Beasley Wesley Alta 1987 Papua New Guinea

Vol. X, No. 2

o

Beasleys' Backlog

of news from

Papua New Guinea

Field Address:

Wes & Alta Beasleyc/o Pioneer Bible Translators

P.O. Box 997

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Dottie Tanksley112 Stone Cove

Clinton, MS 39056Phone (601) 924-0299

April/June 1987

A LOOK AT WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING

The month of July is almost over. We have beenback in Souh for three v^eeks nov/and are finallygetting back into a "village-schoot-languagework" routine. We went to Ukarumpa in theSouthern Highlands in April and left there theend of June. We spent two weeks in the Madangarea and came back to Manus on July 7.

As you probably already know, our purpose forgoing to Ukarumpa was to teach in the NationalTranslator's Course. Wes will explain more aboutthe course in another part of this newsletter. But,I will say that Wes had a very successful classteaching Bible Background to the second-yearstudents and I really enjoyed tutoring Alex andKasimir in the first year course. (Alex's Kurtiname is MEMET so when you read that name inWes' section of this newsletter you will know towhom he is referring.) It was Alex's and Kasimir'sfirst time in the highlands so we had to gather upsome warm clothing for them. They liked thelarge quantity of vegetables and enjoyed theirmeals at the mess hall but said they didn't getenough fish. They are accustomed to eatingfresh fish out here on Manus and there is no fish

in the rivers in the highlands. That was their onlycomplaint though—they even enjoyed thecoolness. They especially were impressed withthe number of students there and the many missionaries to teach them, who obviously saw theimportance of translating God's Word into eachof their own languages. The fellowship withChristian men from throughout PNG was a very

Wes teaching at National Iranslator's Course

rewarding experience for them. We're thankfulthey both were willing and able to go and thatthey both did such a good job. Thank you forpraying for them and us during the Course. Inanother part of this newsletter I'll print one of thestories they wrote while at the Course.

I was pretty busy with tutoring Alex andKasimir and keeping up with cooking and housework but I did find time to can some rhubarb andblack raspberries. Now we're enjoying them withyogurt. Jonathan and Adam continued havingschool with Diane but also had time to meet lotsof new kids their ages, attend youth groups, go

camping and even took part in the UkarumpaHigh School Sports Day. Adam won two ribbonsin his competitions in javelin and shot put. Jonathan did great in the footraces but was comingdown with malaria (which we didn't know at thetime) and didn't win any ribbons, it was a greatopportunity to be with other young people theirages and get a taste of what it would be like to goto school with other kids. They are both goodboys and we are proud of them. Please bepraying for us as we make decisions concerningtheir next few years of school.

Adam throwing javelin during Sports Day at Ukarumpa HighSchool

Jonattian doing high jump at Sports Day at Ukarun^pa HighSchool. Jonathan will turn 15 years old on August 7. We'reproud of our young man.

After the Course was finished and the studentshad graduated, we packed our things and flewback down to Madang. We spent the first week in

Madang relaxing. Wes and I took the Openwater Iscuba diving courses, i was "pressured?""coerced?" into doing it by the rest of my family,was afraid most of the time, am proud I wentthrough with it and still can't believe I did it! Ifyouremember, Jonathan and Adam had taken the

lessons while we were in Madang during ourannual PBT branch meeting in January, Wes andthe boys wanted us to make a "family affair" of itso 1reluctantly and fearfully consented. It opensup a whole new world to us and we see parts ofGod's wonderful creation which we would never

be able to see otherwise. It's a very rewarding andAWESOME experience.

We spent our second week in Madang buyingand packing supplies for the next six months inthe village. This is always a hectic and frustratingtime but we made it and our pantry is full. Praisethe Lord!

When we returned to Manus on July 7. Elmerand Sue Ann Hill and their children, Jonathan, 8,and Elizabeth, 2, returned with us for a visit. Theycame for a break from their work in Madang butwere very valuable to us. Besides enjoying theirvisit, Wes was blessed to have Elmer help him putup new gutters, fascia boards, flashings, anddown pipes. They also replaced our old, rustyheader tank and stand up on the roof. Wes stillfeels very uneasy about heights because of hisold paralysis, so was very grateful to have Elmerdo the climbing for him.

