6/^(3

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

AMinistry in Bible Translation and Literacy Instruction

&

DAVID W. & SHARRAN O'BRIEN PRYOR. MISSIONARIES

Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien

Route # 2, Box 19

Oakland City, Indiana 47660

Forwarding Agents

Volume IV, Issue 1

January. 1979

MEET THE GIRI PEOPLE

CHRISTMAS IN PNG

Language reveals a great deal about the

society of people who speak It. For Instance
In a fast paced society like America wrist

Many of you have asked how we spend

Christmas In Papua New Guinea.
Well, It Is
different, but we try to make It meaningful
to us for our benefit now, and hope that It

watches "run" while In slower paced Mexico

their watches "walk". Likewise, In a primi
tive, animistic, and spiritist society one
can expect the language to reflect Its
superstitions
and Its concept of things
foreign to Its realm of understanding.
For example,
the Girl word for an evil

spirit Is "-to/L".

Is also "tXJfC,

Their word for "white man"

and for a

long time

he was

will be helpful

to our people's understand

ing of Christmas some day.

We had

you have sent,

cards

few

decaratlons that

and we

some of

strung our Christmas

on the wall behind

our hammock which

functions as our sofa or lazyboy recllner .

After much prayer we decided to put up our
Christmas tree, but In our bedroom so It

regarded with fear and distrust.

Thus some
of the Items Introduced by white men were

would not be seen and misunderstood. We have

likewise given evil spirit connotations.

we dldn"t want

flashlight Is called "^OA.vap"whlch literally

and medicine Is
called "tOAmbe.gZ" or something evil spirits

means "evil spirit's fire",

eat.

Any animal bigger than

a pig that Is

not a pig Is called "tOActcum" or an "evil

spirit's pig". Concepts like these probably
had something to do with their acceptance of
new Items,

technical or agricultural.

their culture.
These words

are based

on

Into

Initial ex

posures that occurred years ago.

Just how
strongly these superstitions are still held
will need to be checked out. In our village

which has

received much

Christian teaching

people In the house off and on all day,

the way

Americans

our people

and

to get Into discussion about

celebrate Christmas,

might think

they've found

or

a key

to the cargo cult.

We put two different
cardboard manger scenes up and tried to tell
everyone that came In the house the story o|
baby Jesus, but few seemed Interested.
We
had Christmas music, too, because some of
you have sent us Christmas tapes.
We could
close our eyes and see snow and everyone
bustling about preparing for Christmas. You
sent us many card

and letters

filled

with

love, news, and promises of prayers.

Some
of you have treated us like family and have
seen to It that our every need has been

from the Australian Church of Christ Mission

taken care of.

I am sure that they are not held as strongly

as In other Girl villages which have not had

Christmas day I got up at 6:00 to wash

our towels as usual and found a young man on
our door step wanting Dave to take
his
father to the hospital. His father had a bad

as much exposure

Christianity.
transliterated.

to the

outside

world and

Also, the examples have been

There Is still much work to

do before we will be able to develop an al

phabet for the Girl language.

night with an attack of asthma.

When Dave
got him to the hospital he was sure he was

(cont. on back page)

Holidays! Whoopee!

SHARm'S SHARING

Another yean. haM come to a cto6e, and m

thank God and all OjJ you ion. the pfLOQfies^ m

[nenz able to make thZd yeafi.

tn ou/L ba&h home located

We have been

betiveen two GoAotl

vMage& -&tnce October 7. VoJianpul am ^tlZl

mth 06, and in 6pite o{ pKoblem^ with kU
uji^e, continued to be a biggefi help to ub
each mek.
Hi& bun.den ok the rnxk ojJ
t/iayi&tcutLng the Bible ^oa. hU people 6eem6
to ghjow 06 we aJie able to talk mofie to him
in the GiJuL language, HZ6 people constantly
tell him to make 6ujvl he teJUU us everything
night 40 that when we "tunn the talk" (tran
slate the Bible)we will translate it as they

