Yesterday morning I thought I would spend the day helping translators with John's gospel and Ephesians 6. But an urgent email changed that. The Malol translators needed a second printing of 1, 2, 3 John and Jude, which we typeset and printed in November. The original printing was sold out. What a great problem to have!

But they were scheduled to finish the workshop and head home on Friday and a reprint required a new title page, which required typesetting the book again. 

No big deal. We can do that in minutes. 

Unless we can't and don't know why. 

Ben Pehrson had already been working on this in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, helped by a friend in New Zealand, who diagnosed and fixed the problem as Ben's day came to an end in PNG and mine started in Florida. So Ben handed the typesetting off to me. I finished it and handed it off to Willem (in the photo above) in Arop village, who printed it so the team could take it home. 

I love being part of a team! 

A different problem did prevent us from completing typesetting of the same books for the Wolwale language. Please pray we can resolve that problem and get their books printed soon. 

Please pray for eager hearts not just in Malol but also in all the other languages and in all the other places where God's Word is going out. 

Praise the Lord with us that we were able to complete final checking of John's gospel for all the languages, and that the translators were able to make most of the required corrections before the workshop ended today. In the last two weeks I have helped them make and verify hundreds of small corrections to four translations of John. 

Pray for Emil Ninkure and me as we improve his draft of Ephesians 3-6 and Colossians 1, and for Ben, Mack, Matthew and Brad who are checking the chapters as we complete them. The goal is to have them ready for the other translators to use as a resource when they draft these chapters in April. 

Emil and I have been making good progress, but we find Pauline epistles much more difficult than John's gospel. Pray for clear thinking, perseverance, and joy in the process--that we would enjoy the beauty and power of what we are translating even as we struggle to find the right words in Arop. 

Praise the Lord that the grass at Tadji airstrip was cut, so our partners were able to leave the Aitape area the easy way and avoid the problems they had on the way in. 

This weekend we had planned to go to the Jacksonville area, but both churches we were to visit had to cancel events because of Covid. Our activities in Papua New Guinea are also constantly up in the air as Covid restrictions change. Pray for wisdom for our ministry leaders and for all in authority. 

We continue to be grateful to the Lord for so many of you who help make it possible for us to help make God's Word available where it has never been before. The value of what you are helping to make happen cannot be measured, but see below for a hint. 

Serving our King together,

John Nystrom (& for Bonnie)

P.S. Here are just a few of the many precious things in Ephesians that have never been said in Arop before, but have recently been drafted. Read them slowly and imagine never having heard these truths in your language. 

2:8-10 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are Godʼs handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

3:12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

3:17b-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lordʼs holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

3:20-21 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I could go on and on. Nobody can measure the value of hearing these things and taking them to heart, but you and we are blessed to be part of making that possible.