Vol. IX, No. 1

Have you noticed that you are receiving ourquarterly newsletters only every six months? Itlooks like that will be the frequency at which wewill be writing them. Those six months go byvery fast for us and we hope that is often enoughto give you an update. We've had a profitableand busy past few months since we last wrote anewsletter in January. We returned to Souh thefirst part of February, after attending our annualPBT meeting in Madang in January. Our mainobjective was to become fluent in Kurti withinthe next two months before we had to leave thevillage again. You guessed it! We didn't do it!We really weren't that naive, just hopeful. Wedid learn a lot of new phrases and words andrecorded some stories which gave us newinsights into narrative style. Wes and I alsospent some time organizing our material for ouranalysis of the Kurti phonology. We still have alot of work to do on it but hope to have our finalphonology write-up by the end of this year. It'sexciting to us when we can hold a completeconversation with our Kurti neighbors nowwithout using Pidgin. We can't do that everytime (sometimes we have to ask the meaning ofa certain word or how to say a word that wehaven't learned yet) but are doing so more eachday. Most of the people speak to us only in Kurtinow. They are really proud when we speakKurti to them, especially if people from otherlanguage groups are present and marvel at thewhite people who know the local language.Then they say, "Yes, we taught them." We are

Beasleys' Backlog

of news from

Papua New Guinea

Fletd Address:

Wes & Alta Bessleyc/o Pioneer Bible Translators

P.O. Box 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Doitie Tanksley112 Stone Cove

Clinton. MS 39056

Ptione (601) 924-0299

January - June 1986

progressing but still ask for your prayers as wehave a long way to go. We would seriously liketo be fluent in Kurti by the end of this year. Wecan do it with discipline and with God's help, soplease pray for us.

The middle of April we had to leave the villageagain to attend a course at SIL's main center inthe highlands of PNG. Many of you areconfused as to our travel arrangements to thesedifferent areas. I'll try to give you an idea of howwe would get from Souh village on ManusIsland to Ukarumpa in the Eastern HighlandsProvince of the main big island of PNG. Weleave Souh village in a speed boat traveling onthe ocean to the small town of Lorengau whichis the only town on Manus Island. This triptakes about one and one-half hours. Then, wetravel to the mainland of PNG by either one oftwo ways. We can drive to the airport, which isabout an hour's drive from Lorengau and thentake a commercial Air Niugini flight to Madangwhich takes about 45 minutes. Or, we canboard a small ocean-going freighter whichmakes the trip from Manus to Madang onceevery two weeks. This trip is across 280 miles ofopen sea and takes from 24 to 30 hours,depending on how rough the sea is. This is nota pleasant trip but is much cheaper than flying.We usually fly one way and go by boat the otherway. After we arrive in Madang, we get ourvehicle, a 1978 Nissan Patrol, and drive acrosstwo mountain ranges to Ukarumpa in theEastern Highlands. This trip takes about 5 or 6

hours depending on the condition of the roadsat the time. The road is an unpaved one whichcrosses several fords and mountains over 6,000feet tall. When It rains only 4-wheel drivevehicles are able to make the trip.

We enjoyed out time at Ukarumpa as usual.Wes observed a course (//hich he will tell youabout in another section of this newsletter); theboys arid Diane did school and Idid a little bit ofeverything. I canned rhubarb, blackraspberries and swiss chard, did some cleaningand repair on our group house there, studiedKurti, attended some lectures on languagelearning, did shopping and visiting. We climbeda mountain one Saturday which is one of ourfavorite activities when in the highlands.Jonathan and Adam enjoyed going to the teencenter on Friday and Saturday nights to playgames with friends. Jonathan was proud tohave the chance to ride a big motorcycle for thefirst time. They always enjoy being atUkarumpa since it's like a small taste of homewith other young people of their own age andculture. They're already talking about wantingto attend high school there. That's a decisionwe will probably have to make sooner than weare ready to make it and one that we ask you tobegin praying about.

Diane and I returned to Madang fromUkarumpa a week earlier than planned in orderto help our fellow PBTers there. Mike andEunice Herchenroeder had both contractedhepatitis and were unable to take care of theirthree small children or to care for themselvesproperly. The Messersmiths were preparing togo home on furlough and Gary Weythman washelping with house-building projects in remotevillages. This left most of the PBT jobs of officework, bookkeeping, buying and packingsupplies, radio skeds, etc., for GerrI Weythmanto do. She also teaches her three children andwas trying to care for the Herchenroeders.Diane moved in with the Weythmans and tookover the job of teaching the three Weythmanchildren and helping Gerri with some of theother jobs. I moved in with theHerchenroeders and became their cook andbabysitter, i was glad I was free to help andenjoyed it. They are much better now but arestill recuperating. After Wes and the boys cameback to Madang we began our buying and

packing of supplies for Manus. We plan to stayin the village now until November. Most of thattime will be used in language learning. Weappreciate your interest In the task we are tryingto do and thank you for your prayers on ourbehalf. Thank you also for your letters, gifts,and encouragement.

