Dear friends, we’ve now been back in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea for almost five months.  Our time here, waiting and praying for God’s direction, has been profitable.  Our family has been personally thriving in the great community here at headquarters.  We’ve had opportunity to lead worship a couple of times, most recently during our annual Bible Celebration Sunday, as you may have seen on Facebook.  I have been able to attend three training courses.  Each of these, in addition to fulfilling various requirements, has been invaluable in helping us assess where we have been in the Mamusi Language Program and where we need to go.  The opportunity to have experienced translators pour into us beginners has been deeply encouraging and edifying.  I’m also now a Consultant-in-Training in Translation as well as in Linguistics, two areas in which (once fully trained and qualified) I’ll be able to serve the Branch in much broader ways than I can now.  We thought these things would come quite a bit later, but the Lord clearly led us down this path for His own good purposes.  It’s become clear that completion of my Masters Thesis is a critical next step in serving the work of Bible Translation here in Papua New Guinea.

Participants from the Translators’ Training Workshop in October

Having just met with our supervisor this morning about planning out 2020, we’re excited about what is coming up for us in the next few months.  We’ll be leaving Ukarumpa for Kokopo (where we lived most of our previous field term) in just a couple of weeks.  We’ve agreed to share responsibility for managing the Kokopo Regional Center over the next several months with other Islands Region translators. 

In mid-January I’ll be making a very important exploratory trip back to our village to see how things stand with relationships and with our house.  God willing, we can lay the groundwork for our family to return to the village soon to continue our ministry there.  We’re praying about who will accompany me in January and how best to continue the reconciliation process there.  We’re asking God to send an influential Mamusi church leader living in Kokopo to come with me and help navigate a culturally-appropriate reconciliation, as well as one or two colleagues from Ukarumpa to help facilitate profitable discussions about the future.  

Please join us in praying for a safe and peaceful transition back to Kokopo, for the logistics of the January trip, for God to make a way for our family to get back to the village, for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and confident obedience to His direction for the Mamusi Language Program.  

The Wade 8 in beautiful Ukarumpa

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies. For he has gathered the exiles from many lands, from east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless. Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died. “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live. Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

Psalm 107: 1-9, NLT

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!