6va.

Beasleys' Backlog
of news from

Papua New Guinea

Field Address;

Forwarding Agents:
Larry & Dottle Tanksley

Wes & Alts Beasley

do Pioneer Bible Trar)slatort

112 Stone Cove

P.O. Box 997

Clinton, MS 39056

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Phone (601) 924-0299

Vol. XII, No. 1

January-June 1989

Jonathan's

namesake with his younger sister and

I guess we will have to call our newsletter

"Beasley's Backlog of News from Papua New

Guinea and the USA." We have been home a

year now and normally would be ready to

return to PNG now. Because of my father's
illness and the boys' schooling we will remain
longer. Wes made a trip to Papua New Guinea
in February and will tell you about that else
where in this letter. I'll try to bring you up to
date on what we have been doing since I last
wrote at the end of last year.
We spent Christmas in Mississippi with
Wes' folks and had Christmas later with my

relatives.

folks here in Michigan. When we left Mississip

pi we rented a trailer so we could bring the rest
of our things (which we usually leave in storage
while we are overseas) on to Michigan for use
here. We had car trouble in southern Illinois
and had to leave the car and trailer there

(special thanks to Howard Kraps at the Salem

church for his special help). We got to spend
some extra time with our good friends in
Indiana, the Larry Payne family. It was a long,
tedious task but we finally put our things in
storage, got the car home and then went back

for our things in March.

Wes left for Papua New Guinea the end of

January. We didn't like the look of glee on his

June but the boys continued to go daily for their

driver's education classes. Wes and I have been

face as he left us in the snow and ice of

busy each week with either a DVBS or a camp

Michigan to head for the tropics. We all wanted

to join him. The boys were doing fairly well in

here in the Northern Michigan area. We have

several more scheduled before the summer is
over. Please continue to pray for our travels

school until January and February. They

became tired of staying inside all the time and

just couldn't seem to become acclimated to the

cold. So, I took them for ski lessons and they
found the snow beeirable and even enjoyed it.
Wes returned the first part of March. He had
missed the ice and subzero temperatures.

While we are here we sire attending the

church where I grew up the Spencer Church

of Christ. It is a country church that runs about
90-100 in attendance. We enjoy working with
them and the boys enjoy being in the youth

group.

They spent their spring break from

school making a trip to Show Low, Arizona to

visit an Indian mission and to help with some

repairs. It was a good experience for them. The

Spencer church has started 4 house churches in
the surrounding area which is exciting. We
help teach the children occasionally in these
house churches and Wes helps supply preach
occasionally at Spencer while the preachers are
away and also in a small church to the south of
us which has no preacher.
The boys were on the track team in school

this spring and both earned their letters plus

other awards. Jonathan has played saxophone
and bass drum in the band all year and this

spring Adam started learning the drums. They

and for our witness for the Lord wherever we go.

We want to thank all of you who have been

praying for my father. He is not doing well at

the time of this writing. He just got out of the

hospital again. The chemotherapy caused his

white blood count to drop too low and so was
discontinued. He has many complications
from that and other medicine and is quite weak

and discouraged. Please continue to pray for

him. We are thankful that we can be with him

at this time and help him and my mother as

much as possible. Thank you for your prayers
for us too. Please continue to pray for our
wisdom and for the Kurtis and especially for
Cazimir. God bless you all.

OUR WORK HERE

IN THE USA
While we are living here in the States, we are
limited in the work we can do on the Kurti

translation program directly. We plan to

maintain regular contact through the mail with
the people there especially Cazimir. Wehave
arranged for other Bible translators from
Pioneer and Wycliffe Bible Translators in

both marched in the July 4th parade a few days

Papua New Guinea to visit Manus periodically.

ago and Jonathan marched earlier in the

As I mentioned elsewhere, I visited Manus in

for their teachers and fellow students who were

February and next year, our whole family plans

to make a trip to PNG during the summer
school break. The main goals ofthat trip will be
to gather information about the future of the
translation program and to give Jonathan and

very helpful and accepting.

Adam the chance to make one last trip to

National Trout Festival in my hometown. They

both did well academically and, generally, had
a successful school year. We praise the Lord for

helping them to make a good adjustment and

Wes and I traveled to Dallas the end ofMay to

help teach at our Pioneer Missions Institute

and to attend our PBT board meeting. It was

great to see some of our fellow missionaries who

are sdso home on furlough but it made us quite
homesick for PNG and our work there. We were
thrilled to meet some of our newest PBT recruits

Manus to say "Goodbye!" to their PNG fnends.

Besides all the normal things we do in the USA,
I will also be working on the Kurti dictionary
and a descriptive grammar of the Kurti
language.
Since we will be in the USA for longer than

and to help in their training and to answer

some of their questions. We have some very
talented people joining our ranks and feel the
Lord is opening so many new areas in which

the normal furlough time, we will also be doing

some other jobs connected to Bible translation.
Specifically, Alta and I will be visiting
churches and Bible colleges to inform missionminded Christians concerning the work of

our group can serve.