Adam was 12 in March. Some of our friends from the German

mission came to help us celebrate.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

We have finally been able to begin severalclasses for the ladies and children of Souhvillage. I began a cooking and sewing class atthe request of some of the village ladies InFebruary. I have three groups of ladies withabout 10-12 ladies and young girls in eachgroup. I meet with one of the groups eachTuesday morning. 1 have taught them how tomake bread, banana bread, biscuits, pancakes,donuts, etc. I will teach them in future lessonssome points on nutrition and how to best usesome of their local foods to retain as manyvitamins as possible. They are excited aboutwhat they have learned and are anxious to learnmore. Now we need to build some ovens forthem so they can bake these things. Two ladiesin the village have small wood ranges withovens and they allow others to use them for asmall charge. I have also taught them how to dosimple hand stitching for hemming and

mending and have taught some, who know howto use a treadle or hand-operating sewingmachine, how to cut dress patterns. Our nextstep for them is to learn how to sew the dresses.We meet for about two hours for this class time

and then have about one-half hour for a

devotional time. Every fourth Tuesday all threegroups come together for a Bible study. We aregoing through the gospel of Mark during thistime. On Sunday morning after the regularchurch service in the local Catholic church, Ihave a Bible story time for the ladies. I havebegun with Genesis and will take them throughthe Old Testament. These classes are attendedby around 50 or 60 ladies. They are veryinterested and are happy to be learning moreabout God and the Bible. These classes have

prompted some very interesting questions anddiscussions. One of my close friends, Martha,was talking with Diane about some of the thingsshe had learned. She said, "We have beentaught religion in the Catholic church but havenever been taught about God and Jesus andwhat the Bible says." Many times we hear themcomment, "We never knew that before," or"This is good that we are learning these things."As we have mentioned before, the Catholicmission has been here for 100 years and thepeople know there is a God but they haven'tbeen able to see that He can have anything to dowith their everyday lives, needs, and fears.They believe that the spirits of their ancestorshave more power than God does over certainaspects of their lives, They also have not seenthat they can call on God to help them withdrinking problems, jealousies, cheating, etc.There is a prayer group in the village whosemembers study the Bible and pray for eachother. They have a very good start oncomprehending these things. Please pray forour wisdom in guiding them as they come to uswith questions, and for me as I continue toteach these Bible classes. We are hoping thatthe men will soon come to Wes and requestBible classes also as ultimate change for thewhole community has to come through theleaders.

At the same time I have the Bible story timefor the ladies on Sunday morning, Diane has aBible class for the children. We both use scen-

o-felt for teaching these stories and they really

enjoy them. When we returned to the villagelast week and some of the chidren were helpingus carry our things from the boat to the house,Diane heard one of them say, "Now we can havethe Bible classes again." So, they have missedthem and are anxious for them to resume.Thank you for praying for these classes.

SPLINTS AND APPENDICITIS

Although there is a national medical officer inSouh (who has very minimal medical training),we are still called upon when certain needsarise. This medical officer works only one ortwo hours each week-day (unless it is paydayand he needs to go to town to pick up hischeck), and not at all on week-ends andholidays. So, the rest of the time, some of thevillagers come to us for help. Most of theseincidents are headaches, colds, malariaattacks, and for cleaning and bandaging sores.We are allowed to take care of these needs butare not allowed to dispense prescriptionmedicines. Sometimes this is very frustratingbecause we do have more serious cases.

One Sunday afternoon Pinahai, one of myvillage grandmothers, came to me and said shehad fallen off her son's steps and hurt her arm.She wanted something for the pain. I sat herdown and was about to examine her arm when

she moved it and I heard the bone scraping. Ifinally got her to quit moving it and to just lay iton the table. I went to find a small board and

had Adam saw it to the right length. I made asplint for her arm and then gave her some painmedicine. I told her that her arm was brokenand that she needed to go to the hospital to haveit set and put in a cast. Her immediate reactionwas that that was too much trouble to gothrough for an old woman. She said, "I am oldand about to die anyway." I told her that shewas very important to me and had to teach methe language yet and even if she was ready todie, I wasn't ready for her to die. After muchpersuasion she finally consented to go. In theend she was very proud of her cast and theattention it brought. She is the same one whocried when we left to go home on furlough.

afraid she would never see us again. She's oneof my favorite people.

