Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

After five years of spending Christmas overseas with no family around, this year was quite the change! We saw some some of the Bruner families who live in the area, had a five day visit from John’s parents who live in Florida, spent time with extended family on the Peters’ side who came for two weeks, and now have with us my dad and step-mom until January 9! So it’s been a full but blessed time to see everyone, including two new babies on my sister’s side!

We are thankful God has given us life, each other, and you. We are looking forward to a new year and to what God has in store for us as we return to Papua New Guinea in July 2015.

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Around our Thanksgiving table, it was encouraging to hear our boys share what they have been thankful for this year. They all mentioned the schools they’ve been attending, the friends they’ve made, and the sports teams they’ve been on. We told them that there have been many people praying for them in each of these things, so thank you for being a part of their lives through your prayers!

LUKE completed his soccer season and learned a lot from a skilled coach. He then tried out and made his school’s basketball team. He also tried out for the All-City and All-Region bands and made 1^st chair trumpet in the City band and 10^th chair in the Regional one. Having success in these things has given him a boost in this still “new” environment.

(Luke with the ball)

JOEY completed his club soccer season and just made his school’s varsity soccer team. All he really wanted to do on our furlough was play soccer, so it’s been encouraging to see how God has provided both opportunities and funds for him to do that.

(Joey’s club soccer team – the Texas Spurs. Joey is back row second from the left)

GRANT was able to come home from school and join us for Thanksgiving. It was so nice to see him again. It is good to see the ways he is maturing, and how God is helping him adjust and find some good friends at John Brown University.

I told everyone at Thanksgiving that I’m thankful that God has brought me through these past six months! Life was busy and stressful with end of the school year activities, packing up, traveling for two months, and getting settled here in the States. Although we’re “settled”, I am realizing that coming back to the U.S. after being gone for five years has its difficulties and challenges. I’m thankful that God is with me in the midst of it all.

JOHN has been busy at the translation desk, completing the check of a number of books for the Fataleka translation, taking time off every now and then to run to Starbucks with me or watch a movie :).

COMING UP:

We are entering a full but fun month of December, with a week-long visit from my wonderful in-laws, and then a lot  of other extended family coming at Christmas.

PRAYER:

• Thankful that John was able to finish his check of a number of books for the Fataleka NT
• Thankful for the boys’ good adjustment to life in the U.S.
• My foot is still not any better so I would appreciate your continued prayers
• That we would remember that God is with us and for us as we continue to live and serve here in America this year

A few years ago I consultant checked a number of books for the Kandawo New Testament project in Papua New Guinea. At the time I remember Mack Graham, the translation advisor, telling me that even though he had worked with the Kandawo people for nearly thirty years there had never been much interest in the translation. He wondered if there would even be any demand for a printed version of the New Testament. Then about a year ago, as they were nearing completion of the New Testament, Mack decided they would do audio recordings of the translation to see if people would be interested in those. Just last week we heard the following report:

Mack was talking to people about the audio recordings and one Kandawo woman told him:

“We were starving and we didn’t know it. Now this AudiBible satisfies our hunger and tastes sweet…You have to understand how very much this has completely changed me and my situation! This has changed everything for me.”

 

(The Kandawo woman and her mother)

The woman’s mother also shared her thoughts about the Audibible:

“Before I got the Audibible I felt like a pig that was tied to a stick. But now I feel like I’ve been freed. I’m only a rotted old woman and I was going to church every week and I always wondered during the Bible reading. We thought that it was some language from some far away people. But now this machine has brought it close to me. We were ignorant pigs and dogs, but now we are changed. I take it to bed with me and leave it playing on my chest while I fall asleep. I had no idea how Jesus died but I am amazed at Jesus. And this revelation makes me cry. It’s been revolutionary in my life!”

Given that people showed little interest in the translation for so many years, it is a great encouragement to hear how they are being impacted through hearing the Scriptures in their own language.

Speaking of audio recordings, we heard recently that the recording of over half the New Testament in the Bughotu language (the translation we completed in 2009) was just finished and will be available soon on both small audio players and SD cards for cell phones. It is great to know that the Bughotu people, especially those who don’t know how to read, will be able to access the Scriptures in this format.

(Edward Goha, our friend who helped with the Bughotu recording, holding an SD card)