Pray

Luke and Jessica Thek minister in Papua New Guinea. “We visited a people group called Uriay in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea for two months. We learned tons of culture, more of the national language and gleaned wisdom from one of the missionaries who has been working among these people for many years.

Please be praying with us that God would continue to establish his church among the Uriay people. It’s been 10 years since they heard God’s Word taught, but some of them told us they still haven’t forgotten the fact that Jesus died for their sins and rose again. There are two ladies who read God’s Word daily (the portions they have translated into their language). These ladies and many others are literally counting down the months until they will hear God’s Word taught again, which should be later this year! We also were struck with the reality that many of the ladies don’t know the national language and how important it is for them to hear and receive God’s Word in the Uriay language.

Please pray for God’s guidance for our team as we decide on what people group to allocate into. Pray for our co-workers the Weavers who just arrived back in the USA for their first home assignment after serving in PNG for three years.”

Lisa Kappeler ministers as a Bible translator and a translation consultant in Papua New Guinea (PNG). “The main translation consultant here in PNG suggested that we do the final check of the book of Mark for me via internet. He’d be in town while I and my translation assistants would be in the village. It went a little slower than normal, for sure, but we did manage to get it done! Whoop whoop! So, with Mark done, that brings the Uriay NT to 50.2% complete! So cool! Praise the Lord with me for another NT book completed!

“I’ve been out in town for the last three weeks or so. While it’s been easier to live out here, the pace hasn’t slowed down much. I just finished a translation check for another translator. So sweet to be a part of the final check for the Sorimi New Testament! The translator will now do final checks and preparation for printing, but the main part of the process is done! How exciting for the Sorimi church! Praise the Lord with me for another NT completed! I’ve got a number of other consulting projects on my list of things to do, plus cleaning up Mark for printing in Uriay. The nice breeze and hot water, power and cleanliness of town removes the hard part of living, but it doesn’t seem to lighten the load of opportunities to serve Him and His church. I’m thankful that I get to be a part of other projects by helping them as a consultant. I’m thankful that I get to continue investing in the Uriay church and Bible. I’m thankful that He gives me the strength and wisdom to do any one of these tasks. I’m thankful for the privilege of serving Him here in PNG.”

The Palmers minister among the K people of Asia Pacific. “We had asked for prayer for our teammates, the Schafers, as well as the K believers. They had invited people from up and down the valley to come and listen to the teaching that starts with the story of creation and ends with the resurrection of Christ. Well, from late January thru the end of March, C, P and Y taught daily through those lessons that lay the foundations for being able to understand the gospel. By the end of it, a number of people put their faith in Jesus as their Savior! Praise God for how He continues to work in the K.

“One person we’d like to highlight is ‘T.’ He was a religious leader from across the valley who decided to come over and listen to the teaching. For many years now, we have sensed an openness in him towards the gospel, and we are so thrilled with how he has understood and responded to the Lord!

“There has been a cost for him, though. With his declaration of belief in Jesus alone as his Savior, he has been effectively removed from his old position of leadership in the cult. People in his village are openly hostile to hearing the new teaching that he offered to tell them. So, his plan is to just teach his family for now and see how the Lord works over there on the other side of the valley from us. Please remember to pray for this dear brother!”

Paul and Bella Gervasi minister among the Sekadau people of Asia Pacific. “We have been asking you to pray for our translation check. The translation checker came, and we began the check the next day. [It] was scheduled to last 12 days. After seven days of checking, we [were] finished. There are reasons why this translation seems to check quickly. [The] language is not really complicated, and we have very good native language helpers. We have had two different translation checkers help us through the years. This time the man who helped us came from the island of New Guinea. Aside from checking our translation, he is a real blessing to both Bella and me and to the believers here. He taught the church on Easter Sunday. He even used the Sekadau translation in his PowerPoints.

“So, what is next for us now? Well, to start with, we are not finished working on the translation. I have to finish writing the book introductions. We have to decide what pictures and maps we want to include. And we will be asking the believers here to do multiple read throughs of the Bible in order to catch any misspelled words or typos. Once the read throughs are done, we need to send the translation to someone who will set it up to be printed. We understand that will take about three months. Then we will have to send it to a printer. We are planning on using a printer here in Asia Pacific. We have been told that the printer will take about six months to finish printing the Bibles.

