Pryors'Prayers Praises

KlFIELD ADDRESS

David W. & Sharran O'Brien PryorBox 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Volume VII, Issue 1

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

FORWARDING AGENTS:Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien

Route #2, Box 26Oakland City, Indiana 47660

January - February, 1983

Living the Word"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,

kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each and forgive whatever grievances you mayhave against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:12, 13 NIV.

Eventually the Kire people will be able to read this passage (and many other passages as well) in theirown language. But for now they must be able to read "the living epistle" of our lives. It is often difficult toknow just how to communicate such messages cross culturally and still convey the severity of sin inGod's eyes. Butwhenonealready realizes their deep guilt, I believe that compassion, kindness, humility,gentleness, patience and forgiveness shown in the heart of the one offended, is greatly and sincerelyappreciated by the offender, regardless of cultural differences. I want to share a most thrilling incident,wrought by the love of God and the powerful working of His Spirit, that really illustrates the rewards andjoy of following this divine directive.

Our very first language helper was a young man introduced to you originally by the name ofDaranpul (He now goes by the name "Waisi"). Most of you may remember that though he has alwaysshown interest and potential, we had to dismiss him for a time because of circumstances surrounding thedissolving of his first marriage relationship. Guided by prayers along with the advice of village people,local preachers and other missionaries as to how to handle it culturally, we rehired him after a period of"disciplinary dismissal." Though we hired and began to train two other helpers during his absence, hecontinued to show the greatest aptitude in most areas of our work.

Then it happened. While he was in a training course for national translators he began to sneak away atnights and on weekends to go drinking with some friends who lived in villages nearby. He also began todevelop a "friendship" with a sister of one of his friends and rumors of an affair were seeminglysubstantiated. In addition to all of this he charged over K109.00 ($160.00) to our charge accounts in threedifferent stores.

Needless to say he was dismissed immediately, and we were deeply hurt by the incident. Again wesought the direction of the Lord and the advice of others. iLocal missionaries felt that the church was notmature enough to handle it through the church as guided to do in I Corinthians 6. But therecommendation of individual Christians and native preachers was to set a date by which the money was

to be repaid, stress tliat he himseif had to earn the money and then if the debt was not repaid within thespecified time, the matter was to be taken to coiitlt.

We told him that it had tobe paid by March 12,1^81 which was two weeks before we were toleave onfurlough. This gave him over five months to repay the debt which he could have done very easily.Nothing had been repaid by the time we went on Yurlough but promises were made to repay it in fullwithin the next five months. However, when we Returned from furlough the amount of the debt stillremained the same. During our first week back in the village he came to plead with me to give him a littlemore time before I took him to court.

Because ofmy own convictions Idoubt that Iwoi|ild have evertaken him tocourt, but Iconcealed thatas Iagreed to one last time period which he himselfcould set. This time, little by little, the debt began tobe repaid. He seemed emotionally exhausted the final day when he brought the last KlO.OOtopay off thedebt.- Being a "soft touch" myself, I,too, was torn uf inside by the whole ordeal, but 1was still shocked byhis audacity to ask to be hired once again now that the debt had been paid.

According to his culture it was a reasonable reququery that Peter once had: "Lord, how often should

est, but for some reason my response was the sameIforgive my brother...". Iwondered how Iwould ever

be able to trust him again. Or be able to be close to him again. "I'd be a fool." I thought to myself, "toever hire him again, especially for sucha Godly ta^k." But forsomereason Itold him Iwould think aboutit and let him know later.

Seeing my reluctance he said "David, if you're looking for a perfect man to work for you. you won't findone. All of us here in the villageare sinners and w^fall down manytimes. Weneed to be shown howtostand up again and be helped to overcome our shame. It's not good that all the training you have givenmebewasted, and Ican'tusethisknowledge foran^otherkind ofwork. Iamsorryforwhat Ihave done,and Ireally want to help translate God's Word fo|'|my people."

How his words reminded me of some of my ov^p petitions for God's forgiveness and forebearance.How could I, who had been so freely forgiven so often, withhold forgiveness from one whom God hadforgiven?

