Click on the link below to read our newsletter summarizing this past year of 2021.
We are thankful for your friendship, prayers, and financial support. Hope you have a special and happy Christmas, remembering Jesus, our Savior and friend.
send gifts to: Wycliffe Bible Translators, PO Box 628200, Orlando, FL 32862 (The check should be made payable to Wycliffe Bible Translators and include a note that says preference for the ministry of John and Brena Bruner)
I RETURNED TO UKARUMPA (and Brena) on Nov 19th after spending 2 weeks in Ubuo village in Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, where I did the consultant check of Luke for the Kope language. I can’t say I was looking forward to the trip beforehand – I knew it is in a river delta area that is very hot and swampy. Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had made it out to be in my mind, and the checking of Luke turned out to be a very encouraging experience. I’ll use pictures to tell about my trip there:
After a 35-minute ride in a small plane, and then just over 2 hours in a 30HP motorboat through tidal rivers which serve as the roads in Gulf Province we arrived at Ubuo, a village of around 500 people.
You can see when we arrived the tide was out (bottom left). The picture beside it was taken at the same place at high tide!
I realized that I had not lived in a village for over 10 years! It brought back so many memories – most of them good: cute kids, kids playing games, dugout canoes, using an outhouse (wiping maggots off the toilet seat was a new one for me!), bucket showers, roosters crowing, people sitting around and talking for hours and hours.
The only place in the village where you can get a phone signal is here by the river. I was so thankful for this spot as I was able to talk with Brena for an hour every afternoon!
A translation project in the Kope language had been started in the mid-1980s but for a number of reasons it stopped around 1990. About 6 or 7 years ago Hanna Schulz was looking at various language groups to work with and felt God leading her to work with the Kope. She has a great team of people to work with and it is exciting to see them making progress on the translation. I was very impressed with Hanna’s dedication to the work and her willingness to work alone in the Kope project. I was also impressed that she drives her boat on the rivers!
Tompkin Aumari is the Paramount Chief of half of the Kope villages and the translation project coordinator. He has been working for many years to get the translation work going in Kope and he is a very gifted individual. When I told him that I was surprised to see there were not many people in church he told me that he had said to a church leader, “You will have more Kope Christians when there is a translation in the Kope language.”
I stayed in this translation building which was built by the construction department at our mission center at Ukarumpa. It was great to have such a nice building with lights, fans and enough power for a hot water kettle!
Every day we had between 10 and 20 people come for the consultant check. About half were part of the translation team and half were others who came to answer the comprehension questions I asked.
Pastor Mark came from a different village to help with the checking. He was such a sweet man and I enjoyed getting to know him. It was a bit of a shock to find out that he had lost his wife to a crocodile attack – something that happens once or twice a year in the area!
It was clear to me as we did the check that the Kope people don’t understand the Bible very well (not surprising since they don’t have it in a language they understand well). That made it really encouraging to see people’s expressions as a section was being read. A number of times I would see their faces light up as they understood the meaning. After reading the sections where the Pharisees and teachers of the law kept trying to trap Jesus, but Jesus keeps outwitting them, Sandra (above middle) said,“Wow, Jesus sure has tricky talk!“ Another time, someone said, “Hearing this in our own language is frightening (convicting).”
After the section where Jesus says that only the sign of Jonah would be given to the people, Elijah, upon understanding that Jesus was referring to his rising from death after 3 days being like Jonah in the belly of the fish for 3 days, just kept shaking his head and clucking his tongue in amazement.
I’m so thankful I had the chance to do the consultant check for the Kope as it once again confirmed to me that the work of translation can have an impact on people’s lives. Thanks so much to all of you, who through your prayers and financial support, make it possible for Brena and me to be involved in this work.
PRAISE & PRAYER:
1. We are thankful that the check of Luke for the Kope language translation was able to be completed and that it went so well. We’re also grateful that Brena’s time in Ukarumpa while I was gone went well and that we were able to communicate daily.
2. Please pray for my scheduled trip mid-January to Wewak PNG (Sepik area) to help with a consultant check of languages doing Oral Bible Translation. Pray that all the arrangements for that trip will go well and that Brena will be able to go with me for 2 of the 3 weeks.
3. After a big surge in COVID-19 cases in PNG in September and October, it has died down recently so life seems almost back to normal. Brena has been able to resume her Staff Care work and socializing with colleagues has been a little easier.
TO BE IN TOUCH:
john_bruner@sil.org – PO Box 1 (134), Ukarumpa EHP 444, Papua New Guinea
send gifts to: Wycliffe Bible Translators, PO Box 628200, Orlando, FL 32862 (The check should be made payable to Wycliffe Bible Translators – include a note that says it is for the ministry of John and Brena Bruner)
johnandbrena 