{Metzger Ministry Update} November 2017 | "Faster Internet"

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

Dear Loved Ones,

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. We started this month out by sharing about our ministry twice already! Thanks to those who have listened to us either in a group setting or in person. God has used YOU, our partners, to love on us during this home assignment time.

(Send us an email if you’d like a high-res copy of our new prayer card!)

Praise God that after two years of planning, running fiber-optic cables, and installing wireless links, our new faster internet connection is online in Ukarumpa! It will allow better communication between translators and consultants working in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with those working remotely. It will also allow us to stay better connected with our families, friends, and ministry partners in our home countries.

My coworker, Andrew Campbell, and I (Kurt), worked closely with a technician from the new internet provider. He shared that during university he and his classmates went to our center, Ukarumpa, to attend Bible camps. Because of his familiarity and positive experience with our organization he made it a priority to get us connected. While this new connection is still probably slower than the internet you have in your homes, it is a huge improvement for us! Thank you for praying for me and the rest of the IT team as we worked toward this new internet connection!

(visiting with family: Kurt with his brother Eric; Matthias with grandpa “Mel/Miguel” and cousin Miguel)

Each month we are humbled by your generosity in your partnership with us. We are encouraged because in the last month we received one time gifts that help towards reaching our goal. Lord willing, we plan to return to our ministry in PNG in July 2018. However, for that to happen, we must have 100% of the monthly financial support that Wycliffe requires before we will be released to return. Would you like to partner with us? If so, click here. We will need $1,000 more per month prior to our return. Would you please pray with us now that God will raise up new partners for our ministry so that we can return? We know He is able!

We need to increase our support by: $1,000 per month

Blessings and Love,

Kurt for Johanna, Kassia, Lukas, and Matthias too!

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Wycliffe Ministry Partnership Invitation

You are so important to us! We invite you to partner with us financially so that we can return to Papua New Guinea in July 2018. We are only lacking 11 ministry partners that are able to give $100 per month or 22 that are able to give $50. We trust that God will provide! Your faithfulness in helping to fund and pray for our Wycliffe ministry is such an encouragement and joy to us.

– Kurt, Johanna, Kassia, Lukas & Matthias

PS – Please email us, we'd love to send you our family picture for 2017!

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{Metzger Ministry Update} June 2014 | "One Month!"

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. – Proverbs 18:10 (NKJV)

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you for so faithfully lifting us up in prayer to our Heavenly Father. Thanks also for your generosity and encouragement! The Lord has been faithful as always and we are now only lacking $38.00 of the monthly budget that we will need before we return to Papua New Guinea (PNG). Now we are less than a month away from leaving the United States and going back to PNG! Lord willing, our departure is set for July 7^th.

We need to increase our support by:      $38 per month

On June 6^th, Kassia finished 3^rd grade and Lukas finished Kindergarten. They are very excited about going back to their school in Ukarumpa! We appreciate your prayers in the next several weeks as we say goodbye to family and friends.

Blessings,

Johanna (for Kurt, Kassia, Lukas and Matthias too!)

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{Metzger Ministry Update} February 2014 | "Praise and Prayer"

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. – Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

Dear Family and Friends,

PRAISES!

• First of all we want to thank YOU for praying for us as we have been transitioning into life in the United States (US) during our home assignment/furlough. Kurt has been working at the IT department at the International Linguistics Center and that has been a big blessing.
• We are grateful to God for providing a house for us to live in while we are in the US.
• We praise God for providing a van (from Righteous Rides) for missionaries.
• We are thankful to be living close to family, our Church, and partners!
• Some of our partners have increased their giving and our monthly support has gone up! THANK YOU!!!

(Matthias on our way back from PNG)

(Lukas with his cousin on his birthday in January)

(Daddy-Daughter date night with Kassia on Valentine’s day)

PRAYER!

• Lord willing, we plan to return to our ministry in PNG in July 2014. However, for that to happen, we must have 100% of the monthly financial support that Wycliffe requires before we will be released to return. Would you or someone you know like to partner with us? If so, click here. We will need $484 more per month prior to our return. Please pray with us now that God will raise up new support for our ministry so that we can return on time. We know He is able!

We need to increase our support by:      $484 per month

• Please pray as four members of our family are renewing their passports. Pray that the process will go smoothly and quickly.
• Once we get our new passports we will apply for our Papua New Guinea (PNG) visas. Please pray that the visa renewal process will go quickly and smoothly as well.