I realized of course that there were other considerations involved in re-hiring him, so I was still noncommittal with exception of the promise that I wpuld think (and pray) about it.

Perhaps the major factor in my final decision to have him work with us again was not so much what Iwould expect from him. Instead. I felt like I would have a real opportunity to help restore andrestrengthen a brother for whom I still cared. This way I would have daily contact with him and assuredtimes of Bible instructions through the daily devotior|s Ihave with my workers. If 1did not take him back itwould be highly unlikely that any type of relationship could be maintained, and his life would most likelygo further downhill.

Did I do the right thing? Well, let me share sortifWe were seeing signs of gradual spiritual growth,

preach (for the first time in his life) for the mid-we^lisubject of His sermon was "Counting the Cost." A yrthe church was there to hear Waisi preach. After thihis message had really had an impact on him. T^ii

recent events with you.lut were pleasantly surprised when he consented toservice in the village about four months ago. The

lung teenager who had never shown any interest inservice he went straight to Waisi and told him thatyoung man was baptized into Christ last month.

About two months ago Waisi came to visit me to relate the following:"David, I am really happy to be back with God. This time I have really changed. Before, whenever Iwould finish work at your house, I would go back to my house and talk about singsings, soccer andother things of this world. Now all Iwant todo is t^lk about God and help my people follow His talk.My wife and I pray each day and talk together about God and what I am learning from you, and Iamreally happy. jI also want to tell you that Iam happy to be working foryou again, but Ihavedecided that Iam notgoing to workwithyou tillwe have finished translaiting the New Testament. Whenweare just aboutfinished I am going to leave you and go to Bible School and train to be a preacher. Then when Ihavefinished my training, you will have the New Testament in our language finished, and I will be able

to preach to my people in our own language using our own Bible in our own language."Oh God, thank you for the work of your Spirit in my life that helped me overcome my own feelings and

guided me with the wisdom from above and led me to know your will. All praise to You in Jesus name.Amen.

Sharran's SharingsWell, it's time to let you all know how we are doing and how our work is progressing.We have all four enjoyed good health for the last several months. What a blessing that is! Thank you for

praying.

Amy has lost 10 pounds since coming back last March, John has lost 24 pounds, Dave about tenpounds and I'm about the same. So, you can see we've all lost our "furlough fat".

We found out our weights when we all had to go get a gamma globulin shot after finding out Dave'sbrother John has hepatitis. John and Bonita and their two boys had been with us a week to celebrateChristmas here at Garati. Then, we were with them again when we went to Madang Jan. 4-16 to do ourshopping for the next 3 months and attend the annual PBT meeting. That's when we all had to get theshots!

John and Amy haven't grown much since we've been back. In fact, John is convinced he is shrinking,but he really isn't. He just grew so much on furlough that bethinks he still ought to be growing at least aninch a month. His teeth are staying perfect with the continued help of our orthodontist. Dr. Hamilton.

Amy Is a little taller so ail her dresses are getting too short. Her feet keep getting bigger so if she evergrows enough to match her feet she'll be a tall girl. She continues to entertain all the village babies andshe and John are really doing well speaking Kire.

John and Amy are still doing correspondence work at home. John is now in high school so his work islots harder naturally, but now that he's got the plus and minus figured out he is doing alright.

John and Amy still love music and spend a lot of time playing their instruments, singing and playingtapes. They've also enjoyed their bicycles when the roads haven't been too bad for them to ride.

All our pets keep them busy too. We now have a Sulphur breasted Cockatoo that believe it or not istoilet trained but so far doesn't talk.

We had decided one bird in the family was enough until one day a boy in the village was swingingaround a ball of feathers with a big mouth. It was a baby owl. They had been swinging it around by apiece of bush twine tied on its foot. We felt so sorry for it that we asked to buy it thinking it would dieanyway. Well, it has now been 2 months and many grasshoppers and lizards later and he is alive and stillall mouth and feathers. As soon as he can fly we will offer him his freedom and hope he takes it. Oh, bythe way his name is "Owl" Jolsen.

