Update and Prayer Requests: September 2021
Valerie and Nicasio Martinez
Translating God's Word with and for the people
who speak Quiatoni Zapotec

Dear friends, we are sad that we have several items of bad news.

With very heavy hearts, we heard that Karina (our colleague-friend who’s been intubated in the hospital for six weeks) passed away Friday night. We don’t know any more at this time. Her family and our colleagues who were helping to care for her would appreciate your prayers.

Beto’s mother-in-law is dying from diabetes. Her husband, their children and their families would appreciate your prayers.

Pastor Delfino (the pastor of our local church) is on oxygen at home because of covid. His wife passed away two weeks ago from covid. Again, your prayers are appreciated.

I keep forgetting to tell you that Nicasio found a room to rent for his office! You may remember that in February, Nicasio gave up his office that’s next door to our house (on our other piece of land) so that his parents could live there. They have adjusted well to living there and being more independent. One big perk is that their children who live in Oaxaca City are able to come and visit them more often.

Meanwhile, our living room became the “attic,” with all Nicasio’s office stuff stashed there. (Good thing we didn’t have any visitors in the house during that time; we saw visitors only on the porch.) Then in May, Nicasio found a place that fitted what he needed and is just a few blocks from our house. After getting internet service provided for and a few pieces of furniture, he moved into his new office in June. Thank you for praying for just the right place for him!

After working off and on for about six years on a small book describing Quiatoni Zapotec’s grammar, it has finally jumped through all the hoops (checking it for accuracy, terminology and Spanish) in early September! I was very happy to print 25 copies of it and look forward to distributing it. I hope it will be helpful to the bilingual teachers and people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec. (You might remember that people put down indigenous languages by saying that they don’t have any grammar.) The title in English would be A Peek at Quiatoni Zapotec’s Grammar.

Nicasio is really enjoying teaching his class on Indigenous Languages for the Master’s program of translation and interpretation. He likes all the reading he’s doing in preparation—and thanks to my niece, has discovered an African author who is influential in decolonizing the mind, that is, encouraging people to write in their own indigenous languages instead of the main European languages. Nicasio’s also enjoying the positive feedback from his students; how they are discovering the worth and value of their own languages and cultures.

All our regular activities continue: Nicasio is revising the book of Acts; he pastors a small group of young people; he’s teaching a couple of people on-line to read and write in Zapotec; he pops over to see Mom and Dad several times a day; and he and Beto take turns teaching in the Zapotec church service.

I continue working on the bilingual dictionary, keyboarding hundreds of illustrative sentences I found in a notebook (from the early 1990s!), and working on a book about the back-strap loom.

Beto continues to work on translating the Psalms, studying and recording Acts, and working on digital projects to make the translation and recording of it available on cell phones.

Rusty had a doctor’s appointment last week to go over his bloodwork and CT scan (check-up for the testicular cancer; he had surgery in March for it). Rusty was delighted that the doctor said, “Everything looks good. See you in six months!” since he thought it was going to be three months for the next check-up. We are so thankful for this great report!

As always, we thank you for your interest, prayers and support for our ministry of Bible translation and for all of us involved in making God’s Word speak Quiatoni Zapotec.
love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez

Update and Prayer Requests: August 2021 - Valerie and Nicasio Martinez
Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec

Nicasio, Beto, Rogelio (the main author of the book about Zapotec numbers), Felipe (the other author and a teacher), and I met three times this month via zoom to revise the book of exercises for students to learn and practice the numbers in Zapotec. (Other than 1 to 10, 20, and 100, Spanish numbers are usually used when people are speaking in Zapotec.) Mostly we looked at the directions (in Zapotec) of how to do each exercise. I have to admit that even though we got a lot done in the first session of five hours, it was a little discouraging to see that we’d covered 16 pages out of the 60 pages that I’d made. But it was encouraging to realize that the farther we went, the more we’d be able to use the instructions from similar exercises that we’d already revised.

The next step is to ask some of the bilingual teachers to test the exercises in their classrooms. We hope it will help them as they incorporate more Zapotec into their teaching.