Lucy is our next-door neighbor. She is a littlehard of hearing but is very kind to us. I wastreating a sore on her leg which she claims shehas had since the time of World War II when she

was a little giri. Others have attested to this fact.Sores are hard to heal here in the tropics,especially without proper medicines. I decidedto give her some oral antibiotics to see if thatwould help, after I had treated it for two weeksand it was no better. The next day she came tome in terrible pain and said that the medicine Igave her was too strong and was making hersick. She showed me where the pain was in herright side. She was obviously in very intensepain and after laying her down and examiningher I was quite sure that she had appendicitis. Iexplained to her that it wasn't the medicine thatwas making her side hurt but that she hadappendicitis. I tried to explain to her what it wasand that it was very serious and that she neededto go to the hospital. I walked her home, helpedher to her bed and went to find her husband. I

couldn't find her husband but found her

brother. I explained to him that 1 thought shehad appendicitis and needed to be taken to thehospital. He said, "No, she doesn't have that.She had surgery so she wouldn't have childrenany more and the sisters told her that that waswrong and that she would have terrible painbecause of it. That's why she is having thatpain." I knew she had had a hysterectomybecause when I was examining her I saw thescar and asked her what surgery she had had.She, very apologetically, said that she had had14 babies and only 4 of them lived and thegovernment doctor told her she would have tohave a hysterectomy or she would die. Sheobviously had been trapped betweenconscience and fear for her life. I told her that Ithought she had done right and that I didn'tthink bad of her because of it. When her brother

gave his version of the cause of her illness Iknew I was going to have a hard timeconvincing them to get her to the hospital. For 3days, white she was in constant pain, I beggedher husband, son, brother, the local medicalofficer and a local woman wfio has had nurse'straining to get her to a hospital. All thistimeour

family prayed diligently that it wouldn't turn intoperitonitis and that they would get her to thehospital. Finally after 3 days when they stillhadn't taken her, I told her husband that if hewasn't going to take her that I was going toarrange a boat and take her. i don't know whatcultural taboos I was breaking but wasdesperate. He finally said he would take her.She was in the hospital for a week. Herappendix had burst, but had been contained inthe general area and a mass formed around it.(I don't know the medical term for that.) We feelthis was a direct answer to prayer. It's veryfrustrating to know that someone is seriously illand their families feel no urgency in gettingmedical help. Sometimes, we wish we had moremedical training and the power to do somethingwhen there is a need. But, we do know that wehave the power of prayer and that's probablythe best anyway. Please continue to pray forour wisdom in these cases and for our witnessto these people of God's love.

Our good friend Martha (who is mentioned elsewhere in this

newsletter) with her 7th child. Alta was asked to name him so

we have another "'Wesley" in the village. That pleased thefamily very much.

TRAINING NATIONALTRANSLATORS

Since you know about us, you are aware thatPioneer Bible Translators is working in PapuaNew Guinea doing Bible translation. However,you may not have realized that there are otherswho are also involved in bringing the Bible toPNG. Several expatriate groups are translatinghere—the largest of these is Wycliffe BibleTranslators but there are at least a dozen more.Within the last ten years, Papua New GuineanChristians also have become burdened with theneed for translations of the Bible in the manyminority languages of their own country.

The Bible Translation Association of PapuaNew Guinea (BTA) was founded by nationalChristians as a means to become furtherinvolved with the translation of the Bible inPNG. Each year, an increasing number ofcommitted men return to their own home area

as BTA members and work among their ownpeople putting the Good News into the words oftheir ovyn language. Since these men are

do not need the extensive training in linguisticsfor language learning and analysis which is sonecessary for us who are translating into anacquired language. However, they still needtraining in translation procedures, researchmethods, exegesis, Bible content, and Biblecontext (Jewish/Mid-Eastern setting andculture).

To provide this essential training, BTA (incooperation with Wycliffe Bible Translators andPioneer Bible Translators) runs yearly coursesfor its national workers. National TranslatorCourses I, II, and III are each eight weekcourses which prepare the new BTA membertodo progressively more difficult translationstasks. We expatriate translators teach thecourses and then provide consultant help forthe national translators as they do their work intheir villages.

In part of April and May, I sat in and observedWilliam Butler (PBT co-worker) teaching the

NTC II which is particularly concerned withBible overview and background. This secondNTC is very helpful for those nationaltranslators who have no formal trainingin biblical subjects. I listened a lot and alsotaught a few classes during the course. Nextyear, I will be taking William's place teachingthis vital information. I feel good about thisteaching position because of the obviousbenefits it provides for the national translators.Please pray for this through the year as I will beallocating time for research and preparationfrom now until the course starts in April of 1987.

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Vol.lX, No. 2

"FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN. TO US ASON IS GIVEN, AND THE GOVERNMENTWILL BE ON HIS SHOULDERS. ANDHEWILLBE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR,MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER.PRINCE OF PEACE."

