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Looking at the picture to the right tells the story of why we are here. The put the Word of God into the heart language of the people so that they can read it for themselves. This New Testament took over thirty years to complete. Dan & Sharon Hutchisson had faced many challenges as they worked on the New Testament. I am sure that they even wondered if they would ever finish it. We rejoice that the Lord has made the may for his light to shine in the darkness to bring the New Testament to completion. There was hardly a dry eye in the place as the Sursurunga Translation Committee came forward to give thanks to the Hutchissons, Gertrude and others.
Back in 1987 Gertrude first went to work with the Hutchissons to do literacy work. After she had been with them for three months they left. So must of the 2 years & 6 months she spent by herself. As she was adapted into a family there they took very good care of her. As she went do for the dedication she spent some extra time visiting with her adapted family. Everyone was just so happy to see here.
Here is a picture of the Don & Sharon enjoying just a few minutes of quite the day before the big celebration. I am waiting to receive some additional pictures then I will setup a page with pictures of the dedication. Shalom!
The Notsi translators are making good progress as they have been working here at NITI. We were able to finish the consultant check of the Book of Galatians. During this past week we finished working all the corrections as a result of the checking. We will read through it a few more times together to make sure there is nothing that we have missed such as grammar or spelling. We have also been working on revising the Gospel of Mark and started to review the Gospel of Luke. We are getting more done that I expected. I have uploaded a few pages related to Bible Translation and Vision 2025 that I thought you would find interesting. You will find the link on the left.
An important date is coming up. August 15, 2010, will be the celebration of the completion of the Sursurunga New Testament. I hope to have pictures uploaded within the week of the dedication. This is the language group that Gertrude first developed a literacy program. We are so pleased that we could be here for the dedication.
Gertrude is just finishing teaching her literacy workshop here at NITI. The picture shows the group that she has been working with for the past month. She has had her challenges with them, but they have done well with developing lesson plans and readers. Please remember them in prayer as they begin to make use of the materials they have produced during the last couple of course.
Kevin has been keeping busy working with the Notsi Translation Team to work a revision of the book of Mark that has been published over 20 years ago. We are also working with a translation consultant to check the Book of Galatians. If all goes well we will be able to get both books printed for wide distribution next year.
We have enjoyed a lengthy time in the village. This allowed time for Gertrude to finish up the work that was started at the literacy workshops she has done both at NITI and at Libba (a neighboring village). Something that we continue to work on daily is language learning. I have been receiving much encouragement from everyone. We are both able to have very basic conversation with just a few phrases; beyond that we are at a lost. Anywhere you go in the world children will be children. Pictured here are a group of children playing in front of our house. They enjoyed posing for the camera as you can see.
On Sunday, July 11, we sang from the new hymn book that I had just published. There were a total of 33 hymns that I have worked with others to translate into Notsi. Everyone was so very pleased to sing these hymns that they would sing in the church language that only a few of the older people really understood. Now everyone can sing these hymns with a clear understanding of the words for the first time. It brought tears to the eyes of the preacher to hear this. You could not help to hear the difference as the people sang these song with all their hearts and not just going through the song with little understand. Please pray that we will be able to complete more hymns in the coming months. I would like to publish a hymn book with some 100 songs by the end of the year that will be available to all the Nots churches. This will be a big help in encouraging others to help with the New Testament translation.
We were hoping to change start cutting lumber from the bush to replace the walls on our house, but we found that the post that were holding up the house was in need of being replaced. For the last two weeks I have been working with a few men from the village replacing the post. I was meant to have before and after pictures, but I did not get around to it. We we return to the village I'll be able to post some pictures then.
On July 12, we were on our way to Sohun for the next NITI course. Gertrude is no busy leading another literacy workshop. This is the group that she worked with early this year. They are beginning to review the materials that they already finished and learning how to use them. They will also be producing new material which will include materials to help education the people about AIDS/HIV and how to prevent the spread of it. This is becoming more and more of a problem here in Papua New Guinea.
