Roads leading to Arop village were treacherous in April.

Our partners Ben & Mandy Pehrson and their children, and Jessie Wright are heading to Arop tomorrow (tonight U.S. time). Pray that they reach Arop quickly and safely on Tuesday, PNG time.

When they arrive, they and Aluis Simatab, a Papua New Guinean translation consultant, will begin the final checking of Acts in five languages: Goiniri, Wolwale, Romei-Barera, Pou, and Barupu. Pray that the translators and the language experts from their villages will all arrive on time.

Our other news

Eric graduates on Saturday from Taylor University. Pray he finishes well.

The bank and the homeowner were unable to agree on a closing date for the house we are trying to buy in Florida, so we had to start over  with a new contract. Long story! We rest in knowing the Lord has it all in control. Pray that we do the right things along the way.

Our “Plan A”

Lord willing, early next week we move out of this house in Upland, Indiana, and move to Birchwood, Wisconsin until around July 1^st. Close on the house on July 5^th, move into the house quickly, Eric’s wedding on July 14^th.

PDF Version

Kenny Aiprum is a Bible translator for the Sissano language in the Aitape West Translation Project. I took this photo as Kenny was explaining something to an elderly gentleman from Sissano who helped us check Luke in his language. Kenny is also an up-and-coming leader in the Bible translation movement in PNG. He helped mentor other translators in the latest translation software last year at a workshop at our national training center, and he will be doing that again this year in June. We recently heard that Kenny has stomach pain, headache, fever and chills. He was able to visit his local health “aid post” where he was treated for Malaria. Please pray that God will restore him to full health and that we will all give glory to God for his work in and through Kenny’s life.

PDF Version

Pictured are several of the translators assembling the first Easter Story booklets to come out of the printers while our partner Ben Pehrson is typesetting the remaining languages in the background.

In June 2010, I wrote about how the pastors who are also Bible translators decided that the best way to serve their multilingual congregations might be to publish some Scriptures in “diglot” form, with their translation in their own language in one column, and their “back translation” in Tok Pisin, the language people use to speak to people from other language groups. You can read why they think this is a good idea here.

The diglot booklets of the Easter Story were enthusiastically received by some district pastors in the town of Aitape on Palm Sunday. Pray that the Lord would continue to transform lives through his translated Word.

PDF Version

This weekend, seven Aitape West translators and literacy workers, including Pou language translator Clement Tonini (above, pointing), are half-way through a two-week dictionary workshop. These men will lead three additional dictionary workshops for the other languages in the project later in the year.

With help from community members, the translators will continue to work on and use the dictionaries as they translate. They will learn to search the electronic version on their computers by topics, or “semantic domains,” so words with similar meanings are all listed together. This makes it so much easier to find exactly the right word or expression they need in their translation.

Please pray the participants will not only make progress on their dictionaries, but also that they would be spiritually encouraged by each other at this workshop.

Please also pray for our teammate Jessie Wright as she assists the translators and literacy workers in this workshop.

PDF Version

In December, we asked you to pray that “faith would come by hearing” for many in the Aitape West area through audio versions of Luke. In Sissano, a church leader used those recordings to help him with his reading fluency. At Christmas he read part of the Christmas story in the Sissano language in church for the first time.

Some women told Sissano translator Kenny Aiprum, “This story that you translated, the Christmas Story, one of our church leaders read it and those words shot straight into our stomachs and really excited our stomachs.” Read the rest of the story here.

Pray that the Lord would use the Scriptures in these local languages, in audio and print form, on Easter as many read and hear that story for the first time in their languages.

What we’re up to: We’re back in Indiana. While in Florida we made an offer on a house. It’s a short sale, so the bank must approve the deal. Closing: 4th of July? Pray for the Lord’s guidance in all of this.

April 16 – May 10: I (John) head to Birchwood, Wisconsin while Bonnie heads to Thailand for a conference. I would welcome opportunities to share our ministry with churches or groups while I’m in Wisconsin. Pray that all the final details for our book can be completed before we leave Indiana, and that it will be published soon!

PDF Version

When Sissano translator Kenny Aiprum first took the booklets of Luke and the Christmas Story back to the three Sissano villages, the response was so enthusiastic in the first village that he managed to keep aside only a few copies to distribute to the other villages. He made sure to reserve a copy for the Catholic catechist, since that is the majority church in the Sissano area. The catechist wanted to read it over and over and be able to read it with understanding so that he could stand up in the Sunday service and read it well in their own language. But many women came and reported afterwards that when he read it, he made quite a few mistakes since this was the first time he had read something publicly in their own language.

Kenny went back with a request from the church leaders that we make a recording of the Christmas Story on CD, so they could listen to it over and over again as they read it on paper. In October Kenny took those CDs back to the Sissano villages.

