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Off on Another Adventure!
Dear family and friends,
The year 2018 is brand new, and I am off on another adventure. I’m leaving this week to go to Papua New Guinea and get 2 Aruamu translators, Francis Dagonov and Simon Aroro, to bring them back to Dallas, TX for 6 months to do the exegetical checking on Aruamu Old Testament books.
This adventure has already had its share of “saga.” The original plan was for Francis and Simon to travel to the US on January 16 with my Pioneer Bible Trranslators colleagues Jim and Joni Bliffen. However, the visa situation for Francis and Simon was still very uncertain when that date came and went. i know that some of you were praying about this. I’m happy to tell you that the visas for Francis and Simon are now finally approved, tickets are booked and plans are unfolding.
On the way to PNG, I am planning to spend a few days over this next weekend in Australia with my daughter and son-in-law, Brigette and Quentin, and then travel on to PNG. Francis and Simon and I will arrive back in Dallas on February 8.
I appreciate your prayers as we journey. Francis and Simon will be traveling from the village to Madang around February 2. There are several reasons for concern about the trip on their end. The rainy season is now in full, sweltering swing, and there are not many 4WD trucks able to go in and out of the village area. So, we know that Francis and Simon may well need to hike out of the village to the North Coast Road – about a 6-hour hike up and down mountains in drenching rain. Then they will need to find someone with a truck, who is willing to take them on as passengers toward Madang. A further problem is that a couple of weeks ago one of the major bridges on the North Coast Road between the village and Madang collapsed. (See photo below.) It is unclear when bridge re-building can happen. In the meantime, the way to get across the river is to hire a guy with a dugout canoe from a nearby village to take you across. Then one has to find transport on the other side to travel the rest of the way to Madang. Travel is not simple in the jungle. Adventures happen!
When we arrive back in Dallas, over the next 6 months we are planning to exegetically check Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings and 2 Kings. These books are already drafted, and have been gone over by other Aruamu translators to do the basic checks, like spell checking, checking quotes, punctuation, logical connections, etc. These will be books number 59, 60, 61, and 62, out of the 66 books of the entire Bible.
Thank you so much for your faithful partnering and praying!
Love in Christ,
Marsha Relyea Miles
(for the Aruamu Translation Team)
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