We want to join our hearts with you. our dearChristian friends and family, to once againpraise God for the wonderful gift of His Son, ourSavior, Jesus Christ. We also want to wish youall a very blessed and happy Christmas time.We'll be thinking of you during all your lovelyand inspiring Christmas programs andconcerts and nice cold, snowy shoppingweather. We always feel a little sorry forourselves to be missing out on the activitieswith our loved ones. But we praise God that Hehas brought us here and that He has providedus with new. and also inspiring, ways tocelebrate this time of the year when the wholeworld has to admit that something great andwonderful happened almost 2,000 years ago.When I was thinking of the above words, I alsothought of another passage in Isaiah thatspeaks to us here in PNG and to our purpose forbeing here. "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is

Beasleys' Backlog

of news from

Papua New Guinea

Field Address:

Wes & Alts Beasleyc/o Pioneer Bible Translators

P.O. Box 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Dottie Tanksley112 Stone Cove

Clinton, MS 39056Phone (601) 924-0299

July - September 1986

on me because the Lord has anointed me topreach good news to the poor. He has sent meto bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaimfreedom for the captives and release for theprisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord'sfavor and the day of vengeance of our God."

We will stay in Souh village for the Christmasseason and probably have a quiet family time.We hope to help the villagers prepare andpresent a drama in the Kurti language depictingthe Christmas story. And, of course, we willhave our special Christmas lesson and party forthe village children. We look forward to this andso do they. Thank you for your cards and lettersand the gifts you have so thoughtfully preparedand sent to us. God bless you all and may Heand His precious Son be especially close to youat this time.

JULY, AUGUST ANDSEPTEMBER ACTIVITIES

"We're here in Lorengau for another weekwith nothing to do. Do you have any jobs wecould help you with?" This was the questionpresented to us by our good friends, Joe andHeather Patrick, when I had gone to town oneFriday in July to pick up mail and to visit them.They had come to Manus from their home andwork at SIL's main center at Ukarumpa in thehighlands to work on a language project. Theyhad planned to complete the first phase of theproject in three weeks and also had planned tocome visit us for a couple days. Circumstances

prevented them from working on the languageproject and, being very energetic andconscientious people, they wanted to make useof their time here on Manus. I told them I wouldtalk with Wes and pass a message to them onthe radio. Wes was delighted when I told him oftheir offer and made arrangements to bringthem out to Souh, We were blessed to havethem with us for a week. We enjoyed renewingour friendship with them and their two fineboys, James and Michael. Heather helped mewith the housework and cut out and filed myBible suedegraph figures, and, at the sametime, kept up with her duties of teaching Jameshis kindergarten class. Joe was a whirlwind ofactivity. When they left after one week we hadnew lights in the kitchen and other lightsrepaired, a new cement tank pad and 1,000gallon water tank installed, new skylightsinstalled, our new water pump installed, theboys had a new desk in their room, I had a newflannelgraph board and easel and many otherthings. We had a double blessing, as you cansee: we got to spend a week with these goodfriends and we had all these projects completedat the same time. God is so good to us. Theseare all projects that were bothering Wes sincehe needed to do them but didn't want to taketime away from language work. God provided away for both to be done and we praise Him.

MORE VISITORS

We find that our beautiful island is a favoriteplace for people to visit and we are alwayshappy to welcome them. It is a pleasant breakfor us and we do get lonely. Georges Carilletand Martha Wade spent a week with us inAugust; however, theirs wasn't a pleasure visit.Georges is our new Branch Director for PBThere in PNG and Martha is our Director ofLanguage Affairs. Martha came to see firsthand how we were doing in our language-learning and analysis. Georges is trying to visitall the translation teams at their locations so hecan get to know each of us better and thesituations surrounding our work. Martha was agreat help to us in our language analysis andwas pleased with our progress. Georges is agood counsellor and was able to offer somepractical advice. We enjoyed both of them andalthough it was to be a "business visit," we allsneaked in a morning of snorkeling on thebeautiful reef in front of Souh.

A NEW TEAM MEMBER

We have told you about Alex Keleu whocomes each week-day morning to help us withlanguage learning and drills. At Martha Wade'ssuggestion we began a search for anotheryoung man to help us so we would have a "fill-in" when Alex was unable to come. We didn't

have to search far. The first person who came toour mind was Casimir Tapo and he is nowworking with us. Casimir loves God's Word andwe have seen in him a fine character and a

searching for God's truth and will. That waswhat attracted us to him and prompted us to askhim to work with us. At first he was very hesitantbut not because he didn't want to work or wasn't

interested in what we are doing. He knew thatwe want to train young Kurti men as co-translators. He was very hesitant because hehad only completed sixth grade in school andwas afraid he wouldn't be capable ofcompleting the training in the NationalTranslator's Course held annually in thehighlands. These men will then work with us inthe translation of God's Word into the Kurti

language. Wes is training him and Alex daily inEnglish language skills and Bible knowledgeand Casimir is thrilled with what he is learning.We have assured him that we think he has the

ability to do it. He has proved to be a very good

language helper ~ he seems to knowinstinctively what we need or are searching forwhen we don't know a form. He works at his

home at night writing lists of words,conjugations and sentences to help us. If hedoesn't know a form or a word he goes to theolder men and asks them. We praise God forCasimir and ask that you pray from him as wework with him and as God works in his heart.