Christmas is a wonderful time of the

year for many reasons, but for John, Amy,
and I it is our only long holiday. We have no
school from December 15 through January 28,
and every day has been filled, I have enjoy
ed the extra time to be with the people, and
consequently am learning more Girl,

the i^t Girl man; stories oi the ritual o^

John keeps busy reading aJUL the books

you all send him and placing his guitar. He
also has a special friend named Hutti, Hutti
enjoys being with our family and Is a con
stant help to us as we leam Girl, He really
seems like one of the family, which Is a
problem In itself, as we can't show partial
ity, Hutti was sick last week, and I wanted
to take caJiz of him as I do John and Amy bu^
hadT^ send him to the hospital ( ah aldpost
\at the Bunepas Mission Station) to
get

becoming a man or a woman; and all about

girl-boy relationships.
We were surprised
to find that they do kiss, but only i{ no
one else cdh see them or they will be asham
ed, We told Varanput his people hide it

as well as lots of ouJi other Ginls because

many of them are sick now, John envies Hutti
because he Is thin, and Hutti envies John
because he is still heavy.
That is just a

talk,

Sevejuxl

o^ the

old men in the village

are now telling if6 stories and ways oj their

ancestors,
We've heard stories o<j Viakasa,

rea^weM^^

have never seen any sign oi

a^iection. All o<5 this takes hou/is o^ writ

ing, taping, and filing, but it wiJtl help us
learn the language and understand the GVils,

Our house Is as complete as it can be

ior now, and it is comfortable, convenient,
and we think beautiful.
It is not mosquito
proof, but we have our mosquito nets, and we
have shelves in every room now.
What a
blessing it is to have a place for every
thing and everything in its place I After
nine months we have unpacked our barreJis and
what a job! When we first moved we unpacked
two barrels and unknowingly unpacked fleas
into every room of the house!
They were so
bad we had flea bites all over our legs and
feet.
After a solid week of spraying every
box, room, crack or our floor with insect! cldes, pouring hot water and kerosene in the
cracks of the floor, and praying for de
liverance, the fleas and eggs were all dead,
and I had a new respect for Corrle Tin Boom,
As a rejiulX of that experience, everything
in the rest of the barrets had to be washed
and aired

in the

sun to assure

us all the

fle,as and eggs were gone before we brought

things into the house,
My washing machine
Is only a wash tab with no electricity, so
between our monkey man (the term for a man
who helps with housechores) and me we washed
everything from four barreZs by hand.
Slow
everything Is clean, unpacked, and rid of
fleas.

medicine.

We did a lot of praying for him,

culture clash

land the Girl

beautiful,

as Americans

tike to be thin

people think to be fat Is

Amy Is getting taller all the time and

her feet are almost as long as mine.
She
also enjoys reading and playing with her
Barbie and Holly Hobble dolls.
Dave has preached in Pidgin 3 times at
the Bunepas Mission station lotu [worship )
house where we go with our Girl people on
Sunday,
He does very well, but feeJis very
inadequate and frustrated preaching in a
trade language that makes teaching Biblical
prLncytples v^y dlf^tcMt,
I recently finished scrubbing all our
bamboo ceiling with straight bleach.
They
were covered with green nuldew but are now
clean and varnished to protect the bamboo
for a much longer time,
I couldn't have
bleached the bomboo if it hadn't been for
those of you who have kept me supplied with
rubber gloves. The varnished bamboo now re
flects the lights from our kerosene lamps.
We now have flowers growing in the yard
and although all our green beans, peas and
onions were eaten by snails the size of a.
man's fist, we still have pumpkin, water
melon, and tomato plants that will soon be
producing. We also have 14 pawpaw trees and
9 banana trees, and hope to be able to grow
more things later.

TRIP TO U.S.A.

HERE'S HOW WE DID IT!

There have been questions from time to

how we built our home.
Perhaps

Most of you

know that during

the last

time about

two weeks of November

I made a special trip

the most frequent questions have been in re

gard to our water system.
Here are some of

to America.

the questions and answers:

tant that I as Director of the Papua New

Guinea Branch attend the
November
Board

The Executive Board of Pioneer

Bible Translators

thought it highly

meeting and asked me to come.

