Excerpts from From email sent to friends and supporters sent July 2013 from Ukarumpa, PNG:

Dear Praying Friends,

The Manus Adapt It / Paratext workshop ended on Friday, and after tear-filled good-byes, all participants left Ukarumpa and travelled to the port city of Lae on Saturday morning to await transportation back to Manus Island. The last three weeks of the workshop were filled with a wonderful mix of technological and spiritual fruit. The participants not only learned the basics of Adapt It and Paratext, they also learned how to use other useful software programs that will help them organize and lead the development of Bible translation programs within their language areas. The spiritual fruit included excellent devotional times in God's word and prayer. The devotional "themes" of the workshop were knowing God's calling, developing a close personal relationship to Jesus Christ, and knowing him better.

In this context, Peter, the husband of Rachel - one of the ladies attending the workshop - actually came to know the Lord during the last week of the workshop. Peter wasn't a Christian. But God was about to lead him through some rather remarkable circumstances to put him in the right place, and draw him into a saving relationship with His Son Jesus.

While Rachel was at the workshop, she didn't know that Peter had severely injured his right eye while working on house construction 300 miles away out on Manus Island. Unable to contact her from Manus, Peter managed to travel to the town of Goroka in the PNG highlands seeking medical help for his eye, but the doctors there told him they could do nothing for his eye and that he would have no sight in his right eye. Peter knew that his wife was somewhere in the vast PNG highlands attending a course but he knew not where. After getting the discouraging medical news, he caught a public motor vehicle (PMV) in Goroka and got as far as the town of Kainantu which happens to be a few miles from the SIL Ukarumpa Center. He got off the PMV and wandered around the town, but he had no idea where the SIL center was located or even if his wife was still there.

It was a Saturday, and in God's timing, that was the very day that Charles was in town buying some food supplies for the course participants. Kainantu is very crowded with thousands of people packing the town on Saturdays. The Lord, however, brought Charles and Peter to cross paths at the same place and the same time in that vast crowd of people. Happy and grateful to see Charles through his one good eye, Charles brought him back to the Ukarumpa center where Peter sat in as an observer during the last week of the workshop.

There in the workshop, Peter witnessed Jesus' love among the participants, saw how the Lord was working among them, and the light of the good news broke through to Peter. One of the Manus course participants led Peter down the road of repentance and into the knowledge of Jesus as his savior. We all rejoiced to see Peter and Rachel - now committing themselves together as truly one in the body of Christ, with a strong commitment to translating the Bible for their own people. Although Peter has lost physical sight in one eye, he recognizes that he has gained something far more precious - spiritual sight and eternal life!


 

Please continue to pray for the Manus people as they make their way back to Manus Island. Some will fly out tomorrow Monday July 15th. Others will wait to catch the next ship out to Manus Island. Pray for them as they continue their translation work out in their village areas. Pray for good support from family, friends and churches, and that God's Spirit will guide them every step of the long road ahead.

The students are purchasing their computers and solar charging systems (since they have no electrical power in their villages) through their own contributions - supplemented by subsidies made possible through your prayers and gifts. Four complete solar charging systems are soon on their way out to Manus, with an additional eight solar systems on order for shipping to Manus, once the components become available and our SIL technical department completes the wiring and preparation details. The students are very grateful for these "tools" of modern technology and have dedicated them to God's
glory.

Thank you so much for your prayers and gifts that have helped us to make this trip possible and to provide some much needed training and resources for these 12 new Bible translators in Manus Province, PNG.

We will be leaving Ukarumpa on July 22nd, and PNG on July 23rd. We'll spend 4 nights in Cairns Australia, and then fly back to Dallas Texas on July 27th. Thank you again for your partnership with us in this endeavor!

Blessings,

Bill (and for Lenore)

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