Our plans for the next few months are to continue with language analysis and complete thephonology write-up. Alex and Kasimir will helpus with those projects and will also continuetranslating the book of Joshua which they startedat the National Translator's Course. Wes and I

will also be organizing and teaching Bible studiesfor the youth in all the Kurti villages at the invitation of the coordinator of youth activities.Diane will begin children's Bible classes againsoon and we are considering an informal Biblestudy time for any interested village families.Please pray for us in all these projects. Thank youfor your prayers concerning the Bible classes.The Lord has worked it out and we have been in

vited and requested to resume the classes. Weknow that God has heard your many prayersalong with ours and we praise Him for it. Pleasepray now that the seed will be planted and thatunderstanding will come.

We'll try to get our next newsletter out on time(but won't make any promises). Thank you for allyour prayers, financial support, cards and letters.We're getting anxious to come and see you.

THE NATIONAL TRANSLATOR'S COURSE

NTC2 students and staff

(The following are excerpts taken from a letterwritten by Was to our supporters reporting on theNational Translator's Course in which we were

involved during the months of April, May andJune):

You have probably not heard from us sincebefore the time we began teaching at the National Translator's Course in April because that was avery busy time. Busy, yes, but also very profitable. Both Memet and Kasimir, our two Kurti co-workers, attended the first course (of three) ofNTC and have benefited a lot. The first course isan introduction to the work of Bible translating.Memet and Kasimir each wrote a series of stories

from their personal experiences. Then they wereguided through the translation process as theytranslated two stories from the Old Testament—

the early life of Joseph and the Seige of Samaria.Afterwards, they typed stencils and silk-screened twenty booklets each containing alltheir work. The first course is a very practical introduction to translation work where the

students learn while actually doing creativewriting and translation. Since new readers needmore than one piece of literature to stimulate

their interest in reading, these booklets are veryimportant to the development of an atmosphereof literacy in the Kurti language where people willwant to read the Bible in Kurti. Since I was teach

ing the second course at the same time (moreabout that later), Alta was the primary tutor forthe two fellows. Alta's work consisted of helping

AHa with Kasimir and Alex in classroom

NTCI students and slaff; (ALEX, second from left on top row; KASIMIR. fourtti from right on second row from top: ALTA. secondfrom right on third row from top).

with difficult English, assisting them in understanding homework assignments, doingconsultant work on exegesis and translation, encouraging the guys to find the best possible wayto express themselves in Kurti, typing stencils,helping in the library, reminding the guys tofollow all the steps in the proper translation process and generally helping them where shecould. In the house, we all shared duties in the

kitchen and with cleaning but Alta worked hardest in that area too.

While Alta. Memet. and Kasimir were occupied with NTCI, I was teaching NTC2. In thesecond course, we concentrate on the Biblewhich is the message the men want to communicate most. An essential part of the translationprocess is to understand the message in the language in which it was first given. In other words,you have to know what was said before you knowhow to begin to translate it. The time is spentteaching Bible Backgrounds—Bible Survey andthe Culture of the peoples of the Bible. Thecourse is exciting to teach because the studentsare committed Christians who have alreadytranslated at least twenty chapters of the Bibleinto their languages. Each day one of them willgain an insight for which he sees immediate

application to his translation. One of the highlights of the second course is the Bible meal. Onthat night, all the students and staff meet insideatent which we have built for a night of immersionin the cultural setting of the Bible. We dress, greeteach other, prepare foods, and eat in the style ofthe Bible people. All the students did well in theirstudies and expressed their gratitude for adeeper understanding of the Scriptures. I enjoyed the preparation, the teaching, and especially the inter-action with these fine ChristianPNG men.