Q.
A.

Where do you get drinking water?

We have a corrugated iron roof from

which rain water is collected.

Gutters and

downspouts route the water to our 5,000 gal

lon tank.

Q.

How did you get a

5,000 gallon tank

to your house site?

A.

The tank

comes

unassembled

in

crate and weighs about 1200 pounds.

It was
shipped from Lae to Madang on a small coas
tal freighter. From Madang it was brought by
truck to within a mile of our house where it

had to be unloaded due

to muddy road condi

among our brotherhood.

There are many opinions about the neces

sity of the trip, the expense, practicality,

etc. I assure you that these questions were
considered by the PBT Board, too.
It was
for the Boards* and PBT/PNG Branch's sake
that they brought me back.

Our organization

tions. We borrowed a trailer from the Church

of Christ Mission, and after loading it on

the trailer, pulled it to the house site
with a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
We brought

peded progress

12 foot cement base for the tank. It was put

together with over 1800 bolts and took four
days to assemble.

had been

hindered

by

issues which has im

and development both in the

U.S.A. and P.N.G.

Now only were
there
answers needed by both the Board and the
Branch, but input from each was needed on
many issues. After all aspects were consid
ered, the Board felt it necessary and advan
tageous, worth the expense to avoid expen
sive mistakes in

Q. If your tank is at ground level and

your house is 7 feet off the ground, how do
you get water into your house?
A. We have a hand pump with which we
pump water from the 5,000 gallon tank to a
50 gallon tank on our roof.
From the roof
the water flows by gravity to our kitchen

As a new or

ganization, up-to-date information is essen

tial for each new stage of development and
policy decision that is made. In thie parti
cular meeting many new policies were to be
discussed which would greatly affect the
development fo the translation ministry

confusion over several

two trailer loads of sand to construct a 12X

impor

the future.

PBT, not our

family, financed the trip.

and bathroom sinks, shower, and toilet.

Q. Do you have indoor toilet facilities?

A. Yes.
Due to rain, mud, frequent
sickness in adjusting to living conditions,
kids that have to use the toilet during the
night, and snakes, we decided to try to
build our toilet indoors. We installed a re

gular toilet complete with full plumbing and

a bush style septic tank.
Q.
A.

How did you build your septic tank?

We got an old, rusty 1,000 gallon

water tank

that was full

of holes

and had

the top cut off it.

We dug a hole in back
of our house big enough for the tank and
deep enough for it to sit two feet below
ground level. After putting the tank in the
hole, we put logs over the tank, covered the
logs with plastic and tar paper, and 18
inches of dirt. So far, so good!

HEALTH REPORT

Our general health is very good right

now.
Amy's malaria is finished, John has a
cold, but other than that all we have is the
ever present sores. We are waiting for some
new vitamins that we hope will combat some
of the sores at least. When you pray for us

please pray for the Giris, too, as they have

many sores and many have malaria, colds, and
fl u.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US...

(cont. from front page)

going to die so he grabbed Dave, and Dave

stayed with him to comfort him and pray with
him. By the time Dave got back we barely had

... That the government of Papua New

Guinea will not move too swiftly towards indigenization at the expense of its own

time for he and John to eat and run to go to

the Christmas morning service at Bunepas at

people, especially in the realm of missions.

... that the Augsburger family's support
will increase.
They are existing on less
than 2/3 of the full support they need.
If
they are not receiving full support by May
they will have to return home to raise funds.

9:00. Dave preached one of the 3 short talks

in Pidgin. Amy and I couldn't go as Amy was
still recovering from malaria.
At 11:15 we
read the Christmas

story,

and John and Amy

finally got to open their presents. They had

to wait a long time!
Amy was still feeling very sick until
she opened a package from two ladies in
Illinois which

contained a
beautiful
doll.
seemed to make her feel

The immediate smile

better all day.

We received

time

three

this year,

since Christmas.

clothes,

Christmas

and three
We

new towels,

toys and reading

boxes

more have

all

now

on

come

have

new

and the kids have new

materials.

