We invite you to Pray (informed by posts below), Give, or Go. Thank you for bringing the people of Papua New Guinea before Jesus.
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New Adventures – Director!
After 13+ years in language survey (and communications, crisis management, etc), a big change is coming: I will be the Director of our organization in PNG beginning in 2024. Desiring to limit our time outside of PNG during that 4-year term, we’re in the US to reconnect with family and partners.
We’re updating this site to describe our expanded responsibilities as Director. Here’s a quick overview of what we’re about:
- Vision: God’s Word, Every Language, Every Life. From the Impact Statement: changed lives, transformed communities.
- 222+ New Testament translations completed in partnership with local communities since 1956.
- Currently engaged in Bible translation in 124 languages.
- To see ‘changed lives, transformed communities,’ we provide many services beyond translation: literacy, training, technology, research, etc.
- Because infrastructure is minimal in the remote villages we often partner with, we provide transport, medical, supplies, education, and other services to staff.
- We have around 450 staff in PNG, half from PNG, half from 15+ other countries. 1000+ PNGns work as translators and literacy and Scripture engagement workers.
See https://silpng.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/SILPNG for more
information about language development in Papua New Guinea.
We are adjusting to this new scope of responsibility. We are grateful for the experiences and skills we’ve gained in our 13+ years in PNG:
- Language survey has given us an intimate acquaintance with people in remote language communities, the opportunities and felt needs there, and what it takes to partner fruitfully.
- In crisis management we were responsible to care for the whole staff team. We gained an understanding of cultural and contextual realities that affect our staff’s resilience and efficacy.
- Serving in several governance-related roles, including on the Executive Committee, acquainted us with the governance and policy side of the organization.
- Working as Chief Communications Officer gave opportunities to communicate with staff, partners, and the public about vision and encourage them with stories of God’s work. This role works with the Directorate team, so there was opportunity to observe and learn.
Overall, we sense that the “good opportunities God prepared in advance for us to do” have been great preparation for the role he’s prepared for us next.
We welcome your prayers during this time of transition. Please get in touch with any questions or if you want to receive our newsletter.
4/4 Goodenough Island Survey
Compilation post about this beautiful survey trip – helicopter, tropical island, wonderful people, win-win! – with daughter Anya, teammate Kristy, and translators Denis, Simon, and Christabel. From Sep 2022.
3/4 Goodenough Island Survey
Compilation post about this beautiful survey trip – helicopter, tropical island, wonderful people, win-win! – with daughter Anya, teammate Kristy, and translators Denis, Simon, and Christabel. From Sep 2022.
2/4 Goodenough Island Survey
Compilation post about this beautiful survey trip – helicopter, tropical island, wonderful people, win-win! – with daughter Anya, teammate Kristy, and translators Denis, Simon, and Christabel. From Sep 2022.
1/4 Goodenough Island Survey
Compilation post about this beautiful survey trip – helicopter, tropical island, wonderful people, win-win! – with daughter Anya, teammate Kristy, and translators Denis, Simon, and Christabel. From Sep 2022.
3/3 Muratayak Survey (Apr’22)
We enjoy telling stories on FB, but when one trip get spread across 33 posts – actually, 34 – the narrative gets a bit chopped up. We’ll combine original posts in three compilations here. Enjoy!
2/3 Muratayak Survey (Apr’22)
We enjoy telling stories on FB, but when one trip get spread across 33 posts, the narrative gets a bit chopped up. We’ll combine original posts in three compilations here. Enjoy!
1/3 Muratayak Survey (Apr’22)
We enjoy telling stories on FB, but when one trip get spread across 33 posts, the narrative gets a bit chopped up. We’ll combine original posts in three compilations here. Enjoy!
Between the Past and the Future
It was not yet dawn. The subtle sibilance of bare feet on trail was the only evidence of a man in front of me. His dark skin disappeared, but there was enough light to see irregularities underfoot – a dip, a stone, a root. But bare feet perceived more than eyes, this hour.
River crossings had a dim glow, trees unable to touch hands above the river’s expanse. The sound of water over rocks testified to shallow fords. Even in daylight, feet play a large role in negotiating underwater obstacles. Doubly so before sunrise!
The man ahead left a smell in the air – in no way unpleasant, but definitely human. I left the same smell; I’d eaten the same food and washed in the same rivers in the days preceding.
The trail followed the river’s calm but persistent journey to the sea. The team had a boat to catch to reach the airstrip to board the plane to fly home to family. Home: where security lights dim the stars – earthly concerns, however relevant, concealing heaven’s glory.
In that moment on the trail, my body desired nothing more than to walk the dim forest eternally, without fear, without thought, without knowing the passing of time. In the dark, I followed the man who knew the trail without seeing it. This was his ground. I was accorded the privilege of enjoying the profound present with him, in silence.
But time did not stop. Someone adjusted the light setting, ever so gently, revealing browns, greys, and the dark greens of the jungle. Eyes found more upon which to alight, more in which to delight. With my eyes’ awakening, the brain grew busier, and my body’s pleasure in the present faded.
The man I followed was now more than a shape. He became a young man who sometimes went barefoot and sometimes wore flip-flops; they were stored in his bilum as needed, along with very little else. His shorts made river crossings straightforward. His t-shirt prophesied the day’s coming heat. His hat and shaped beard showed attention to style.
Paradoxically, on this primordial ground at this hour of the day’s birth, the young man in an ancient world carried on his shoulder a Canon Pixma printer. It was being transported to our center for repair.
And thus the people of this land live between. Between the Past and the Future. Between depending on the generous earth and a fortnightly wage. Between wise, gnarled hands tending crops and savvy, city hands handling paperwork. They are masters of transition, of seeking to draw the good from each opportunity, leaving the bad. But evil is sticky.
Much of my life is in the Future; we move too fast to risk not focusing on what is coming at us. And so my feet remember that dark trail with longing. Perhaps I can find the grace to be Present, even here.
Beginning Again
AND… we’re back in PNG! Consider being one who responds to Go! yourself!
One of the weird things about working overseas – at least with our model – is the coming and going, and therefore the stopping and starting. But the stopping and starting provides an opportunity to reflect, learn, and grow. Since God made people to need sleep, giving us each new day as an act of grace, it’s logical that stopping and starting can be healthy.
The lessons we’re mulling at the moment are simple. Yes, simplicity is one of them: how can we limit the physical and mental clutter so that we can be more at peace as we engage in God’s work? Being present is another: not only to shrug off unnecessary concerns, but also to invest in now, in the people and tasks immediately to hand. Sometimes we get to focusing on some grand plan and miss the things right in front of us.
Things here haven’t changed drastically in the 8 months we were gone, or even in the 11.5 years since we first arrived in PNG. Hundreds of language communities await translation. The challenges to doing Scripture translation and engagement remain significant. But we’ve built relationships, learned a lot, have conducted research in 70+ language communities, and have had three girls join our family in those years! Our task now is to remain patiently engaged, present in the now, celebrating every blessing from God and every good thing he allows us to participate in.
One of those good things is the Participatory Methods for Engaging Communities workshop in a few weeks. We’ve been using participatory approaches since 2011 in our research, and I finally got a trainer to PNG in 2017. It seems to have stuck, as this is now the 4th or 5th workshop since then, and we know of various staff using these skills in their work! Katie is organizing groups for students to practice newly-learned skills with… and those groups or teams will get a free facilitated team-building or decision-making activity. These approaches are excellent in PNG, where relationships and collaborative decision-making are highly valued.
