"For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, ' Do not fear, I will help you.' (Isaiah 41:13 NASB)
Dear friends and family,
Happy Easter! He is risen! Thank you for being faithful as a very important part of our ministry here in Papua New Guinea (PNG). We pray for you and would like to pray for you more specifically. If you would like, please send us any prayer requests that you have.
(Luke with some friends in Madang PNG)
2009 has been a very busy year already. Kurt continues to work at the Communication and Technical Services Department. He has been training to support our network. In June, one of his colleges will go on furlough and Kurt will be supporting communications for over 160 translation teams and the many support people who are joining in the Bible translation task. CTS is responsible for the operation, support, security, maintenance, and upgrading of a medium-sized installation. There are over 200 corporate workstations spread out over the Ukarumpa Center connected by a local area network along with about 500 personal use computers. The mix and ages of the technologies can cause problems due to the shortage of computer personnel with appropriate knowledge. Corporate servers provide sophisticated services equivalent to those found in North America – email/calendar, SQL database, intranet, file, print and data backup/recovery. Because the Ukarumpa Center is located away from normal urban infrastructure, we operate our own Internet connection to supply email and Internet services to the Centre. There are over 800 user accounts on the system. Our Internet connection is severely limited and expensive due to our remote location.
(Kassia and Luke)
For the first three weeks of March, Kurt also helped part time as the Director’s Assistant for Security (DAS). During that time he was a part of peace talks that took place between two clans that live just outside of Ukarumpa. Thank you for praying for Kurt as he served as DAS.
SIL Papua New Guinea Branch Conference began on March 26th and ran through April 8th. Kurt and I (Johanna) attended conference every day (we had meetings from 8 to 12 and 1:30 to 4:30). In the afternoon we took turns to be at home with the kids. During conference we elected the Directorate and Executive Committee that will be serving our branch for the next two years. We also worked on developing a new comprehensive branch strategy that will help us to finish the task of Bible translation here in PNG. There are still more that 300 language groups that have need of adequate scriptures that speak to their hearts. Kassia attended Vacation Bible School each morning during conference. She memorized several Bible verses such as Romans 10:9 and Isaiah 41:13.
(Kassia and Luke)
Kurt and I are a support team for one of our translation couples. Dave and Sarah Troolin work in the Madang province of Papua New Guinea with the Sam people. While they were in the village in January, we were able to talk to them on the radio once a week to see how they were doing and how we could help them while they were away. We also were able to buy food for them from the store here in Ukarumpa and send it on a helicopter so that they could store the food in their house until their next village stay. In March I was also able to help Sarah work on some primary school books that she was preparing for some teachers in the village.
(Dave and Sarah Troolin - children from left: Rebekah, Samuel, Matthew and Joanna)
He is risen indeed!
Johanna (for Kurt, Kassia, and Luke)
Praise:
-We always praise God for our faithful prayer partners and those who support us financially.
-For the opportunity that Kurt had in March to be DAS and help with Ukarumpa’s security.
-For the SIL PNG Branch Conference where we could work on developing a branch strategy.
-For Dave and Sarah Troolin’s work the with the Sam people in the Madang Province.
Prayer:
-For our relationship with the Lord to become deeper and stronger and that we can be an example to our PNG friends and coworkers.
-For our marriage to grow stronger in Christ each day.
-For wisdom, patience, and love in raising Kassia and Luke.
Dear friends and family,
Happy Easter! He is risen! Thank you for being faithful as a very important part of our ministry here in Papua New Guinea (PNG). We pray for you and would like to pray for you more specifically. If you would like, please send us any prayer requests that you have.
(Luke with some friends in Madang PNG)
2009 has been a very busy year already. Kurt continues to work at the Communication and Technical Services Department. He has been training to support our network. In June, one of his colleges will go on furlough and Kurt will be supporting communications for over 160 translation teams and the many support people who are joining in the Bible translation task. CTS is responsible for the operation, support, security, maintenance, and upgrading of a medium-sized installation. There are over 200 corporate workstations spread out over the Ukarumpa Center connected by a local area network along with about 500 personal use computers. The mix and ages of the technologies can cause problems due to the shortage of computer personnel with appropriate knowledge. Corporate servers provide sophisticated services equivalent to those found in North America – email/calendar, SQL database, intranet, file, print and data backup/recovery. Because the Ukarumpa Center is located away from normal urban infrastructure, we operate our own Internet connection to supply email and Internet services to the Centre. There are over 800 user accounts on the system. Our Internet connection is severely limited and expensive due to our remote location.
(Kassia and Luke)
For the first three weeks of March, Kurt also helped part time as the Director’s Assistant for Security (DAS). During that time he was a part of peace talks that took place between two clans that live just outside of Ukarumpa. Thank you for praying for Kurt as he served as DAS.
SIL Papua New Guinea Branch Conference began on March 26th and ran through April 8th. Kurt and I (Johanna) attended conference every day (we had meetings from 8 to 12 and 1:30 to 4:30). In the afternoon we took turns to be at home with the kids. During conference we elected the Directorate and Executive Committee that will be serving our branch for the next two years. We also worked on developing a new comprehensive branch strategy that will help us to finish the task of Bible translation here in PNG. There are still more that 300 language groups that have need of adequate scriptures that speak to their hearts. Kassia attended Vacation Bible School each morning during conference. She memorized several Bible verses such as Romans 10:9 and Isaiah 41:13.
(Kassia and Luke)
Kurt and I are a support team for one of our translation couples. Dave and Sarah Troolin work in the Madang province of Papua New Guinea with the Sam people. While they were in the village in January, we were able to talk to them on the radio once a week to see how they were doing and how we could help them while they were away. We also were able to buy food for them from the store here in Ukarumpa and send it on a helicopter so that they could store the food in their house until their next village stay. In March I was also able to help Sarah work on some primary school books that she was preparing for some teachers in the village.
(Dave and Sarah Troolin - children from left: Rebekah, Samuel, Matthew and Joanna)
He is risen indeed!
Johanna (for Kurt, Kassia, and Luke)
Praise:
-We always praise God for our faithful prayer partners and those who support us financially.
-For the opportunity that Kurt had in March to be DAS and help with Ukarumpa’s security.
-For the SIL PNG Branch Conference where we could work on developing a branch strategy.
-For Dave and Sarah Troolin’s work the with the Sam people in the Madang Province.
Prayer:
-For our relationship with the Lord to become deeper and stronger and that we can be an example to our PNG friends and coworkers.
-For our marriage to grow stronger in Christ each day.
-For wisdom, patience, and love in raising Kassia and Luke.