“During the time that the Bible is being set up and then printed, I will be revising all the Bible messages and lessons I have made through the years. That will be a huge job. We plan to print the lessons out and then have them put in books. We will also leave digital copies for them. The digital age is slowly reaching even here, in the middle of the jungles. In fact, many of our folks have the current edition of the Sekadau Bible on their phones. Please pray for the read throughs, set up and printing of the Sekadau Bible and for the believers here to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord.” Pray for this long process of getting the Bibles printed.

Jeremiah and April Markley minister among the Dinangat people of Papua New Guinea. “At the end of January, Jeremiah, Ralf, and new missionary Nathan along with a couple of Dinangat leaders made the grueling hike from Dinangat, across the Finisterre Mountain range to a people group called Uruwa. They visited four villages over the course of three days, that translated to nine hours of hiking the first day and nine hours of hiking the second day. The third day they were picked up by a small plane on a grass airstrip. In all our years here, Jeremiah would say that this was by far the hardest hike he’d ever done! There were leeches and landslides, mud and mountains, even some dehydration and diarrhea! You get the pretty picture! All this to track down a people group who need the gospel!

“We had heard that there was interest from the group in having a missionary team move in with them to teach them the Truth, and so this survey was to talk with the village leaders and find out if there was unanimity for this. Our guys gave a clear presentation of what we do, careful to also explicate what we do not do. Having explained all that as carefully as possible, they left it for the leaders to discuss and get back to us as to whether they have full support for a missionary team to move in. Please be in prayer that they will see their true spiritual need and send an official invitation! We have a team ready to allocate if the Lord opens that door!” Pray for good results from these surveys.

Jonathan and Heidi Bamford minister among the Southern Isnag people of the Philippines. “I was hoping to get just two more mornings in with my translation helpers before their field work began, but on Sunday afternoon, field burning started. With that, everyone started gearing up to move out to their fields to do the planting and weeding. The two workers that I needed told me that they wouldn’t be able to help me again until the weeding was finished. Planting and weeding take about two months, so I turned my energy towards some of the projects that have been needing attention. One of these projects was the rotten railing around the clinic porch. A few months ago, I asked our support crew to weld up some railing, and they had sent some in, but I hadn’t had time yet to install them. So, Monday morning, Devis and I started installing the new rails. It rained that afternoon, and the language helpers I needed came and said that the rain had changed their plans and [that] they would be able to give me two mornings. They came, and we were able to finish off every bit of material I had ready for them to check. I have a mountain of material to go through to get ready for the next time I have language helpers, so the translation project is going ahead at a good speed.”

Jim and Judy Burdett minister itinerantly in the USA for the Dom people of Papua New Guinea (PNG). “We are now down to the last of the final proofing and formatting of the Dom New Testament for the second printing in hardback form. This is very exciting. We plan to print one thousand copies and have them shipped to our mission office in PNG. God willing, both of us or at least I, Jim, can fly to PNG and distribute these copies both to the Dom Christians and to unbelievers far and wide on the mountain region [of the Dom people group].”

Elise Long ministers among the Palawano people of the Philippines. “Our heart’s desire is for the Palawano church to find their feet as God’s agents of grace and transformation among their own people. We want to foster a leadership which is both biblical and contextual, ready to thrive in their unique culture and be life-giving salt and light to their community and beyond. We’re thankful for two Palawano chiefs growing in Christ and engaging with the ministry. Please pray for them! They are still young in the faith. I was really encouraged to see them give freedom for the Word of God to take authority in community life. Attending a meeting about a troubled marriage, I heard [one] say, ‘We need to apply what we discussed at the church this morning; you know, what [he] preached about relationships and about reconciliation! About love!’ ‘Yes, we do!’ said [the other]. How wonderful that they are thinking this way, instead of hiding their problems or just asking the missionary what to do! Pray for wisdom as we seek to develop the sustainability of the Palawano ministry.”

