Kahunapule’s Journal

Volcanic Parable

Very early Friday morning, 21 January 2011, I had a dream in which I saw a very large house in which we were working and living. It was in the mountains, and a creek ran between the house and a tall volcanic mountain. From time to time, hot lava rocks fell from the top of the volcano and landed in the creek, where they cooled and solidified. Nobody was afraid of the rocks, because they seemed to pose no threat, and any fire started across the creek would be quenched before it reached the house, even though the house was not far from the creek. This went on for some time, and people ignored it, eventually. Then I looked and saw an open crack, a fumarole, from which toxic gasses (H2S, etc.) came from deep in the earth. People looked at it, then carried on after a while, becoming used to both the hot rocks from the top and the fumarole. Again I looked, and the fumarole started slowly oozing hot lava. It attracted attention again, people took pictures, then got used to it and carried on. The lava stopped and froze at the creek, boiling lots of the water in the process. Nobody saw a threat, so they carried on as usual. Then the Lord told me to pack up and get ready to leave, so my family and some others did. Some didn’t. We had all of our stuff in the cars and trucks behind the building. Then I saw the hill across the creek starting to bulge, and the Lord told me to tell everyone to leave. Some did. Some did not. One crazy woman went and stood on the lava flow, and burned to death. She had told her daughter to go with her, but we kept her with us, instead. The Lord told me to give a last warning, so I did. Then those who were willing went to the loaded vehicles and drove away. As we left the area, there was a huge explosion of lava, rock, and gasses behind us, leaving no survivors among those who did not listen.
It was a vivid dream, with more details than I have written. It reminded me of the watchman warning to Ezekiel (33:6-7). The interpretation may be obvious, but I reserve the right to state the obvious. People get used to sin in increments, and don’t always perceive the danger that they should when they should when it gets close to them by degrees. Woe unto those who don’t heed the voice of the Lord, directly and through prophets, but listening and obeying can save your life, which is far more valuable than anything you might leave behind.

Microsoft Virus Call Scam

I got a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, today, wanting to warn me that my computer was downloading viruses from the Internet continuously. They lied. Microsoft doesn’t do that! Criminals who want to steal your money, damage your reputation, and take over your computer do that. Beware! If you get such a call, don’t even THINK about following their instructions.

Missions and Money

Once again, I’m tasked with writing a missionary prayer letter. Unlike this blog, its size is limited. I guess that I could write. “We need money for our mission work. Please send some every month.” Or I could give the amount. That is difficult, because if I give the amount, then it just begs for an explanation. The explanation is long, complicated, and full of uncertainties. Our income is currently variable. Wildly variable. I usually use a one year running average to figure out what our income really is. We have a few partners who give the same amount every month, like clockwork. May God bless them. That helps keep the minimums from being zero. We have some who give sporadically. We have some who give only at times and in response to conditions, like bonuses, that we can’t predict. It all adds up, and helps keep us working full time in Christian missions. We greatly appreciate all who give whatever the Lord puts on their hearts to give, because without that, we couldn’t keep doing what the Lord has put on our hearts. That is very Scriptural. Even Paul and Jesus had people who gave to them in support of their physical needs while they went on their missionary journeys. (Phil. 1:5; 4:13-17; Luke 8:1-3; etc.). There are other ways to fund missionary work, but this is the model used by the mission organizations we work with. It leads to good accountability between those who go and those who send them, encourages people to pray for the missionaries they support, and is remarkably efficient. It is especially good when all involved (both the goers and the senders) are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I have known missionaries who don’t think it is proper to tell people how much they need, but just to pray. Most, however, don’t mind giving people a clue as to how well supported they are. This, of course, involves doing some math to figure out. I suppose that some might think that missionaries would tend to raise too much money and live excessively. I know MANY missionaries, and I haven’t actually met anyone like that. Usually, the opposite problem prevails. It is HARD to raise support. We would just as soon be done with it all and just get on with the work God has called us to, without having to worry if there will be enough money in the bank to pay the necessary bills. So what usually happens is that they raise just barely enough– and then only if their mission organization makes them raise a minimum amount. As time goes on, support tends to decay. People lose jobs, die, lose interest, or whatever, and stop giving. Sometimes churches split, die, or decide to reallocate their mission money. This forces the missionary back to fund raising, or worse yet, off of the mission field to get a paying job.

So how do we come upon an amount that we need to raise for support? In our case, we used two different methods, and they both came out to about the same amount. Method one was to use a formula given by a large and respected mission organization (Wycliffe Bible Translators), using a spreadsheet that they supply to their members. Method 2 was to add up the expenses we knew we had committed to (tithes, taxes, insurance, utilities, cheap housing, food, school fees, ministry supplies, transportation, etc.), and see what that came to. Both methods came to within a couple hundred dollars a month of each other, so we figured that it was reasonable and that we could survive on that and still devote our full attention to the ministries God has called us to.

