Talking About God

Albert Tiwekuri--Taupota

“When we were consultant checking portions of both the Old and New Testaments in the Taupota language, we invited two people to work on the check with us. These people were believers, but they were not that committed. During our consultant check God did a very big thing in their lives. All the time after work when we would get together before sleeping, they talked about God and what God was doing during our consultant check. The way they were talking about God really encouraged us—like our faith in God and how it grows.

“The people in our community are also talking about these two people--that wherever they go, whatever they do, they are talking about God. It is wonderful to see them telling how God changed their lives. These very people are now behind us, supporting us with everything. Sometimes, when we are down with our work, their very presence encourages us. I praise God for all that He is doing in our lives and in the lives of our fellow translators and the people in our communities.”

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New Translator

Linus Wairapu is a member of the Arop translation team in Papua New Guinea. Before July 17, 1998, Linus was the team’s boat captain, safely navigating the breakers as team members went to and from the village. He also did light carpentry, kept the roof of the translators’ house in good repair, and did whatever else needed doing. But he was not directly involved in doing the translation. That changed after July 17, 1998, when a tsunami wiped out his village and killed his wife and baby daughter. His other six children survived. When the translation project was re-started, the team relocated inland and no longer had a boat, so Linus’ skipper days were over. But Linus did not want to be the team carpenter either. He wanted to be a translator. Although he only graduated from 6th grade, Linus is a natural translator with a talent for finding the right word or expression that fits the context.

These days Linus not only works on the translation in Arop, his own language, he also helps translators in two other related languages as they use the Arop translation as their source text. Since the tsunami, Linus has also remarried—to a woman with six children of her own.

In 2006 Linus recommitted his life to Christ. Right now he is suffering with what is apparently a recurrence of tuberculosis. Please pray for his complete recovery, and his development not just as a translator and helper to other translators, but as a husband, father, church leader, and disciple of Christ.

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