WILD BOAR ATTACK!

"Wes! Altai Esini taram tors kisel Kero

endrimat -- puu keti i. Emin ndrakei pe loklukumwen!" (Give us a flashlight quickl Kerohas been injured. He's in the jungle and it'sgetting dark!") We were sitting in our livingroom visiting with our village Papa when weheard hurried footsteps on our front porch,pounding on the door, and shouts. It was MariaKerem and Michael Kero. Michael's father had

been attacked by a wild boar deep in the jungle.Maria and her husband, Augustine, had foundhim. Augustine stayed with him while Maria ranback to the village for help. They neededflashlights and boat to go get him. We gavethem to them and began praying as they leftbecause the report they gave was that he was inbad shape. When they had brought him to thevillage Wes went to examine him. He was cutvery deeply in more than a dozen places on hisface, arms, back, legs, and thighs, and dirt wasground into the wounds. He was on the vergeof shock from loss of blood and the trauma of

the attack. Wes got on the radio to ask someoneto phone the hospital in Lorengau to have anambulance ready at the beach when he came inin a boat. Souh is a 172 hour boat ride from town.

Some of the village men left with him while weprayed with the villagers on the beach. PaulKero Is our nextdoor neighbor and is one of thespiritual leaders here in this village. He is thehusband of Lucy whom we wrote about in ourlast newsletter (she had an appendicitis attack).The ambulance went to the wrong beach butthe men were able to get Kero to the hospitalwhere the doctor, nurses and operating roomwere ready as a result of Wes' radio message.Several of the village men gave blood to Keroimmediately. Kero was in surgery for severalhours. He was very critical but, we praise theLord, he is now much better. We were thrilledlast night to respond to a soft knock on ourporch and hear his gentle voice greeting us. We

were so happy to see him. He had been in thehospital for 6 weeks. He is still covered withbandages but was tired of being in the hospitalso the doctors let him come home where the

local aid post orderly can dress his wounds. Heis still very weak but is happy to be home and weare happy to have him back. He is a believer andfeels that the Lord spared his life. Wediscovered last night that he was able to fightback with his bush knife and that the pig waslater found dead. It isn't uncommon for a man

to be gored by a wild pig when he is huntingthem and the pig is cornered. But it is veryunusual for a pig to attack a man just while he iswalking through the bush which is whathappened to Kero. Kero was able to break bothof the pig's large tusks and to injure the pigbadly with his machete before the pig gored himcausing him to drop his machete. After hedropped his knife. Kero straddled the pig andtried to hold its mouth shut. Only Kero'spresence of mind and strength kept him frombeing killed. We praise God for answeredprayer, for the witness it can be to these people,and for His loving care to those who trust inHim.

Paul Kero after his release from the hospital.

MORE OPPORTUNITIES

WITH GOD'S WORD

Our ladies' and children's weekly Bibleclasses continue to be a thrill to us and we trust

a blessing to the ladies and children. A thrillingnew development is that we are now teachingBible classes regularly to two more groups.Wes and I travel every other Friday to thegovernment station about a milefrom Souh andpresent a Bible lesson in the grade school there.We haveabout 50 students in grades 2-6. Theyare a very enthusiastic group and it is a joy toteach them. Although there is a path throughthe swamps which leads to the school weusually travel on the ocean. It is much faster.We ask one of Jonathan's and Adam's best

friends, Wiah, to take us in his canoe. He has asmall dug-out canoe with an outrigger. Hetakes us to the closest point on the shore, abouta 30 minute trip, and then we walk the rest of theway to the school which takes about 10minutes. We are really thankful for thisopportunity to teach children God's Wordbecause we are able to reach many otherchildren who aren't from our village and are notin Diane's Bible class. It is a very rewardingexperience and we truly enjoy it. The othergroup is a men's Bible study class that Wes hason Sunday mornings at the same time Dianeand I havethe ladies'and children'sclasses. We

feel that this is a real breakthrough. Please prayfor Wes' wisdom as he prepares and presentsGod's Word in such a way that it will bringchange in the hearts of these men.

"DOWN UNDER" IS

NEXT DOOR HERE!

As close as we have been to what is known

back home as "The Land Down Under," we havenever visited there. We are very anxious andexcited about our planned vacation in Australia.We have never even passed through on any ofour flights to and from PNG. We will spendthree weeks of Novembervisiting in Australia. Itis a trip we have planned and looked forward tofor almost two years. We will visit with friendsfrom the Australian Churches of Christ and with

some SIL friends with whom we shared our

jungle camp experience. We are lookingforward to a pleasant time and will tell you allabout it next time.

AUNTS ARE

GRANDMOTHERS!