Two questions come to mind regarding the actual amount. The first is “Why so much? It looks like more than most people make!” The answer, of course, is that most people are thinking of their take-home pay, and not the fully burdened cost to the employer of having them work for them. There is a huge difference in those numbers, consisting of facilities, supplies, retirement, taxes that you see on your pay stub, taxes you don’t see on your pay stub, insurance, travel, corporate utilities, etc. Missionaries like us have to raise support to cover the full cost of all of that plus a share of the organizational overhead, because there isn’t another place for that money to come from. And yes, we have to pay taxes, too. We often pay taxes in more than one country. So really, it takes some math to compare income on a fair basis. When you do the math, it usually comes out with the missionary looking poorer than the people supporting him or her.

The next question is “Why so little? How can you possibly live on so much?” I’m not making this up. I had to answer that question on scholarship applications for my sons in college in follow-up questions. It is as if they thought we must be hiding income or something, but we reported it all. Anyway, I’m not sure how we do it. Sometimes we don’t, and we go back into debt for a while. Sometimes we cheat ourselves by not making retirement fund contributions so that we can buy food now. Sometimes our living expenses are really low because we are off in a jungle somewhere with no place to go shopping. To be honest, we really should raise a higher amount.

There are other ways to finance missions, with varying credibility and results. The best alternate strategy seems to be the one where the sending organization separates fund raising and mission activities, and just pays missionaries fixed salaries and benefits appropriate to their mission field. Some well-known and effective organizations do this. It solves some problems, but creates others… and frequently results in fewer missionaries on the field. A close runner-up is the one where a missionary is self-funded. Few can actually pull this off for long. I know of a few “retired” people who can. It also works for some short-term missions, but rarely for a career in missions. Then there are the spurious suggestions of multi-level marketing, or worse yet, “Nigerian” scams. I know of one missionary who sent more money than he had to such a scammer, and had to leave the mission field and work a secular job for a few years to pay back what he had been tricked out of. Needless to say, no large inheritance or windfall funds were forthcoming after the “fees” were paid.

The one way that certainly doesn’t work is to expect the unevangelized to pay for the costs of bringing the Gospel to them before they even understand the infinite value of the Gospel, which is supposed to be given freely, anyway. No, it is the responsibility and privilege of those who believe in Jesus Christ already to bear the burden of obeying the Great Commission as both senders and goers. The law of LOVE compels us to make it so.

The Holy Bible, Technology, and Remote People

I am passionate about getting God’s Word to people where they are, in a language they can understand. I believe in the heart-transforming power of God’s Word so much that I actually left behind work as a well-paid software engineer and went full time into Christian missions. Instead of a regular, predictable paycheck, we have lived on donations for the past decade and focused on using our talents and skills to advance the Kingdom of God. Has it been worth it? YES! Will my wife and I continue to do this? Of course!

Technology is advancing, providing access to books and educational materials in very remote areas, as with the One Laptop Per Child XO PCs shown in the picture. I’m working to make Scripture available to them in their own languages.

Christ Revealed on World Networks

Last Monday, in a meeting at the University of the Nations, I was struck by the term “viral” electronic Scripture distribution. Of course, as a man who done battle with computer viruses and been tasked with protecting many computers from malware, the term “viral” has many negative connotations. I’ve been trying to think of a better analogy, but the only other one that fits is that of supercritical nuclear reactions, and that isn’t exactly devoid of negative connotations, either. So, I embrace the term “viral” in this instance. I like the idea of creating weapons of mass discipleship and evangelism resulting in a pandemic of repentance, salvation, and righteousness. And, as much as I detest the sort of computer virus that illegally and immorally usurps other people’s computing resources and cause damage, there are a few things that we can learn from them. The main difference is that we seek to spread the Word of God with the permission and consent of the propagating agents, not violate laws where those laws do not contradict God’s Law, and doing good instead of evil with our payload, which is the Holy Bible.

To be effective at viral propagation, Scriptures, like their biological virus and computer virus counterparts must have:

• An initial distribution or creation point (i. e. a web site),
• Adaptation to the hosts that carry them (i. e. formats for different devices and programs),
• Fruitful reproduction (i. e. freely downloadable, permission and ability to easily copy and mirror),
• Effective means of transmission (i. e. various Internet protocols, memory sticks & cards, etc.), and
• Resistance to attempts to control or slow their spread (i. e. legal operation in Christ-friendly countries, diversity of sources and channels, applied computer security technology, design for survivability and tamper resistance, etc.).

Viral electronic Scripture distribution goes beyond conventional publishing, and it goes beyond direct control of the initial publisher over the distribution. The initial publisher can digitally sign releases to provide a tamper-evident seal, and forbid alterations (other than legitimate revisions and adaptations), but intentionally makes no attempt to control or limit redistribution beyond the initial publication. There are well-accepted legal ways to express this desire, in the form of Creative Commons Licenses and similar copyright licenses.

Virally published Scriptures that have been in distribution long enough cannot be effectively censored or eliminated by active persecution, even by major totalitarian governments known for similar activities. There are just too many copies in too many places, and those copies can be easily and quickly copied to other places to fill in where persecutors thought they had eradicated it from.