At present I have been helping everyone with their computers and email. In another week the Notsi translation team will arrive and I will begin to work with them to edit and update the book of Mark and Luke. We hope to be able to have Luke finished next year to be able to work on script the JESUS film to be dubbed into Notsi.
Something that I have been overlooking as I update my home page with updates is that I have not been updating my Prayer & Praise Reports under my prayer page. Please visit that page so you will know how to pray for us. www.KevinNicholas.net/prayer.htm
Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Sunday was an exciting time hearing hymns sung in Notsi. A week ago a some group of us started working on editing many hymns that have been translated in Notsi. That first day we finished 8 different hymns. I printed out a little songbook and distributed them on Sunday at church. What a blessing it was to hear people singing these hymns at church and after church. For some people it was the first time that they saw their language written down. Pray that we will be able to do the work needed to be able to publish a Notsi Hymnal and the funds would be provided for it. At present they use a Kuanua Hymnal which is the church language that only a few of the older people know.
Yesterday, Gertrude and I went to a special program at the local primary school. There were the usual cultural songs and dances. What made this time special was that I had opportunity to meet Sir Julius Chan. He has known Gertrude for many years because of her work with the Sursurunga. He was very happy to see Gertrude again after so many years and to meet me. We were able to have a few minutes with him to visit with him during lunch before he left. Gertrude asked him if it was true that he ate a noni a day for his health. In fact it was true. He says you begin to get used to its bitter taste. It took Gertrude the longest time just to get me to drink the noni juice. That will be good enough for me.
He is currently governor of New Ireland and has been the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. You can read more about him at Wikipedia.org
This has been a long day in coming. Steven Hong is pictured here holding the completed Mandara New Testament. He and his wife Holly has been working on this for over 20 years. When they first arrived in P.N.G. Steven's plan was to provide computer support for the work of translation. After being here just a short time the Lord moved on their hearts to get involved in the work of translation. They moved to a remote island of Simberi to be the work of translation.
Gertrude as she was doing literacy workshops throughout the New Ireland Province, which Simberi is a part of, she helped them start a Sunday School program in Mandara. As they began making use of these materials the people became more interested in the Mandara New Testament as it was being translated. After Gertrude left P.N.G. in 2000, the Mandara people continued to develop the Sunday school materials.
In 2002, Gertrude and I had opportunity to visit Simberi. While we were at Simberi we shot some video footage that was eventually used for The Time is Now: A Call to African Americans to Missions. This made it all the more special for Gertrude and me to be able to return for the New Testament Dedication. (There is more I would like to say about the dedication, but I'll wait till have more pictures prepared to share with you.)
I have just uploaded some pictures from the dedication. Simberi N.T. Dedication
It seems that the last month has just flown by. If we have not been busy with a community event of some kind we have been busy getting ready for the next meeting or workshop. This update will cover a lot of ground.
I have just finished reading an issue of Christian History Magazine about John Wycliffe. It has given me a great appreciation for the work that we are doing here in P.N.G.. The President Emeritus of Wycliffe Bible Translators U.S.A. wrote an interesting article titled Bible Translation Since John Wycliffe. I have uploaded it to my website for you to read if you are interested. Some of the information is dated which have tried to update, but it does not change the value of the article.
The Central New Ireland Literacy and Scripture Use Course began on Monday May 3, 2010. The theme of morning devotions was 'prayer' and although I led most of the devotions, volunteers took turns doing brief devotions from simple devotional from Andrew Murray's writings on prayer. It was great to see the rapt interest of all who were present. I loved the four part harmony as we sang during devotions. It was a worshipful time that set the tone as our labors began.
The course was attended by two pastors, elementary school teachers, local bible translators and others interested in developing literacy materials in their languages. About 17-21 people attended altogether and they were a well chosen group. The Nalik group was represented by three to five people, and the Notsi Madak by three or four, and the Notsi by ten people--not all were able to stay the whole time. Sometimes, we worked on a transition primer (a tri-lingual language book designed to help adult readers of English or Tok Pisin transfer reading skills back to their mother tongue). The group wrote traditional stories, began learning how to author a personal devotional book, translated HIV-AIDS, marijuana, and leprosy booklets as well as wrote model letters, and prayers. It was hard work for all of us to stay focused in the tropical heat as the day wore on. We were grateful to have generated electricity for ceiling fans and re-charging computers. In the evenings Kevin showed the video "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston and HIV-AIDS Awareness videos. Everything seems to be going well, until Thursday, when a power surge from the church owned generator blew out a number of adaptors. For the remaining of the time we used our own generator from the village.
