One thing I (Matt) enjoy about writing a newsletter is that it forces me to slow down and take stock of the last few months of our lives – the ups, the downs, the milestones and accomplishments. So often in life, as soon as we finish one thing, we’re rushing off to the next, barely acknowledging the moment that has just flown by. But God’s faithfulness in our
lives comes into such sharp focus when I take a step back and look at the big picture of the last few months. I hope these glimpses into our life and ministry encourage you to thank
God for his faithfulness in your life as well!
So here’s an overview of our last few months…
In August, Christy and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. God has
brought us a long way in those 25 years, and I’m excited to find out what’s coming
up in the next 25!
A few days after our anniversary, I flew out to Hamelengan village with a team of literacy colleagues to run a three-week literacy training course for the Nukna people. At the end of the course, I presented each of the eight Nukna preschool/early elementary schools with a tub full of literacy resources, including hundreds of early reading books that the Nukna team and I developed and printed. We also produced dozens of story books to give Nukna
adults the chance to practice reading in their own language. These books proved to be very popular!
One week after my flight home from the village, Christy and I returned to Hamelengan village with a leadership team from Wycliffe USA. They had come to Papua New Guinea to learn more about the work going on here, and as part of their time they wanted to visit a remote village where translation work was happening. It was an honor that our village was chosen, and the Nukna people went all out decorating the village and preparing a big welcome. Nukna people shared impact stories of how God has been moving in their communities. And it was an especially meaningful moment when the Nukna people presented a financial offering to the leaders of Wycliffe USA, given to help with the work of Bible translation around the world. The visit was short – only one morning – but God received a lot of glory because of it!
Shortly after the Wycliffe USA visit, Christy and I were adult leaders at the high school spiritual retreat, Encounter. This retreat is held every year for the students who attend the school at which Christy works, and the majority of these teens are missionary kids. Justin and Julianne are part of this group. It was a special time of worshiping, learning more about
the Lord, building relationships – and playing some seriously fun group games! (Christy and her two friends were in charge of games this year.) Christy and I have both been youth ministry leaders for many years now – these kids are special to us!
I have also been continuing to work hard at the various tasks needed to move the Nukna New Testament translation project forward. A big highlight was when I recently received a text message from my co-translator Muransi. As many of you know, Muransi has been doing the first draft of the Nukna translation since the very beginning. His text message read, “New Testament drafting complete. October 22, 2024, 11:00”. Praise God with us that the entire Nukna New Testament has now been drafted! And praise God for his many years of faithfulness to Muransi, to enable him to complete this monumental task!
In November we completed the consultant checks of seven more books – Romans, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John and Jude – bringing us up to 91% consultant checked! We only have two books left to complete – Hebrews and Revelation. Our check of Romans was done by a translation consultant on the other side of the world, in America. He joined us over the internet, something that would not have been possible here in PNG just a few years ago. Thank God for technologies like this that allow us to do the work of Bible translation in new ways! But as technology has been improving, transportation within PNG is becoming more difficult. It is increasingly challenging to get our Nukna translation team up to Ukarumpa so we can work together, mostly because the local grass airstrip near the Nukna area is not
being cut. Their last trip here involved an eight-hour journey over open ocean in a small boat through pirate-infested waters, then taking a 10-hour bus ride and arriving in a strange city in the middle of the night. One of the Nukna men, Táng, came down with a
bad case of malaria from the two nights they spent on the mosquito-infested coast along the way. Please pray with us as we seek a way to bring them here in a safer, more reliable manner.