Friends

We were recently blessed with the company of some new friends---David and Susan Howard and their 4 children, Katie, Melissa, Samuel and Jonathan. They are Bible translators with SIL/Wycliffe and normally live in their village or in Ukarumpa. However, for the past 4 months they joined us here in Lae, while they were the fill-in managers for the SIL guesthouse. (The usual managers are on furlough--you know, the ones we share the little tugboat with!)

David and Susan are very hospitable people, so they had us over for dinner often! In turn, their boys regularly came here to play for a morning when Susan was busy home-schooling their girls. Their family also regularly attended our church while they were here. It was really nice to have them as part of the fellowship. We will miss their presence there, and also the commotion their Jonathan (not our Jonathan, of course!!) caused when he would catch a handful of baby toads in the middle of the service!!! Actually, more than once, our Jonathan also came home with a pocketful of not-so-alive toads, the poor things!


Here are Katie, Karlyn, Melissa, Jonathan W, Samuel, and Jonathan H!

One Sunday at church, someone made the connection that the language David and Susan are translating is actually the language of our former pastor's wife, Ruth Bouway. We've met many of the people from Ruth's village and it is amazing for us to realize that we know some of the people who will, the Lord willing, be blessed with a Bible in their mother tongue through the work of David and Susan and their national co-translators.

Last week, we said goodbye to them as they left to return to Ukarumpa and their translation work. We will miss them but look forward to seeing them again sometime. We pray for God's blessings over them and their work!