We continue to study the book of Acts during Zapotec church via zoom. Nicasio is encouraged to see that people are becoming more and more accustomed to speaking up during the service. It was also wonderful to hear Chely thank God for so many blessings, even though she’s recuperating from covid. (She went to Quiatoni to nurse an uncle who was very sick with covid and then got it herself, although with a lighter case.)

We are so thankful for these folks who are so interested and dedicated to studying God’s Word in their own language and applying it to their lives. They are a blessing to us!

This afternoon (Thursday, Aug. 26) Nicasio will be one of three presentations celebrating the 40th anniversary of the National Department of Adult Education. He will be speaking about how indigenous people have a poor self-identity, having been scarred and mis-shapen by the insults, prejudices and abuses they have suffered for generations and how they need healing from that so they can be self-confident and proud of their indigenous heritage, language and culture.

We ordered a new computer for Beto since the battery in his is swelling and can’t be replaced. Mike and Tara brought the new one but unfortunately its battery wouldn’t hold a charge. We are returning that one and ordered another. We are so thankful that it was delivered to Rusty on Tuesday so he could bring it yesterday when he came.

We are happy to let you know that Beto and Candi’s daughter Yari is doing well after her emergency appendectomy three weeks ago. In another week, she’ll be able to resume her normal activities. Thank you for your prayers for her. We are also very thankful to let you know that the medical expenses have all been covered by God’s generous children!

Thank you, too, for praying for our colleague-friend Karina. She is still on a ventilator, which is slowly being reduced; her organs seem to be functioning well and x-rays show no sign of pneumonia or other damage apart from covid. Her condition is serious but stable. Thank you for your continued prayers for her.
Family news: Mike and Tara have been here two weeks! We are enjoying having them here and getting to know Tara and Royan better. Royan (9 months old) is very active, “talking” a lot, very curious, and likes to be where the action is. He loves Grandpa Nicasio, who often takes him next door to see Great-grandma and Great-grandpa. They thoroughly enjoy him!

Rusty got here last night and will be here for two weeks. We have a full house and even fuller hearts! We are so thankful that our kids are good friends and that they want to come home to visit.

Your interest, prayers, and support in our ministry of Bible translation are such an encouragement to us! Thank you for standing with us to give the people of Quiatoni God’s Word in their own language.
​
love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez
​

VALERIE AND NICASIO MARTINEZTRANSLATING GOD'S WORD WITH AND FOR THE PEOPLE WHO SPEAK QUIATONI ZAPOTEC

The Zapotec church sermon is more of an interactive Bible study. It took a little while for people to get used to answering questions when we went to using Zoom for Zapotec church but we are finally more comfortable with it. If you had been there on July 1 when we studied Acts 20:7-12 (about Eutychus falling asleep and falling out of the window), you would have heard this (from my quick translations into English):
Beto was teaching: “Why do you think Eutychus fell asleep?”

Several people answered, “Because Paul talked so long.” (Everyone was smiling; I’m sure they were identifying with poor Eutychus!)
Rebeca: “Maybe Eutychus didn’t understand Paul’s preaching.”
Fernando: “Maybe he was tired from working, too.”
Beto: “And no cell phone to look at!”
Nicasio: “There weren’t any deacons to walking around rapping people on the head to wake them up.” (Yes, churches in our area do have deacons that do this!)
Carmen: “It’s good that Paul was talking so much ‘cause he was leaving tomorrow.”
Meche: “Maybe he should have asked questions while he’s preaching!” (Implying “like Beto and Nicasio do”.)
Beto: “So what makes us want to sleep in church?”
Sofía: “When we don’t understand the language that being used for preaching.”
Beto: “That’s right. Another one is that we are physically tired and sitting still. So how long should a sermon last? How long can we sit still?”
Priscila: “One hour, maybe.”
Fernando: “It depends on what the sermon is about!”
Elizabeth: “If there are questions and it’s more of a Bible study, it can go longer.”
Beto: “Maybe it’s neither’s fault that Eutychus fell asleep. And maybe both sides!”
Nicasio: “Paul didn’t normally preach all night. He didn’t scold anyone for Eutychus falling asleep. But nowadays the person preaching isn’t responsible for people sleeping; it’s always the fault of the congregation for going to sleep. That’s why the deacons wake people up but no one says to the preachers, ‘You’ve been going on too long.’”
Beto: “It’s good to talk about this because we can learn from it about how long we should preach, etc. I think, too, that there are people who take very literally what Jesus said about ‘Come to Me and I’ll give you rest’!”

