Vol. VIII, No. 1

Greetings once again from Papua NewGuinea. In our last newsletter we told you of ourplans to return to Papua New Guinea inJanuary. We have been back for five monthsnow and are settled back into our house in Souhvillage on IVIanus Island. We are happy to beback.

We had an enjoyable trip from the U.S. toPNG. We were privileged to travel with our co-worker, Martha Wade, and our boys' teacher,Diane Miller, from California on to PNG. Wejoined Kyle and Kathy Harris and their twochildren in Hong Kong andthey traveled with usthe remainder of the trip. They are PBT'snewest translation team for Papua New Guinea.We were happy to be able to see more of HongKong this time through. We attended a Chinese

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Beasleys' Backlogof news from

Papua New Guinea

Fieid Address:Wes & Alta Beasleyc/o Pioneer Bible TranslatorsP.O. Boi 997Madang, Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Dottie Tanksiey112 Stone CoveClinton, MS 39056Phone (601) 924-0299

January - June 1985

Sunday worship service in the apartment ofDavid and Lynn Poling after which they guidedus around to some of the sights. We appreciatethe work they are doing in that big city andadmire them for it. Theirs is a different kind of"jungle" and we appreciate ours much morenow.

We arrived in Madang the day before ourannual PBT/PNG branch meeting. We enjoyedseeing all of our co-workers again and makingplans with them for another year's work inPapua New Guinea. After the meeting we spenta week buying supplies to bring out to ManusIsland with us. When we first arrived back in theStates it took me a while to become accustomedto the fact that I didn't have to buy for severalmonths. Icould go back to the grocery store the

Our family with fellow travelers in Hong Kong

The entire PBT/PNG family--January, 1985. There are55 of us now.

next day if I wanted to. Now, after our return toPNG, it was hard for me to remembereverything I needed to buy and how much tobuy. I knew that if I forgot something I wouldhave to do without it for a few months. We had aBIG grocery bill that first time.

We arrived back on Manus Island on February3 and were happy and surprised to see thatmany of our friends from Souh village had madethe trip into Lorengau to see us. They didn'twant to wait until we came on out to the village.One of our best friends had traveled all the wayto Madang to see us when we first returned toPNG. They were excited to have us back whichmade us feel good.

We got settled back into our house fairlyquickly. It was in good shape. The worst thingthat had happened was that our water tank hadrusted. It finally split open completely and onlythe bottom 1/3 held water. We immediatelyordered a new one and, after a long wait, wefinally have a new tank but it is only 1/3 the sizeof the one we ordered. We have orderedanother one and will use the present small oneas a supplementary water supply. Our dog andcat were still alive and were happy to have usback. Our cat immediately presented us withthree baby kittens. Wasn't she thoughtful? Wesbegan the building projects that we weren't able

to finish before going on furlough and I took upmy role as teacher of my 5th and 6th gradeboys.

We now have finished a storage and toolroom, a laundry room, a school room and aroom for Diane under our house. We have builtdesks for Wes and me in our office and areconsidering the house finished. We will do anyother building projects on weekends. Dianearrived in the village three weeks ago afterhaving completed four months of jungletraining and orientation. She has been teachingthe boys for two weeks now and Wes and I arefull time language learners. That is our bigpraise item for this newsletter! We ask that youjoin us in thanking God for this milestone andask Him to bless us in our language-learningabilities.

The village people are so willing to help uswith our language learning and are anxious forus to begin the translation. There is a grouphere in Souh which meets twiceaweek for Biblestudy and prayer. They pray for us and ourwork every time they meet. We invited them tocome to our house for their gatheringswhenever they wish. We really enjoy thosetimes with them. We hope to teach them somenew choruses and Scripture songs and eventranslate some of them into Kurti. They have

already translated some choruses and songsinto Kurti and are very enthusiastic about it.Please pray for us and our wisdom as we workwith them. Thank you foryourloveand prayersfor us and for sharing with us in this work. Godbless each one of you.

In Christian love,

LANGUAGE LEARNINGCan you imagine what it would be Iike to have

to start all over and, like a young child, learn tospeak English? Not surprisingly, the best wayfor adults to learn to speak another language isto learn it like a young child.