It was nice to have the weekend off for Mother's day. When we got back to the village, the church yard looked beautiful. Villagers had mown and raked the lawn and began decorating for Mother's Day. Also, it was nice just to be back in the comfort of our house at Lossu Village--with indoor plumbing, our own bed, my own cooking and a chance to catch up on typing some of the language texts from the course.
Around nine o'clock, Sunday morning, I went out to take a picture of the group of mothers waiting to walk up a decorated path to the church. To my surprise, some of the mothers approached me and began putting fresh picked flowers in my hair and invited me to march into the church with the mothers. At first I was reluctant as I am not a mother but their kindness drew me. As I marched with these beautiful women, the oldest mothers led the way as the children began showering us with fresh made floral potpourri. One young woman placed a lei of yellow hibiscus and frangipani blossoms around my neck and said, "Happy Mother's Day." I was humbled. 
We entered the church and almost occupied all the benches. All others sat or stood where they could in the small church. As I sat there with the ladies my heart was full. When we bowed to pray my eyes glanced across to see all these rugged hard working hands of mothers folded in their laps. Hands that had 'held fire' just this morning: they had cooked on their cook fires and removed baked sweet potatoes from hot stones. I surmised that these women represented all women who have given of themselves in the most difficult of circumstances. They have not known much of the conveniences of life. I know that the older women were widows who have borne at least four children some of them five or six. Seated behind them were younger women, mothers who deeply cared for their little ones and still looked on with concern for older children at various stages of maturity. All of the youngest mothers look forward to days when their children would care for them--when they could no longer walk to the gardens or do for themselves. They sometimes ask me, "Who will take care of you when you grow old." Care of older people is a real concern in this culture where there are barely hospitals, let alone homes to care for the elderly. There is no such thing as life insurance or health insurance here--only family and especially one's children.
The mother's day message could have been preached at any church in America as it was taken from Proverbs 31 and Titus 2:3-5. There was even a history of the origin of Mother's Day cited about an American woman who lost her mother early and encouraged the establishment of a Mother's Day celebration on our calendars in America. Papua New Guinea has adopted the holiday for its own. As the preacher spoke, my mind drifted to my mother who at the time lay on her sick bed having suffered a second stroke one week earlier. I was thoughtful of the one who bore me and cared for me throughout my childhood. She would always remind us saying, "You will always be my child." I thank God for mothers and especially my own. She has lived long (83 years on her birthday, May 28) and has borne eight children, all who live to cherish and care for her.
As in many other places there are times of joy and celebration as well as times of great sorrow when large numbers of people come to share the joy or provide comfort. This week was we saw both take place. We were not back to the village long before we heard about a car accident that took two young lives. One was an 18 year-old from our village. There were hundreds of people who came from all over New Ireland to support the family at their time of loss. It was a time for us to see the community coming to the aid of the family. People brought pigs and other food to cook for the funeral feast. As people came from other villages they brought food and money to contribute. It was moving to see the way everyone came to support the family at this time of grief.
Just a few days later there was a big celebration. A man, one of the leaders in the church, has been married for many years, but never paid the bride-price. It was as if the marriage was recognized by the church but not by their families. A big feast was planned and money was collected by the man's family to pay the bride-price. After the money was collected the man with his clan with him went to see the clan of his wife's family. With a lot of ceremony he paid the bride-price. The picture here is one of the clan leaders telling a story as part of the bride-price is being paid. This was another example of how the community had come together to help support this marriage bring the two clans together.
As Gertrude and I have been taking some time to rest after a busy month at NITI. This past Saturday makes the third time in my life to go fishing. There has been a 25' yacht, The Bitter Sweet, traveling around PNG for nearly a year assessing the travel needs between different islands for the missionaries working here.