I’ll mention in passing that for the world’s majority languages, there are several sources of Scriptures in electronic form, mostly in the form of copyrighted, proprietary software, usually with deliberate safeguards against making further copies to protect the worldly intellectual property rights of the Scripture publishers. There are also web sites with permission to serve limited amounts of Scriptures at a time, and no permission to redistribute. There is little risk of a global pandemic of Scripture from these sources, but they do some good in their realm.

If you look diligently for viral Scripture distribution points today, you will find a few good ones. These include the Crosswire Bible Society, eBible.org, PNGScriptures.org, and a few others. There is not yet a single authoritative site to find all of these, and they are being put up by different people. There is a bit of cooperation and communication going on, though. For example, I’m using and adapting Prophero for use in PNG, Vanuatu, Jamaica, and a couple of spots in Africa. Prophero was first put together for a few Indonesian languages plus Hawaiian Pidgin, and I’m using that software, improving it, and sharing it with others. For a longer list of Scriptures on the Internet that also includes nonviral Scripture distribution points, see http://eBible.org/bible/.

Looking to the future, there are Scripture portions in at least 200 languages that could be put on the web in viral forms within the next year, as well as improving the viral nature of what is already there by increasing the number of formats that can be downloaded to fit both the leading edge/affluent platforms and networks and the sorts of things I see in the developing nations (OLPC, second-hand computers, expensive pay-per-megabyte Internet, etc.). Doing all of that in a year is way too much for the current team to pull off by ourselves, but in partnership with YWAM‘s CROWN (Christ Revealed on World Networks) Information Technology ministries based at the University of the Nations, and following God’s leading, it can indeed be done.

I would like to thank those who have been working to provide copyright permissions for many Scriptures. A major roadblock to viral distribution of Scriptures has been knocked out, and soon we will see the Lord show us how to break through the remaining barriers to getting the existing Bible translations published. We will see the ideal of Scriptures being published electronically in many formats, book by book and language by language, as soon as they have been translated and properly checked.

One eye weeping and one eye laughing

Rainbow over our house as seen from school

Originally uploaded by kahunapulej

If you have been reading all of our newsletters and emails, you already know a lot of facts about us and our ministry. You also know some things about our family, and about some of our challenges and victories. You know that we are serious about getting the Word of God to people in their own heart language, as well as living the Word of God in the midst of our neighbors, near and far. You already know that we keep using the skills God has blessed us with to support the work of Bible translation and publication.

But what is on our hearts? What does it feel like? There is a fight to faith, but it is good to know we are on the winning side. There is a full range of emotions, rich experiences, profound beauty and joy, and deep darkness and sin to cast out with the light of God’s Word. There is the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. In all of it, God is glorified.

I was talking about our mixed feelings in moving on to our next assignment with a friend who assured me that it is actually good that way. There is an old German proverb about moving with one eye weeping and one eye laughing. One reflects the sadness of saying “good bye” and leaving a place that has become familiar, and one reflects the joy of going on to the next thing. If we weren’t at least a little sad to go, it would reflect poorly on our experience here. Yet if we were not looking forward to our next assignment, that would not be good, either. Although we know for sure that we are supposed to be here now, and we know just as surely that the Lord wants us to move on to the next assignment, our conviction is not about emotions. It is about being sure of the Lord’s leading, and assurance that the best thing to do is to go where He leads.

There is no place on Earth without challenges, dangers, and perils. Also, there is no place on Earth that is totally devoid of at least a residue of the Glory of God. People tend to fear unknown or exotic danger more than familiar and known danger. Yet God has not called us to fear, but to go and spread His Word. So, we go, because we love Him and earnestly desire to please Him.

So, we look forward to our new work doing things we enjoy, and our new place, which actually is a location we have long wanted to go to. We look forward to the blessing of being where the Lord wants us to be. Yet it would be dishonest to tell you that it is not at least a little bit sad to leave so many friends behind in a place where we know we have been used by God to help so many people to believe in Jesus Christ. We can’t even find a good way to measure the impact, because it keeps rippling through entire language groups and cultures. It isn’t just about the teaching and computer work we do, but about being salt and light where we are. It is about crossing cultural barriers, living in and among other people, and becoming a real influence.

Sometimes it is hard for me to explain some of the ways God has made His love known through us. Just yesterday, I had a conversation with a woman who has been through a lot of pain and suffering, and who was fighting hard in frustration about many things, including the death of her son in tribal warfare. In the conversation we had, I felt like she finally really understood, not just in her head, but in her heart, when I spoke of the love of Jesus, forgiveness and forgiving, and repentance. I could sense the peace in her voice toward the end. I don’t think there is any way she would have been open to what I had to say if we hadn’t spent years interacting with her, repeatedly demonstrating God’s Word to her and not just saying it or handing it to her in written form. No, it took standing with her through trials, comforting her in her loss, and showing the tough, persistent, gentle, consistent love of God in practical ways.

