Pioneer Bible Translators – September 2016 Prayer Partner Letter – Konamby’s Story

The Prayer Partner Letter is a publication of Pioneer Bible Translators

September 2016

Dear Prayer Partners,

Pioneer Bible Translators depends on national speakers to help them get the Bible translated accurately and naturally (i.e., the way nationals would say those words). Many of these nationals have a deep commitment to God and a deep desire that His divine revelation be made available in their language. Konamby is one such man.

Konamby is a member of the Waran people group in Papua New Guinea. William Butler is the Bible translator for the Waran. The entire Waran New Testament is getting very close to being completed.

In a recent email, William said that several Waran men had left their village to come to the Pioneer Bible Translators office in Madang. They were coming to work with William on carefully checking the remaining portions of Scripture that needed to be checked.

Since 2002 Konamby had been a part of the Waran checking team, but five months before the current checking session began he had come to Madang to enter the hospital. Konamby was diagnosed as having tuberculosis of the spine. The disease had caused him to lose the ability to walk.

Before the first checking session began, William decided to drop by the hospital to see how Konamby was doing. Konamby told William he really wanted to be part of the checking sessions. Here William picks up the story:

I went to the Creative Self-Help Centre, a local organization that helps disabled people, and secured a wheelchair for his use. That would make getting to and from the vehicle and the checking room easier and give him a chair with armrests to sit in. He was thrilled.

Wednesday morning the checking session started without Konamby. The doctor rounds were that morning so he needed to be at the hospital for that. I was a little nervous about how the other men would do. They had always been quiet in previous sessions and generally unwilling to speak out to answer the consultant’s questions. However, the grace of God was upon them and they performed extremely well, just like Konamby would. It was my turn to be thrilled.

Bethaney, William’s daughter, brought Konamby for the afternoon session. The smile on his face when he was rolled onto the office grounds would have lit up half a state. Even the indignity of having to be carried up the long flight of steps to the room did not faze his enthusiasm. He was so glad to be there.

Thursday morning I didn’t go get Konamby, thinking he needed to rest up after the extra exertion of Wednesday. Bad idea! Oh, the checking went along fine without him but he chided me for not coming when I arrived at lunch to get him. So Friday morning I went early to pick him up. When I arrived he was sitting in his wheelchair all ready with his papers in hand. He immediately said to me, in English, “I’m ready!” He has never spoken English to me before. When I took time to greet his wife, he again told me, “I’m ready to go!” What a joy and encouragement he is to us all. His faith that he will walk again is boundless—I pray it is so. If the Lord has something else in mind for him, I am confident he won’t let that get him down either.

There is one other thing. This is a consultant checking session, where an outside consultant looks at what the Waran team has done and evaluates it. Progress is measured by how we move along through the book. In the three days we worked this week, we checked 264 of the 1151 verses in Luke! We carefully went through each of those verses and made corrections and adjustments as needed, yet we still proceeded at a rapid pace.

All these things testify that the Lord is going before us and is with us.

Thank you for the prayers that turned the Lord’s eyes to us. Now let’s rejoice and praise the Lord together!

Thank you for your prayers,
Gerald & Ruth Denny
Coordinators of Prayer Ministries
Pioneer Bible Translators

Konamby with William Butler

Thank God for Konamby’s deep desire to be a part of bringing God’s Word to his people.

Praise God for the Waran team including Konamby, for their full and effective participation in the checking process and the excellent progress so far.

Pray for Konamby to be fully healed and able to walk again.

Thank God for every national who is faithfully working with our missionaries in each of our 66 language projects.
PS: In last month’s letter prayer was requested for our missionary in Southeast Asia who had an emergency appendectomy and two days later was told he and his family would have to go outside their country and get a new visa to enable them to return.

Thank God he is fully healed and he and his family are back in their country with new visas. A report on the other prayer requests will be given next month.