Alta and I have lots of opportunities to bechild-like now. I'm not building and Alta's notteaching the boys. We've been listening a lot sofar and now, like two-year olds, we arebeginning to mimic sounds and babble on withour limited vocabulary. Soon, our friends herein Souh will wonder tiow to shut us up.

We are finding some interesting features inthe Kurti language. We thought it might be easyto learn to count (1-2-3). What a surprise! Forevery number, the Kurtis have at least fivedifferent words. Which one you use depends onwhat you are counting. In order to countproperly under all circumstances, you wouldneed eighty words just to count to ten!

Language learning is an important activitybut, like housebuilding, it is just a necessaryprelude to our main tasks of Bible translationand personal evangelism. These preliminaryactivities are not without meaning. Eachcommunicates a vital message: building ahouse says that we are committed to living andstaying with them until our job is completed.Learning their language communicates that wecare about their language and culture and thatmeans we care for them.

Jesus Christ prepared for his work asredeemer and mediator by giving up his homein heaven and becoming one of us. Alta and Ithink that's a good example to follow as weprepare for our work as Bible translators andevangelists among the Kurtis.

t member of our Manusteam for whom we arevery grateful. Diane

Qjane Miller returned to PapuaNew Guinea with us to be

the tutor for Jonathan and Adam. At this writingshe has been teaching the boys for almost twoweeks and is doing a great job.

Diane was born in Oregon and received herB.A. degree from Boise Bible College. Shereceived her training in elementary educationfrom Boise State University after which shestudied missions at Ozark Bible College.

We met Diane in Germany when Wes wasstationed there with the U.S. Army. She wastutoring missionary children at that time. Afterthe family whose children she was tutoringreturned to the States, Diane stayed on inGermany working with the other missionariesand with Landstuhl Christian Church. Sheserved in Germany for ten years.

Diane's coming has truly been an answer toour prayers and she is proving to be aninvaluable asset to our translation program.

PRAISE AND PRAYERITEMS:

PRAISE GOD FOR:- our safe return to PNG- a warm reception from the Kurti people- regular rains to fill our "small" water tank- Diane's coming- enthusiasm of the Kurtis in helping us learn

the language and for the New Testament intheir language

- our good health- our friends back homePRAY FOR:- perseverance and quick minds for language

learning- continued good health for our family and

Diane- guidance in choosing language helpers- safety in travel on the ocean

The young men are really enjoying the guitars we broughtback for them. They have a youth club which gathersperiodically to sing Christian songs. |

We enjoy our visitors and appreciate the opportunity tohelp them when we can.

Before you move, please send the mailinglabel below,along with a copy of your new address to*MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION. P.O. Box 2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.

Mission ServicesPO Box 2427Knoxville, TN 37901-2427

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

Vol. VIM, No. 2

A lot has happened since we last wrote anewsletter so we'll try to catch you up on whathas been happening with us since June. Wesand I had a great month of language learning inJuly while Diane taught the boys their correspondence courses. At the end of July we wentto Madang for an exegetical course on theGospel of Mark taught by PBT board member,Charles Taber. Wes will tell you more aboutthat, tt was a refreshing time of learning andfellowship. Of course we also spent a few daysbuying supplies to take back to Manus. Afterthe course we drove up to Ukarumpa in thehighlands where Diane, the boys and Istayed atPBT's group house while Wes went on to anextension course taught by Fuller TheologicalSeminary staff farther up in the highlands. Weenjoyed being in the cool highlands again.Diane and the boys did school while I workedon the language data i had brought with me andcanned rhubarb and blackberries to take backto the village.