We

... that God would

bless

our minds and

ears as we continue in this very important

stage of language learning.
... for continued wisdom in building
relationships with the Giri people.
... for God's guidance and blessings in
the development of PBT/USA and PBT/PNG.
... for continued good health.
... give thanks^ for^our brothers
sisters in Christ

who

minister

to us

in

their prayers, letters, and support.

thank God

for all our friends and family in Christ who

shower us continually with gifts of love
from your hearts.
Our Christmas dimmer

perience

that

dinner with

was

we really

new

enjoyed.

the Australian

ex

We had

missionaries at

Bunepas and had a very typical English din

ner, much like Tiny Tim.
We ate turkey ,

roasted while potatoes

for a long time)
served
juice.

(the first we've had

and peas.

The dinner was

with white and red corbonated grape

Our dessert was a Christmas pudding,

which is a

steamed fruitcake.

After dinner

there was no TV to watch football games, so

the men came to our house to play with John

and Dave's

battery-operated

roadrace

set,

and we ladies talked. That evening we sat on

our bed with our candles around the tree and

sang

all the

Christmas

songs we

knew and

some we didn't remember wVirr

Our Giris

from

digging

yams in

from us.
We still worship the Lord in a
special way during the Christmas season for
being willing to come to earth as a babe and
teach us how to live

in the will of His and

our Father in spite of all obstacles put in

our way by plans of men. We want to wish all
a Happy New Year and thank you from our
hearts for your love, prayers, letters, and

gifts of alllkindsT

U.S. Postage Paid

Non-Profit Org.

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

David W. & Sharran 0. Pryor, Missionaries

Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien, Forwarding Agents

Permit # 7

Oakland City, In.

R.R. 2, Box 19

Oakland City, Indiana

rested

their garden but did not celebrate Christmas

any other way.
The most important part of
our celebrating Christmas can never be taken

47660

47660

BOX

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

0/

A Ministry in Bible Translation and Literacy Instruction

OAVIDW. & SHARRAN O'BRIEN PRYOR. MISSIONARIES

t1 Vl- L .1

Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien

Route # 2, Box 19

Oakland City, Indiana 47660

Forwarding Agents
Volume IV, Issue 2

May, 1979

A,B.C ... NO, WE CAN'T USE "C"

PARTIVE'S PROBLEM

After six months of working with our lan

guage we are in the final stages of analyzing
its sound system. From this analyaztion will

come the decision

ters)

of how many symbols

(let

we will use to teach our people how to

read and write.

There are some crucial deci

sions to make at this stage, so I thought we

would familiarize you with the technical side
of our work.

Three different areas

of concern are in

volved in developing an alphabet:

the lin
guistic analysis must be accurate; it must be
socially acceptable; and it must seem right
and natural to the people.
I will share two
problems we have encountered in the Giri
sound system and relate them to these three
areas of concern in hopes that you will un -

derstand and be able to feel more closely re

lated to our work.

We are confident that our analysis is

correct in revealing two features in the Giri
language that are not present in
either
English or Pidgin English - nazalization and
vowel lengthening.
Vowel lengthening is
lengthening the time of pronunciation of the

We are constantly

being surprised by the

things we are learning about the people's be

liefs and customs.
Not long ago Partive

(pronounced Par-tee-vay),

Daranpul's father

stopped by our house for a drink of water.

He looked worried, so I asked if something
was bothering him.
The people here have a
way of "talking around" their problem before
they get to the real crux of the matter. I'll

share a bit of the fact-finding process and

then summarize the story.
Partive wanted to work in his garden, but
he just could not.
I asked what was keeping
him from it, his health?
NOj he felt fine.
Was it the weather?
It was overcast, but di(

not look like rain. He explained that is was

a good day to work in the garden, and the
was why he wanted to go work. Well, what was
the problem? The problem was that he did not
believe "their talk" any more, and he had
told them so.
But if the pigs did come and
eat the yams he had planted, everyone would
say, "I told you so". My next questions were
"who are they, and what was the talk?"
It suddenly

dawned on him

that I was an

vowel as in "oooh!" Nazalization is pronoun

cing the vowel sound through the nose.
I'll
sumbolize a lengthened vowel be a hyphen fol