Kenny belongs to a smaller church denomination, so he didn’t know that the Catholic catechist was planning to read the Christmas Story in their local Sissano language during their morning worship service on Christmas day. He figured that the catechist didn’t know how to read very well, so he didn’t think the Christmas Story would be read. But others came back after the Christmas services and told Kenny with much joy that they got to hear the story of Jesus’ birth read in their own language. They reported that when they heard it read, it really pierced their hearts and really made them think because they heard these words in their own language. For too many years they had not heard this story told in their own Sissano language.

The catechist had listened to the CD and prepared well for Christmas day. Kenny attended his own church that Sunday, so he didn’t hear it himself. But some women from a mothers group came to Kenny’s place to tell him what they had experienced. They said, “This story that you translated, the Christmas Story, one of our church leaders read it and those words shot strait into our stomachs and really excited our stomachs.” Kenny reported this with a big smile on his face and laughter in his voice as he recalled how happy they were to hear the Christmas Story for the first time in their own language.

This experience at Christmas motivated those who heard the Sissano Scriptures to want more of God’s Word translated and to have more of their worship expressed in their local language. Some gave Kenny their song books to have their worship songs translated. Previously they didn’t show an interest in this, but after hearing the Sissano Scriptures read during the Christmas Sunday service, they asked Kenny to do this for them.

Kenny says that the passages from Luke started something in their stomachs and many people have come to talk with him. The audio cassettes and CDs were bought up quickly, especially by young people, and many older people are waiting for more to be made available. They were sold out before the coastal village had a chance to get any, so one copy was sent to them and the village gathered to listen together as a community. One old man who sat and listened to the audio recording was particularly moved. His grandchildren reported to Kenny how excited and happy he was to hear the Sissano scriptures read on CD.

Many people in the community heard the Sissano Scriptures read for the first time and have come to see Kenny, especially mothers groups and prayer groups. They have come to ask him to help them type up prayers that they would like to say in their Sissano language. Kenny was almost laughing as he said, “I have been thinking about this thing that happened, and how just a short passage that was read is continuing to shoot them and excite them and they keep coming to me, talking to me about the Christmas Story when Jesus was born.” The impact that this first portion has had on the community has strengthened Kenny to continue translating God’s Word for his people.

In Arop, another translation workshop has begun. Translators from several languages are hoping to make their final changes to Acts before final checking of that book in May. Pray that they also make good decisions. And please pray for all of us, that we would live the gospel we translate.

Coming soon, Lord willing:
???? Heading back to Upland, Indiana after we settle our future housing situation in Florida.

April 16 – May 10: I (John) head to Birchwood, Wisconsin while Bonnie heads to Thailand for a conference.  I would welcome opportunities to share our ministry with churches or groups while I’m in Wisconsin.

PDF Version

On Saturday, one of our best friends in Arop village, Linus Wairapu, died from the Tuberculosis he had fought for a decade.

During our years on the beach before the tsunami, we trusted him with our lives as our boat skipper. He was also our carpenter and helper in many practical ways. Linus often explained Arop culture to us when we were clueless. After the tsunami he became a Bible translator. A year ago this month he said to me, “I am going to stay with this work until I die.”

He kept that promise.

For more on how we worked, prayed, joked, and translated together, see this page.

Please pray for Linus’s family as they grieve for him. Pray for the remaining members of the Arop translation team, that the Lord would give us strength and years to finish what we started.

Coming soon, Lord willing:
March 1-6: At missions conference at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks, Largo Florida.
March 7-14: Still in Florida, looking for a place to live in the Seminole/Largo area beginning July or August. During the next school year, we plan to travel up to three out of every four weeks, but hope to find an inexpensive place to call “home.” Suggestions are welcome.
Let us know if you have a car we can borrow for all or part of our time in FL in March. 

PDF Version

When word came that Linus Wairapu had died of Tuberculosis, I was having dinner with a friend I had not seen in 28 years. In less than that time, Linus Wairapu came into our lives, and had left. My friend asked what the phone call from Papua New Guinea was about. I said, “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” I couldn’t begin to tell him how much Linus Wairapu means to me and to my family, and how much we will miss him. I knew I could not handle the emotion of thinking about Linus while trying to catch up on my friend and his family. So we had our dinner, and now it’s time to mourn Linus and to remember his life, at least the part of it that touched ours.

When we first arrived in Arop in February 1988, Linus was probably the first Arop man we ever met. During our ten years on the beach in Arop, Linus was our skipper. He piloted our 18-foot dinghy with its 40 h.p. Yamaha outboard motor to and from Arop, with my most precious cargo inside: my family. Going in and out of the dangerous breakers, we routinely placed our lives in his hands.

He was among the best skippers on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, always careful to count the waves as they came in, waiting for just the right gap between swells when he could start the engine and gun it, crossing an oncoming wave just after it broke, then speeding on before the next one approached.

He could “read” the waves better than anyone we knew—an important skill when moving through ocean breakers.

Eric especially enjoyed the occasions when Linus let him drive the boat. [I'll put a photo of that in here when I find it.]

