After returning to Hewa in Papua New Guinea to press toward completing their New Testament translation, Jonathan and Susan Kopf have been talking with their tribal friends about other goals that they would like help to accomplish. Expanding the little Christian school over the next two years to include both 7th and 8th grades is a goal that they believe they should pursue. This is a daunting task as it will require a higher quality curriculum as well as teachers who are qualified to prepare the students for their ‘High School’ years. Together they are united in the many dreams for this next step, one of which is to build two small dorms for the upper grade kids. Living in a dorm setting will help give them new life skills in preparation for the challenges of moving out of the village for furthering their education.
Jonathan and Susan were very encouraged to return and find the villagers have been working hard to make their school a success. Not only do they help the teachers by providing their daily food of sweet potatoes, vegetables and occasional game meat, but they also bring them firewood for cooking and warmth. While the village women spend hours every week planting and maintaining gardens for the teachers, the men spend equal time building and maintaining fences around the school grounds to keep the pigs from ruining the gardens at night. The men have also built small cooking huts in which the teachers prepare and cook their food.
When discussing the possibility of building dorms for the older students, the parents eagerly talked about helping to clear and level the land and participate in the construction project as they have done in the past. Their active participation is confirmation that they will work hard to make the school a success for years to come. Though these village parents cannot possibly come up with the finances to pay teachers to educate their children, Jonathan and Susan are very proud of their efforts to support and sustain the school programme in such a practical way.
Continue to pray for the Hewa people and the New Testament translation.