Blessings,

Johanna (for Kurt, Kassia, Lukas and Matthias too!)

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{Metzger Ministry Update} December 2013 | "Christmas"

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And He will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

Dear Loved Ones,

Again and again, thank you for your love and care for our family. Every month we are humbled by your generosity, encouragement, and support. We know that we would not be able to do our work in Papua New Guinea (PNG) if it wasn’t for your faithful partnership with us!

(from top: Our family in Bogota [Download our updated prayer card]; Matthias; and Lukas)

God has been faithful and given us the opportunity to visit and share at two churches that are dear to our heart here in Colombia. We visited Confra Salitre where my (Johanna’s) Youth Pastor, from 20 years ago, leads a church that encourages us when we are in PNG. We also had the privilege of attending Confra Unicentro; the church where I grew up and where Kurt and I got married almost 14 years ago! What a joy it was to be in these two special places. We have also been spending time with family!

(from top: Johanna with her 3 sisters and cousin; Kassia at the park in Singapore)

We are starting to get ready to go back to the US in January and are excited to be able to see many of you while we are there! Lord willing, we plan to return to our ministry in PNG in July 2014. However, for that to happen, we must have 100% of the monthly financial support that Wycliffe requires before we will be released to return. Would you like to partner with us? If so, click here. We will need $634 more per month prior to our return. Would you please pray with us now that God will raise up new support for our ministry so that we can return on time? We know He is able!

We need to increase our support by:      $634 per month

Christmas Blessings,

Johanna (for Kurt, Kassia, Lukas and Matthias too!)

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Can't see the darkness?

Please consider sharing our ministry with friends and asking them to join you in praying that God will use His translated Word to shine light where there is darkness this Easter season.

Can't see the darkness? You'll have to look past these young children, from a remote Arop village in Papua New Guinea, into their homes and everyday lives. Like many Pacific peoples who've been “christianized” for hundreds of years, this people group still doesn't have the chance to fully understand what it really means to be rescued from darkness... to have the access to the Word of God in a language that speaks to their hearts.

Translation and support teams are hard at work, as I am writing this, seeking to create access to that message for the first time.

Thank YOU for being a faithful part of our ministry and the work that God is doing in Papua New Guinea!

He is risen!

Kurt (for Johanna, Kassia, Lukas, and Matthias too!)

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People are Praying for Me!

With shouts, groans, and laughter, a beautiful new canoe is hauled up from the river bank into Iowa village (say, YO-wah). For the Bamu people of Papua New Guinea (PNG), dugout canoes are a vital means of transportation, and the rivers are the highways.

World of Mud and Water

The Bamu River cuts a wide brown swath through southwestern PNG’s vast sago palm swamps. Twice each day, salty tides from the Gulf of Papua rush up the river, reversing the direction of its flow. This tidal activity floods most Bamu villages regularly.

There are no rocks; there is no dry ground. The people’s world is one of mud and water. If they can’t quite believe that God separated the land from the sea, nobody could blame them.

Bible Translation overcomes Fear

It is in a canoe, of course, that Domai Gaida and her husband, Adau Kaniwa, commute from their home to their office several days each week. Adau and Domai are Bible translators working to make the Scriptures available in their mother tongue, Bamu.

The couple hopes that through their work, many Bamu people will come to experience the joy and freedom Christ offers. Today, most Bamu people live in intense fear of sorcery and evil spirits. Many burn their hair clippings and fingernail clippings, lest someone should find them and use them to work deadly magic. Others feel spirits come to them at night, pressing their bodies until they cannot breathe.

“Their base state is fear,” explain Phil and Chris Carr, New Zealanders who assist Adau and Domai in their translation work.

Though a few churches are present in the Bamu villages, the Christian message is not well understood. Scriptures are read in English, a foreign language of which most Bamu people have little or no comprehension.

As a result, very few people understand the relevance of the gospel to daily life. Instead, they rely on sorcery and prayers to manipulate the spirits that they dread.

People are praying!

Domai herself recalls a terrifying encounter with the powers of darkness. She felt an evil spirit whisk her physically away. She felt branches whipping past her face as she moved at great speed. She could hear people calling her name, but she was unable to respond.

She could think of only one thing: “People are praying for me!”  Domai knew that Christians in Papua New Guinea were praying for her, and the Carrs had told her that Christians in New Zealand and elsewhere were also lifting her up in prayer.

