"...it tasted so sweet, like honey on bread!"

"Darasi's Testimony" -- This Papua New Guinea man, Darasi Bafimi, who worked for many years to translate the New Testament into his own language of Agarabi, testifies to the power of one's own language to speak to his heart like none other.

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Praise God for His Faithfulness -- September 2010

“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” - Psalm 46:10 (NLT) (to left: Molima NT Dedication)

Dear Friends and Family,

$540 per month?

"I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done." - Hudson Taylor

During the past week we received word from the Wycliffe finance department in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that they had determined a final monthly quota for us to return and serve in Ukarumpa starting this November. The amount we need to receive per month needs to be increased by $540. We were disappointed at first because we had been given a smaller increase as an estimate at the beginning of this year. Then we realized that this was an opportunity for God to show himself strong in our weakness. For us it seems impossible to increase our support level by this much in such a short amount of time, but with God nothing is impossible! Wycliffe will not release us to leave for PNG until we are able to raise a 100% of our monthly quota.

Our Wycliffe administrators have asked us to explain to our partners why there has been such a large increase in our monthly support level and why it is so sudden. The PNG finance department has been doing a detailed study of member’s cost of living. They just recently completed the study and realized that the cost of living used to estimate a member’s financial support level was 35% less than what it should be. Food and utility costs have increased dramatically in recent months and will most likely continue to increase in the future. Here is a quote from the finance department -- “At the moment in the store, an item that was costing 7 kina a few months ago costs 13 kina. Canned goods that were 6 kina are now 8 kina.”

If you feel that God is calling you to be part of our ministry serving Bible Translation in Papua New Guinea, please let us know. You can find information on how you can donate to our Wycliffe ministry on the sidebar “Ways to Give.”

God answers our prayers!

We have many things to be thankful for this month and we would like to share them with you.

• First of all we want to praise God for the birth of our son Matthias Andres Metzger Penaloza on August 8th, 2010. Thank you to all of you who prayed for a healthy pregnancy and for a good labor and delivery. God heard your prayers and labor and delivery went quickly and smoothly and we are now joyful to have Matthias as a new member of our family.

 

(from left to right: Matthias with Johanna’s parents; Matthias with aunt Miriam and cousin Ashleigh; Matthias sleeping)

• Praise God for the Molima (pictured at top), Yopno and Surasunga New Testament Dedications that took place in PNG during July and August. We celebrate with these people God’s word in a language that speaks to their hearts for the first time!
• Thank you for praying for our move to another house at the end of June. The move went as smoothly as possible and we are hopeful we won’t have to move again until we return to PNG.
• Since the end of June, Kurt has been able to help at the SIL Dallas Network Services department and is thankful for the opportunity to serve while they have been short staffed.
• Our trip to Maryland in the month of July went very well. We were blessed to be able to visit several of our partners there and visited with Kurt’s family. We also visited a supporting church, Mount Paran Presbyterian Church, and were able to share an update on our ministry in PNG.
• On August 6th, we were able to send our belongings to North Carolina to be shipped PNG. Believe it or not, Matthias was born that Sunday, August 8th, and we sent everything on Friday without having a clue that this little one would come two weeks early. But God knew, and we thank you for praying for us as we packed our things.
• We also want to thank you for praying for our return travel to PNG. Through the generosity of our partners we have received about 50% of the funds needed for purchasing our tickets. If you are considering a special gift toward our return travel, please include a note with the gift specifically designating it “for Metzger’s return travel to PNG.”
• On September 3rd, we received Matthias’s birth certificate. Praise God! Now we can apply for his US passport and PNG visa.

Lord willing, our plans!

Our desire is to return to PNG in November as planned. Tickets are less expensive if we travel in November, but prices will go up if we travel from December on. Also, our PNG Branch will begin the renewal process of all the members work permits and visas in January of 2010 and we would like to be in PNG before the process begins. If we are still in the US by the end of January, we will have to do all the paperwork related to the visa renewal ourselves and get many medical tests that are not required when we are in PNG.

Please Pray!