American, and I was asking all the questions

to learn, not to chide him. So he brightened

underlining it (p^n).

looked at me as if that should explain every

thing, but after seeing the confused look on
my face, he heaved a sigh and v/aited for my

lowing it (pa-i<), and a nazalized vowel by

These are Important features In Giri, be

cause their presence, or absence, changes the
meaning of the word.
For example, "kun"
means "a banana" and "ku-n" means "sand".

ask for

It

can be embarrassing

to

mix cement.
Also,
"fe" means "chest".

"fe" means "finger" and

We certainly would not
(cont. on back page)

a banana to

up and said "the talk of our ancestors."

He

next question.

"Just what is the 'talk' of your ances

tors?' I afeked, hoping that I was getting
close to the problem.
Our ancestors said that if I worked in my
garden today, the pigs would smell the womans
(cont. on page 3)

SHAKRAN'S SHARING

What u)ouZd you think ti you awakm^d in

At

they weAe going to 6end talk on the goAomut,

fWhen one beats out a message on the dnum ioA
ij all villager to heoA, the talk oi the goAa{mut is law. It can not be changed, altered,

be,(iau6Q, wz do know ukcut

A iew day& loten. and again late at nig^, we

the. dzad oi night to tkz 6ound oi dmj^^ It

ha6 bccomz a HzguZaA occu/iznct \^d/L a& .

iVUit It 6CjaA.zd uA a tUtlz, hot knowing

what the Aca6on& ^OA thm wzaz. Now they
6titt 6cxULt u& 6omz

iAiends again,"
But the people oi GoAoti
met and decided they had had enough, and

tkay oAtl Sormtime^ they aAz ^OA a 6ing6ing

but that i& aZway^ an unchanging thud, thud,

thud coAAying no rm66agc. The, wim& aAo, caZ-

le,d "gaAgmuts" (goA-a-moots), The,y aAo, the

cZo^ut thing the. bush has to a telephone,
and the "gafuamut taJUz" can be heand ^oA many
\nUZe&,

One night aAound 11:00 p. m,

we
heoAd the GoAati gaAomut. It woke me with a

OA ignored by any GiAi man, woman, oa child,

weAe awakened to the 6ound oi the goAamut,

It was a long message, and all we could tell
was ot was ioACJiiul, had been heoAd, and

could heoA the Aeplxj

iAom the village ioA

away.

The next day we leanned the message.

The

GoAotis 6ent fie talk to the Binaps raying

neveA again would they go theAe ioA a Jsing

6ing, and would. neveA again eat pig with
6taAt, I woke Dave a& I ^wa& JiU/ve^-it wai -a- thm~oA even bAing-pig
me66age that someone had died, I was night.
GoAati to eat lateA,
We AeaHy wondeA what
Only someone didn't just die, a man was kil
the outcome oi this will be in the iutuAe,
led; md it wasn't an oAdinoAy man that kil
The goAamut has spoken, the talk can not be
led him. It was a Sanguma, A Sanguma
is
changed, and theAe is no way to end the
the moit e\)il, mo&t ieoAed ^piAiX. among ouA
bitteAnes6 between the two villages .
Ginis, Even the ^ejw who have become ChAis The BiAap men who 6aid it was a Ganati
tians yeaAS ago 6titt ^eaA the Sanguma,
Sanguma will be taken to couAt 6oon and
The Sanguma is a GVU man who woAks
hopeiul^ iined, but we oAe certain the pAomagic.
He uses hypnosis on his victim and
blem will not end theAe,
has many methods o^ administeAing poison in
TheAe is also a lot oi stealing and

to the blood -stAeam ojj the victim, causing

death anywheAz ^Aom immediately to 2 oa 3
day. The Ganatis, whom we live among 6ay
they do not have a Sanguma anymoAe, but the
BiAap village does, and 4o do ^eveJial o^ the
0theft Gini villages.