: André and Aurélie Tousch minister itinerantly with the Iski people of Papua New Guinea. “I am getting ready to go to PNG and stay there for two weeks. It's been a year since we left the country, and I can't wait to see my Iski friends again. Please pray for this trip!

“I wish to bring encouragement to the Iski believers, to be able to share and pray with them, yet the main goal of the trip is to make good progress on the translation of the New Testament. I will be working on Philippians, Philemon and Colossians. I plan to work every day with an Iski believer who helps me with the translation, and I will also do comprehension checking with other people.

“You may remember that before leaving PNG, Aurélie had translated biblical comics on the life of Jesus into the Iski language. Since then, the comics have been printed, and I will be able to take them in my suitcases for our Iski friends to read! We hope that these comics will be useful to help the believers better understand the culture of Israel at the time of Jesus and thus to improve their understanding of Scripture.”

Doug Schermerhorn is retired and ministers to the Emberá people of Panama. “After the long battle to get the Kulumi mp3 players out of customs here in Panama, I was unsure how things would go when I forwarded one hundred of them to Colombia. However, a young man from Bogota was visiting his brother here in Panama and was willing to take the Kulumi players as checked baggage, which saved a large shipping expense as well as the customs fees in Colombia. So, that is a big answer to prayer. The players still need to be sent to where they will be distributed, but that is now only a matter of days. The family that will be handling the distribution are anxiously awaiting them at their location among the Emberá people in Colombia.

“During the Emberá Easter conference, I was greatly encouraged when I came across two older women attentively listening to the recordings on a Kulumi player. They were excited to be able to hear God’s Word in their own language. I am hoping that as people begin to use the players, more and more people will become interested in hearing God’s Word. So please pray for God to use these players to get His Word out to the Emberá people, especially to those who are not Christians and to those who are illiterate.”

Aaron and Amy minister among the G people of West Africa. “We were able to make some headway with our Bible lessons. We are now drafting the last few lessons that we will need for our first teaching phase which we would like to start in January. However, these drafts are rough and along with quite a few others still need to be worked on before they are ready for teaching. Patrick, a local man will be working 30 hours a week with us now. We are excited to have more time with him, which will be a tremendous help in editing our Bible lesson drafts.

“Amy has been teaching literacy mostly to children. Overall, there is an increased interest in the village of knowing how to read and write these last few days. Because of the long civil war, there is a whole generation that does not know how to read and write, and until now, only a few cared.

“Our co-worker Lesley, who translates the Bible into the G language, lives in a G village. While it is more developed there, it is still a hard place to live and to find willing helpers, and she has experienced some discouragement recently. She has completed several New Testament books and has been working on Hebrews these days. She was hoping to come to visit us in April, but she fell ill and had to cancel. Now we are hoping she can make it in May, but many things would have to fall in place for that.

“Please pray for Patrick as he is starting to work with us intensely now, that he will understand God’s Word more and more and become a grounded believer. Pray that we can continue to make Bible lessons that make sense and are easy to understand and pray for encouragement for Lesley and that a visit in the village will become possible for her.”

Jonathan and Heidi Bamford minister among the Isnag people of the Philippines. “We are in a race against time. The men here are preparing their fields and sometime in April will burn off the brush. Then everyone will be involved full-time in fieldwork for a couple of months. Between now and the time of fieldwork, we hope to get as much translation checking done as possible. I had asked for prayer regarding getting a team together to do the next check. The person who is most skilled to do the next check has been away in a different province, but, praise the Lord, she returned to the village, and it looks like our team of five will be able to start this check.

“Please pray for the next round of translation checking. I hope we can get through 1 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation. If time permits, I would like to sneak 14 chapters of Matthew in as well. Pray also for the three-day lesson writing/teaching workshop the Maynards and Devis are putting on and pray that those involved will be used to strengthen the church.” Pray for good budgeting of time.