The yacht owner had planed a fishing outing that I was able to join. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. The sun was bright, with a slight breeze and the water was very calm. We were out on the water for nearly three hours before we got our first bite. Timo caught a 10 pound yellow fin tuna. An hour later he caught another one a little bigger. Then a third. I was beginning to wonder if I would catch a fish. Then Timo pulled in a 5 foot shark which took about 40 minutes.
At long last after being out on the water for over 6 hours I hooked a fish. There was the initial excitement and uncertainty of what I needed to do and how to set the reel. Then I learned how pull the rod up and reel it down to keep the tension on the line as I was pulling up the fish. Timo and Larry were trying to guess what kind of fish I hooked by the way it was resisting. At long last we saw that it was another yellow fin tuna. The largest of the four tuna caught at 20 pounds. I was pleased, but I think Gertrude was more pleased. She has been after me to take up fishing so we can have fresh fish when we are in the village. I enjoyed it more than I expected and certainly enjoyed it that night. I just may do a little more fishing.
This is the final week of the February/March session of NITI. This course was different in that it had a literacy segment included which was led by Gertrude. Six of the 13 language groups involved brought in people to work on literacy materials in their languages. Education levels ranged from Grade 8 to College but most were Grade 10 graduates. We got booklets translated or developed for an Easter Bible study, HIV-AIDS, Marijuana, and personal devotional books prepared for publishing. Most of them received computer and typing training for the first time. It is interesting and insightful to see what kind of mistakes a novice may achieve on a computer! By the end of the course all had more confidence and were able to type simple texts. God is good.
Local translators worked with Wycliffe translation consultants to complete different tasks in this course. Some of them edited newly translated drafts while others prepared for village and consultant checks of different New Testament books including Mark, John, and James and other Scripture texts. Kevin and the Notsi translators worked on editing Galatians, Philippians and Mark in preparation for consultant checking later this year.
We stayed healthy although the schedule was busy from morning into the night. Kevin seems ‘fit as a fiddle’ and enjoyed serving others with his computer skills as well as helping the Notsi prepare translated Scripture portions for consultant checking. We found a source on noni fruit and have been enjoying the benefits of its fresh juice daily. It is the middle of rainy season and increase in mosquitoes. Some of the local translators, including Matthew suffered from malaria, bad colds and allergies.
Our time at NITI is coming to a close. How quickly the month has passed. We are pleased with the progress that the translators and literacy workers are making. On Wednesday, March 24, will be our last day for this NITI course. The main goal of this particular course was to review and update translations from previous course to prepare them for consultant checking. Following the consultant checking after the recommended changes are done that particular book could be printed. As I am working with the Notsi we are preparing the book of Galatians. We are nearly ready for consultant checking. I am learning to read more and more of the language, but I need to put it into practice to speak it.
Gertrude has been very busy working with the different groups to prepare a number of books to be used for literacy. She spends much time providing them computer training so that they are able to type their own stories into the computer. It has been fun for them to learn something about computers which they have never had opportunity to even touch before this class.
After the course is over Gertrude and I are going to take a little vacation on a neighboring island. We are looking forward to having some down time just to relax. Please pray that we have good weather as we are traveling by boat.
Not much new to report this week, but more of the same. Gertrude is enjoying her literacy class. She is really in her element. She does get somewhat frustrated as she is teaching her students how to do some basic things on the computer. They tell her they understand what to do, and then they go and do something completely different. On day she left the class as they were typing their stories when she came back one person who was typing most of the day lost all their work and came up with something on the screen that Gertrude has no idea how they did it.
I thought it would be good to share some pictures of some of our co-workers. This couple is Bob & Carolyn Lee. They arrived in New Ireland 10 years before Gertrude arrived in 1976. They completed the New Testament for the Madak people group here. As they have been a part of NITI they are helping two languages groups that are close to Madak. One is the Notsi-Madak which is a transition language between Notsi the group Gertrude and I are working in and their language group. They are also working with the Nalik people group. Besides that they are continuing their work with the Madak on Old Testament portions which they plan to publish next year.