The Bvuip people afve jealous oi the

GoAati people because they have moAe money
and pAestige than they have. That is because
they oAe clo^eA to the mission station and

thus get most oi the mission job6 and thenz

adultzAy among the GaAotis,

These oAe 6ins

in OUA eyes, but only leoAned 6ins oi the

white man in the eyes oi the GiAi people.
They have not yet been able to accept God'6

WoAd as the ilnal authoAity because

they

have the talk oi the goAomut,

Please pAay
ioA us as we 6tAive to live a ChAistian Hie
beioAe them and teach them God'6 talk, and
as Vavid takes his

tuAn pAeaching at the

mission on Sunday, and as we leann the language and pAepoAe ioA the day when we can

ioAe npAe, money. Having u6 i^thejA vijlage . ^give them God'^ talk in. theAA^language*
Aa
is also pAQAtigious, and we give them empty
we hee the people openly winning against the
plastic bottles oa cans with lids that they
things the mission has taught them ioA 20
can use to 6toAe wateA, 6alt, etc.

Because

oi all this and many otheA things theAe have

aimyi been pAoblems between the Ganatis and
Binap6, When the BVuip man died two men
tkenz began to 6ay that a GoAoti
Sanguma had killed him. At iiAst the GoAoti
people weAe a^Aoid o<J this because it meant

yeaAS,

we 6eek God'6 wisdom as we 6tAive to

6how the GiAi people God's love and way oi

peace in theiA lives.

We need youA constant

y-pAayeAS, and thank you ioA all youA pAayeAS

in the past.

We

ieel the Aesult oi those

pAayeAS,

they might have someone ^nom theiA village

killed to Aepay the death oi the BiAap man.
Then theiA leoA seemed to tuAn to boZdne>S6
06 they planned and executed a way to get
back at the ZiAap men ^OA ^pAeading ihis
ialse talk about them.

To end a ieud between two villages, one

oi the viHageJi invitee the otheA to a 6ing
6ing,

ShoAing in the

dance and the eat-

^9 oi pig togetheA was tkeJji way oi ray

ing

"let'6 ioAget about the

tAouble and be

SCHOOL VAVS

John, Amy, and I have successiulZy com

pleted ouA second yeoA oi coA^esponcence
school.
We iinished 2nd and 4th grades one

day and started 3Ad and 5th the next,

OAe getting so used to

We\s

ouA school schedule )j

we seem to get less done when we don't have/J

school than when we do!

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Though we are always busy with languac

learning and linguistic analysis, there are
other activities we are involved In, too. Be
ing the "pioneer" of Pioneer Bible Translate
i

part of our work Involves opening up oppor

tunities and paving the way for others t(
follow. This means making cantact with othet

.&

language groups and obtaining as much lingui;

tic data from them as possible. Our language
surveys help us
I

confirm

the

borders of the

various language groups, determine how manj

dialects, if any, are in the language group;

''35S^'

find the center of the

language group or the

most prestigious dialect, and where one mighl

allocate to do the linguistic work.
These surveys require either river travel

hiking (in either mountainous or swampy re

gions), or both.
My last survey was made
with Oan Wilcox
GOISJG TO WORSHIP JN RAIW/ SEASON

Icont, iJ/Lom (Aont page., Hlght column]

blood on me, and after I left the garden they
would come and eat all the yams I had plant
ed.

The story could be told in this way:

The night before a young woman gave birth
to a child,

and he had

visited she

baby at the mission hospital.

had been

near them

both,

and the

But because he

the scent of

the

woman's blood would stay with him for a whole

day. He would not be able to wash it off, be
cause it would not come off

that day.

until the end of

Because he had come

through the

village agter seeing his daughter and grand

child, the scent was passed to the other men
as well, and they could not go to their gar
dens either.

He

had told

them that

he did

not believe that, and he was going to go to

his garden anyway.
"Alright" all the men
said, "but the wild p1gs will smell the wo
man's blood in your garden and come and reat
your seed yams tonight."

