Greetings, faithful friends. We are frequently reminded how our ministries here are dependent on your prayers and gifts. We’ve failed to update you over the last couple of months, so we need to back up a bit.

Aaron’s trip in September to Sivauna, our Mamusi village home, was extremely wet and rainy. In contrast to the drought last year, this rainy season went on for six months, making life a difficult struggle for our brothers and sisters, who have no easy access to food when their gardens are flooded. Thank you for praying over them to endure the very difficult season. The unusually long wet season is one of the reasons we decided to postpone the big survey trip to early next year.

The local priest, Father Benedict, is still waiting for a letter from the new archbishop, granting permission for the training and translation work to continue in Sivauna. This has been a difficult situation to navigate as outsiders. Our brothers and sisters on the Mamusi Bible Translation team are hopeful that a letter is imminent and are looking forward to sending some representatives to Ukarumpa next year for some in depth training in Biblical exegesis. Aaron and I made plans to travel to visit with the Archbishop in Kokopo in November to get that letter.

Aaron returned from the village just in time to attend the Secondary Campus Choir and Band Concert, in which Evie, Abel, Judah, and Zeke all participated.

In addition to our primary roles serving in Bible Translation in Papua New Guinea (PNG), we are serving in the student ministry here in Ukarumpa, our primary residence and the main center for SIL-PNG. Aaron is one of two small group leaders for the 9th grade boys here in Ukarumpa, while I (Rebekah) disciple the 12th grade girls each week. Thank you for praying over this important ministry we are serving in. Right after Aaron returned from the village in September, we led worship and discussion groups for the High School retreat called Encounter. This community of international high schoolers regularly face challenges that require much prayer and wisdom. Thank you for praying with us over their lives.

Also in September, Aaron was able to help plan and host the annual conference of the Linguistics Society of PNG (LSPNG). It was exciting to witness presentations by Papua New Guinean students on own linguistic research and analysis they conducted in the Islands region. Their research was done in Label, a language group on the island of New Ireland scheduled to dedicate their New Testament next year. Part of SIL’s work and responsibility here in PNG is to equip citizens in every aspect of Bible translation, including linguistics. These linguistic students are well on their way to becoming the linguistics consultants needed to ensure the accuracy and naturalness of Bible translations. This is especially important as the number of outsiders living and serving in PNG is rapidly declining.

After the village trip, Encounter, LSPNG, and the end of Term 1 for the kids, we all fell very ill with a sickness lasting over a month for some of us. Fortunately the older kids were feeling well enough to go back to school when Term 2 started. Aaron, Silas, Boaz, and I took the longest to recover. Praise God we had over a week of being healthy and well at the end of October before preparing for our trip to Kokopo to meet with the archbishop of East New Britain, the province Mamusi is in.

In more exciting news, September brought two more birthdays! We praise God for another trip around the sun with Evelyn and Ezekiel in our lives.

Thank you for continuing to pray for God’s provision for our family and ministry needs, and for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. We are privileged to be your hands and feet here in Papua New Guinea.