We all returned to Manus the first week ofSeptember and spent most of our time inlanguage learning and making final preparations for our official houseopening ceremonywhich had been postponed until October by thevillagers. It worked out well that the boys andDiane finished school just before our house-opening so they could be free to help with thepreparations and join in the celebrations. Theyhad a longer vacation than planned since theirnew school materials were delayed and didn'tarrive until December. (One box has still notarrived as of this writing - January, 1986, please

Beasleys' Backlogof news from

Papua New Guinea

Field Address:Wes & Alta Beasleyc/o Pioneer Bibie TranslatorsP.O. Box 997Madang, Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Oottie Tanksley112 Stone CoveClinton, MS 39056Phone (601) 924-0299

July December 1985

pray). Jonathan felt cheated out of his vacation,however, because the week after thehouseopening he came down with hepatitis. Hewas a very sick boy for about two weeks afterwhich he began to get better. He wascompletely bedridden for 6 weeks and had to becareful after that until he regained his strength.The rest of us had to get gamma globulin shotsso we wouldn't get hepatitis also.

HOUSEOPENINGMany of you have written asking about details

of our houseopening celebration. I'll try torecount the activities. We had purchasedseveral large bags of rice, cases of mackereland corned beef, sugar, coffee, tea, etc., andmade arrangements to buy chickens and pigs tohelp the villagers feed all the visitors. A fewdays before the festivities, the Souh residentsbegan fishing, hunting possums and wild pigsand gathering garden produce. The leaders ofthe village planned the program. It was toconsist of several skits, traditional dances,beating of the log drums and lots of speeches.Wes and I had prepared a Bible drama of thestoning of Stephen and Saul's conversion usingseveral of the village people. They reallyenjoyed preparing for it and were very seriousabout it. It was a great opportunity for teachingBible truths as we explained the variouspassages. Several of the other villagesprepared skits also.

The celebration began on Friday afternoonwith most of the visitors arriving. Our director,

Ceremony at houseopening

William Butler, and his family had arrived onWednesday and we were already enjoying theirvisit. One family from the German evangelicalmission in Lorengau arrived on Friday to spendthe day and night with us and show slides of theHoly Land. Friday afternoon the sound of thebig log drums began to be heard throughout thevillage as people from other villages beganarriving. The men had built a platform outbeside our house and some of the men andwomen had built a fence around the area wherethe skits and dances would be performed. Atdark on Friday night the skits began. One skitprepared by the Souh villagers depicted thearrival of the Catholic mission to their areaalmost 100 years ago. It showed the bishopcoming with all his carriers and servants andlaying a concrete marker claiming that area forthe church. After they had left, the bush mentraveling through that area discovered thisstrange thing and, at first, were frightened out

Log drums ("garamuts")

of their wits. They thought it was some new evilspirit. Then they got brave enough to go near itand when it didn't attack them they attacked it,tore it apart, and each took a piece of thisstrange rock with pictures painted on it. A fewyears later when the bishop and his entouragereturned and found the marker gone, they werenot discouraged but made a new marker. Thisconsisted of a Christian flag on a pole. They leftwith intentions of returning to begin buildingthe mission station. When the bushmen of thatarea happened by again and saw the flag, againthey were frightened by this strange thing out inthe bush. When they got up enough couragetogo near it and found it didn't attack them theyagain attacked it and made loincloths out of theflag. When the bishop returned a third time andfound the marker gone he gave up and said, "letthem remain heathens we'll go elsewhere."This area was near the village of Souh and nowthe Catholic mission is located about 10 milesfarther up the coast in another language group.This was their story of how the Souh villagersmissed out on having the mission station intheir village. It Is hard to explain this skit andgive you the full benefit of it. We found that ourvillagers are very good actors and comediansand really enjoy laughing at themselves andtheir peculiar ways. If we could have filmed it, itwould have been a hit on TV back home. Welaughed so hard our sides hurt. This was onlyone of the many skits presented by the Souhvillagers and other villages. Many of the skitsdepicted people traveling through the bush orspending the night in the bush and beingstalked by, and finally attacked by, evil bushspirits. They would climb trees and scream asthe evil spirits (called "masalai") pursued andfinally caught them. The screams from theaudience indicated that this is a very real part oftheir lives and makes excellent firesideconversations for them. Most of them still are inbondage to the fear of the evil bush spirits andspirits of ancestors. It was interesting to notethat not one time in any of these skits did thepeople escape the evil spirits. We hope that oneday this conclusion will not be so inevitable.Jonathan and Adam and one of their villagefriends did a skit where they painted large faceson their torsos with the mouth being their navel.They had made large hats which hid their headsand arms. They put on shorts up to their kneesand a shirt from their knees up to the bottom oftheir torso. The effect was a very short man with

a big head. They danced and whistled with thesound seemingly coming from theirbellybuttons. It was a great hit. Diane andAlbert, one of the village schoolteachers, did askit in English that Albert had learned incollege. The skits went on until 3:00 A.M.Saturday morning. I gave up and went to bed at1:30 as Saturday was to be a big day.