Not believing this (supposedly) and need

ing to work in his garden, he started his
walk into the bush where his garden was lo
cated.
But the closer he got, the more wor
ried he became. So, he finally turned around
to come back to village and do nothing except
wait with the others until the day had fin
ished and the scent had worn off.

He

had

stopped at our house to get a drink

and to
think things through. If he went back to the

of PBT and

Paul Williams, c

Church of Christ missionary, to gather date

in neighboring language groups along the Rami
River.
Due to it being the rainy season, we
could only visit the villages located on the
river and one inland village.
The inlanc
swamps are flooded at this time of year, se
we must wait until dry season to complete the
inland survey.
The river survey took tw(
days, but it looks like the in-land survey
will take about seven days of walking ani
wading to visit all the villages.
In February we got
translation

teams

together with the twt

of the

Church of

Chris'

mission for an informal linguistic con

ference.
All of us were to prepare and de
liver a linguistic paper related to our pre
sent stage of work. Sharran presented a lec
ture on keeping a good linguistic file syster

and I presented

(alphabet).

one adapting an

orthography

Our two groups found the meetii

to be mutually beneficial and decided to have

them semi-annually.
Our next one is
ir

August, and we hope to present our complete)

phonological (sound system) analysis and oui
Girl orthography (alphabet) at that meeting.
village, he would be admitting that
lieved the talk of the ancestors

said so strongly that he did not.

he

be

when he har

But if

went to his garden and the pigs came and ate

his seed yams, then he would have had

sham

because he had refused the warning and all

the men would never let him forget it.
Wha
should he do?

Finally he said, "I am going back tt th'

village now. Thank you for the water."
These are the people God loves, the Gir
people.

(cont. from front page, left column)

PLEASE PRAV WITH US ...

want Luke 15:22 misunderstood as " Put a ring

on his chest..."
So we will have to develop

... that ouA pfiogfiess tn language teanyUng

and analyzation fXilll go quickly and smoothly,

a way of symbolizing these in the written

language.
Maybe you are already asking why we do
not use this simple system above,
That is
where the social acceptability is involved,
Governments usually prefer that the alphabets
of minor languages in the country conform as
much as possible to that of the national,
official, and trade languages.
This type of
representation does not. Also, most often the
people want their written language tc look
like the more prestigious ones. The alphabet
must also be acceptable by the other dialects
of the language group.
We are thankful that
there are only two ddalects of Giri!
After all this is achieved, the test must
be passed with the people themselves.
Do

... ioA. the ^ptnttwxl condition ojJ ouA people

to tmpAove and that God mtnlsteA to them
th/LOugh u6.
... ^OA VoAonpul and VoAothy to continue to

be diacvn closeA to God through this wo/ik.

... that God w-ltl guide PBT cleanJUj as tt
continued to develop Its ^tAuctuAe and mtnlstAy,

... {^oK OUA continued good health.

...
uxisdom In ouA cAo.S6-cultun.al dealings,.
In thanking God {,0A. the AugsbuAgeA's ad
ditional suppoAt coming in. They have hjeceiv'ed
in neiA) ^uppoAt and v)ill now be
able to remain in PhiG.

they feel that the alphabet adequately and

accurately represents the sound and structure
of their language? Viill it be easily taught,
easily read, and easily written by the people?
We rely heavily on God's guidance and your
prayers for our work to be successful.
VARAMPUL, OUR LANGUAGE HELPER

Many 0^ ijou

and kl6 kanUZy,

have oifeed

and

about

VoAanpal

oaq, thankful ^on. tkn

and pfiayoA^
(tan. He. ^
6tiZt
hetplng ll6.
Vonvthy and tkeOi
2yeoA-old daugfUeA ^natiy came back, and nou)

things a/ie better.

VoAanput has begun

to

bwitd a house, cohtcJi man6 6he has consented

to 4>tay keAe, PfuLcse the LoAd! -

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

David W. & Sharran 0. Pryor, Missionaries

Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien, Forwarding Agents

Permit # 7

R.R. 2, Box 19

Oakland City, In.

