Robert and Nicole Westerveld with Elianne, Amos and Jorim serve the Yagwoia people of Papua New Guinea itinerantly from the Netherlands. They are thankful for everything they have been able to do over the last few months. Robert has been working on translating the last chapters of Exodus. This involves a lot of study to find out what the text is about and then to make a first draft of these chapters. He has made good progress and hopes to get as much as possible done before the summer months.
He also hopes to finish the recording of the Bible lessons for the audio players this month. They already had a good number of audio players and hope to order more soon. Several audio players have also been ‘ordered’ for the Iqwaye dialect, and recently they were told that quite a few are needed for the Gwase dialect. They are glad of this interest in the audio Bible lessons.
Before Robert could record certain of the Bible lessons, he had to check some things with a Iqwaye speaking believer. For weeks he tried to contact him but without success. Finally, he asked his co-worker in another area if he could go and see him. Because of that, Robert was able to talk to the believer and could discuss the corrections with him. Even with all the modern technology most people in the tribe are still hard to reach. A believer from the Iwalaqamalje dialect side of the tribe tried to contact Robert last month several times. After several attempts to call him, Robert finally succeeded, to be told me that the man’s wife was in the hospital in Goroka because of bleeding. She is now doing better again.
During this time of the year, Robert and Nicole always start the process of applying for visas. Because of the corona virus, it is uncertain what will happen. The Lord knows. They are thankful for opportunities that they have had in the Netherlands to preach God’s Word and to share about the work in PNG. Elianne and Amos are doing well in their work. Jorim just finished some exams. He was planning to go to Portugal with school but that is now postponed.