Finally, the spirit left her alone in the forest, where her friends found her. She was shaken but unharmed.

Every important undertaking, whether building a canoe or translating the Bible, requires the participation of an entire team. And prayer supporters are absolutely essential to the Bible translation team.

“If people stop praying, there’s no point in us going back there,” says a translator who works in another part of PNG. “The battle is so fierce that unless you have an army of prayers and supporters behind you, you don’t stand a chance.”

The next time that Domai or anybody else cries out, “People are praying for me,” let’s make sure that somebody is.

(Story by David J. Ringer)

www.wycliffe.org

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Faithful for 60 Years – A letter from Bob Creson, President of Wycliffe USA

(Folopa New Testament – Papua New Guinea)

August 2010

Dear Colleagues,

In the 1930s, while Cameron Townsend was establishing Wycliffe’s work in Mexico, Jenny and her husband were planting a church among the Yazai* people of Southeast Asia.  Understanding, as Uncle Cam did, the need for Scripture in the mother tongue, they devised an alphabet and translated a catechism and the Gospel of Mark.  But just three years into their ministry, her husband died of typhus, and Jenny was driven away by political unrest, never to return.  Her prayers, however, did not cease.

Jenny was 37 years old when she left the Yazai village. She was 93 years old and still praying for the Yazai and other language groups every morning from breakfast to lunch, when an SIL translator named Mark visited her.  By then the church she faithfully watered with her prayers had grown to 10,000 believers…but they still did not have the Word in their mother tongue.  Mark had the joy of telling her that he was working towards starting a translation project.  He was studying the language with three Yazai speakers he’d met far from their homeland, and praying for an opportunity to meet church members interested in launching a translation project. 

The next year, 1997, Mark met two brothers who were Yazai church leaders.  They told him they’d been praying for four years for someone to come help the Yazai do a Bible translation. “Four years?” said Mark.  “I’ve been studying the language for four years and praying for a translation team related to the church!”  The Yazai joyfully formed a translation committee and Mark became the translation advisor who checked the material.  The Seed Company funded the project.

Individuals and whole communities threw themselves enthusiastically into the project.  The lead translator was so committed that when he married, he and his bride spent their honeymoon at a training event.  The future chairman of the translation committee, a paralyzed man, read in the Gospels that Jesus healed paralytics, so in faith he stood up and walked…and then went to work leading the committee.  Villages formed their own support committees. Though poor, villagers agreed to drop a handful of rice into a bag every day. As the bags filled up, they sewed them shut and sent them to the translation team.

The translation committee prepared books, songbooks, audio materials, and the Jesus Film, so that everyone, readers or not, could have access to the Word.  The church held literacy workshops, eventually training 100 people to serve as volunteer teachers.  Each time a Scripture portion was completed, the church published it, and people carried copies around in their shoulder bags, snatching moments to read them in the fields. 

Even non-Christians became interested.  Fifteen animists attended one literacy workshop; during the week every one of them found Christ and was baptized. Entire villages of non-Christians asked for someone to come read the Scripture portions to them so they could understand who this God was.  With breathtaking speed the church grew from 10,000 to between 30,000 and 40,000 believers—a quarter of the entire population. 

In 2009 the New Testament was printed and, in spite of opposition, imported and dedicated. One well educated woman, having read the national language Bible for many years, said, “Reading the Scriptures in Yazai is like finding a whole new Jesus. The national language went to my head; the Yazai goes into my heart.” 

Now the Yazai have their eyes set on the Old Testament. “The New Testament is like a shirt, but we need pants!” said one man.  “The Old Testament is those pants. Please help us get a complete outfit so we can be fully dressed!”  The main translator is now studying theology so he can translate the Yazai Old Testament and serve as consultant for other translations.

Jenny passed away in 2003 just a few days short of her 100th birthday, her part in the Yazai story complete.  I know that by faith she celebrated the completion of the New Testament and the rapid expansion of the Yazai church, but I wish she could have heard what one old man said: “Now the light of God has come to the Yazai people. Now the Yazai people will grow and be blessed.”

Language by language, the light of God is coming to people He loves all over the world.  Sooner rather than later, the last one will be blessed. Thank you for the role you play! 

Warmly,

Bob Creson

President

Wycliffe USA

connectus_orlando@wycliffe.org

*Name changed to protect work in a sensitive area

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The Need is Great (Wycliffe Video)

The Need is Great (Wycliffe Video)

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