Saturday morning began with most of thevillage leaders, government leaders from theprovince and religious leaders, including ourPBT director, William Butler, giving speeches.All of them were very positive about our work,very encouraging, and proud to have us in theirmidst. After the speeches several of the youngpeople and children did traditional dances and

Traditional dance

singing. The rest of the German missionarieshad come out from Lorengau and I fixed dinnerfor all the "whiteskins" which included ourfamily, Diane, the Butlers, the German missionaries, the local priest and a photographer fromAustralia who happened to be passing through.While I fixed dinner I wasn't aware that theofficial cutting of the ribbon to our house wasgoing on and almost missed it. I went into theboys' bedroom at the end of the house to checkon the activities outside and was just in time tohear one of the local leaders say that the housewas now open and anyone who wanted to couldgo in and see the house and that everything wasfree! I was stunned for a minute. We hadalready had several people come through tolook at the house and planned on thatcontinuing throughout the weekend. But Iwasn't prepared for what happened next. I sawa hoard of what looked like several hundred

people coming toward the steps and up ontothe front porch and remembered what theleader had said about everything being "free," Ididn't know what to expect. Robin Butler,Beatte Krause and I were the only ones in thehouse. I didn't have time to yell out for Wes andWilliam to come in and they couldn't have madeit through the crowd by that time anyway.Beatte said she would stay in our bedroom andguard its contents, Robin stood in the doorwayof the guest bedroom where she could also seeinto the office and I was stuck in the boys'bedroom because the hallway was already fullof people. There was no one out in the kitchen,living-dining area nor the pantry. Beatte calledout to me, "Remember, Alta, the Bible says to'take the plundering of your possessions withjoy.'" I had never read that before and don'tknow if it had lost something in the translationfrom German to English but tried to take theadvice. Soon, all the rooms and the hallwaywere completely packed with people -- so muchso that you could hear the walls creaking. I justprayed that the walls would hold and that nottoo much would be taken and, if there werethings taken, that I wouldn't be too upset. I justsmiled at all the visitors and explained what thedifferent items were in Jonathan's and Adam'sroom and thanked them for coming. Finally,with relief, I could hear Wes and William out inthe living room and the kitchen trying to directtraffic and act as tour guides. After about 20 or30 minutes the crowd had thinned out andthings went back to normal (?). I was a littleupset at the village leader for not having givenus a warning but later found out that he didn'tknow the crowd would swarm like they did. Itseems that most of them were from othervillages and thought this would be their onlychance to ever see inside our house, and theydidn't want to be left out. They were all verycourteous and friendly and the only thing thatwas missing was a canned ham from the pantry.The Souh villagers were very upset that eventhis one item had been taken and explained tous that when the leader had said that everythingwas "free," he meant that our house was not likea club or restaurant or lodge where you couldn'tget a cold drink or food without paying for it. Hemeant that we were here as God's servants andthat they didn't have to pay to be guests in ourhouse, but were to feel welcome. Weappreciated this.

There were a few more dances and the log

drums continued to beat throughout Saturdayafternoon and evening. There was a "dealingout" of food by the Souh villagers to all thevisitors which we watched with great interest.We noticed that none of the food we hadcontributed was included -- only fish, gardenproduce, sago and wild pig which the villagershad gathered. The food was not eaten on thespot but was taken home. One week later, afterthe houseopening was completely over and allthe visitors had gone home, the Souh villagersprepared a feast with the food we had contributed. Since we had given it to them as a gift forhaving helped us build the house they wantedto have a special time of feasting just for thosewho had worked on the house. This was theofficial end of our houseopening ceremonies.We felt that it had gone well. We learned a lotand were happy it was over.