* * * * * *
Now that we have received more chapters of Acts that were back-translated into Spanish, Beto has been busy keyboarding that into the program we use for translation. (Since the people who usually do back-translations don’t have computers, we print out the chapters with very short lines of text and lots of space between the lines so they can handwrite the Spanish in under the Zapotec and not have to crowd it in.)

Nicasio and Beto have been working with Rogelio, the main author of the book about Zapotec numbers, on revising the book for a reprint of it. I’ve made a book of exercises to encourage students to learn and use the Zapotec numbers. There’s still a lot of work to be done on it; we’ll be meeting with Rogelio and Felipe (the other author and a teacher) on Friday (July 30) to edit and improve that.

Please pray for the people of Quiatoni. They are being hit hard with lots of covid cases.

Family news: We are looking forward to our kids coming to visit in August! Mike, Tara and Royan arrive on Aug. 11 for three weeks. (Mike will be working from here part of the time.) Rusty arrives on August 25 for two weeks, so there will be one week when they are all here with us! We appreciate your prayers for safe travels for them and for a good and safe time while they are here.
​
Thank you for your interest, prayers, and support of our ministry of translating God’s Word into Quiatoni Zapotec. We are thankful for YOU!
​
love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez

Dear Friends,

Last night about 9 pm Nicasio took Beto's older daughter (16 year old
Yari), Beto and Candy to the doctor because Yari was in so much pain.
She's been in pain off and on for a week or more but they hadn't been
able to figure out the cause. Tonight at the doctor's, they realized it
was her appendix. They took her appendix out about midnight. She came
through it well. Nicasio will pick them up (Beto and Candy stayed with
her during the night) and take them home when she's released.

Please pray for Yari's recuperation and thank God with us that it wasn't
worse.

If you would like to help them financially with this unexpected and
expensive need, we'd be glad to facilitate that.

Thank you for your prayers!

love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/nicasiomartinez

May is often the month that graduates are celebrated and Nicasio was included in SIL’s* May meeting honoring graduates. This is my paraphrase of what he shared during that meeting:
​
I continue studying because I want the tools to meet the challenges that I face from the bilingual teachers and others. Tools that I can use when I talk about literacy and languages. SIL focuses more on the languages whereas my studies have focused more on the effect that languages have on people, especially when languages are used by those in power or authority and how that affects people.

The first classes in the doctorate program were very difficult and complicated but I wanted to do the doctorate program to help the bilingual teachers. They are in a difficult position: they are often not assigned to teach in a community where their own language is spoken but they are supposed to grade their students on the use of their (the students’) own mother tongue.

I thank God for helping me through the classes, which I’ve finished; I haven’t finished my thesis yet. I also want to thank Valerie for standing with me and encouraging me along the way. And I want to thank SIL folks for inspiring me and giving me room to grow. I hope SIL folks will continue inspiring people, especially the indigenous people since they are the ones who will have the greatest impact on their communities.

A few days later, Nicasio was one of two panelists on a live online program to answer some questions about indigenous languages, culture, and identity. My paraphrase of parts of his answers:

Our culture and language are important and need to be encouraged but even before that we need to be proud of who we are. I say that because we can see from history how we have been treated. The mistreatment that we’ve received over hundreds of years are like wounds that have never been healed. For example, in the year 1537 Pope Paul III declared that the indigenous people of the Americas are humans. All these sorts of things have wounded our forefathers and they have passed those wounds down to us and have not been healed. When our children go to school, it’s like going to a different country since the teachers don’t speak the children’s language. When we go to a doctor, he doesn’t speak our language, either. We indigenous people are like foreigners in our own land. We need to give importance to our language and culture and we can do this best by speaking it with our children and teaching them our culture so they can be proud of who they are.