There is also a third course which completesthe classroom training. In this course, the translators concentrate on the problem areas of theBible and the more difficult passages. Each manhas translated enough by this stage that he hasencountered many of these examples and isready to learn how to deal with them. Beyondthese three courses, the national translatorscontinue to augment their skills in much thesame way I do. They have extensive sessions withconsultants who check their work and provideexpert assistance. They also are able to attendworkshops on specific books of the Bible whereexperienced translators talk about the difficultparts of that book. Besides all these courses, all

translators rely on local testing and reviewingwhich is done in the village by the older men whospeak the language well. Not all the people whobegin the first course finish the third but thosewho do are well equipped to do the arduous.taskof Bible translation. Please pray for thesededicated Christians.

A STORY FROM

MY CHILDHOODby Kasimir Tape

One time, long ago when I was still little, I wasplaying with the other children. Suddenly, weheard a sound coming from the clouds. Everyonestarted screaming and some shouted, "balus,balus."* But, all we children were frightened andbegan to cry and ran into our houses. Some of thechildren ran and hid in the woods. I peeked outand saw that the thing they were calling "balus"was coming closer, flying close to the ground. Icried out and ran to my mother and held her tight.Soon the thing they were calling "balus" left. ButIwas still crying because I thought maybe it wouldcome get me and eat me. My mother said, "Don'tcry, it's only a balus. There are men inside." But, Iwas still af raid. Ididn't go back outside to play therest of that day.

* "Balus" is the Pidgin word for "airplane."

This was the first story Kasimir wrote duringthe NTC1. Each student wrote a story from hischildhood, a story about when he was afraid, astory about his ancestors, one on a cultural eventin his language group, and a legend from hispeople. These were all written in each student'sown language to give him practice in writing andexpressing himself in his language.

This is a picture which Alex drew at NTC to illustrate his storyabout an ancestor who lived in a cave.

RENOVATIONS IN MADANG

As most of you know our PNG branch ofPioneer Bible Translators maintains its head

quarters in Madang. We have purchased an excellent lot in downtown Madang with a two-storybuilding on it which has been serving as our Administrative and support offices, data processingoffice and a two bedroom apartment for one ofour town teams. This building has been badlydamaged by termites and has many structuraldeficiencies. Also, there was a fire a few monthsago caused by faulty wiring. To make a long storyshort, we have begun a complete renovation ofthis building and are in need of funds to complete it. By way of further explanation I'll includesome excerpts from a letter written by our fielddirector, Georges Carillet, explaining our need:

"Construction has begun. The footingsare dug. We are waiting on the steel. Soonwalls will rise from the trenches. It is excit

ing to see dreams and plans take shape."It will be both exciting and a relief when

we see the funds come in for this projecttoo. The funding for our support center iscoming from each of our members.. . .Wehave enough in our group funds to beginconstruction and carry us through August!by September we will need at least $14,000to have come in to meet scheduled expenses. Then we will need $20,000 over thefollowing two or three months. Please praythat funds and manpower will be availableto get the construction done this year.

"Speaking of manpower, we could use afew skilled carpenters to assist anytimefrom September to the end of the year.Know anyone who could come at his ownexpense? Fares via Indonesia are presently as low as $1100 roundtrip Los Angeles-Madang, versus $1600 and up (before)."

Without our offices and data processing centerin Madang we could not do our work of translation out here in the bush. This is vital to our work.

As Georges said in his letter, we members aretrying to fund this project from our own monthlysupport but we will not be able to gather enoughfunds in time to complete the project and haveaccess to it in time to keep us from renting otherfacilities. We want to let each of you know of thisneed so that perhaps you can share in it. We wantto thank you for always supporting us with yourprayers and finances.

5VCR

We were able to purchase a used VCR andmonitor from some friends who went home tostay. It is in the VHS format. If any of you havecopies of some good programs which you don'twant any longer and could send to us it would begreatly appreciated. It's a special treat to us whenwe go to town to be able to see a good film.