"What in the world do you mean by that?"Well, I'm afraid if I go into it you will be moreconfused than I am but I will try to explain alittle. As part of our attempt to understand theKurti kinship terms and relationships, I havemade a kinship chart of one of the older men inthe village. Akinship chart islikeafamilytree. 1have a chart which begins with Tondrih's great-grandparents and goes down to Tondrih'sgrandchildren. After I made the chart and wrotedown everyone's name I asked what eachperson was called. My head is still swimmingbut I think I have someofthem figured out. Onetitle that surprised me was that Tondrih'sfather's sisters are called the same thing that hisfather's mother is called which is "TOro." So,now you see why aunts are grandmotherswhether they are or not! Also, in the Kurtikinship system, siblings of the same sex calleach other "TINto" and siblings of the oppositesex call each other "TIMsu-u." A child calls his

father's brother "TOmo" (father) and hismother's sister "Nino" (mother). A mother'sbrother is called "yaHl" (uncle) but a father'ssister is still called "TOro" (grandmother). Itjust doesn't seem fair, does it, ladies? It's beenfun and interesting, but as I said, my head isswimming.

This is only one aspect of the language-learning, analysis, and culture studies we havebeen doing in the past few months. I have alsobeen eliciting and charting verbs, both so I canlearn to say something in other than PresentTense, and. also so I can see a pattern on whichto determine a rule. Wes has been recordinglanguage drills to help us with new forms andalso some stories and short texts to help us withgrammatical structures. We are pleased that weare learning but are never completely satisfiedwith our progress. We want to be finished withthis phase so we can get on with the translation.Please continue to pray for our patience andquick minds in this effort.

SCHOOL'S OUT

By the time we leave next week for our trip toAustralia, Jonathan and Adam will be finishedwith another school year. Jonathan finishes 7thgrade and Adam finishes 6th. You may thinkthat this is an odd time to be finishing a schoolyear but that is the way things go here when wehave our own school and several factors affect

our schedule. We are trying to get caught upwith the stateside schedule and are only threemonths behind now. When we return from

Australia, the boys will begin 7th and 8th grades(the first of December). By the time we comehome again to the U.S.A. we hope to be caughtup with the stateside schedule.

The boys and Diane have worked hard tofinish before our vacation. The boys willcelebrate in Australia and Diane will go to thehighlands of PNG for a break.

Jonathan with his birthday gift, a compound bow. He was 14in August.

Diane teaching Bible class to village children.

Alta teaching Bible class to village ladies.

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Vol. X, No. 1

Can you believe the time has gone so fast?You have probably noticed that we missedanother quarterly newsletter and we apologizefor that. We will try to catch you up on what'sbeen happening with us from October of lastyear up until now (March, 1987).

Janice and Faye Rostvit visited us for fourdays in October! Their first evening on Manus,they held a concert at the Evangelical church inLorengau and the next day, we traveled to Souhin a soaking tropical rain. The following night,we all went to Derimbat which is the largest ofour Kurti villages and a 30-minute boat ride upthe coast. A crowd of about 200 peoplegathered there to hear them sing. The twinsheld a concert for the Souh village people onFriday night with about 300-400 people present.Everyone loved the concert, were touched bytheir testimonies and witness, and were amazedto hear them sing in the Kurti language. We hadsent them words and cassettes to some of the

Kurti religious songs and they had learned themwell. Some of our ladies cried when they left. Weare grateful to Janice and Faye for their greatwork of encouragement and witnessing for ourLord.

I forgot in our last newsletter to mention avisit we were privileged to make. Wes and Ivisited Kari, another of our Kurti villages—theone up in the hills. It is about a two hour walk forthe villagers but about four for us. I enjoyed thewalk and the beautiful view. The people in Karireceived us very graciously although many ofthe men were away for Independence Day celebrations. We met with some of the older men

Beasleys' Backlog

of news from

Papua New Guinea

Field Address:

Wes & Alta Beasleyc/o Pioneer Bible Translators

P.O. Bo* 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Dottle Tanksley112 Stone Cove

Clinton, MS 39056Ptione (601) 924-0299

October/December 1986 - January/March 1987

Faye and Janice Rostvit visiting in Derimbat, Manus Island.

and talked with them about our progress in theKurti language. They were pleased to hear usspeaking Kurti and proud of our progress. Wehope the whole family and Diane will be able tovisit them again soon.

