This year we had our biennial branch conference where all the workers for SIL PNG gather together to look back on what God has done the past two years, and look forward with hope and prayer over what may be next. It is always a great time of encouragement as we get to hear from our work family near and far, again and again, sharing stories of God’s goodness, God’s provision, and God’s plan working for our good. But this year was extra full and special because we were not just looking back on what God had done for the past two years… but for the past 70! This year marks 70 years that SIL has been working in PNG and that is worth celebrating!
The people in orange are church team from Tennessee who came to us for two weeks to lead a Bible camp with our kids up to 6th grade while we were all busy with conference. The fun part of this is that our teen youth could also volunteer to work at this camp. Millie volunteered and is up there in yellow.
Inside the Meeting House where many events took place over the week.
John’s boss, Andy Grosh, had a chance to share about all of infrastructure service departments. So what does CAM do anyway? What don’t they do?!
Part of the 70th anniversary celebration was a time for all our departments to set up booths so the visitors and local community could see all of the different areas that our work helps Bible translation. UIS is the international school that I (Kristi) work at, teaching art for Kindergarten through 5th graders. The two amazing women in this picture with me are Laura Young (primary school Principal) and Sharon Bowers (Director of both primary and secondary campuses). They are the best bosses I have ever had. If you are even toying with the idea of teaching in missions, contact me, because you would love working at this school!
John noted that it was embarrassingly too easy to find all of these antiques around the CAM office. They really need to purge more often.
Andrew had fun rigging up this old dynamite plunger so that people could light up a light bulb with gusto.
Here, John is heading up the CAM booth. Lots of equipment has changed over the past 70 years but the goal is still the same, to help translators thrive in their work by taking care of all the things needed just to live. CAM guys are the best! Everyday they are getting their hands dirty and tackling challenges like how to do more with less or fix things when you maybe don’t have the right parts. If you want to serve in a very practical hands on way, come work at CAM. John could totally use you on his team today!
These are all of the New Testaments and/or Bibles that we have completed in the past 70 years. It looks like a lot, and it is… but we are only 1/4th of the way done. PNG has over 800 languages and so many are still waiting for God’s Word in their tokples (heart language). Click the link below to see come of our celebrations.
Nonte carrying a tokples Bible in the Scripture Parade. Nonte works closely with John at CAM and is well known as the little guy with the big big smile.
An amazing feast followed our celebration. This celebration was held in our teen center, one of our bigger buildings here in Ukarumpa used for celebrations like this, regional center meetings, local village VBS, as well as burger night, Soul Purpose (youth group) and community sports. This building is a relational hub in our community and it was so fitting to have this celebratory meal here.
The Prime Minister of PNG, the Hon. James Marape, MP, came the weekend of our 70th celebrations. John got the privilege of spending the morning with him as he got to go around to see our center and visit some departments. It was especially fun for John and his PNG Cowboys to get to show off their work in CAM’s Dairy.
Click the link below to she what the Prime Minister thought of the dairy.
Charlie, CAM’s Agriculture Foreman, gets to talk to the Prime Minister about our farm’s processes
Desmond, CAM’s Dairy Specialist, gets to share some of his knowledge about the pasteurization process with the PM!
Thank you for letting us share with you a bit of what we have been up to this past month. Thank you for your prayers and support… you really are a part of this celebration too! Take a m moment right now if you can just to thank God for what he has done in PNG and for the work he is currently doing! Pray that He will sustain and encourage us in our work this day. And please pray that God will move in. the hearts of his people to come and help us in this great work.