• Please let us know how we can pray for you! Pray for us as we do the paper work required to be able to return to PNG with Matthias. Now we can apply for his US passport and lastly (but not least) his Papua New Guinea visa so he can travel back with us.

 

(from left to right: Matthias with Johanna’s mom; Lukas thinking; Lukas and Kassia with uncle Peter)

• Ukarumpa has had more and more break-ins occurring. Please pray that this will stop and for wisdom for the PNG Branch Directors in talking to village leaders to gain their cooperation in solving the problem.

We truly look forward to returning to our ministry in Ukarumpa. We feel privileged to be a small part of what God is doing to bring His word to the Bibleless people of PNG. We could not do it without our ministry partners that faithfully pray for us and support us financially. Kurt is excited to get back to his job at the Communication and Technical Services Department as a Network Administrator and I (Johanna) cannot wait to settle back at our house as a “new” mommy of 3 children.

In His hands,

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

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Follow up – Please Pray!

Here is a follow up to the meeting that we asked you to pray about yesterday… no sure answers but a starting place!

Thank you for praying, Kurt and Johanna

Papua New Guinea - Security situation, Ukarumpa.

SIL-PNG leadership did have a meeting in the neighboring Ukarumpa village this afternoon, Sunday 29 August. A number of members, employees and friends mingled with the Ukarumpa village people in a positive demonstration of togetherness. I (Tim Lithgow) felt I conveyed the pain and anguish that the security situation is causing our members and employees, highlighting that extended security issues could close our Ukarumpa centre, leading to the Bible translation work and support needing to happen elsewhere in the country.

Disappointingly, but not entirely surprisingly, the community dialogue centred on a number of issues in the past, some years in the past, that distracted and deflected from the ownership of the current security situation. However, it highlights that these issues of the past, are important to the Ukarumpa village community! We have good grounds to
continue to dialog with the village leaders and work toward a solution. This just a step on a very long and changing road.

Please keep praying for peace, for safety and for good communication as
we move forward in continued dialogue.

Tim Lithgow   
Director SIL PNG

(view from SIL Ukarumpa toward Ukarumpa Village)

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Please Pray!

29 August 2010 (Ukarumpa time)

Dear Prayer Partners,

The following message is from our Director. It has been a long and very stressful month for our friends in Ukarumpa and we would greatly appreciate your prayers. The meeting he mentions will happen in 1 hour.

Thanks, Kurt and Johanna

Papua New Guinea--Over the past three months the SIL Linguistics Centre in Ukarumpa has seen a dramatic increase in home invasions and burglaries. To date, no one has been injured...and we praise the Lord for His protection. The SIL-PNG leadership has been actively talking with community leaders and police about the escalation in crimes throughout the valley and how to best respond. After much prayer and advice from surrounding neighbors, SIL-PNG leadership is planning to meet with the village leaders and community where the perpetrators come from. The current plan is that on Sunday, 29 August 2010, around 1 pm local time (GMT+10), SIL-PNG leadership will meet with the Ukarumpa Village community to talk about restoring law and order to the valley and stopping all predatory actions upon SIL-PNG residents and other neighboring groups and organizations.

We ask for your prayers in the coming days and weeks as tensions could worsen before they improve. Although additional security measures are being put into place, please pray for peace! Please pray that the SIL-PNG leadership will seek and speak God's words of truth, justice and mercy with cultural sensitivity; pray for the protection of all the valley residents and security personnel; pray that the Lord will strengthen and encourage the village leaders to stand strong when faced with the perpetrators' anger and frustration; pray for God's glory to be manifested through this difficult time; pray that God's conviction will lead to repentance, forgiveness and restoration.
In Him,
Tim Lithgow
Director SIL-PNG

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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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He's here... Matthias Andres Metzger Penaloza

We thank God for blessing us with Matthias Andres Metzger Peñaloza!

Born: August 8^th, 2010

Time: 10:45 PM

Weight: 7lbs 15oz (3600g)

Length: 20 ½” (52cm)

Johanna and Matthias are doing great! Thank you so much for your prayers.

Blessings from all of us, Kurt for Johanna, Kassia, Lukas and Matthias too!

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