We can’t take much from our temporary home here on to our next place, because of budget constraints and the extreme remoteness of where we live. If it doesn’t fit in a 1.3 cubic meter crate for the whole family, or in one 20-kg. suitcase and a 7-kg. carry-on bag per person, it can’t come with us. This is so much of an improvement in our ability to travel light in this world from when we started moving around for the Lord that it is really funny. The pack rat tendencies that were in me have died. That is OK. It is more than OK. It is wonderful, because we are constantly building up treasure that can’t be burnt, lost, rusted, obsoleted, molded, stolen, worn out, or depleted in a place where there is no crime and where we will live with Jesus forever. We get to bring people with us to Heaven to celebrate life and worship the Lord forever. Sounds like an excellent trade, doesn’t it?

Rachel’s first Christmas

I have celebrated many Christmases, but the one that is most unforgettable for me is the miracle-filled Christmas season of 2005. It started around July, that year, when we found out that we had been matched with a baby girl in an orphanage in Cebu City, Republic of the Philippines. Unfortunately, a paperwork deadlock followed, where agencies in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines were both waiting for the other one to make the next move. And waiting. And waiting. It felt to me like a hostage situation. We earnestly desired to bring our daughter home. I made phone calls, sent emails and faxes, all to no avail.

Then I prayed. The Lord said “Go there.” He also said “Tell people that you will have your daughter by Christmas.” The Inter-Country Adoption Board told me not to come, because they weren’t ready. I said I was coming anyway for other reasons, and went. After personal, face-to-face conversations with the appropriate people in Port Moresby and Manila, the bureaucratic paper jam was cleared, and the process started moving again. There was still some waiting, though, with no natural way of knowing how long. Lori had to go back to PNG to take care of our sons. I stayed there, acted as our own expediter, and kept telling people what the Lord said.

On the last working day before Christmas (a Friday), Rachel was released. I got stuck in a major traffic jam on the way from the store where I picked up baby cereal and formula, so I told the taxi driver that if he would wait for me, I would pay him double the going rate to get me to the airport. I got out of the cab about 3 blocks from the orphanage, signed the paperwork, gave Rachel a fresh change of new clothes, and walked back to the cab, which was now only 1 block away from the orphanage. Yes, traffic was bad, and I had a use-it-or-lose-it ticket on the last plane with any space on it from Cebu City to Manila before Christmas. The taxi driver, being highly motivated, drove with adrenaline and enthusiasm through back alleys and byways, in ways that defy attempts at diplomatic description. I prayed in the back seat, holding Rachel. “Lord, you know that we will probably be late. Please hold that airplane for us.” That airline had a 98% on time record. We arrived late. The taxi driver tore my duffel bag as he pulled it out of the trunk, still pumped with adrenaline. I thanked and paid him as promised, and calmly walked up to the ticket counter and checked in, asking for tape to repair the duffel bag. The flight was delayed, giving us a little time to sit in the waiting area as Rachel drank some milk from a bottle.

So, Rachel and I made it back to a guest house in Manila, which was officially closed for Christmas. We were allowed to stay there anyway, but without meal service. No matter– I had formula and cereal for Rachel. Someone had pity on us, and invited us for Christmas dinner: microwaved frozen McDonald’s hamburgers and an apple.

After another week’s delay, Rachel and I were cleared to leave the Philippines and return to Papua New Guinea, where we celebrated Christmas again, with the whole family. And yes, the meal was more traditional, the second Christmas of 2005, including ice cream and cake. It is, after all, a birthday celebration for Jesus, the Savior.

That was just a small sample of the many miracles involved in making Rachel a permanent part of our family. Praise the Lord!

Long and short term missions

Which is better: long term missions or short term missions?

Both have their advantages and disadvantages, of course. A long term missionary has time to really learn languages and cultures, to develop relationships, and to effectively work on projects or engage in types of ministry that take significant amounts of time. A short term missionary has opportunities to make a concentrated impact and/or to investigate future short or long term missions. So why would anyone even debate this issue?

Both have their potential disadvantages, too. Long-term missionaries risk creating unhealthy dependencies or burning out. Short-term missionaries risk doing damage because of inadequate understanding of language and culture, or by being more of a drain on mission resources than they are an asset. They are also more easily deceived. Do these disadvantages mean that we should abandon either strategy? Of course not! As with any hazard, we evaluate what we can do to minimize the negatives and maximize the benefits to the Kingdom of God. In all things, we seek the wisdom of the Ancient of Days Himself.

Which is better? Whatever the Lord has called you to do.

The high cost of free salvation

I often get scam emails where some criminal tries to deceive me into thinking that if I will get some outrageously large amount of wealth if I just pay some preliminary “fees” to clear the way. Of course, those “fees” have cost many people more than they can afford, and the promised wealth (an inheritance, unclaimed funds, or whatever) never appear.