PLEASE NOTE

We would like to be good stewards of themoney God has provided for our ministry. Werealize that some of those who receive our news

letter have moved or may not have time to readour newsletter. We wish to use our funds wiselyby sending our newsletter only to those whoreally want to receive it and who read it. If youwish to continue receiving BEASLEY'S BACKLOG, please send your name and address (exactly as it appears on your printing label) to Mission Services, P.O. Box 2427, Knoxville, TN37901-2427. Thank you.

40tJi National Missionarj' Convention

Sept. 20-23,1987

C'<Mik Coiivciitioii Center .Mciiii)lus, Tennessee

THE OIIUwSTLViVIWor THE HEIW

NOW

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Before you move, please send the mailing label below, along with a copy of your new address lo;MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION, P.O. Box 2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.

Mission Services

PO Box 2427Knoxville. TN 37901-2427

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

Non Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAID

Knoxville. TN37901-2427

Permit »374

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Vol. X, No. 3

Beasleys' Backlog

of news fromPapua New Guinea

Field Address:

Wes & Alts Beasleyc/o Pioneer Bible Translators

P.O. Box 997

Madang. Papua New Guinea

Forwarding Agents:Larry & Dottle Tanksley112 Slone Cove

Clinton. MS 39056Phone (601) 924-0299

July/December 1987

JULY-DECEMBER HAPPENINGS WITH THE BEASLEYS

We hope you have had a great and blessedChristmas and have a good start on the new yearby the time you receive this update. I am writingthis on January 2nd after having survived a 2-hour bell-ringing here in Souh village from 12:00midnight on the 31st to 2:00 A.M. January 1.1 gotabout 3 hours sleep that night and then last nightstayed up until 12:00 showing the video, "TheTen Commandments," to the villagers as a NewYear's Day treat. Wes was scheduled to do it butwas sick. Now, I want to start the new year outright by getting a newsletter written. I'll try toremember what has happened since we lastwrote. We mentioned in our last newsletter

about the Hills visiting us in July and helping withsome projects. We are including some pictures oftheir visit in this issue since we didn't have themin time forthe last issue. In August we celebratedJonathan's 15th birthday with our friends at theLugos Mission Station in Lorengau. We had acookout and games and had a great time. We'rethankful for these friends who share thesespecial times with us. It's hard to believe that ourfirstborn is already 15 years old though. His interests are leaning toward military academy.Please be praying for the Lord's guidance forboth him and Adam in the remainder of theirschooling. Both of them are working verydiligently in school in order to be finished in timeto come home in June of this year. They even goto school half days on Saturday. That's somesacrifice, isn't it?

Jonathan and Adam with children of our German missionaryfriends at Jonathan's birthday party in Lorengau.

One exciting event that happened in Augustwas our first youth Bible study in another of theKurti villages. We haven't been able to keep theseup regularly as planned because of our concentration on finishing our phonology paper, but thefirst meeting met with great interest and was veryencouraging. Our plans are to meet with theyouth of a different Kurti village every otherSaturday on an itinerant basis. It will take about2V2 months to get around to all the villages (wecombine some of them) but we feel we can't begone more often than that and can't neglect ourlanguage work and that is better than nothing. Inthese studies we are acquainting the youth withthe origin of the Bible, the chronology of eventsand eventually will present a book by book study.

Please be praying for tfiese youth Bible studies,especially that we'll be able to work them into ourbusy schedule with language work.

Wes teaching the youth Bible study in the village of Kari,

While Diane and the boys have been hard atwork in school, Wes has been trying to finish ourKurti phonology statement (more about thatfrom him in another part of this letter) and I havebeen continuing to work with Alex and Kasimiron back translations of Kurti texts, keying andglossing, and working with them on their translation of the book of Joshua. Alex has been

building a new house for his wife and new babyso has been away a lot, but Kasimir continues towork fairly regularly. Now that the phonologypaper is finished and is being checked by ourdirector of language affairs, we will be concentrating more on the grammar. The texts the twofellows and I have been working on are for thisgrammar analysis. We have to get at least 30 to 40more pages of texts. Getting the texts is the easypart; we just go out with the tape recorder and asksomeone to tell a story or relate how a certainactivity is done or tell us about their ancestors.The hard work comes in playing back the tape,putting it into writing, then analysing each word,doing a back translation for analysis and puttingit all on the computer under several differentcategories. It's a tedious job but a necessary one.