Many of you have asked about our trip toAustralia. It was a blessing of a life-time and weare still refreshed. Ralph and Barbara Bennettmet us at the Brisbane airport, showed us thesights, and made arrangements for someone totake us to church. The Bennetts had spent acouple years in PNG when we first arrived. Itwas great to see these fine Christian friendsagain. They made us feel right at home. Wespent two weeks on Australia's Gold Coastswimming and visiting tourist attractions andone week in Sydney. In Sydney we visited theOpera House, several museums. Sea World and

the Taronga Zoo. While there we stayed with awonderful Christian family, the Saxbys. Theyhave opened their home to several PBT familieswho have passed through Australia on the wayto PNG. We appreciate these good Christiarifriends. Australia seemed like a fantasy worldafter living in the jungle for two years. Wespicked our first week there to have a malari^attack but insisted that the boysand Igo ahea<|iand see the sights. So, Iwould take one of th^boys one day and do something special whilethe otherstayed with Wes, and then trade off th^next day. We went horseback riding, go-car^riding, roller-skating, ate hamburgers atMcDonalds, and visited Dream World, which issimilar to our Six Flags. You can see why it wasa little bit of a fantasy for us. We wanted to makethat visit while the boys are still with us andwhile we are so close to the country. We werenot disappointed. Australia is a beautiful placeand we praise the Lord for the opportunity tofinally be able to visit there.

After we returned to PNG and the village itseemed that Wes and I took turns havingmalaria attacks but both of us were free of thenthe week of Christmas, for which we were grateful. We had nice, quiet Christmas and NeyYear's holidays here in the village. We had ourannual Christmas story time for the childrenandgave them eacha bag oftreats. We only hadabout 90 children this year as compared with110 in previous years, but we all had fun.

We spent two weeks of January in Madangattending our annual PBT branch meeting anddoing shopping. While Wes and I wer6shopping and packing supplies, Jonathan andAdam had the privilege of takingscuba-divinglessons with fellow PBTers. That was ourChristmas gift to them. They really enjoyed itand we were all thankful that the Lord gavuJonathan and Adam such an exciting learninj]opportunity in this "far-off" country. Theysometimes mention the things they miss bybeing away from the States but realize that Godhas provided other new and excitingexperiences here that they wouldn't have athome.

After the week of shopping in Madang, Dianfe,the boys and I returned to Manus while Weswent on to the highlands. He had to attend astaff and planning meetingforthosewho will beteaching the annual National Translator'̂Course in April and May of this year. (We'llmention more about that later.) We were henjfor three weeks in the village without Wes and

only one major catastrophe was that we almostburned up the wick in our kerosene refrigerator. (I still haven't told Wes about that, but Iguess he'll know now, won't he?) Wes usuallytakes care of the maintenance and filling of therefrigerator so it was hard for us to remember it.Fortunately, we had another wick and replacedit, which was a frustrating experience too sincewe had never done it before.

Diane and the boys got back into the schoolroutine while I began working with Casimir, oneof our language helpers. One thing we did thatwas really fun was translate the story of Br'erRabbit and the Tar Baby. You may wonder whywe did that. The villagers hear us speaking Kurtidaily now but they are always wanting us to tellthem stories. I didn't have a story that Icould tellusing all Kurti words (because I didn't know allof them yet) so I was determined Iwould learn astory that I could tell in Kurti. As we translatedthe story, Casimir really got into it and enjoyedit. We finished about the time Wes returned andhe printed it for us. Now the villagers say I cantell a story just like they do. I have all the right intonations and expressions (I just copy Casimir)but I still have to read part of it. The villagerslove it. Now we have them interested in tellingus some of their stories. This will make greatmaterial for helping the Kurti speakers to learnto read in their own language.

After Wes returned from Ukarumpa he beganworking on finalizing the Kurti alphabet andphonology. We have established a tentativealphabet but still have to check it out with otherKurti speakers. I am still working on analyzingverbs and trying to get a handle on grammaticalforms. We continue to ask for your prayers in allthis preliminary work. Thank you for yourChristmas gifts, cards, letters, prayers andfinancial support. We appreciate each one ofyou.

SCHOOL DAZE

Diane continues to do an excellent job withour boys' education. She has developed a curriculum which seems to suit the boys' needsand interests very well. They are both doing welland are establishing study habits more appropriate to Junior High and High School. We hadto remind them a few times that they weren't ingrade school any more. A few bad grades forlate and unfinished assignments helped

convince them.

Recently they have done some veryinteresting book reports. Jonathan read RobertLouis Stevenson's Treasure Island. For his oral

bool< report he dressed up lil^e Long John Silver

•iV \\ •

Jonathan as Long John Silver.

Jonathan, Adam and Diane during their Physical Educationclass which meets twice a week. Jonathan is the teacher of

this class.

and gave it in the first person. Our lorikeet, Burt,was his parrot companion, Captain Flint. It wasan interesting report and he did a good job.Adam had read Helen Keller's Teacher and his

book report consisted of a letter of appreciation to the author, Margaret Davidson. He alsodid a fine job. We are proud of our boys and ofthe great job Diane is doing with their education.