Reality is better than that. The greatest treasure you can imagine: eternal life, a mansion to live in, food for all eternity, great music, fun things to do, great company with good friends, joy, peace, love, righteousness, and more is available as a free gift from God, and He gives it before you pay anything. It is, in fact, a very costly gift that cost God His Son’s blood and more. Yet, because of His great love for us, He gives it for free to all who believe in Jesus Christ. There is no way we can earn that. Nothing in this world can compare to that gift. We don’t have to pay any fees up front. We don’t have to clean ourselves up, first. We don’t have to do anything to earn this great gift except believe in Jesus Christ in our hearts and call him our Lord with our mouth.

Now, once we have this gift of eternal life, the Lord works on teaching us His ways, teaching us to love like Him, and preparing us for life with Him. He also includes us in His work of Salvation by having us show His love and bring His message to every tribe, language, and nation. Now, this does cost us time, money, and all that we are in this world, but it is a great investment in the future of other people. Yes, salvation is already paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ, but it costs us plenty to bring that Good News to others who live far away and who don’t speak the same language. Yet, even then, the Lord provides the resources we need, including enough money to buy whatever we need for transportation, communication, Bible translation, etc. He usually does so through many different people, because He likes to see us work together to do what He wants to do in the world.

One important part of fulfilling the Great Commission is Bible Translation. See the current statistics from Wycliffe Bible Translators, which show both good progress being made and that there is a long way to go. The Lord has given such riches to us. It seems right to spend what we have in this world to help others believe in Jesus Christ so that they may also join is in living with the Lord forever. After all, we already have much greater wealth.

PNG Scriptures web site launched!

We live in exciting times. A few years ago, there was no telephone service in Papua New Guinea outside of a small number of towns, except for a few satellite terminals. Now, mobile phone service covers a significant percentage of the land area of this nation. And now, Internet access via mobile telephone network is available. We want to make sure there is something worthwhile for people to access in their own language when they start discovering this new medium in smart phones and certain computers. The beginnings of this effort is at PNGScriptures.org (for and English greeting) and TokPlesBaibel.org (for a Melanesian Pidgin greeting). Praise the Lord!

Battle aftermath

6 days before the following, I saw a vision of a bright white warrior angel descending on the SIL Ukarumpa Centre (where we live), watching towards Ukarumpa Village (which is right next to the SIL Ukarumpa Centre). The events that followed are not something I can explain, except to report a tiny part of what happened, and to say that I know that God is working to bring good out of this evil.

One good thing that happened is that in one of 72 houses that burned to the ground in the fighting, there was a stack of 3 Bibles. Not one page of them was burnt.

Another good thing that happened was that one man who was being pursued by enemies ran into his house, knelt down in prayer to repent of his sins and ask Jesus to save him. His enemies rushed in to kill him, but didn’t see him and left again.

If you want to help the homeless, the best way is to send us a gift and email us your intentions.

Here is the official statement:

Armed men entered the SIL-PNG Ukarumpa Centre gate at about 8:00 am, Wednesday morning, 12 August 2009, then left after threatening employees connected to Ukarumpa village, firing warning shots in the air and commandeering an SIL vehicle. One national employee from Ukarumpa village had his house on the SIL Centre burglarized and vandalized by the attackers when they were unable to locate him.

No SIL personnel or PNG employees were injured in either incident and the vehicle was recovered later.

At the time of the initial skirmish, the SIL-PNG Ukarumpa Centre was placed on complete lockdown until the security situation could be assessed. Residents of the SIL-PNG Ukarumpa Centre were encouraged to stay indoors and not walk outside.

By 1:00 pm the sporadic gunfire had ceased, but four individuals in Ukarumpa village  were dead, several injured, and 72 village houses had been burned to the ground.

A verbal warning from the attackers was given to SIL-PNG that any help given by SIL personnel to those who had been attacked would be seen as taking the side of their enemies and retaliation against SIL would result.

Papua New Guinean pastors in the Aiyura Valley were called upon to provide aid to the village families whom had lost their homes and belongings. Many of the women and children slept in churches overnight, while the men camped out.

The Provincial Police Commander in Goroka decided to send his mobile unit, which arrived at the SIL-PNG Ukarumpa Centre just after 5pm. They have patrolled the local village areas to restore peace since arriving.

In the aftermath, it has been determined that the reasons for the fighting and destruction were complex. Mercenaries along with villagers from the next valley had come to punish one village family line, because of the recent rape of a young girl; the recent killing of another nearby village member; and also in retaliation of village houses being burned earlier this year in a clan dispute.

Please pray with us for those who are grieving and those who are still afraid of more violence. Pray for the local churches who are reaching out to those who are now homeless. Pray for us (SIL-PNG) to have wisdom in reaching out to the village community near us.

Divine protection

Something missionaries have to deal with is security in unfamiliar and sometimes unknown conditions. We go where we go because the Lord calls us there, or maybe because we have to go for some reason, not necessarily because it is “safe” to go there. Search the Scriptures and see that this is nothing new. There really isn’t any place on earth that is 100% free of sin, crime, or war. (If you found a place that was and went there, you would probably ruin it before too long with your own imperfections, if nothing else.) There are, of course, places that are scarier than others, and statistically much worse in terms of crime per capita, war, etc.

