March | 2016 | johnandbrena

There are 100 students at UIS this year in grades 7-12. Can you find the boys??

GOING TO SCHOOL is the job of kids in our society. There’s no choice about the matter. They have to do it. And it is the job of parents to figure out the best place for that to be. In our family, I (Brena) needed to home school the boys while we lived in the Solomon Islands because there wasn’t any other choice. When we have been in the States we have had our boys attend public school to help them adjust to American culture. Thankfully we were able to finish the translation of the Bughotu NT by the time Grant entered high school and we could go to a location where there was a school he could attend. I didn’t feel qualified teaching the boys through their high school years and we also wanted them to have all the extra-curricular activities and friends that come with being in a regular school setting.

So the option in 2010 was to head back to the States or go to a Wycliffe center somewhere overseas where John could continue working with Bible translation. And that’s why we landed in Ukarumpa, the Wycliffe center in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. As we have said before, Ukarumpa International School (UIS) has been a great place for our boys to attend. They’ve had an excellent education, godly teachers, coaches, and youth leaders who have had a positive impact on their lives, and extra-curricular activities to participate in. We are so glad we chose UIS!!

Like Grant, Joey will soon be graduating from UIS and we have asked you to pray that God would clearly lead him to the right college to attend (if that is what he should do). And God has done that!

Joey will be going to East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas. With the scholarships he received and federal Pell grant his tuition is pretty much covered. And the amazing thing is that the men’s soccer coach is willing to take Joey on the team even though he wasn’t able to attend a tryout or send in video clips. The coach recently told Joey in an email, “We’re looking forward to you being a part of the soccer family.” As we’ve said before, it’s been Joey’s dream to play college soccer and it looks like God is giving Joey this gift.

So thank you for praying for clear direction!

And with Joey’s decision, it makes things clearer for us as well. We were open to going back to the States if Joey didn’t go to college, but since he’ll be living on campus, he is fine with us being here in PNG.

Please keep praying for Kairu, though, as he still doesn’t know what he’ll be doing and where he’ll be going after graduation.

“For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. “ Psalm 108:4

To Be In Touch:

PO Box 1 (134), Ukarumpa EHP 444, Papua New Guinea

john_bruner@sil.org

To Give:

https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/Bruners

Thankfully we have been able to make good progress on the final read-through of the Fataleka New Testament. We are right at 50% and we have three more days to work before I head back to PNG. We won’t finish but I’m hoping we can be at about 65%. At least three of the men have been here every day and on most days we have had four of them. One of the men, Jeffrey, has not come at all and it is apparent it is because of an unresolved issue from the last time we worked together (Sept 2015). And unfortunately the first cousin of Pastor Sam Fitoe just passed away on Wednesday last week and Pastor Sam had to return to Malaita to do the funeral service. That means we only have three men left for our remaining three days and I would really appreciate your prayers that all of them will be able to come every day. If we only have two, it will be much harder to make sure we are catching things that need to be changed. Because we won’t finish I have already made plans to come back in early July. The more progress we make now means the less time we will need when I come back! Thanks so much for your prayers.

It’s been very nice to be able to keep in touch with Brena and the boys through email and skype. Things are going well there, so thank you for praying for them.