God Is At Work
There are a lot of things happening right now in Papua New Guinea, and we can see that God is at work. One of the coolest things going on right now is the Bible in every Bilum Partnership (if you don’t know what a bilum is you can read Sarah’s bilum blog
HERE). In the past the work of Bible translation has been seen as something that foreigners and foreign agencies have done. Now different organizations and churches are coming together to see how each can be involved in the work. It will be exciting to see this partnership move forward and see what Josh’s role might be in it.
Another way that God is working in PNG is through Oral Bible Storytelling. The Seed Company has been involved in training Papua New Guineans to develop Bible stories using standard translation theory to get Bible stories into local languages. People are even using the Bible stories as songs for traditional dances. The hope is that these stories will get people interested in, and excited about, written Bible translation projects in their language. Some initial training projects have been completed or will be completed in the next few months (see Josh’s blog post about his trip to the Are people to measure the impact of Bible Storytelling
HERE), and 12-16 new languages that have no Scripture will begin receiving Bible Storytelling training over the next year.
Settling In
We are starting to settle into our new life in Ukarumpa (read Sarah’s Ukarumpa blog
HERE). Makenna is at a birthday party as we write this newsletter. We are enjoying the culture of entertaining guests or going to friends’ houses for dinner on the weekends. It can be a challenge to plan meals when our “grocery store” can be hit or miss, but we do enjoy the variety of fresh produce at the local market, which has vendors on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 6:00-8:00 am. We have also made the very important decision of whom to use for a house meri and yardman.
Partner With Us
The school year is coming to a close in the next few days. Pray that after a break, Connor would be ready to go back and that he would enjoy going to school three days a week.
Makenna had a great time and made many friends at POC. Pray that she would be able to make friends with her new classmates as well.
Sarah is looking at a few different opportunities to work here in Ukarumpa. Pray that she finds work that she enjoys and is a good fit for her.
Josh leaves for Wewak tomorrow for a short four-day visit. This center serves the Sepik region, which is home to over 100 languages with no Scripture. They are in the process of developing a long-term strategy to address this critical need.