We still have guinea pigs and Amy's cat, Dusty, so that is the Pryor Zoo report.By now you are probably wondering, well what about their work. Well, except for language learning

we have met all our goals to the end of 1982.Dave and our 3 language helpers have now taped, transcribed and analyzed syllable by syllable some

40 Kire texts. Some of these Dave has already put on the new PBT computer so we have permanent recallof them with many possible uses for grammar analysis, dictionary or stories for when we start our literacyprogram. We are now ready for the grammar workshop the middle of this year.

Although an abridgement of Genesis has now been translated it is still only in rough draft stage. Wealso have the first four chapters of Mark translated but everything is now on necessary hold.

Dave will spend the month of February in Ukarumpa attending the Anthropology Workshop with oneof our older village men. In going alone, Dave will have Munme live in the PBT house at Ukarumpa with

him so he will have a built-in language speaker. Eyen though he will be learning a lot in Anthropology, hismain goal is still fluency in Kire.

Meanwhile, here in the village, John, Amy and I will be doing school and devoting hours a day tospeaking Kire. Always, I've had more time when pave is not here so I'm going to make the most of it. Wehave always tried to learn the language and we understand a lot but after translating only 4 chapters ofMark we realized our ability isstill much tooshoi^i Please pray for usthatwemay beableto reach thismost important goal of fluency. ;

In April we all go to Ukarumpa until Sept. 2. Our address will stay the same, as the PBT office will sendus our mail from Madang once it arrives. Our thre^ language helpers will be taking a2month NationalTranslators Course that will greatly speed up our translation work. At the end of the first two months wewill send 2 of our language helpers and their familie s home and keep one to help us through the grammarworkshop.

A lot depends on the knowledge we gain in the next few months in anthropology, Kire grammar andmainly fluency in Kire to assure us of being able|to do a good translation of the Bible.

At Christmas time there were 11 more people baptized and many who had fallen away are still trying tostand strong in their new belief so please continu^ to pray for us. our people and our work.

In a country thatischanging so rapidly we needitp doall wecantohelp thechange toinclude Jesus intheir lives.

Lov^.Sharran

Prayers and Praises

Pray for:-Our fluency in the Kirelanguage. This is our main goalfor the next few months.-Us as we continue to teach Johnand Amy at home.-Our people who have recentlybecome Christians to grow inChrist.-Those who have backsliddenand have recently begun to showInterest in the Lord's work again.

Praises:-For our renewed good health.-Our language helpers' growthspiritually and their increasedknowledge of the work.-For the safe, healthy arrival ofBiqiswai and Namput's babyboy.

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Pryors'Prayers Praises

Paiau, another language helper, is pictured with hiswife Agnes, daughter Beti and two sons Matani andLari.

Many of you will probably recognize Darampul (whohas changed his name to Waisi). This is his wife Dani,daughter Dora and son Brian.

I stopped this small procession to get a copy of thisvanishing custom - sharing firstfruits of one's gardenwith others. Along with moral codes, traditionalcustoms of sharing, generosity and goodness arebreaking down and vanishing.

"Sidewalk superintendents" inspect the hole beingdug to finally install a real septic tank. After two"Rube Goldberg" specials failed, we thought weshould do it right this time.

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Sharran and her long awaited cockatoo which shenamed "Toni".

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This is the newly constructed PBT house built atUkarumpa, SIL'S center in the highlands of PapuaNew Guinea. This house assures that PBT memberscan attend needed workshops. Our family will bethere from mid-June to mid-September for a grammaranalysis workshop.

Sharran's Sharings

Well, in spite of having done a completepack up for 6 months and actually leavingto go to Ukarumpa March 30th to begin ourw/orkshops, after a 39 hour trip that left us45 minutes short of Ukarumpa because of a200 ft. landslide in the mountains, v/e areback home again in the village.

We wilt have to give you all the details ofour trip and reasons for change in ourplans our next newsletter as this time wewanted you to see these pictures.