Pioneer Bible Translators.

The month of June has brought us lots of

busy days. School was out the second week of

As opportunities

arise, we will also represent PBT at conven

tions, rallies, seminars, and other meetings.

Adam (on left) and Jonathan playing in the band July 4th.

Jonathan the new lifeguard.

Already we have attended the North American

Christian Convention, the National
Missionary Convention, the Michigan
Christian Convention, Team Expansion's Prefield Orientation, and PBT's Pioneer Missions

cancer will take. We don't know if the local

situation in the Kurti area will improve and
desire for the scriptures will overcome their
other concerns. We have decided that we
should not change the boys' school for the rest

Institute.

of their high school time. We want you to be

aware of our predicament so that you can pray

I will probably assist in an interlinear Greek

database project which PBT is currently work
ing on. And, as if that were not enough, I plan
on completing my M.A. in Missiology at the

to God on our behalf for direction and wisdom.

Please pray also that we will have peace and

patience through this time.

School of World Mission at Fuller Theological

Seminary in Pasadena, California. I only have

less than a year's work to go on that.
An enjoyable experience that I have had
during our time here in the USA is preaching
in area churches. Preaching is something that
I enjoy doing and something I always wish I
could do better but I realize that it is not my

strong point. However, I appreciate being able

to practice. I try to always give an encouraging
message with a challenge to see the whole

WINTER TRIP TO
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
When w^left Papua New Guinea in June of
1988, we told the Kurti people that we would be
returning to Manus to resume our work of Bible
translation in October of the same year.

Right now, there are a lot of unanswered

questions about our future. We have several

However, as you know, our plans changed.

Although we wrote and informed the people
of our change of plans, we decided that just
writing was not enough in this case. Before we
had left, I had spent a lot of time encouraging

factors to consider in making those decisions.

them to select men to become members of an

We don't know what course Mr. Tanner's

oversight committee which would help in the

world from God's perspective.

reviewing of the draft translation. We had told

them face-to-face that we would return in

days before I left and told me that due to family

problems, he would no longer be able to

October; now, we felt that it was essential in

continue as a translator trainee.

order to maintain trust that I go to PNG and tell

them face-to-face our change of plans.
With this in mind, I left alone for Papua New
Guinea the last week ofJanuary. Since PNG is
a third world country, it is best to stay flexible
and hope to accomplish as much as possible
when travelling. I did not get to spend as much
time in Sou village as I wanted but I was able to
accomplish most of my goals.

positive side, our other trainee, Cazimir Tapo,

expressed a desire to continue doing transla
tion and to take part in the second year course
of the training program for national
translators (which he has since completed suc
cessfully). I was able to arrange for some
consultant help for Cazimir from both Pioneer
Bible Translators and the Papua New Guinea
Bible Translation Association. However, since
Cazimir, Alta, and I have worked as a team
doing translation up to this time, I honestly
don't know whether Cazimir has enough ex
perience and initiative to carry on without us
being there with him. Cazimir needs your

I spent the whole month of February, 1989 in

Papua New Guinea, speaking about the future
with the people of our village on Manus and
also with our PBT/PNG directors, Georges
Carillet and Martha Wade. Our Kurti firiends

were understanding and sympathetic about our

desire to be with Alta's folks. However, the
local situation had seriously deteriorated. A
clan dispute about land ownership which had
been simmering for years had escalated just
weeks before I arrived in February to the point
of physical violence. This ill feeling in the
village is currently so serious that it jeopardizes
even the viability of the Kurti translation
program. While I was there, I could not even
call for a village meeting to tell them our
situation because so many people were at odds
with one another.
I did speak to many
individuals and made a long announcement
after the church service on Sunday but I am
sure there were some who did not hear enough

to truly understand what was going on. In

addition to this, Memet (Alex) Keleu came a few

On the

prayer support.
I returned to the USA the first week of March

by an interesting and economical route. As

many of you know, I am retired with a
disability from the Army. In addition to
receiving a compensation, I also have the
option of flying via space-available ticket on
military aircraft in the Military Airlift

Command. So on the way back to Michigan, I

flew military stand-by part of the way. From
Guam to St. Louis, Missouri, the cost was only
$20! Now that I have given this travel option a
trial run, I think that we will give it a shot as a
family.
All the time that I was travelling and while I
was in Papua New Guinea, I was aware and

assured of your prayerful support. Thank you

for your help and yoiur love in action!

Before you move, please send the mailing lapel with a copy of your new address to

MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION, ^

Mission Services
PO Box 2427

Knoxville,TN 37901-2427

Box 2427,KnoxvUle, TN 37901-2427.

Non Profit Org.
37S50-9998

U.S. Postage Paid

Knoxville, TN
Permit #374

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED