That’s A Wrap… You may recall that in September 2021, the North Wahgi New Testament had gone through its final consultant check and we were approved to pursue getting it printed. Since then, during my visits to the village, I have been working with a team of guys from the church to proofread the entire New Testament, looking for spelling and grammar mistakes as well as anything else that may need to be tweaked before we send it off for formatting and, finally, print. This process has been spread over a long period of time, but I am very excited to be able to say that on my last visit to the village, we were able to complete the proofreading process!! So, what’s next? We have a few changes to make on the text and then it should be off to our Mission HQ in Sanford, Florida, for them to assist us through the process of formatting, typesetting, and finally getting it off to the printer for publication. We don’t know yet how long to expect this process to take but we are excited to have come this far! We are also working to find out what printing costs will be for the Wahgi New Testament. Please pray for the necessary funding to get God’s Word printed and in the hands of the Wahgi church. If you, a small group, Sunday school class, or anyone you know would like to donate toward meeting the expenses of getting the Wahgi New Testament printed, shipped, and distributed, please reach out for more information. There will be some specific instructions to help streamline this.

   

It’s ALIVE!!!
My last trip to the village in late-January was multi-purpose. Yes, one purpose was to work on the Scripture proofreading, but another was to help facilitate the connection between a family from a completely different part of the country and our church. This family has been working for close to 15 years helping their missionaries (from our same mission) do Bible translation in their village. About 16 months ago, the father was medivaced out of his village due to complications from a VERY enlarged prostate (bigger than an orange). For 15 months he was not able to get any medical help other than changing out a catheter. BUT GOD opened the door for him to be seen at the hospital near our village. The surgeon agreed to do the operation and then his missionaries brought him and his family over to our village where our church warmly welcomed them. Our church knew the road to recovery was going to be a long one and that this family was a long way away from their home. They provided them with some food, a place to cook, a cooking pot, a place to sleep, their own outhouse for the time they were there, and some money to help with transportation cost to/from the hospital! WOW! We missionaries were humbled and encouraged by their generosity! The Word of God was ALIVE! It was the book of Acts in living color! 
     Our new friend, Basa, has had his surgery and has completed his recovery time in our village. While in our village, people from the church were great about taking Basa’s wife to the hospital to visit every few days so that she wasn’t worried about him; also helping to navigate the public transport system which is a bit overwhelming for them because they’re from a remote location that is only accessible by plane. I have to say, this has been a proud “parent” moment for us missionaries as we have seen our “kids” stepping up and living the Word of God. Last week, Basa, his wife, and their son were able to leave our village and begin their journey back to their own village. Please pray for Basa as his incision still needs to fully heal. Pray for him and the family as they have a long bus ride and then a very long difficult hike to make it home. 

 

Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement, and support.

Levi, Robyn, Michael, Daniel, Matthew, and Krystiana Lenz
Serving among the North Wahgi people in Papua New Guinea