We will be home in Garati until June 16thnow working harder than ever to gainfluency and will then try a trip to Ukarumpaagain to attend the grammar workshop.We need your love and prayers as we try topass daily hurdles in speaking Kire.

We know you all are having a hard time inAmerica, because of the recession. Welove you all and pray daily for many of youby name that God will bless you andprovide for your needs as He does for usthrough you.

Love in Jesus,Sharran

Prayers & Praises

Pray with us:- for our language helpers, 2 of the 3

may go to jail with around 20 other ofour young men for a big fight in thevillage

- as we all work harder than ever to gainfluency

- as we try to win these people to theLord

- as we try to encourage those whohave fallen away

Praise God with us for:- Good health- progress in our language learning- His guidance and love in all our plans

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Pryors'Prayers Praises

FIELD ADDRESS

David W. & Sharran O'Brien PryorBox 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

Volume VII, Issue 3

FORWARDING AGENTS:Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien

Route #2, Box 26Oakland City, Indiana 47660

June, July, August, 1983

Sharran's SharingsDear Christian family, family & friends,

Many of you have been asking for recentpictures of our family. We had to assume youmust either have rat problems and needsomething to scare them av^^ay or you still loveus and want a prayer reminder. So ... here they

Dave and 1 look older; Dave is grayer and I'mgetting wrinkles but, what do you think of ourbeautiful kids?

Amy truned 13 years of age July 24th here atUkarumpa where we still are involved in thegrammar workshop. She is a teenager now andis enjoying being a part of the "scene" here at

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Ukarumpa High School. She is nearly as big is Iam and still growing. Choir, art, music theoryand wood craft added to her correspondencecourses keep her pretty busy.

John will soon be 15 and music is still a bigpart of his life. He is eating up all the music theoryhe can get hold of and will soon be able towrite down all his new songs by note instead ofchords. Sandwiched in between his busyschool schedule at home and taking care of"Owl Jolson" and the guinea pigs, he can nowtype 20 words a minute in typing class and issinging tenor in the choir.

The kids and I are at the end of another schoolyear which means lots of reviews and tests.Our new school work is already here so wewon't have to worry about a long break betweensemesters this time.

Dave is involved full time in the grammarworkshop, keeping him very busy all day andmany evenings. It seems the Lord has sent us toone of the most unique, difficult languages inPNG.

Many of you may remember when we wereanalyzing the sound system anddesigning theKIRE alphabet that we discovered some very

unique complexities and features in the soundsof the language. Ana Kila, a single womanworking with S.I.L. then, now working with theNational Translators Courses, helped us thattime and we were encouraged by people whohad already been through the next stages ofanalysis saying, "If you had such a complexsound system, your grammar will be easy."

Well, that isn't always true! Our grammar isnow presenting complexities that have not beenfound in any other PNG languages thus far. Daveis finding Ua little hard going to be involved withthe same words, charts, matrixes and

morphemes day after day, trying any approachthe consultant suggests but not really findingthe answers we need.

In His time. We thank God He has alreadytaught us this lesson. We know in God's timingwith your prayers, consultant help, Dave's hardwork and God's leading that our grammarstatement will be complete and we can continueon with our translation program.

Right now though, we are especially awarethat we are only part of a team with you and wedo need your prayer support as always.

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PRAYERS & PRAISES

Praises1. We've heard by the grapevine that Darampul

and Paiau, the two language helpers we leftin the villages are continuing to have prayermeeting services.

2. John and Amy's ease in adjustment to a newsocial school life.

3. God's previous lessons on "Mistiming" as wego through another slow progress time inour analysis.

Prayers1. God's guidance during the remainder of the

grammar workshop.2. The Lord to guide us and the consultants

with insight, understanding and strengthto put forth the extra efforts necessary tphelp us solve our "SPECIAL" problems withthe KIRE grammar.

3. Continued prayers for Namputand Bigiswaijwho are at Ukarumpa with us these three

months. ^They are heie^helping us and aregetting homesick.

