September 2021

News from Papua New Guinea: For those of you who prayed last month for the Kopf family to receive their paperwork so they could return to PNG – they made it back to the field!

Mikenna will be able to do grade 8 with her fellow missionary kid friends. Jonathan & Susan will be able to continue with scripture translation and checking on the school in Hewa land. Thank you for praying for them!

Missionaries to the Biem Tribe: A translation check was recently completed on scripture portions for the Biem Island people. The New Testament books of Mark, 1st Timothy, Colossians and James are now checked and approved for printing and getting them into the hands of their local church!

Brandon & Rachel Buser continue an itinerate ministry to the island along with their regional leadership responsibilities out in Wewak town. Their co-workers are currently out of the country – Thomas & Petra Depner having returned to Germany to help settle their oldest into living in the big world. Their Taiwanese co-workers, Wayne & Gail Chen, continue on in their homeland with Wayne having teaching opportunities in missions training in Taiwan and the USA, while Gail continues her battle with cancer. All 3 families would benefit by your prayers on their behalf.

Besides the above translation check, consultant Lisa Kappeler recently made it thru the verse by verse scrutiny & analysis of Romans 1-8 for
the Menya people too, though she battled allergies and laryngitis during the strenuous scheduled time.

In her “spare time” Lisa continues work on the Uriay translation for the language group where she resides when not out of the jungle checking translations for other language groups. Anyone feel led to pray for Lisa? 😊

The week of planning meetings (mentioned in my last update) with a group of church leaders evidently DID happen in August. No details– other than the picture above of the men who attended. Malachi and Sakius are from the YembiYembi tribe. Their “take” on the meetings: “This really strengthened our stomachs. (Encouraged) There are so many new ideas that I have in my thinking to try out. Also, mistakes too that we have been making, those too have come to mind. We will be holding a meeting with the other leaders to discuss it.” I am GUESSING that the other 3 tribes who send representatives to the meetings are Bisorio, Waxe, and Malaumanda. John Hutteman facilitated the get-together. Maybe there will be more details by next month. In the meantime, we can certainly stand together in prayer for the church leaders as they take the input they received from the workshop back to their local churches. May God use them and the encouragement and challenges presented at the meetings to strengthen their individual village congregations, and thus His Body the Church as a whole.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Jason Stuart is finishing up another stint “down under” satisfying the Aussie laws toward his residency visa. They fly back up to PNG later in September where they will have to quarantine yet again before jumping back into things. Jason will have a full translation checking schedule as well as working one on one with individual Christians both in town and in the various tribal locations.  Jedidiah and Ella Jo will do their high school classes remotely thru a distance education program with a Christian school in Queensland.

At home in SEMO (South Eastern Missouri): For the May River Iwam: I did finally get a triglot spiritual terminology book into print for the Iwam. It will be months however before it will be in their hands. On the off chance you are interested, that long title merely means “Showing the root of some strong words from God’s book in Melanesian Pidgin, (the national language of PNG) English and the local lingua.” English is included because so many think they know it — but the in-depth meanings of key Bible terms remain elusive. Dittos (in many cases) on their understanding when they teach/preach/or hear teaching using the terminology in the national language of the country. Words like “bilip” (believe) are interpreted to mean “obey” — making salvation strictly based on the works a person must do in order to be a Christian. That, in a nutshell, is why our mission stresses the importance of sharing the Good News of Jesus to each group in their mother tongue! Since some vernaculars lack a one-word term for conveying meanings, it often takes a phrase in the tribal language to clarify the correct connotation. Though lengthy, that makes the real meaning of spiritual terminology certainly more clear — and much more likely to convey truth! Now that the spiritual terminology booklet is in print, I will see if I can salvage the file for the New Testament concordance for the Iwam!

My thanks to you yet again for standing together with me and with God’s people especially in PNG. These are troubled times for so very many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe. May the uncertainties even here at home serve to turn our hearts fully to God. He is still in control and working to bring all things to His predetermined end! With Christ we are on the victorious side! May we be found faithful to stand strong, no matter what. May we reflect Him to all He brings across our paths to draw the unsaved to Himself, and to encourage fellow believers in their commitment to Him thru these days.

Co-labouring for King Jesus!
Hope Sharp