My greatest achievement is not just my achievement but a team achievement: the writing and publishing of Zekre rkaa diidx zah (This Is How Zapotec Is Written) in 1999, We worked with a group of people, including bilingual teachers and others who were interested in writing our Zapotec, to finalize our Zapotec alphabet. After this book was written, the teachers found funding to have it printed and distributed a copy to each school in the area where Quiatoni Zapotec is spoken. Now many children have learned to read and write in Zapotec and there are teachers using the book to help their students learn to write their own language.

Some might wonder why we spend so much time with the bilingual teachers. We are happy to help them since they are helping us by encouraging their students and their parents to read and write in Quiatoni Zapotec. When God’s Word is available, many people will be able to read it!

Beto has continued revising the Psalms that he’s translated. He and Candi have also been learning a lot—and putting into practice—how to evangelize people. Beto found a method for opening the conversation that he really likes, involving showing two curved pieces which are the same size but don’t look it. On the back, he has printed in Zapotec how to use the pieces to share Jesus with others. He made a lot of them, cutting them all out by hand, and then shared some with the youth group since Nicasio has been teaching them about evangelism. Beto said that he gave some to his brother-in-law to use, too.

We would appreciate your prayers for Rusty’s upcoming CT scan and bloodwork on June 4. He’ll see the doctor on June 11. We are praying that the suspicious lymph node will not have changed or maybe shrunk some and that his bloodwork will show no sign of the cancer. Thank you for holding him up to the Great Physician.

Royan just had his six month check up and is healthy and happy! Tuesday (5/25/21) he was shopping with his momma, and fortunately they were still in the store, when a car hit Mike and Tara’s car in the parking lot. They are still waiting to hear from the insurance company about their car. Thank God with us that Tara and Royan were safely inside the store when this happened and pray that the details about the car will be sorted out quickly.

Mike has decided to change jobs for a position that will allow him to work from home. He starts June 1st and is excited about this new opportunity!

Thank you for making all these things possible with your prayers. Thank you for praying for us, our family and those who work with us as well as the translation itself. You are a blessing to us!

love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez
​

Update and Prayer Requests: April 2021
​Valerie and Nicasio Martinez 
Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec
​
Our biggest news this month is that Nicasio graduated from the PhD program Friday, April 23! Classes finished a year ago but due to covid restrictions, graduation kept being postponed. The ceremony was smaller and less formal than usual but it happened and Nicasio has his diploma! He said that the best thing about graduation was that it relit the fire for him to finish his thesis so that he can truly be done with the PhD program. Please pray for him as he works on it and also deals with the external hard drive that isn’t working and has on it the videos of the course he taught to the bilingual teachers for his thesis.

Nicasio and I have given final (we hope!) read-throughs of the book documenting the Quiatoni Zapotec numbers from one to one hundred. It’s almost ready for printing!

Nicasio has been continuing to revise the Book of Acts as we continue to study it during Zapotec church service. (Zapotec church service is still online only.) Interest is high as we work on Chapter 19 and discuss things like “Do people need to be rebaptized?” “Does God heal only through the use of special cloths?” “Who can pray for someone to be healed?” “Why is it that sometimes people don’t get healed, even after we pray for them?” It’s wonderful to see how feel the freedom and confidence to ask questions. Please continue to pray for these folks, especially for more understanding of God’s Word, which is what one lady asked as a prayer request for herself.

Nicasio is also going through the scripts for dubbing the Deditos videos. (More information about Deditos here: https://mailchi.mp/7d67344ed722/deditos-eng) He continues to teach (online) two people to read and write in Quiatoni Zapotec. (They speak it and want to be able to write it well.)

Please pray for unity within our (local) church since there is disagreement about how to deal with government covid restrictions. (We have heard of similar problems in other churches; if yours is one of them, we’d like to pray for yours, too.) Recently the pastor has started an inperson youth group, without saying anything to Nicasio about it, even though Nicasio continues to have online meetings with those of the church’s youth who want to meet with him. Today (April 25) the online group went on a bike ride as an outdoor activity where they can safely spend time together.

I spent the first two weeks of April in Mitla, doing an inventory of the Children’s Library. The library is self-serve (you check out your books, your return the cards to your books, you reshelve your books) so there’s lots of room for mistakes. Add to that the fact that I haven’t done an inventory for five years and that there are about 14,000 pieces in the library! I was very thankful for three friends helping me for many hours and an afternoon of four teens helping me.