4. Pray for John, Amy and I as we finish up ourschool year.

I 5. Pray for our people in the villages while weare gone.

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We send our love to all of you with prayers ofthanks for your partnership in our work,

Sharran, and for Dave, John & Amy

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RPIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

FIELD ADDRESS:

David W. & Sharran O'Brien PryorBox 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Volume VIII, Issue 1

FORWARDING AGENTS:

Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brienc/o Pioneer Bible Translators

PO Box 24593Indianapolis, IN 46224

September 1983 - February 1984

Sharran's Sliarings

Dearest Friends, Loved Ones and faithfulpartners in our work,

It is well past time for us to share together. Ican always tell it is when we start getting letterssaying "When do you put out newsletters?"

Well, as typical Americans, we have beenbusy, so . . . I'll try and give you a briefrundown of our what and where abouts.

From September'BSthrough January 26th wewere in the village and God blessed! He blessedus with health, much progress in the work, fruitfor our labors and gave us many joys in seeingour people come alive for Christ celebratingChristmas and part of that was them hearing theChristmas Story in Kire for the first time. Canyou imagine? That was a thrill!

January 26th we left for Madang for twoweeks for the annual PBT meeting, to befollowed by a marriage seminar. With us, wetook Jonah, Esther, Ruth, Mark 1-9, Acts 1-18and the Christmas Story, all newly translatedand on cassette tape and ready to be fed into thecomputer.

The PBT meeting was great. What a joy it wasto be with our co-workers here and see howGod has blessed their works too. BibleTranslation must be important to God the wayHe has blessed us as individuals and as a PBTbranch. Unfortunately, Amy got a flu during theseminar and I was unable to attend all themeetings but Dave took good notes and he hasbeen sharing what I missed with me on Sundayevenings. Georges Carillet, one of PBT's boardmembers, held the seminar and it was an upliftand encouragement to all of us.

February 9th, we headed home to Garati tospend a week with our people and completelypack up the house again, as we had to prepareto come to Ukarumpa for a six week workshop.We have to pack so often that we are reallygetting good at it. That's one talent I neverreally wanted to have to develop, but it is part ofbeing a pilgrim or pioneer, I should say, alwayspacking and on the move for progress. We gotdone a whole day earlier than planned and hadmuch time to visit with and encourage ourpeople before leaving.

Knowing they are still having nightly

meetings ("to keep Satan from breaking in thefence and stealing one of them," they say) hasreally made leaving them easier this time, butwe will be happy when these six weeks arecomplete here and we can again head home asthat is where our hearts are.

David brought us all the way to Ukarumpa onthe 15th of February. The trip takes 10 hoursand is rough roads the whole way. He rested aday before going back to Madang to pick upNamput and Bigiswai. Namput has helped usall along on the Phonology andmorphophonemics, so we brought him again.Thanks to many of you praying about them thelast time, they were quite happy to come andseem more like part of our family all the time.

Palau and Waisi, we left in the village to watchafter the "flock" as they have been doing a lot ofthe preaching for the village nightly meetings.They thrill us when they come and say, "David,this is what I want to preach about tonight.Where does it say that in the Bible?"

So far, this workshop has been very helpful. Ifyou have been praying for David to havewisdom in dealing with the morphophonemics,we thank you and ask you to keep praying asthis part of our work is the most challenging,most unique, most frustrating and mostunsolving so far in the whole realm of our workin another language. When David, with the helpof a man named John Clifton (pray for him too)cracks this system, God will receive all the gloryas it has tricked, confused and amazed all inS.I.L. and P.B.Ts consultant staffs.

Meanwhile, John and Amy need me lesshours a day for school, so I have been workingon our Anthropology Sketch. With 5 years ofnotes on the happenings in the village, and withthe help of a friend, Karen Volrath, who is anAnthropology consultant, I am reallydiscovering some key aspects of our culturethat make all we already knew make sense. Atfirst, I have to use a lot of hypothesis and see if itfits with the whole culture and when it does it isinspiring to keep on plugging.

