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Daily Scripture
 
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."

Psalm 37:3

'THEY WILL LIVE FOREVER WITH ME.'

Brian with Rudi - the first Bagwido literacy graduate, and his child.

October 24, 2007

by Jackie Fallis

Missionaries Brian and Andrea Holmquist and Mark and Holly Woodard plan to begin teaching evangelistic Bible lessons Jan. 8 to the Bagwido people of Papua New Guinea.

"We have been talking about teaching the people for a long time and the excitement is building as we, and the villagers, anticipate this day," wrote Brian. "We are anticipating that all of the 180-200 villagers will be coming to hear the teaching."

The Bagwido people are finishing up work around the village in preparation for the teaching -- planting, making canoes, finishing work on their houses and soon making a meeting house to be used for the daily teaching.

Brian spends most of his days preparing the lessons to teach the Bagwidos. "I am hoping," Brian wrote, "to complete about 20 or so of the 70 lessons during October and November."

In December the rest of the translated book of Mark will be checked by an expert in translation. After that, the missionaries will finish a few final translation projects before starting to teach.

Brian sent an excerpt of the translation, John 3:16, in both the Bagwido language and a literal English translation:

"Mbro Nkifraryo ndar bbintof shofm be tu mfto yima yhurn hta mifyorm. Ndnetryo nd rrhu rba yon mifr hamorm. Nduka mamor, 'Indi anasya, fisyoh yimam rrn rroh mbro ndukefm hteromm, rm noh thokba, be nhe yirhwasrom mbro kahrn. Nhe. Toh nkifra hnernrom nandbo."

"God truly put the people of this world in a great way to His heart. Therefore he gave up His one true son for them. He thought, 'I must do this so that whoever puts their big thoughts (belief) to Him, when they die, they will not go to the big fire. No. They will live forever with me."

Please pray that the translation check goes smoothly, lesson writing progresses as planned and that the people listen with open hearts to what the missionaries have to say.