We took a short break from our work here in

Sou the first week of November. We flew to thetown of Rabaul on the Papua New Guinea Islandof East New Britain and spent a week there. Westayed in the Baptist missionary's house whichwas very comfortable. We had access to a privateclub pool so went swimming almost every day.Wes and the boys went scuba divmg twice but Ipicked that very week to get malaria and an

intestinal bug so didn't get to dive with them.Rabaul was the main staging area in the Pacificfor the Japanese during World War II so therewere lots of interesting things to see. We visitedthe memorials, the miles of underground tunnelswhere the Japanese had their headquarters andstored hugh barges, and saw the bomb craters.Rabaul is a beautiful town and it was sad to know

of the destruction there during the time of thewar, I especially enjoyed the market. There werepapayas as big as watermelons, all kinds of fruitand vegetables and even LETTUCE. Thevolcanic soil is very rich so things grow well. 1took our big cooler and brought it back full oflettuce and other vegetables. Diane and MerriLynne Smith, another PBT teacher, went with usand we had a good time. We ate in the Chineserestaurant a couple of times and it was great. Wedid some of our Christmas shopping while there.We have only two small stores in Lorengau so itwas a treat to have a bigger choice ofmerchandise. It was a good break and weappreciated being able to go.

We had a quiet Christmas here in the village.We usually put up a small tree and decorate thehouse a couple weeks before Christmas. Then Istart playing Christmas carols non-stop. I wasdisappointed though as many of our tapes havebeen ruined by the moisture since last year. Wesand the boys get a little tired of hearing them andtease me a lot but I just call them "Scrooge" andgo on with my dreams of a "white Christmas." Wehad our annual village children's Christmas partyon Thursday morning, December 24. We sangsome Christmas songs with them and then toldthe Christmas story with flannelgraph. Then wehanded out bags of candy, gum, cookies andballoons to each of them. We had about 110

children this year. Jonathan dressed up like"Father Christmas" and asked them if they had allbeen good. They were too startled to answer butenjoyed the bag of goodies he gave them.

I think that should catch you up on what theBeasleys have been doing since we last wrote.We will be leaving next week to go to Madang forour annual Pioneer Bible Translators branch

meeting. At this time we discuss branch policy,make any necessary changes, evaluate the translation programs in progress and take care oforganizational business. While the adults are inthe meeting the kids will have a type of VacationBible School. Jonathan and Adam are helpingwith the sports for the children and are planning aPBT Kids mini-Olympics. They're real excitedabout it and are anxious to be with the other MK's

(missionary kids).Thank you again for your continued prayers

for us and for your support of our work. We thankGod for each one of you. We're anxious for Juneto come when we can come home to the U.S. for a

short stay to visit our families and some of you,our friends. Please continue to pray for ourwisdom and zeal in our language work, translation, Bible studies and our daily witness tothese people that Christ will be glorified in ourlives and known to them.

VISIT FROM OUR ADLA*

We always enjoy it when one of our co-workersvisits us here in the village. Martha Wade, who isone of our very good friends and with whom wehave been through a lot together, spent about 10days with us in October. Most of our co-workersvisit us here on Manus to have a break from theirwork in Madang ortheirown village. But, Marthausually comes to work. This time she came tohelp us finalize our phonology statement. We

Martha Wade checking Kurfi phonology-

Spent hours each day going over and overall thesounds and combinations of sounds in the Kurti

language with the help of several of the villagersplus Alex and Kasimir. We would have them saythe word or combination of words and Martha

would listen to see if we had heard the sound

correctly and had given it its correct phonological character. She heard some things that wehadn't noticed and we convinced her that she

was hearing some things that weren't there (welike to tease her) and together we came up withwhat we feel is an accurate phonological representation of the Kurti sound system. After shehad gone, Wes spent the next couple of monthswriting up the statement and has sent it to Marthafor her final critique. Martha is a very special per

son and we don't know how PBT would ever getalong without her. She keeps us on ourtoes but isalso an encourager and a servant/friend. We aretrying to convince hertocome out some timejustfor a break though.

