia 10 days ago and he is now feeling better (after a ‘lost’ voice and chest congestion). Thank you for praying with us! In SE Asia he met and gave input to national staff developing a number of new translation cluster programs.

He also gave a seminar at a university in Singapore on Key Considerations in Developing Writing Systems.

In March we are at home with a very busy Mary Lois (turning 18 in April). She is juggling the application process to GIAL (Wycliffe’s graduate training program in Dallas) with four college courses and one high school course to finish her online high school and Associates degree requirements by this May. She also works 20 hours a week and dances 17 hours a week. Her main concern is to get time for church friends and sleep! She also has an audition in Colorado Springs for a Christian ballet company on May 2-3.

Andy’s goals for this month, since he’ll be away half of April and May and then all of June, are to trim and re-pot the plants we will set outside for summer and straighten up our barn to make a bunkhouse for the grand kids coming for Isaac’s wedding celebration this July.
Our daughter Alisha is expecting her second baby at the end of June, so Grandma Kate hopes to visit her in Calgary, Canada! To see photos of our family in a one page news note click here.
From April 21-May 8, we will be in Michigan and Indiana as Andy speaks at pre-scheduled Wycliffe Associates Banquets. To receive free tickets for one of these events, contact Stan Feener at 1-888-745-4572 or stan_feener@wycliffeassociates.org.

Your partnership is helping bring things into existence that do not yet exist!

Our love and prayers,

Kate (and for Andy)

Dear Friends and Family,

Babies Galore!  Our son Seth & wife Heidi had a baby boy, Isaac Jonathan Ring, 8lb12oz, born on the morning of September 21st.  I had a delightful week with them and with big sister Arabella (19 months old).

On the morning of October 4th, our son Ethan and wife Amy had twins Cecilia and Cyrus.  Twins were not expected!  Cecilia was (7lbs 4ozs) and Cyrus (7lbs 8ozs). To see photos of our family in a one page news note click here.

Writing Papers! Andy traveled to Texas for organizational meetings and presented two well received papers.

And he’s not the only one writing! Here’s a link to Hiram’s three minute talk about his dissertation work from Singapore.  He won a prize for sharing this.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRQTf9k8zig

We are filled with JOY over the completion of the typesetting of the Lelemi Holy Bible in August. For three weeks in July and August, Andy worked with the Lelemi translation team leader, Markus Pewudie, in Ghana to finalize the punctuation and formatting of the entire Bible. Then for the last two weeks of August, Andy worked with the typesetting team in Dallas to prepare the manuscript for publication. Please pray as the camera-ready pages are sent to the Bible printers in Korea. We hope to see the Bibles reach Ghana by June 2014.

Both Andy and I attended the Wycliffe Associates President’s Summit (October 31-November 3).  Thank you for your prayers for wisdom and grace.  Participants far exceeded the anticipated funding goals! 

Our love and prayers,

Kate (and for Andy)