Thank you for your love, prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful for your huge part in sharing the love of Jesus with the Hewa tribal people of Papua New Guinea. Thank you!
Thank you for your prayers for the Dedication of the Yifki Christian School! Many Hewa people came from scattered villages to join in honoring God for the new school buildings, staff and students. Numerous community members brought pigs to contribute to the celebration, and we heard that the ground-oven feast was made up of 27 pigs! We were very glad to have our co-workers, the Copleys, and veteran missionaries, the Palmers, join us, as well as Imie from our NTM leadership team in PNG. These guests, along with landowners, pastors, and teachers, spoke of how amazing God is to provide Christian education in such a remote location.
Announcement! Announcement! Announcement! Announcement!
We are deeply honored by your partnership over many years, and we are excited to share that the Hewa New Testament is in the final stages of preparation for official printing! We have set the dedication date to take place in the village on June 11, 2026. We are working diligently to complete the final editing and proofreading so we can place an order with a quality publisher. The amazing news is that an anonymous donor has already made a generous surprise donation toward the 30,000-45,000 it will cost for printing and shipping!
This is a picture of the temporary spiral-bound draft copy we have been using, which has served us well over the years. It allowed us to teach most portions of Scripture soon after translation, and after review and approval by our consultants. As we taught through these New Testament books, it helped us revise and refine key spiritual terminology and ensure the topics are understandable to Hewa readers while maintaining accuracy to the original texts. We now feel confident we are ready for a first printing and distribution of God’s Word to the Hewa believers.
If you would like to donate towards printing and shipping of Hewa Bibles, please contact Ethnos360, 312 W 1st St., Sanford, FL 32771, (407)323-3430), and include a note to have your gift forwarded to the Hewa Bible Translation in PNG account # 416228.
Thank you once again for your amazing love, prayers, and faithful support each step of this journey. Paul said it best when he wrote, “I thank my God every time I remember you. . . I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” (Philippians 1:3-5)
Thank you!!!
Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna
Jonathan sharing how in the same way God causes our garden plants to grow, He is the one bringing life and growth in the lives of the students.
Susan sharing how God is drawing the Hewa children to Himself by providing quality Biblical education.
We are thanking the Lord for Amos and Australian team members who have done an amazing job working on the two school dorm buildings.
Even more GREAT news!
The story below is mostly gathered from the Copleys after an amazing conversation we all had with friends from the Hewa village of Fiyawena. I know you will be blessed by this!
After the dedication ceremony of our school was finished, men from our original ministry location called Fiyawena (The place where we served from 2000-2008 until violence forced us to leave) who had arrived to attend the dedication, came to the Copleys and us to ask if we could meet to talk. We didn’t know what they would like to discuss, but since one of our Yifki pastors, named Faimpat, had spent months in their village teaching them from the Bible, we were eager to hear what the Fiyawena men and women were thinking. After more than ten men and some of their wives gathered in the church to talk with us, a man named Buka spoke saying,
When you came in 2000, You brought us something of great importance, but we didn’t see it as important. I just saw rice, soup, axes, pots, blankets, etc. I ignored you and wasted my days playing cards. Then Thomas got killed and you all left due to the ongoing war. I was shocked you were gone. But I just threw myself into all kinds of evil – I killed, stole, raided villages – slept around … I did all kinds of bad things. But after a time – I realized I was in the dark. Then Faimbat (one of our pastors sent out from our current location) came back to us and taught us God’s Word. He again showed us the trail to the light. Then we understood and comprehended what was important… the trail is Jesus. Now I trust in Jesus – the only Savior. I trust in His Word – the thing of great value in this world.
A man name Untufi said:
My story is the same. We saw all the good things of the ground that you brought – but we didn’t see the most important thing – God’s Word. We saw the lights at night, the helicopter, the airplane, all the STUFF – but like little children, that is all we could think about. I was playing cards, dancing, drinking beer, smoking marijuana, I killed people… all while I should have been listening to God’s WORD. But then you left, and the Good News was gone. We were left alone because we drove you away – and then we became like children wallowing in our own mess with no idea about how to escape. I realized we were stuck, unable to get the things we really needed – (hope, salvation, God’s Word). Later, you told Faimbat to carry the truth back to us and then we finally listened, and we understood. The Good News and God’s Word are the things of significance. Now we are believers of what is true and we say thank-you to God and to you. Now I see you had not abandoned us – you continued to pray for us and even sent one of the best men from the church back to tell us the Good News – Now I want to tell you, Thank you. I see you are about to go from PNG and so I want to say thank you. I am telling you I am sorry for ignoring you the first time – I ignored you and the Good News and I nearly destroyed myself – But now I am sorry, and I am asking you to stop thinking about my many wrongs, choose to forget them.” (That was him asking us to forgive him).
Another, man, Foko—As Foko stood he threw a bundle of some kind to the dirt floor of the church. It looked like he had wrapped something in an old shirt and was now kicking it back and forth in the dirt, making it filthy. As he continued to kick it he said:
Traditionally, when one of our young woman gets married, she puts on her very best clothing and body adornment, and then she drapes a new string bag over her back. Throughout that wedding day, we put money and presents into her bag as a way to send her off to her new husband and family with our most valuable gifts. When you were living with us in Fiyawena and teaching us the Bible, we thought what you were offering was insignificant, as it if had no value at all. It’s as if we took your gift to us and were kicking it back and forth on the dirt, treating it as if it were nothing. But now that Faimpat has come and has been teaching us, we are seeing that this thing you brought is the most precious thing possible.
As he said that, he bent over and picked up the bundle that was now filthy, and pulled back the cloth to reveal one of the Bibles we had been translating for them to read. He took the Bible from the soiled cloth and held it up. “This is the thing of most significant value, and as our village is now reading it we are turning to Jesus.”
Foko continued on.
It’s like the story Faimpat taught us about how Jesus cast demons out from a man and into pigs by a lake (Mark 5). When Jesus saved that man by sending the demons into pigs and they all drowned in the lake, the villagers came in anger and drove Jesus away because they didn’t care about the man but only cared about their pigs. That’s what we did when you came and were helping us. We didn’t see the important thing you were doing but only wanted more pigs and goods, and by our actions we rejected you and drove you away. Now we realize how terrible that was. It was wrong. Now that we have been listening and believing what Jesus did we realize we are now born into God’s family. We know we have been like babies that were first drinking milk, and now as Faimpat continues to feed us it’s like we are starting to eat soft foods like bananas and cucumbers and eggs. But we realize we need to grow bigger in our faith and we need to get fed meat and stronger foods. Before we thought you had deserted us, but now we see you had sent Faimat to teach us. It’s like when Thomas got concerned that Jesus was leaving and said to him (John 14), ‘Where are you going? We don’t know the trail,’ and Jesus responded by saying, ‘I am the trail to God.’ We now realize that you missionaries are not the trail. We need to look straight at Jesus. It was His blood that became the bridge so that we can be children of God. I am now trusting in Jesus. He is the only trail to where God is.
I know this was a lot to read, but I also know that you have been praying for us for MANY YEARS. You prayed for us as we ministered in three different Hewa locations. God is faithful – even when we didn’t see a way and the doors seemed closed. God rescues people HIS WAY. Thank you for your prayers and support – FOR HIS GLORY. Thank you, Jesus, for you and the GOOD NEWS of salvation.
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