NTC PREPARATIONS

For those of you who do not understand whatwe mean by NTC, I'll explain a little. The National Translator's Course (NTC) was developed by the Papua New Guinea Bible Translation Association with the help of WycliffeBible Translators to help train national PapuaNew Guinean people to do Bible translation intheir own languages. Wycliffe Bible Translatorsand Pioneer Bible Translators both have a greatinterest in seeing more nationals involved inthis work but they need training. There are threecourses: NTC 1 is an introduction to theprinciples and practice of Bible Translation:NTC II is the Bible Background Course; andNTC Ml is the Advanced Translation Course.For the past several years PBT has taken on theresponsibility of teaching the second yearcourse on Bible Background. William Butlerhas taught it for several years with help fromSam Reed from Austin, Texas. Wes will beteaching it this year with help from William andKyle Harris, another PBT translator. There is alot of preparation involved so Wes is quite busywith that.

Both of the language helpers from the Kurtilanguage group, Casimir Tapo and MemetKeleu, will be attending the first year coursewith us this year. Wes and I have been preparingthem with some Bible background, Englishreading and writing, reading and writing inKurti, names of grammatical forms in English,some small translation projects, and just generally encouraging them. They are both excitedand a little nervous.

I will be tutoring them (all first year studentsmust have a tutor) since Wes will be teachingNTC II. I'm looking forward to it but am also alittle nervous. Please be praying for Casimir,Melmet, and me. and for Wes as he teaches.Also please pray for the course in general andthe efforts of the National Bible TranslationAssociation of PNG.

BIBLE STUDIES

When Diane, the boys and I returned to thevillage at the end of January we had a big disappointment. While we had been gone, one ofthe village men had stirred up resentmenttoward our Bible classes and the leaders

advised us to postpone them for a while untilWes returned and we could talk to the parishpriest. We went to visit him justthis week and heencouraged us to start them again immediately.He realizes how valuable they are and knowsthat we are not here to cause trouble. He willvisit next week to inform the people of hisdecision. Most of the people were very disappointed when the classes were delayed andwanted us to continue with them regardless.But some of the leaders were afraid that thisman would yell at us in public and embarrass us(which is the custom here if someone is angrywith you). There is a lot more involved which Iwon't go into here but will ask you to pleasepray for our village situation. A great deal ofjealousy and division exists here in Souh because of long-standing land disputes whfthcause every project begun here to fail. We don'texpect this project of translating the Bible intoKurti to fail because God is in control but we do

anticipate that this is only one of manyobstacles to come. So, please pray for wisdom,encouragement, understanding and patiencefor us, and forthe villagers and religious leadersthat they will see their people's need forfollowing God and His Word as the solution totheir problems.

THE TEN

COMMANDMENTS

IN KURTI

(with a literal English back-translation):

1. Asurok kile ke todo, yu kohmou Kapintadam. (Worship only me. I am your only God.)

2. Nembun opo tadam homou kapin yi peasurok kile tadan. (It is forbidden for you tomake another god and worship it.)

3. Ou eyu rongo keporah kelwi. (Do not saymy name for no good reason.)

4. Asurok pe emyao kidu rang nembu-en.(Worship and rest on the holy day.)

5. Ou ahwasu-um tamam petinem peehrungheru, ile pe we emin lok poi kelau. (Love yourfather and mother and listen* to the two, indoing you will stay on the earth a long time.)

6. Ou adawene kile ahnan ndramat kimet

kelwi. (Do not purposefully do somethingwhich results in someone's death.)

7. Ou nembun asohou tan mbulun ndramathomou yi. (You are forbidden to speak** to thespouse of another.)

8. Nembun apahna. (You are forbidden tosteal.)

9. Etuduwen sa homou kile to-ir keporahkelwi. (Do not accuse a man to make him bepunished for no good reason.)

10. Nembun ahwasu-um sane tan ndramat

homou. (It is forbidden to covet somethingwhich belongs to another.)

* "listen" is used idiomatically to mean obey.** "speak to" also is a clear idiom whichspecifically means sexual union.

A first draft like this requires further checkingfor naturalness of expression, accuracy ofcontent, and proper grammatical style. Thispassage will be expanded to include theseimprovements plus more of the Biblical context.Please pray that our efforts in translation willbecome more refined as the day comes closerwhen we will be publishing scripture portions.

Adam Wesley Beasley.our youngest, was 13 years old onMarch 20.

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A Mission MagazineMission ACTIVITIES

Mission IDEAS

Mission LESSONS

Mission NEEDS

Mission NEWS

Mission PEOPLE

Mission RESOURCES

Mission VICTORIES

Mission VIEWS

Yes, that's HORIZONS -- the 100%MISSION MAGAZINE

Before you move, pleste the mailing label below, along with a copy ot your new address to:MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION. P.O. Box 2427, Knoxville. TN 37901-2427.

Mission Services

PO Box 2427

Knoxville, TN 37901-2427

ADDRESS CORRECTION ReoUESTED

Non Profit Org.

U.S. PostagePAID

Knoxville. TN

37901-2427

Permit »374