MALARIA FOR CHRISTMASTwo Sundays before Christmas we spent the

day in Derimbat, the largest of the Kurti villages,visiting, practicing the Kurti phrases we hadlearned, and answering questions about ourwork and its progress. We received a muchmore cordial welcome than when we first visitedthem a few years ago. Even though there is stillsome jealousy on their part for our havingsettled in Souh, they have accepted us as Kurtiresidents now and feel we are a part of them. Weleft their village with about 8 pineapples, lots ofsweet potatoes and bananas and invitations toreturn soon. I also left with a splittingheadache. At first we thought it was justanother bad headache as I get themoccasionally, but when it hadn't gone away inthree days as they usually do, we began toconsider other causes. I began to becomenauseated and weak. By the following Sundaywe decided to begin chloroquine treatment formalaria even though I wasn't running theclassic "high" temperatures and cycles of feverand chills. Wes had planned to go intoLorengau on Monday to pick up any Christmaspackages that may have come in and to get theturkey that one of the businessmen had given tous for Christmas. Idecided to go in also and seethe doctor. The malaria test was positive and Iwas told to continue on the chloroquinetreatment and also take quinine and fanztdar.We delayed our Christmas dinner until I felt wellenough to cook the turkey and dressing.

pumpkin pies and other goodies. We had a nicequiet Christmas and enjoyed giving thehomemade gifts we had made for each othersince most of our Christmas packages didn'tarrive in time.

I had planned to have a special ChristmasBible study and party for the village ladies theSaturday before Christmas and for the childrenthe day before Christmas. I got out of bed onSaturday long enough to teach the Bible studyand let Diane, Wes and the boys serve the refreshments and finish the party while I wentback to bed. Wes and Diane graciously tookover the lesson for the children on Tuesday.Diane did the flannelgraph while Wes told theChristmas story. We had prepared bags ofgoodies for all the children (110 of them) andJonathan played Santa Claus and distributedthem. I finally began feeling better by theweekend after Christmas. It was my firstexperience with malaria and I hope it was thelast. It's not an uncommon way to spendChristmas here in PNG. Wes had malaria forChristmas in 1981 while we were in thehighlands.

We want to thank you for all the cards, letters,Christmas greetings, and packages you havesent to us to brighten our holidays. Most ofthem have arrived now and we are enjoying thegoodies. Most of them were sent on time but thedelay has been here in Papua New Guineawhere there has recently been a shortage oncargo planes and ships. There are so manypassengers traveling at Christmas time, since itis also the annual school holidays, that there isno room on the planesand ships for cargo. Thatis also the reason our Christmas letter to youwas so late. It was printed and mailed to us foraddressing in November but we didn't receive ituntil two days before Christmas. We hope youhave received them by now and we apologizeagain for them being so late.

We are now ready for an exciting new year oflanguage learning and witnessing to, andteaching, the Kurtis about our Saviour. We havehad many deaths in the village lately which havesaddened us greatly and makes us anxious tobe able to tell them more about the hope theycan have in Jesus in such a way that they willgrasp it and accept it completely. One of ourbest friends, who was also one of the villageleaders, died two days before we came toMadang for our annual PBT meeting. We wentto the hospital to see him on Saturday before

leaving Lorengau on Sunday and they informedus that he had died during the night. We went toa relative's home in Lorengau where the familywas gathered waiting to take the body back tothe village and wept with them, We debatedwhether or not to return to the village with themfor the funeral. But, we were told there were nomore available flights out of Manus for the restof the month so we would have missed ourannual meeting altogether. We decided to goahead and come to Madang. Our dead friend'swife shook each of our hands and told us thatthe handshake was from Augustine. He told herthe night before to tell us all "good-bye" -- heknew he would die during the night and wehadn't made it to the hospital in time to see him.We were thankful that Wes had been in theprevious week to see him and pray with him. Hisdeath was a surprise to us as he wasn't an oldman and the doctors had told us that hiscondition was very serious but that he wasn'tclose to death. Please pray for our wisdom inlearning the language quickly and in witnessingto the people daily so these souls won't be lost.