On one occasion, Linus misjudged a particularly large wave when a fellow passenger was too active in backseat driving. The wave crashed right into the boat, sweeping Bonnie and Brianna, along with the chair they were sitting on, all the way to the back of the boat. Somehow, Linus was able to get the boat, half-full of water out of the impact zone before the next wave could hit us. Linus felt awful. It was a reminder of how dangerous coastal sea travel can be, and of how good a skipper he was: Of the dozens of times we traveled with him, that was the only mishap.

With a knack for mechanical things, he was in charge of maintaining our outboard motor. When my parents came to visit us in Arop in 1989, Linus was away visiting relatives, so I had to skipper the boat myself as we went to the airstrip. It poured rain, and I forgot to flush the engine with fresh water. Of course it froze up, and Linus (right, in photo below) had to help me free it up again while our friend John Maki looked on.

Linus also did carpentry for us on our house in Arop village, which was quickly going the way of all things made of tropical materials.

He protected our lives as a skipper, and repaired our house as a carpenter. We worked together on electrical and plumbing projects. But his most critical service to us was as trusted confidant. When we first started living in Arop, many things about the culture confused us. When we didn’t know what was going on or how to respond to a situation, we could always ask Linus. We knew we would get the real answer, even if it meant he had to tell us we had done something inappropriate.

I had been trying to get the Arop word for “help,” but everybody said there was no word for “help” in Arop. Instead, they borrowed the Tok Pisin word. I had pestered Linus so much about this word that he finally told me: “awupaij.” So when I saw Linus carrying our heavy outboard motor from the boat to the workshop, I though I had my opportunity to use it. I yelled from our back porch, “Linus, let me come and awupaij you.” Raucous laughter erupted from all the houses in the neighborhood. In the quiet of the workshop, I asked him why so many people had laughed so hard. He said, “Well, that’s our word for help. But we don’t use it because the young people have ruined it. It used to be just a normal word, but now it’s . . . it’s like . . .” He hesitated. “Sexy words” he whispered in English.

One day his daughter Nira had fallen into the lagoon out of her mother’s canoe and nearly drowned. I rode along as Linus drove our boat to the closest clinic with Nira and his wife, Jenny. Nira had been under water for some time, but she survived with no apparent ill effects.

Linus became my closest Arop friend while we were on the beach. Most Arops don’t want you to mess around with their names. A nickname based on what somebody has done is fine, but it should never sound anything like their name. Linus had a tendency to sleep soundly. Often when we gathered on the beach at 5:30 a.m. for a boat trip to Aitape, our nearest town, everybody would be there except the skipper. Linus was still asleep, so somebody would have to go and wake him up. It was a long-standing joke, so I started calling him “Lin usia,” which in Arop sounds like, “he didn’t get up.” I took the fact that he let me call him that as an indication of how close our friendship was. Or maybe he was just that gracious.

After the 1998 tsunami wiped out Arop village and killed his pregnant wife, Jenny, and their baby daughter, Christophila, he was left with five children. He married a widow who had six of her own.

We no longer owned a boat and now we lived inland in a new house in the new Arop village. We didn’t need a skipper or a carpenter. I invited Linus to join the team as a translator. His major contribution to the Arop translation team was his ability to think of better ways to say things in Arop. Many translators find it hard to try to think of other ways to express an idea once they have already written something down.

Linus (in striped shirt on the right, with fellow Arop language translators Emil Ninkure (left) and Pastor Peter Marokiki) was also great at making jokes and fond of saying that translation was too hard to do and too tiring if you didn’t have some humor to keep everybody’s eyes open. He and I enjoyed many good jokes together over the years, and tried to outdo each other coming up with expressions that incorporated at least one word each from English, Tok Pisin, and his Arop language. A friend who enjoys trilingual puns is a rare gift.

Linus has suffered with tuberculosis for the last decade or so, and apparently that is what finally killed him. As his body weakened, his faith grew and his desire to finish the Bible translation in Arop grew with it.

By his perseverance, he was a great encouragement to the translators from all eleven languages involved in the Aitape West Translation Project. I’m sure they will all be at his funeral.

Linus reminded me that since the project started, several translators who were not Christians when they began translating have become followers of Christ. He predicted some would eventually be leaders in their villages because of the wisdom they have gained working on their translations.

Linus did not live to see that prediction come true, or “bear fruit” as he would say in Arop. But he did live to see several books of the Bible published in his language. He spent most of his adult life helping to make that happen.

He told me in February 2011, “I am going to stay with this work until I die.”

He kept that promise.

The translators have all gone home and will return to Arop in March for the next translation workshop. Pray that the Lord would fill each translator with a love for the Lord and His Word, and that their witness will influence many in their home villages to read and respond to their translations of Luke.

Bonnie and I have finally turned in what may be the final draft of our book! Pray it will be published soon, and that the Lord will be glorified through it.

PDF Version