* Associate Director of Language Affairs.

ALPHABET DESIGN

Have you ever wondered why you have neverheard of a Spanish, or German, or FrenchSpelling Bee? The answer is that spelling thoselanguages is not hard so there's no contest!What's the difference between English spellingand spelling in these other languages? Well, except for the very rare case, words in these otherlanguages are spelled the way they sound: i.e.,phonetically. When a language is written phonetically, it is easy to read, easy to write, and abreeze to spell. English, unfortunately for newreaders, has such a long literary history and noacademic or government regulation, that ourwords tend to be spelled every possible way thatyou can imagine. We don't want to make readingand writing any more difficult than it has to be fornew Kurti literates so our goal for Kurti alphabetdesign is to provide a set of letters that aresounded out in a predictable and consistent way.

How do we design a good, phonetic alphabet?Alphabet design involves three big steps; research, analysis, and evaluation. In our research,Alta and 1 have spent a lot of time listening andrecording the sounds that occur in the Kurtilanguage. We have accumulated a largedatabase which we then used in the second stepof the process. When we analyze our database,we first make an inventory of all the possiblesounds and then we see how they are similarand/or different and how they interrelate. Theresult of our analysis is a technical, linguisticpaper which includes a tentative Kurti alphabet.At this point, it is vital to evaluate our tentativeKurti alphabet by taking it to the Kurti people. Wewill use the alphabet in stories, letters, andprimers. The Kurti people will let us knowthrough their comments or their difficultieswhere changes might be needed.

We praise the Lord that we have completed thefirst two major steps in designing the Kurti alphabet, Now we enter a period of testing and refiningour tentative findings. Depending on how it is received in the first tests and how much it needs to

be modified, we will start to use this alphabetmore and more. Please praise the Lord for the

goals attained and pray for quick results in theevaluation stage. We will move from the area ofalphabet design to grammar studies now soplease pray for this area of linguistic endeavor asvi/ell.

UPDATE ON RENOVATIONS

In our last nev/sletter w/e told you about thebuilding project for our PBT offices in Madang.We v/ant to thank those of you who have sentfunds to help with this project and to report that itis going slower than we had anticipated andhoped but is progressing for which we are thankful. All of the first floor outside walls are up andthe second floor walls are almost completed tothe point where the roof can go on. It has been ahassle for our town teams and administration tokeep functioning in a building where these renovations are going on but they have done a commendable job. We ask that you keep this project,the teams in town, and our director, GeorgesCarillet, in your prayers.

PLEASE NOTESecond Notice: We would like to be goodstewards of the money God has provided for ourministry. We realize that some of those whoreceive our newsletter have moved or may nothave time to read our newsletter. We wish to useour funds wisely by sending our newsletter onlyto those who really want to receive it and whoread it. If you wish to continue receivingBEASLEY'S BACKLOG, please send yourname and address (exactly as it appears on yourprinting label) to Mission Services, P.O. Box2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427. Thank you.

ftp m ?- r

Renovations on PBTs office building in Madang, PNG.

Jonathan with Elizabeth and Jonathan Hill playing with ouriorikeet, Burt.

Our lorikeet. Burt, showing off on Elizabeth Hill's shoulder.(Burt was killed whiie we were away on one of our weekendtrips—we miss him.)

Before you move, please send the mailing label below, along with a copy of your new address to:MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION. P.O. Box 2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.

Mission Services

PO Bo* 2427

Knoxville, TN 37901-2427

ADDRESS CORPeCTION REQUESTED

Non Profit Org

U.S. Postage

PAID

Knoxville. TN

37901-2427

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