Arop Lokep

I've blogged about the recording I've been doing with the Arop Lokep language.  Weeks of recording staggered over several months.  This week we finished the post-production of the NT recording, and have begun compiling it into Audio Bible players.  We are on schedule for a June dedication that will have both the finished print version AND the audio version.  This is a huge deal.  Not only is there a printed version, but right along side of it will be the audio version.

I am excited about that.  If all goes to plan I'll be able to be there at the unveiling.

But maybe it'd be better to hear from the words of the man and wife team who have been laboring over this project for decades:

"I wasn't expecting such a powerful reaction when I handed Sakaria a copy of the newly printed Arop-Lokep New Testaments.  It wsa the first time for him to see the finished product.  He held it up like an offering to God and with tears brimming in his eyes said, "Thank you Christ."  Then he turned to me and overcome with emotion, simply shook my hand.  Only then did he unzip the cover and begin to read God's Word in his own language. 
That's powerful!  I can hardly wait to show others around Long Island a copy of the New Testament and a sample of the now completed New Testament audio recording on an Audi Bible player."

Staying Cool

This is my homemade cooling unit at work.

It is a high speed electric motor, with a fan, put into a home-made sheet metal casing.  Originally created to simulate fire for some activity, where an orange cloth would be attached to it and set upright to make it 'flicker'.

I inherited it when a friend went home finish.  I inherited a lot of odds n ends to be made into something else.

Yesterday I returned to my office after a 7 week absence.  I had been in recording sessions for 5 and board meetings for 2.

I discovered that:
-the server was down
-the AC unit was broken
-the UPS unit was dead

Years ago the windows in my office were replaces with pane glass, because we are at or under ground level with a popular road.  Which means we were getting dust into our equipment all the time through the louvres.

So currently I sit at the end of a tunnel like office structure, with only my AC unit to give me an environment in which I can work.

Yesterday I was sweating buckets trying to get my work done in my work office.  (recall the computer setup I have? most of it puts off a lot of heat)
I have too much work to accomplish to miss being in the office any longer.  (2 NT to post produce to Audibible and a video to edit).

So, I traded my work pants for shorts, my work shirt for a t-shirt, my shoes for 'crocs' and brought my makeshift fan into work, propped it up with 2 cd bundles and went back to work.

It's still warm, but I can at least get a little work done.  Even if my forearms are sticking to the desk.

Choir girl

EC Finished

I just finished my last sitting day in session as EC Secretary. I still
have responsibilities that will take the next few weeks.
13 weeks until we get on a plane to return to the U.S.

It was a good experience, a challenge, but a rewarding one. Now that my
stint is over I am not jumping up and down in celebration but instead
thankful that I have a deeper understanding of the process, and along
the way discovered a few skills I didn't know I had.

Leaving a team you work well with, always has a tinge of sadness that
accompanies it. Thankfully the team hasn't disbanded, it is still going
strong, only my time on that team has come to an end.

God sometimes challenges us to say 'yes' to things that frighten us.
I've come to realize that the reward from rising to that challenge often
is directly related to how much fear you felt before accepting it.

Showing Jesus

Over the past year I've been working with a lady named Beth to compile media for showing and listening to in her language area (16 different languages).
For those who don't know what the Jesus Film is (and I didn't either before coming here), it's a movie based on the book of Luke about Christ and his ministry, death and resurrection.  We take that film and dub it into local languages so they aren't hearing it in English (or Hebrew).  It is very powerful as people see Christ speaking in THEIR language for the first time, and often the showing of this film changes lives and opens eyes and hearts.

Please pray for Beth and seven YWAM team members as they finish showing the tokples Jesus Picture Story DVD almost every other night in 16 villages of the Aitape West Translation Project for the last 6 weeks. They are focusing this time on the two largest language groups in the project. They visited 10 communities in the Malol language area and 6 communities in the Sissano language area.

They finish their program tomorrow evening and will travel to Wewak on Monday. Please pray for safe travels by boat along the coast early in the morning before wind and waves pick up, and for them to be able to meet the plane.

Please pray for Beth.  There have been some rumours preceding them regarding her skin color and the spiritual context of white-skin.  I prefer not to get into specifics on a blog, but the rumors need to be squelched for her ministry to reach people and be clearly understood.

Media is powerful, let's make it about something meaningful!

God in the Numbers

Money talk time. It's an ever present reality for most everyone. Today
I decided to crunch the numbers and look for patterns, update
spreadsheets, and figure out how much financial support we have to raise
during furlough. Knowing this number will determine exactly how much of
our furlough is spent recovering from a very difficult term in the
field, visiting existing partners and friends, and how much is spent
visiting new places and churches and people.

Kendal's biggest prayer has been that we won't have to spend a lot of
time doing fund raising, because we want to spend time with family.

Today we had the money talk.

See if you see God's hand like I see God's hand.

Over the past 3 years, we've lost some financial support. We've also,
miraculously gained some (almost never happens while in the field). If
you calculate the losses, we dropped from 98.1% of our goal, to 95.8% of
our goal.

But, then if you calculate the additions, we jump right back up to 98.1%
of our goal again!

This means that our decrease was exactly matched, dollar for dollar by
our increase. As God saw people stop giving, He moved in the hearts of
other people to increase giving or to start giving!

That is remarkable to me, it's not even 1 dollar off, it's an identical
match. Amazing.

But that's not all.
Many of you know my affinity for the number 3. "333" is the perfect
number to me. Long story short, I love 3's.

In looking at our new goal, (assessed annually to incorporate the cost
of living increases here).... and you divide that into what we need to
raise monthly, and it's $333 p/month.

Hello!! 333 p/month more has to be raised on furlough. But the coolest
thing is God knows that number is a message to me personally that
everything is going to be alright!!!!

(right now that's a working number, and after a few official meetings
with finance it may go up....) But still, God continues to tell me 'Yes
you're meant to be in PNG, you're doing what I want you to be doing' and
He often does it through the numbers. He speaks to me of His provision
through you, by confirming to me through our numbers the most miraculous
things!


If you know of people we should meet on furlough, churches looking to
take on a new Wycliffe volunteer, etc, please contact us. We're ready
to tell people about the good work going on here in PNG!