Rusty thanks you all for your prayers and asks that you continue praying for him, specifically that his scans and bloodwork in early June will come back clear. He’s back to normal work and normal life. We thank you, too, for your prayers for him.

Mike, Tara and Royan hope to visit us this summer so they’ve gotten Royan’s passport! Royan is five months old and starting to eat solids. Tara says this is a real blessing since the formula he is on, due to colic and a milk protein intolerance, is quite expensive. Mike would like you to pray for him as he’s in the process of applying for a new job.

Thank you for standing with us and making God’s Word available to those who speak Quiatoni Zapotec! You are blessing many people!

love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez​

Thank you for your continued prayers for our son Rusty. Please continue to pray for him; specifically that the suspicious lymph node will not grow any larger. He will have another CT scan and bloodwork done in early June to check on it.

Details:
This past week Rusty went to IU Health (the world's center for testicular cancer) for second opinions with an oncologist and an urologist. A few days later he saw the oncologist that he was referred to by urologist/surgeon that operated on him on March 5. All three doctors concur that active surveillance is the way to go, meaning to keep an eye on it, have another CT scan and bloodwork done in two months to see what that suspicious lymph node is doing. (It is enlarged but still within "normal" range; it's not the node that they would expect to be affected by the testicular cancer, if it had spread.)

If it has grown (please pray that it won't!), they recommend surgery to remove it. If it hasn't grown or has shrunk, they recommend CT scans every four months for a while, then every six months, then every year. Even if there should be a relapse, the cure rate is still 99.5%!
​
Rusty says that he's still pretty peaceful about it. Thank you for praying for him and for us. We are thankful for you and how you've stood with us over the years. Thank you!
​
love, Valerie
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez

Update and Prayer Requests: March 2021
Valerie and Nicasio Martinez
Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec

Nicasio continues to work on revising the Book of Acts, keeping ahead of where he and Beto are teaching through it for the Zapotec church service. Last Thursday we studied Acts 19:1-7 and got into an interesting discussion about baptism and being rebaptized. One lady told us how she was going to church because she enjoyed listening to the sermons (in Spanish) and how people talked about God. She was encouraged to be baptized and she finally was but didn’t really know what baptism was for. Beto’s wife Candy said that she was raised in a Christian home and thought that she would go to heaven because her parents were believers. She said that it wasn’t until they began studying the Bible in Zapotec that she understood that each person needs Jesus as his Savior to be able to go to heaven. We love to hear our Zapotec church family share how much they are learning through studying God’s Word in the language they understand best! Thank you for praying for the Zapotec church service, for those who attend it and for Nicasio and Beto as they teach.

In January, Nicasio participated in a presentation of a story book in Quiatoni Zapotec since he had helped with editting the Zapotec. After the presentation, a man asked if he could interview Nicasio on the radio! Nicasio agreed and that interview happened the last day of February. I was glad to go along and also glad to not be interviewed. As we walked with the interviewer to the radio station, he asked me why it was important, almost asking what was the use, of preserving indigenous languages. I told him that each language has its own world view, its own knowledge, and what would people like my parents-in-law do if they couldn’t speak their own language? Then I asked him how he would feel if “they” said that Spanish wasn’t allowed any more, that only Russian could be used, only Russian would be taught in schools. He thought for a minute and then said, “It would be very difficult.” Nicasio said, “And that’s what’s happened to us indigenous people.”

We had taken a set of all the secular books we’ve produced in Zapotec, since they had met at the Quiatoni storybook presentation. He was fascinated by the books and especially by the non-fiction. He wanted to know how indigenous languages deal with technology that they don't have words for. Nicasio used "rocket" as an example, since we have a book about the first time man went to the moon. He explained that lots of things in Quiatoni Zapotec are "metal" and sometimes have a phrase with them to indicate what kind of metal (metal that one hunts with--gun, metal for the ears--earring, metal to write on--typewriter, etc.) and sometimes the context gives the needed information. So a rocket is "a metal that goes to the moon."

