Pray for Jessie and Mariela.....

I thought I would share with you a little bit more about my friend Jessie (pictured first) and my friend Mariela (pictured second).

 

Jessie and Mariela went through POC (14 week in-country orientation course) with us.  It is really great to see how God has been sending them off into different places all over PNG.  We would like to ask you to lift them up in prayer.

 

Jessie recently left Ukarumpa to join the Aitape West Translation Project for about 5 weeks. You can read more about this project here: http://livingletters.wordpress.com .  “The Aitape West Translation Project is an ‘operational cluster’ composed of three ‘linguistic clusters.’ Each of these three linguistic clusters are part of language families that are completely unrelated to each other. From the Austronesian language family: Arop, Sissano, Malol, and Serra languages. From the Torricelli language family: the Goiniri, Wolwale, and Romei-Barera Onnele dialects of the Northern One language. From the Skou language family: the Pou, Barupu, Ramo, and Sumo language varieties.” (This quote is from the Living Letters Blog “About Us” section). Our good friends Ben and Mandy (who are in our Bible Study) have been working with this project for over 10 years.  So, it is really great to see my friend Jessie “trying out” their village to see if it is a good fit for everyone.  Jessie is a brand new translator here in PNG.  For a couple of months, she has volunteered with different projects.  But, she is currently at Aitape West as a “pre-allocation” visit.  If all goes well, she is going to commit to the next couple of years there.  Eventually, she would like to start her own project from the ground up (learning the language, learning the culture, starting a translation, etc).  But, for now while she waits for a translation partner, it is so great to see that God is using her to meet a critical need.  Please be praying that God would show her (and the rest of the team) if this is a good fit.  Pray for her health and her safety.  Pray for peace at Aitape West and for a sense of unity in purpose to flow through the place.  Caleb and I have “officially” become Jessie’s support team (along with a few others). 

 

Mariela is leaving on Friday to go back to South America.  She is from Argentina, and I just think it is so great that she will have the chance with this trip to visit her home country and home church.  She is a language surveyor.  It is her job to determine which languages are in need of a translation project to begin.  Mariela just recently returned from Malaysia (where she spent two months) and now she is headed to South America and possibly Central America.  She has so much work ahead of her….please say a little prayer for her as she travels.  Pray that God would use her and help her to speak and to teach and to train there.