A friend of mine, Pastor Joseph, was doing some church planting work in the Western Highlands Province, recently, when he was in a prayer meeting that was interrupted by the sound of some youths making a racket outside of his door. They had a gun, bush knives (machetes), and masks, and evil intentions. The people inside kept praying, and the racket suddenly stopped. After they were done praying, Pastor Joseph went to the door to see what was going on. He saw the would-be bandits kind of frozen in place with their knives and gun. He asked if they were OK. They couldn’t really talk, but kind of made a tiny “no” motion. He asked the Holy Spirit to release them, and the gun and knives dropped to the ground and the youths kind of shook themselves to work out the kinks in their muscles from holding still so long. He invited them in, prayed with them, and had his wife make dinner for them. It turns out that these were from the church youth group, supposedly Christians. They learned some fear of the Lord and some of the love of the Lord that evening.

Compare this with the story in 2 Kings 6:15-23.

There is no power on Earth or in Heaven greater than the love of God.

Bible Dedications 2008-2009

The following is a list of Scripture dedications already celebrated or planned in 2008 and 2009. It is possible that some were missed, or possibly omitted from this list for security reasons, so really there are probably a few more. Please be in prayer for the people who speak these languages and for the translation teams as they work through the final stages of checking and typesetting. Spiritual warfare tends to be intense at this time, but we are on the winning side. Please also pray for the people getting new Bible translations in their own language that they will read, hear, study, and meditate on God’s Word and that it will bear much fruit in their lives. Obviously, I feel a stronger personal connection to some of these dedications than others, because of help I have provided and/or knowing some of the translation teams and some of the people who speak the languages listed below, but I thank God for ALL of them!

This list is compiled by Wycliffe Bible Translators, but includes work by several different Bible translation agencies.

PACIFIC Old or New Testament DEDICATIONS 08/09

AUHELAWA; Papua New Guinea; 1,200; January 18, 2008

BIMIN; Papua New Guinea; 2,500; November 1-2, 2008.

DJAMBARRPUYNU; Australia; 450; June 7-9, 2008

IPILI; Papua New Guinea; 26,000; August 13, 2008

KUBE; Papua New Guinea; 10,500; March 22, 2008

KUMAN; Papua New Guinea; 120,000; June 27, 2008

MAPE; Papua New Guinea; 12,000; December 21, 2008

NATQGU; Solomon Islands; 5,899; July 20, 2008

NGAANYATJARRA Shorter Bible; Australia; 1,200; May 11, 2008

PIJIN Old Testament; Solomon Islands; 24,390; July 7, 2008

TANGOA; Vanuatu; 900; April 12, 2009

TANNA, North; Vanuatu; 2,000; July 20, 2008

WALA*; Solomon Islands; 6,978; March 16, 2008

ASIA AREA DEDICATIONS 08/09:

BAUZI; Southeast Asia; 1,500; March 17, 2009

IFUGAO, ANTIPOLO Bible; Philippines; 8,000; June 12, 2009

KAGAYANEN; Philippines; 25,000; April 19, 2008

KEMTUIK; Papua; 5,000; July 25, 2008

KINARAY-A; Philippines; 378,000; September 26, 2009

KISAR; Southeast Asia; 20,000; May 8, 2009

TBOLI Bible; Philippines; 90,000; January 30, 2008

WANA; Southeast Asia; 100,000; New Tribes Mission; February 17, 2008

AMERICAS Area DEDICATIONS 08/09

CAKCHIQUEL, SOUTH CENTRAL; Guatemala; 43,000; April 13, 2008

CHA’PALAA language, Chachilla people (Chachi); Ecuador; 9,000; August 16 & 17, 2008

IXIL, Nebaj; Guatemala; 59,500; August 12, 2008

MIXTEC, TEZOATLAN; Americas; 6,200; March 15, 2008

TERIBE; Panama; 3,005; August 17, 2008

TEPEHUAN, Southeastern; Americas; 9,937; May 17-18, 2008 Audio NT & OT abridgment

ZAPOTEC, OZOLOTEPEC; Mexico; 6,500; March 15, 2008

AFRICA AREA DEDICATIONS 2008/2009:

DINKA, Southwestern; Sudan; 450,000; April 20, 2008

FAREFARE Bible; Ghana; 845,100; April 26, 2008

GABRI-KIMRE; Chad; 15,000; April 12, 2008

GUJI; Ethiopia; 2,000,000; August 2, 2008

JOLA-KASA; Senegal; 40,850; January 3, 2009

KONO; Sierra Leone; 190,000; June 14, 2008

LOKAA language, Yakurr people; Nigeria; 120,000; March 15, 2008

MAALE; Ethiopia; 53,779; August 2008

MOBA (Ben); Togo; 191,200; March 15, 2008

MOFU-GUDUR; Cameroon; 60,000; February 16, 2008

MWAN; Cote d’Ivoire; 17,000; March 29, 2009

SENOUFO, Supyire; Mali; 364,000; December 20, 2008

SERE-SINE Bible; Senegal; 1,183,120; January 6, 2008

TAABWA; Democratic Republic of Congo; 250,000; Distributed 2008

TIRA; Sudan; 40,000; February 18, 2009

VOLTA region multi-project*: Lelemi Old Testament 48,900, New Testaments in Sekpele 23,400,