We were pleased with how the interview went and how interested the interviewer was about indigenous languages, especially Quiatoni Zapotec.

I’m happy that I’ve been able to concentrate more—thank you for praying for me in this!—on the dictionary assignments. I’m making progress, although it’s slow. (I thought I was a year behind but it’s only 10 months!) I’ve also been able to work on some corrections for our Peek at Quiatoni Zapotec Grammar book. I have hopes of seeing it published this year!

Now for family news:
Nicasio’s parents have adjusted well and are happy in their new home next door, which used to be Nicasio’s office. Mom and Dad are doing well, keeping busy with living more independently (making meals, keeping house, taking care of their chickens, cleaning up the yard that had become a wilderness, etc.). Their children and their families come to visit; even their daughter and son-in-law from Mexico City came for a weekend! Both Mom and Dad are getting stronger from the exercise that living independently entails. Nicasio is over to see them several times a day; we get groceries and whatever else they need from stores. They do like muffins so I keep them supplied with those. Thank you for your prayers for Mom and Dad.

Nicasio has turned out guest room back into his temporary office while he looks for a place to rent. He has found a possible office--actually a whole house! It's on the outskirts of a little town near us.  Apparently the house has been broken into (when it was empty) so he said that if he decides to rent it, he'll ask the owner to beef up the security especially on one room where he'd have the important stuff. Thank you for continuing to pray for an office for him.

Tara and baby Royan (now four months old! and “talking” and laughing) are doing well at home together. They would appreciate prayers as Mike is looking for a new job this year. We are thankful that Tara is so thoughtful in often sending us pictures and videos of Royan! And we enjoy video calls with them, too.
We thank you for all your prayers for Rusty during this hard time. We are thankful that the doctors moved quickly, that the seminoma (testicular cancer) seems to have been contained and removed, that his recovery has been good, for Mike and Tara taking such good care of him. Rusty has two appointments for second opinions on March 29th and an appointment with an oncologist, referred by the surgeon, on April 1st. We appreciate your prayers for these appointments, for wisdom for the doctors and for the best treatment for Rusty. (Not necessarily the “easiest” treatment but the treatment that will be best for the best outcome.) Thank you for standing with us and Rusty—and our whole family!

Thank you for being part of our ministry of Bible translation and part of our lives! Your part is important and we thank God for you.
​
love, Valerie and Nicasio
www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez
​

Dear praying friends,

First of all, my apologies for not sending out my first prayer request for Rusty as a BCC.
Second of all, thank you all for praying for Rusty and for us. We so appreciate your lifting him up to the Great Physician. Please continue to pray for him as cancer was found but thankfully seems to have been contained. More details below.

And now, here is Rusty's update, written by him:
Thank you so much for praying as I went through surgery last week! Recovery has been quick and stress free. I spent the week after surgery with Mike, Tara, and Royan, who took excellent care of me.

As in all things, there is good and bad news. I received the pathology report of the tumor in the middle of last week. Unfortunately cancer was detected in the tumor, labeled seminoma. At this point it appears that the cancer was confined to the testicle. And while there is no indication that the cancer has spread, we will be keeping a close eye on one suspicious lymph node. According to my urologist, seminoma "is the good one to have." It spreads slowly and has a 95% to 99% cure rate, which is incredibly encouraging.

For those interested in the technical stuff, this is currently labeled as T1B. 

Last week I also wrapped up my CT scans with a scan of my chest. Praise the Lord it came back clear! In addition, the urologist ordered one more round of blood work, called "tumor markers" yesterday after my post op. They also came back normal!

I'm thankful to have many more answers than I did two weeks ago. So where do I go from here? Based on the suspicious lymph node, I've requested a second opinion from IU Health in Indianapolis. Unknown to me, IU is the world center for testicular cancer. In fact, Lance Armstrong was treated for advanced testicular cancer at IU and lived to tell the tale! So the last week of March I'll spend seeing several oncologists and one more urologist to cover all my bases.

​Then we'll be able to make a decision on whether to continue observation or move ahead with a specific treatment. 

Thank you for your support during this difficult time. My community here in Warsaw and around the world (literally) has been incredible! Please continue to pray that tumor markers would be clear and that this one lymph node would behave itself!