Ed Condra I guess he could be called the founder and director of NITI, but he does not even think about a title for himself. He came to Sohun back in 1983 finished the New Testament for the Papatar people group here. It was back in 2003 that the Lord opened doors for him to start NITI to train Papua New Guineans to do the remaining translations in New Ireland. Today he is helping to oversea two Papatar dialects that are being translated as well as Barok. He is also leading a team that is doing Old Testament translation for the Papatar.
Both he and the Lees only come for the NITI course for a month or more and then return to the U.S.A. There is much they try to complete in the short time that they are here.
The New Ireland Translation Institute (NITI) has been keeping both Gertrude and myself very busy. There has been eleven new netbook computers that have been donated to NITI for the translators to use in their villages between NITI courses. With the computer they have been supplied with solar panels and batteries to keep these computers running. It present I am getting the translators going on their new computers providing some training on the new software that they will be using. I have also installed the new software on the staff computers and giving them some help along the way. (Sorry I don't have a picture of the netbook computers to upload yet.)
Beyond all the computer work that has been keeping me so busy I have been working with the Notsi translators in developing a back translation of the book of Galatians which they have translated and had a village check with. This back translation back into English is the help me as well as the consultant in the future to determine how good the translation is without knowing the language. It is a tremendous help to me to learn the language. Pictured here are Paul & Wesley two of the translators that I am working with on my computer on the back translation.
Gertrude has very full days starting at 8:00 and ending somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00. She is teaching a group of 13 people from 5 different language groups. What she teaches ranges from basic literacy principles of just what are all the sounds of the language and the alphabet that they use, to basic computer skills. Part of the day they spend writing common stories from their village that may be published in a reading primer. She has a lot for them to accomplish in these four weeks that we are here. When the class is done they will take books back to their villages that will help people to become better readers in their own language. May people already know how to read English or Tok Pisin but do not know how to use those skills to read fluently in their language.
Today marks a very special day. It was 9 years ago that Gertrude and I first met. We have now been married 8 years, 5 months, and 29 days. How good God has been to us in these years together. We never believed that it could happen as we were busy serving the Lord. We had both made the choice to get involved in foreign missions as single adults. We guarded our hearts so that we would put the Lord first in our lives so that we could serve in this way.
We have heard too many stories of people who had one time sensed God's call to missions, but they let work, or relationships come first. Years later to talk with regret that they did not pursue the call that God gave them. As we learned to put the Lord first we could see Him taking care of us in so many ways. "But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:33–34 NET)."
We are standing in front of the new plane that has just arrived in Papua New Guinea for service with SIL. The Kodiak is a plane that has been designed especially for use in missionary aviation. We were able to fly in this aircraft from Ukarumpa to New Ireland. We enjoyed the flight very much. It is quite the high tech aircraft.
For the past month we have been in the highlands of Papua New Guinea at Ukarumpa. It has taken us a while to get used to being at over 5,000 feet above sea level. As we walked up where the house was located where we stayed we would have to stop often to catch our breath. After being here for a while we are not doing as much huffing and puffing as we did when we first arrived. One of the benefits of being at this altitude is the cooler weather. It is in the 70's year round. It is easy to get comfortable here. At night we even have a fire in the fireplace to take the chill off the house and heat the water for showers if there was not much sun to heat the water from the solar panels. The house we stayed in belongs to two single ladies that we are working with in the New Ireland Translation Institute (NITI). They don't come up often so it was available for us to use.
The Scripture Use Conferences seems to have been a success. We met with church leaders from all over the country to open dialogue with them about how to make better use of the translated Word of God in local languages and the training that is available to help in this. We were so pleased with the response. We have already started plans for a local conference in New Ireland. Pray that the plans will come together.
We are endeavoring to do better with our communications. We are attempting to send our regular email newsletters as well as keeping the website updated. This will let our supports know best how to pray for us that the Lord will empower us in our work in Papua New Guinea. If you have are not receiving our newsletter please click on the button on the left and supply use with your email address. We are the only ones who will make use of it and will treasure it.
Created on June 3, 2007
Last edited June 21, 2010