Darcy and Ron and Nita Berglund minister itinerantly from the USA with people groups in Asia Pacific. “Darcy has begun making initial plans for a trip to West Kalimantan this August-September. She and Oke are preparing their drafts of Old Testament Scripture portions to be tested for comprehension during that time. In addition to that, they are preparing for a consultant check of Oke’s draft of the book of Daniel, which has been waiting for quite a few years now for a final check. Altogether they hope to work on close to 1,000 verses of Semandang Old Testament Scripture. They have lined up three Semandang friends to help with these checks and are still looking for one or two more.

“In preparation for that, when Darcy was checking Oke’s draft of Rahab hiding the two spies, she came up against a new term, flax, which hasn’t been translated into Semandang yet. Fortunately, the Semandang people have already been introduced to the fact that people who live in that area of the world build their houses with flat rooftops, unlike Semandang people. So, since Oke knew that the people in that part of the world grew wheat, she drafted the term for flax stalks, wheat stalks. Darcy and Oke spent several hours this week learning all about flax. In a different text, they are still trying to sort out terminology to differentiate musical instruments that were in use by the Israelites at that time. The Lord has always been faithful in the past to guide our team to the most accurate and natural way to express His Word in Semandang.”

Ben and Tabea Kirk are on home assignment from Asia Pacific. “While we have been away, our team has been busy surveying different locations on the island. There is one location where our team feels God is opening the door for us to work. It is up in the mountains, where a … group of about 50 people live. The language group may be as large as 4000 speakers according to old Wycliffe surveys including people that live on the coast.

“The people in this remote village don't have any access to God's Word in their heart language. Their language doesn't even have an alphabet! Their ability to speak the trade language is very limited, and their culture is very different. The village is very difficult to reach, taking the team of guys about nine hours the first day and five more hours the second day to reach it. … We are praying and hoping that a helicopter will be available so that our families would be able to live in the village up in the mountains, which would otherwise seem impossible.

“Three guys from our team plan to hike up again. Please pray for them as they are hoping to ask the elders of the village if our team would be allowed to live with them and serve among them. Moving [among the people] is still a couple of years away, but if we are sure that they are open, we want to move onto that island and live on the coast first, where we might be able to start learning the language and culture while praying for a helicopter.”

Peter and Liesl Hypki minister among the people of Mexico. “I was reading Hebrews 9 recently, and a phrase jumped out to me at the end of the chapter. The writer of the book states that, "to those who eagerly await him he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation" (Heb 9:28b, NET). Those words — ‘eagerly await’ — resonated with me. What does it mean to eagerly wait?

“We have been given instructions — something to do — while we wait for his return. And I cannot help but wonder if that thing to do is tied to some of His final words before His ascension — ‘Go and make disciples’ — in Matthew 28:19. If so, obedience to those words — going and making disciples — is one way to eagerly wait for His return.

“I hope we all make disciples as we wait for Him. I hope the efforts we make here in Mexico likewise serve to that end. The past few months have been full — a few weeks with the Nahuatl in January; a few days in Mexico City in February, planning for the expansion of our Bible Institute there; a few days in Chiapas in March with the team church planting among the Tzeltal. All that, though, we do not out of a desire to be or look busy or to see the world. Instead, we do it to eagerly wait well, to see disciples of Christ raised up in every corner of this country and to the ends of the earth, that they might eagerly await His coming salvation, too.”

Matt and Debi Zook minister among the Lolo people of Mozambique. “Isaiah is checked. We were able to finish the consultant checking of Isaiah 35-66 which completes the book. Despite some health problems and rolling blackouts (where the consultant was in South Africa), God helped us get it done. We have an official Lolo Bible phone number which we put in the Bibles and at the end of the content we distribute. Yesterday I received a text message that said, ‘We are 10 pastors from Nanjiri. We want whole Lolo Bibles from Genesis to Revelation.’ I wish I could give it to them; we keep telling people, Lord willing, around 2030. That seems like a long time to them. Pray for us in this marathon we call Bible translation.