When I got out my anthropology file I wasencouraged to say the least to be reminded ofhow our people were when we first started livingamong them. To God be the Glory! They have

really changed and many have come to a pointof having a personal experience with the Lord.

If I told you some of the things God has beendoing to draw our people to Himself these lastfew months, you would be amazed and thrilledas we are. Seeing the joy and peace on thefaces of our people and the changes in theirlives bear testimony that the experiences theyhave had have been of the Lord.

Newsletters are never long enough for me tobegin sharing all the excitement of our work,but let me just close this one telling you thestory of what God did for my best village friend,Vilum.

Then, when you are done reading it, pleasebow your head and pray and thank God that Heloves even this insignificant, illiterate,watermelon-seed-toothed lady. That's onereason I love Him so much!

Vilum's husband died several years ago andmany of you may remember that Vilum wasaccused by the village people of poisoning him.She didn't! The fact that the people thought shehad killed her husband and her new found beliefin God, strengthened her decision to nevermarry again. That was a big decision to make,especially when widows are not taken verygood care of and she still has 2 young sons.Besides that, if a widow is taken care of it is bythe men who "use" the widow and pay her forher "services" by helping take care of hergarden in one way or another. In taking a standto not marry or be "used" by the men in thevillage, she cut off all means of her culturalsocial security. That is one of the reasons webecame close friends as she really is in need ofhelp because of her commitment to the Lord.Through the years she has struggled but hasremained strong in her commitment. Shealways knows she can come to us for food butusually waits until she is weak and has hadnothing to eat for two days before coming toask.

One man never has left her alone and finallyshe began to wonder if she ought to give in andmarry him.

That is when God stepped in . . .

One evening as she lay on her little palmwoven mat, she was surprised by what she latertold us must have been a "spirit" in her house.She was now not sure if she was awake orasleep, but said she felt peaceful and happy tohave the presence of this "being" there with her.She had seen evil spirits before and waspetrified, but this "being" made her feelcomfortable and content. The "being" stayedwith her for awhile and then disappeared andwhen it did, she was sad that it left.

Dreams and visions are a very big part of ourpeople's world view and like in Joseph's day,they have to be interpreted.

Vilum came to me the next day and told me ofthe "spirit's" visit to her during the night andasked, "If it was an evil spirit wouldn't I havebeen afraid like every other time?" I could onlyagree that it seemed she would have. Then sheexplained about the peaceful, comfortablefeeling she had while the "spirit being" was withher and asked, "Do you think it was one of God'sprotecting spirits?" In my mind, Iwondered, if itwas a spirit of God, why would He visit Vilum inthis way? Then she said, "If God sent His'spirit' to visit me He must have had a message,don't you think?" All I could do was againagree. "Yes, if God sent a spirit' to visit you itmust have had a purpose in coming." "Well,"she said, "then I think I know why it came. I havebeen asking God to show me if I should marrythis man or not. Now, I know God answered myprayer, telling me that I belong only to Him! Hewill comfort and watch after me. Now, I know Ihave done right in God's eyes by not marryingand now I know God really cares about me."

In our culture we dream, but we do not worryabout interpretations. In our culture, we do notordinarily see evil spirits, but in Vilum's cultureboth these things were very important parts ofknowing you were in the good graces of the evilspirits.

God cared enough about this faithful widowlady to send His own personal messenger ofpeace and comfort and love. How good ourGod is!

Love in Jesus,

Sharran and for David, John and Amy

) Pra\Prayers ^Praises

Pray for Palau, Waisi and Namputour co-translators.

Pray for David and John Clifton tobe able to solve "the riddle" ofKire.

Pray for John and especially Amy,at this time as they continue todo correspondence at home.Amy is really beginning to feelthe isolation.

Pray for Sharran as she works onthe Anthropology Sketch.

Pray for our people to staycommitted to the Lord in spite ofno rains and losing nearly alltheir yams.

Praise God for those of you whoare our faithful encouragers allyear long.

Praise God for healings -Sharran's three boils and John'stwo.

Praise God for the translationwork done and the interest ourpeople have to learn to read inKire.

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