Around PNG in 30 days

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”  Col.3:16, 17

Jeremiah usually spends many, many hours on end in his office doing the job we came here to do…working to make sure that every Dinangat person will have access to God’s Word in their heart language. I’m not gonna lie, translation work can be painstaking and tedious at times, although every minute he spends working on it is worth far more than the little time and energy spent. However, the last two months has had him in the office very little, as he’s needed to put on his Culture and Language Acquisition (CLA) consultant hat and been traveling more often than not (and almost always with a 2^nd consultant.) What a blessing and privilege it is to be able to have a small part in so much of what God is doing here in PNG!

He went to Wantakia, where he evaluated two missionaries’ language competency. One gal is completely finished and checked out for ministry, the other one made a ton of progress since her last evaluation and it looks like she only has one level left to finish. The Wantakia team is busy working on lesson prep and translating the initial needed portions of Scripture, they have almost finished their first literacy class and plan on beginning teaching chronologically early 2021!

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Next, he went into Maliyali where they did 4 evaluations. Again, we rejoiced with the new team of missionaries as each person had made much progress and they are getting closer and closer to when they will be able to proclaim the Good News to the Maliyali people in their own heart language!
 
Shortly afterwards, it was off to a coastal town where our E2 program takes place generally twice a year. This is where new church planting missionaries first arrive and spend about three months learning the national trade language, Melanesian Pidgin, and national culture of PNG. There were 13 missionaries there ready for their first evaluation! Praise God with us for this amazing group of dedicated servants who have just recently left home and country, family and comfort for the glory of the One who is Worthy! There are still literally HUNDREDS of language groups here in Papua New Guinea who have not one page of God’s Word in their own language. We are grateful for every heart that says Here I Am, Lord, send me!
 
Perhaps the CLA needs are going to taper off here for a while and Jeremiah can get back into his office to continue work on the Dinangat translation. We definitely need more CLA consultants! Please pray! And we have a few other things you could praise the Lord with us for and pray with us about:
 

• Praise God for the 13 new missionary families who are just getting started in their language and culture acquisition.
• Praise God for the other 44 missionaries throughout PNG who are currently working on learning their tribal languages with the hope to be able to begin teaching very soon!
• Pray for these new missionaries as Satan seeks to discourage, devour and undermine God’s plans for the Gospel in those villages! The struggle is real as they face extreme isolation, sometimes homesickness, and even physical trials as their bodies acclimate to completely new environments.
• Praise the Lord with us for the provision of a job for Jordan! It looks like he will be working at the YMCA in Jackson. Please pray for wisdom for him as he seeks God’s will for his next steps. He would like to go to flight school and is researching scholarships, loans, etc.
• Lastly, please pray about our personal support level as we have seen quite a drop over the last several months. It is becoming increasingly difficult to take the necessary trips into Dinangat as well as managing other ministry expenses.

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Thank you so much for standing with us! We are so thankful for each of you who pray and support this ministry and our family. it takes a team and we are blessed to be part of the team with you to bring God’s Word to the least reached in PNG!