“We plan to start literacy classes soon. Currently, we have been giving starter sheets to interested local kids. There is a constant stream of children coming to have their reading checked and to get new papers to take home. We were planning to start in mid-March but have held off until now because of the rains and a spate of funerals that have kept the believers from finishing their bean fields up the mountain. As we mentioned before, we are working on passing this off to the church. Pray for faithfulness from all involved, long-term benefits for the students, joy for the teachers and peaceful learning.”

Donovan and Charla Epp minister among the Agta people of the Philippines. “The Agta church continues to meet on Sunday evenings under our house. As the summer has come, many people are working and busy on the move. This affects the meetings’ attendance; however, there are 30 to 50 people gathering regularly. Two men continue to surprise us with how the Lord is growing them as leaders. Both have a gift of leading, and so decisions are being handed over to them as well as teaching opportunities. We pray more people will join this team. We truly are slowly working our way out of a job, but there are many areas of discipleship and lesson development that still need to happen.

“These two men, Koig and Opit, have continued to work with Don every morning developing lessons. We finished lessons in 1 Timothy, with lessons in Titus to follow. 1 Timothy is an incredible book as many things relate to a growing church. What strikes us most, however, is the fact that a younger man, Kogit, is like a Timothy, being a young man and taking on some responsibility, having a gift of teaching and becoming a responsible, respectable man. We are not teaching 1 Timothy yet in the church gathering, but the lessons are ready for future teaching. Another aspect of 1 Timothy is the false teaching that infiltrated the church at Ephesus, and Timothy was being instructed by Paul to correct the teaching. While false teaching has not entered the Agta church yet, a group of 20 people just came through our area, going house to house to infiltrate their beliefs. We were thrilled to see the Agta believers stand strong in their faith.” Pray that they continue to remain strong and to grow in their faith.

Adam and Julie Martin minister among the Akolet people of Papua New Guinea. “The last time we wrote, there was a small group of people hearing the gospel for the first time. I’m happy to report that by the grace of God, all but one in that group has expressed faith in Christ! Pray for the new believers to be rooted and grounded in their faith. Another cool thing: we’ve been encouraged by funds being provided for the Akolet Bible teachers to be able to travel several times a year to different areas to receive training and equipping for them to better lead the Akolet church. While thankfully the funds are there, arranging travel is often very challenging. (Example: They missed the last set of meetings because they couldn’t find any boat fuel to purchase.) Please pray for smoother travel logistics in the future. Also pray for the men and their wives to be walking close to Jesus each day and to live and minister out of that closeness rather than out of their own self-effort.

Rachel Chapman ministers among the Nahuatl people of Mexico. “I wanted to share what we are praising God for right now and a few things for which we are praying. We just finished checking the book of Ephesians virtually with my translation consultant and Bernie, a believer and part of the translation team. We praise God for how His Word is being understood here, and we are excited to start studying this epistle with the Nahuatl church! We now have Colossians consultant checked as well.

“It has been exciting to see the youth understanding more Scriptural truths as we study through John with the highschoolers and the panorama of God's redemptive story with the junior high. We pray for all of them to continue to learn more about Jesus and follow Him.”

Porter and Lexie Hampton minister among the Nagi people of Asia Pacific. “We have been praying for the believers and believing family members that they would be discussing the In-Reach teaching with the attendees. We have been encouraged to hear that several have been doing this!

“Even though one older couple has chosen not to attend the In-Reach (they have attended the teaching in the past, but still struggle to understand), their family and friends continue to be concerned for their eternal state and regularly engage them in conversations about the Lord.

“Besides Kubili and Joanna, several ladies volunteered to help teach! Because they only meet three times a week, just three are helping: Yustina, Ima and Anas. Joanna and Kubili said it has been a joy to work alongside these ladies who are passionate about their friends’ and family’s understanding what Christ has done for them. God has obviously enabled two of them to teach, and the other lady, although struggling with being confined to the format of a lesson, loves to story and is persevering and learning as she goes.

“All three of these ladies have kids and other responsibilities they are juggling besides preparing for and teaching a lesson a week. We are so thankful for their sacrifice! Pray for In-Reach teachers—Kubili, Joanna, Ima, Yustina and Anas not to grow weary, to prep well and to teach clearly.”