Selee 11,300, Siwu 27,000, and Tuwuli 11,400; Ghana; April 12, 2009

EUROPE COMPLETIONS/DEDICATIONS:

AVAR; Russia 600,959; September 19, 2008

KOMI-ZYRIAN; Russia; 345,000; October 10, 2008

MARI, MEADOW; Russia; 534,569; March 4-5, 2008

Check for updates to the above list at The Seed Company.

Computers, Teamwork, and Missionaries

When I was very young, I had an idea of what a missionary was: a person who went off to extremely remote areas of the world, far away from anything resembling the civilization we were used to. He or she had to learn new languages, convince people that it was better to listen than to eat the messenger, and somehow get lots of people saved or die trying. The missionary image in my young mental image worked pretty much alone. The cliché cartoon image of the missionaries tied up in a large cauldron, boiling over a large fire almost always came to mind. Somehow, teamwork, computers, rocket science, and aviation didn’t usually cross my mind, although I had heard stories of some of the early uses of small airplanes by missionaries. Now that I have had some experience, I have a different view. For example, I’ve never seen a large cauldron out in the jungle. (Other dangers, sure, but no cauldrons.) I see and experience lots of teamwork. I see lots of applications of appropriate transportation, communication, and computation technology in getting the Word of God to people, even in very remote areas. I have also noticed a lot of variety in the vocations represented on the mission field. I also see a wide variety of mission fields, with a wide diversity of cultures, languages, economies, and stages of development.

The Body of Christ really does have many diverse members, with many diverse missions and organizations, but we all work together in the same mission of fulfilling The Great Commission and The Great Commandment. My little niche is mostly in computer support, although I do teach and preach and do some other things from time to time. Finding and eliminating computer bugs may not sound very glamorous, but it is one of many very different jobs in the Body of Christ. All of this works together for good, according to God’s good plan.

Can you imagine what it would be like to go back to living without computers? I can, and it isn’t a pretty thought. It would take a whole lot more manual labor to do pretty much anything you can think of. This is definitely true of Christian mission work in general, and Bible translation in particular. The most useful software for missionaries and missions is software that can be freely shared. I’m a very big fan of Free/Libre Open Source Software on the mission field. (And yes, I’m writing this article using open source software on Linux.) The work of the software developer gets used far more, and by more people in missions, that way. The only down side, of course, is that the software developer has to raise support, just like most of the other missionaries, and live on donations instead of royalties. That is OK. A million years from now, what will matter is the souls brought into the Kingdom of God, not who paid the bills for the work of the Great Commission.

Newsletter Time Again

Here it is, again. Time to produce a missionary newsletter. Actually, it is more properly called a prayer letter, because we want you to pray for us when you get it. Prayer letters are great things, because they help keep us connected with our partners, serve as reminders that we are still doing the work of the Lord that He has called us and our partners to do. I say us and our partners, of course, because there is no way we can do all of this ourselves. One, we couldn’t afford it, financially. Two, we probably could not stand the heat of the spiritual battle without prayer backup. We were, in fact, partially self-supporting when we first started in full-time Christian ministry, but once our savings were depleted in about 2001, that stopped being the case. Now, we have just the Lord to rely on for our physical needs. Fortunately, He is faithful, and He has called some wonderful friends to partner with us and keep us going. Praise the Lord!

Now, what do I write about in our prayer letter? Lori and I have, since the beginning of our missionary journey in 2000, tried to keep our official prayer letters under 2 pages. We figure that one 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper, written on both sides, using pictures liberally, and without resorting to itty-bitty type, is about the attention span of most of the busy people we send these to. That may or may not be true. We get, and read, longer newsletters, but it is also true that the really long ones tend to pile up somewhere to be read later. They may or may not actually get fully read, even if they are from dear friends. The space limit forces us to focus. It is hard, though. So much is going on in our lives and our ministry that it is hard to condense it all. In this journal, I allow myself the luxury of rambling on longer with no set space limit, but I also know that much fewer people will read it. That is OK. I feel better sometimes for having written it.

If you were to ask Rachel what our biggest news is, lately, she would probably tell you that we now have a kitten. His name is Puma. Rachel named him. Mostly, she calls him “kitty.” Rodents beware! This animal will be a mighty hunter in our house.