NEW STAFF MEMBER

Wes and Memet

Since we came to Papua New Guinea, wehave endeavored to bring nationals intopartnership with us in our Bible translationwork. Naturally, everything we haveaccomplished so far has required theassistance and cooperation of our Kurti friendsbut, up to November, 1985, their help wascasual, informal, and occasional. Now, we havea new partner, Alex Memet Keleu. Memet is ayoung man with a high school education whohas expressed his desire to help get the Bible

into his language.In these first few months, I will be working

with Memet in two main areas: training andlanguage learning. We have established atraining program in which Memet will obtainnecessary skills. Right now, we are concentrating on touch-typing. Memet is alreadymaking a significant contribution to ourlanguage learning in several ways. In additionto the conversations we have in Kurti, Memetassists us in constructing language drills,adding new words to our Kurti dictionary, andgoing over difficult areas in the language.

Right now, this part of our work only takes afew hours each week. It is still much moreimportant for us to speak casually with severalpeople daily and really learn the language.Later, if Memet continues and does well, wewill expand his training to include Bibletranslation principles and extend his participation in the work. We pray that several otherswill also join the translation team because ittakes a team to do the job.

IN-SERVICE TRAININGAny professional is always happy to receive

instruction from those in his field who are on thedeveloping edge of research. So, I wasoverjoyed to have the opportunity this pastsummer to study with three outstanding men inthe field of missionary Bible translation. In JulyAlta and I participated in a workshop on Marksponsored by Pioneer BibleTranslators and ledby Dr. Charles Taber. Dr. Taber is a consultantwith the United Bible Society, aco-author of thebook Theory and Practice of Translation, and amember of PBT's Board of Directors. Then in

August, I traveled to the Christian Leaders'Training College near Mt. Hagen in thehighlands where I took two extension coursestoward my degree work with Fuller School ofWorld Mission. The first was taught by Dr.Robert Clinton on the dynamics of change. Thesecond was on the subject of World view andwas taught by Dr. Charles Kraft. Dr. Kraft is aformer missionary to Africa and has writtenextensively on missionary anthropology.

Each of these three courses has specificapplication to our work of evangelizing theKurti people through our translation ministry.To minister effectively to the real needs of theKurtis, we require an understanding of theirassumptions about life and core values. Also,an understanding of their decision-makingprocesses provides a natural way to be involvedin their decision to give primary allegiance toChrist. Naturally, we also seek out everyopportunity to learn more about the scripturesand how to translate them.

Alta and I are committed to giving our best tothe Lord through our translation ministry. Partof this commitment can be seen in our in-service training program which equips us to doquality work for the Lord.

PLANS FOR 1986Our major goal in 1986 will be to become

conversationally fluent in Kurti because fluencyis such an essential prerequisite to all our otherobjectives. Conversational fluency means that

we will be able to carry on our dally activitiescompletely in Kurti and talk about most of thenormal things in our life. It doesn't mean thatwe will have learned everything; there will stillbe plenty of gaps in our vocabulary andknowledge. It simply means that when we askabout new things or a new word, we will beasking in Kurti.

While we pursue improved fluency in thelanguage, we will begin to write observations onthe grammar and sound system of Kurti. Usingthese conclusions, we will also begin toconstruct trial primers for teaching reading.Memet and I will do some preliminarytranslation work on narrative portions ofscriptures. Lord willing, this will lead to moreeffectiveness in our planned and spontaneousevangelistic outreach.

Through the year, we plan on visiting theother eight Kurti villages at least twice to enlistmore local involvement, tn April, I will participate in part of the National Translators' Course.Then later in the year, we are planning to go ona real, family vacation.

Please join us in praying that these goals willbecome reality and glorify God. All of theseactivities are designed to contribute to ouroverall purpose which is simply to bring theKurti people closer to God. Alta and I aresaddened by the confused and incorrectassumptions about God which the Kurtis havedemonstrated. Please pray that our work canbe used of God to overcome Satan's powerwhich blinds so many. Please pray that 1986will be a year of great progress.

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

Mission ServicesPO Box 2427Knoxville. TN 37901-2427

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

Non Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDKnoxville. TN

37901-2427

Permit #374