Steering Committee Chairman, Dumodi Wolaka (right), Loken, treasurer (centre) & one of the

translators, Gule (left)

2012-09-30 Cooper PNG InfoBites. [Alotau, Sinalili & Ipouli Village in PNG & now in Gresham, Oregon, Russ Reporting]: I was with the VITAL team at our Alotau centre in October then back to Sinalili for village

checking of Acts passages, and on to Tamonau for the dedication ceremonies for Matiematie's new church – all in early November before returning "home" to the States on Sept 14th & 15th.

After Mark, What?Well, we've had the dedication of Mark's Gospel in Buhutu, but so what?

What difference does it make? (People have lots of Bibles in English. Are their lives any different because of it?)

Here are a few of the ways it has been changing us in the Buhutu area - we trust permanently!

Affirmation: Our language and culture have been validated because we have the Gospel of Mark in printed form. (People say, "Now we can show people that we have a real language.")

Awareness: Almost everyone in our valley are now aware of the progress of our Bible translation, (and they are letting people know about helping with the program.)

Involvement: The Mark Dedication Steering Committee has become The Buhutu Bible Translation Steering committee with our officers committed to serving for a minimum of two year terms! (see photo). The Buhutu people raised more than 4000 kina (2000 US dollars) for the Mark dedication, and any money left over is being plowed back into the ongoing translation plus community outreach ministries! More people than ever are helping with community checking.

Oversight: The Steering Committee plans to continue raising funds for the four training modules next year, pocket money for workshop participants and to help cover expenses for village checking - for at least four added weeks.

Endorsement: This was not just the dedication of the Book of Mark, but as people said over and over again, it was God's opportunity for the Holy Spirit to speak directly to each one of us, bring unity to our valley and to change our lives.

The Catholic father assigned to our area is not only happy for to use the Buhutu language for the Gospel Reading's each Sunday, but he also went on to say, "Next year when your readings are from Year C, Luke's Gospel (not yet in print) don’t worry, just find the parallel passages in Mark so that whenever possible, so you can still read the same gospel lesson in Buhutu in your churches! Thankfulness: Everyone is very thankful that we have God's Word in our language.

Even though it is just Mark's Gospel, at this point – it is the Bible at last! One lay leader who is functionally illiterate was overjoyed to acquire a SABER MP3 player

from Global Recordings which includes an audio version of the Gospel of Mark, so he can use it to study God's word, help lead his congregation, and hopefully learn how to read from it as well!

Spiritual Food: A village leaders at Sinalili said: "God's word in Buhutu is like fruit. Once it is peeled, the fruit inside is very sweet

2012-11-17 Cooper PNG InfoBites reprinted 4/24/23 Page 1 of 2

and tasty, but if we don’t peel it first, it has no flavor. It is like when we read the newspaper (in English), we don’t get the real taste (or meaning) of the passage."

A banana with the skin still on it - is like trying to read the Bible in English - no flavor

or meaning

But when it is peeled – it's tasty and sweet, that's what it is like when we read God's

Word in our own Buhutu language!

Thanks for Praying for Missing Roman's Manuscript Half of the book of Roman's which was removed from one of the computers by mistake has

now been recovered in handwritten, manuscript form! We have had it scanned at the centre and I have brought it home for Mary to keyboard again.

Ongoing Projects Patrick Sadileutu is filling in the missing bits from Luke and John, and will redo the rest of

Romans. OLD TESTAMENT: Independently of myself, Patrick, meanwhile, is halfway thru Isaiah, and Joyce Simon is working thru Ecclesiastes. Our new portions from JOB (done at October VITAL) are very powerful when read aloud. We've already been preaching, and teaching from it! In 2013 we hope to finish prepping ACTS for final consultant checking.

December 5 thru 9 = TTC3 Consultant Checking Several Translator Training Course [TTC] participants finished village checking of OT

assignments independently, while the VITAL team and I were at VITAL Module 23 in Alotau. I keyboarded and returned their corrections to them, and now they're finishing their English back-translations so Duncan Kasokason, BTA Regional Director can come do the final consultant checking at our house in Ipouli (DEC 5th thru DEC 9th.) This is their first time to do final-stage checking without me being present! Pray for Duncan and the ones being checked, and also for team member, John, whose eyesight has gotten so bad that he can't do his final check at this time.

Praise: I left Alotau on Wednesday 14th of NOV - crossed the Int'l Date Line & arrived safely in Portland on Thursday NOV 15th. (Our Family news will come in our Christmas letter)

God bless, Russ & Mary

US address for personal correspondence:Russ & Mary Cooper

2800 SE 1st Street, Apt 64Gresham, Oregon 97080 USA

Phone: 503-491-8915Email: < Russ_Cooper@sil.org>

Wycliffe USA Office for financial support:

Wycliffe Bible TranslatorsP.O. Box 628200Orlando, Florida32864-8200 USA

Please visit us on Facebook also. 2012-11-17 Cooper PNG InfoBites reprinted 4/24/23 Page 2 of 2