We were asked by one church to provide them with a 1-2 minute video presentation that they could use to promote missions during a Sunday service. Many of my friends asked me what we could do to condense our lives serving the Lord here down to two minutes or less. Good question. I tried, anyway. The result of my effort in that respect is posted at http://kahunapule.org/kmpj2008-03-24.mpg for your viewing pleasure. It is a huge (109,199,360 bytes) file, so great patience is required in downloading it, but I wanted to keep it high enough resolution that it would look good projected on a screen in front of a church. I even put the slide show in a format you can create a video DVD from, if you are familiar with zip files, ISO images, and burning DVDs. That file is huge (86,037,612 bytes), too. Fortunately, I managed to upload these files just before the rates went up for Internet usage, here. Internet access in Ukarumpa is outrageously expensive. It is actually about $9000/month for the satellite connection, which gives us about 200 kbps download capacity. We share the bandwidth and the cost among 262 users. Instead of just dividing the monthly cost per user evenly, which would result in a charge of about $34.35/month, the SIL PNG Branch powers that be have decided to divide the cost proportional to usage in megabytes. It used to be, up through March, that the only bytes metered for billing were HTTP downloads on ports 80 and 443 (regular and secure web browsing). Those bytes were charged at $0.25 per megabyte. Starting in April, all FTP and HTTP uploads and downloads are now billed at $0.225 per megabyte. That means that it would have cost me $43.92 to upload those two files to our web site. I probably would not have done that. Our budget is too tight. This billing scheme obviously keeps our usage down and our bills high– especially at a time when we are doing college search work for Ben and trying to find bargain air fares for Nate and Ben. I hope you enjoy the show, and can download it for free (even if it takes a while).

Speaking of money, someone asked how we were doing financially. Since we computed our fundraising requirements for living here, the U. S. dollar has dropped 11.8% against the PNG kina. Our support has dropped by 2.6%. We have had some unexpected extra expenses and price increases. Our savings are depleted. And it will cost about $4760 to get Nate here and back for a visit/mission trip, and Ben back to the USA for college, just in air fare alone, not counting stuff like food and lodging on the way. Then there is the matter of college tuition at the Christian college Ben has chosen to attend. In other words, if the Lord moves on you to help with any of this, please do. If not, you can still pray for our needs to be met. Don’t worry, though. God is faithful, and will not let us down.

One thing I always want to know when I support missionaries is what they are actually doing, and if they are still doing it. I still have my 40-hour-per-week job at SIL PNG Branch Aviation, doing computer support work, plus various other “side” ministries, like leading Bible studies, working on the World English Bible, etc. Lori still has her teaching and HIV/AIDS task force chair jobs, and still takes care of our children. Household tasks always seem to take longer, here. Stuff like having no automatic dishwasher (and not being able to afford one at the outrageous prices they cost, here) make a difference. There is no ordering out for pizza or anything like that. We do eat pizza, but it is a lot of work to make them. Naturally, Rachel keeps us busy, as you would expect from an active 3-year-old. The adoption paperwork saga continues. How long do you think it should take for the Social Services office in Port Moresby to fax a copy of a letter of consent to finalize the adoption to us? An hour? A day? A month? They got it in January, and it is now May, and I’m still waiting, and still calling periodically and getting new excuses. A friend of mine, also working on an adoption, spent a week in Port Moresby, in person, trying to get some papers moved about one block. It did finally work. Rachel, however, is still blissfully unaware of her precarious legal status. She knows that beyond the shadow of a doubt, she has a mommy, a daddy, and three big brothers that really love her. She knows that her name is Rachel Brianna Joy Johnson. We will keep at it until we get the required court decree to make that her legal status as well, opening the door to get her USA citizenship.

Also on the subject of waiting for the PNG government, all of our resident visas expired on the 31st of January. The PNG government has had our passports and visa renewal applications since December 2007, and still hasn’t finished processing them. Apparently, it is OK for us to stay here as long as the government is working on them, but if we try to leave without a valid visa, it is a crime. This has caused excessive stress to many people in this community. Of course, if the government should deny any of our visa applications, we would have to leave immediately. That would also be stressful, of course. I don’t think that will happen, but please pray that Ben’s visa gets processed by June and the rest of ours by November, at the latest.

Lori would like to go to a teacher’s conference in Hong Kong in November. That requires a visa. That also will require money for air fare, etc. Professional development for teachers is still important, here, but not very available in PNG.

We certainly have challenges, here, and I haven’t listed them all. I don’t intend to. Instead, I want to focus on some progress. I just started leading an inductive Bible Study for the current Translators’ Training Course. This is for about 49 people from 15 language groups. It is a joy to see how they pick up the Bible study techniques, and want to go back to their villages and show others how to do it. I got a little choked up, though, listening to one man lamenting how his grandparents didn’t know any of this. You see, the Gospel didn’t get to his village until after they had died. What can I say? We are working to fulfill the Great Commission, but I don’t think all of us fully realize how urgent the task is. At least the Gospel is going out to his village, now, and he is working on a Bible translation for his own language.

Translating a New Testament is a long task. It can take years, often decades. This year, the task finished for the Kube language in March, with a Bible dedication for those people. More dedications are coming up in June and August. Praise God!

Now, for my next trick, I’ll condense this to a few bullets, add some pictures and an article Lori wrote, and produce a proper prayer letter. It will lack many details, but it will probably be read by more people than this article.