Expectations were high. The Moi missionary team had several booklets and some Scripture portions ready for translation consultant Linda Krieg to check.
Linda's travel from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia was an education in itself. Now she would get a small taste of Moi culture.
Upon her arrival in the Moi village she found out that a major Moi ceremony was in progress. It was to culminate at a village almost three hours hike away. Thirteen pigs were to be killed, and dances would go on all night.
This complicated matters. Since every Moi person in the area was attending the festivities there was no one to help check the translation.
Missionary Stephen Crockett and his Indonesian co-worker, Andy Panambunan, were also obliged to go observe this important piece of culture.
When one of the pigs escaped, the ceremony was postponed for a day until it was recaptured. This caused further delay.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Stephen and Andy hiked back home to prepare for the translation check. Then another interruption occurred.
The Moi man who the team planned on using for the check experienced a tragedy. His house burned down, badly burning his wife and destroying all the family's possessions.
Linda was seeing no progress and thought that she would be returning to her work among the Siawis of Papua New Guinea without even checking one booklet.
On her last day there, a 12-year-old boy appeared at the Crockett's house. Pufuiye was thrilled with the idea of helping the missionaries with their translation check. But Linda wasn't so sure.
"He couldn't read the doubt in my heart as to how much help a 12-year-old kid could be," she wrote.
However, with Pufuiye's help, enough was accomplished to determine that Stephen could continue his translation work, preparing for the day when the Moi people will hear God's Word in their own language.
Pray for Stephen and his wife, Carolyn, and their co-workers Andy and Lieka that they will make good progress in translating scripture and preparing evangelistic Bible lessons.
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