Oakland City, Indiana

Non-Profit Org.

47660

47660

im

nxssiQn sspVIQBS ASSOC.*

fcT.

BOXl??

^
IS *>60^9

(fi /

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

A Ministry in Bible Translation and Literacy Instruction
DAVID W. 8e SHARRAN O'BRIEN PRYOR, MISSIONARIES

Kevin L. & Donna J. O'Brien

Route # 2, Box 19

Oakland City, Indiana 47660

Forwarding Agents

yolume IV,

Issue 3

October, 1979

PLEASE PRAY WITH US.,.

PRAYER MKES THINGS HAPPEN

As I sit

down to write

to all of

you this

sunny, Sunday afternoon, my heart is full

and running over with thanks and praise to

God for what He is

for Daranqpul, idio now has a new wife and

needs prayers of strength to come back to
the Lord.

doing through your pray

ers and ours.

This morning,
vice,

after the Pidgin worship ser

vie all gathered at

the Ramu River to

witness the baptism of one of our teenage

Garati boys.
It really was a thrill for our
v/hole family,
but mainly for our son John,
who had a real part in bringing Irai to the
Lord, Irai is very shy and hard of heauring.
He wanted the discipleship classes offered
by the Australian Church of Christ Mission
for those who want to bec(ire Christians, but
was

too shy to ask

the missicmaries*

together

studying

by lantern

lights

After the baptism service we came home and

had an opportunity in Girl to tell Irai how
happy we all were for him. As soon as we
got home,
five teenage girl^ came to
ask

us if we would

tell tlie

would like to become

God's

mission that

Christians and

... for the Giri people, many are sick and

many are spiritually sick.
There are a few
who have become Christians, but because of
fear of the evil spirits and shame when t^y
have done something wrong, they have fallen
away.
Many have lost apparent interest in
living for God.

One

day Irai and John were talking and Irai ask

ed John if he could give him the classes.
He wanted to hear every word, so when J<rfin
began the classes he really had to talk
loudly.
We all heard every word John said
as he taught Irai clasB after class; i t was
a touching sight to see the two of them hud

dled

. . . for Palau and Naiiq>ut, the two new langu

age helpers who ai*e now working with us.

they
follow

talk.

(cont. on page 3)

. . . for Sharran, as she continues to

teach

John, fifth grade, and Amy, third grade. It

requires a lot of patience, lofve and tine.
. . . for Dave, as he tries to train two

helpers

and tries

to finish

write-up needed to establish a

alphabet for the Giri language.

. . . for Dave,
translator

as he tries

and director

new

the Phonology
tentative

to balance being
of PBT.

This re-

quires, among otiier things, surveys to pre

pare for all new PBT teams who are coning to
PNG in the next year.

(cont. on back page)

smmiN's smnjm

Loyit iUQk

PART DEAF BUT CHRISTIAN AND HAPPY

^pejvt man^ kouA/i walk-in^ -in the.

dJi&p pJngJje. tnxiLU,

ike. b'LLiteAJjiQ. ^un and ^oin&tifne/i in piaxLOA

yiO ovz/tQAOwn that aUMwugh thi/i i^ ^y^on the. pathi ivejie. wet and ^Zippe/i;^ making,

it impO'i^iJbXe. to walk at. tim&4,

We oIao had

the ex.oitemenJ: o(. making, qua. wa^ ovea. vatied

and iengthi ojt -log, b/iidgeA
Aithough
we have been kete ovejL two ^eoAA, we fjound

4ome, bAAdgo^i pJ^t O/i much a chatlen^e a6 the

^AAyit onoA we encoLovteJied*

Whai. wen.e we dning,,

^UMAeh/e/it
not aji/iLved,

\UeiX,

by John Pryor

Sometimes we malked in

yjou might be

OAking.

Amy.'4 ^choot teMoixA had

Ao we dedojied a vacxition fjixm

Sitting here in my swing-chair that my fath

er, mother and I built, I clearly recall an
incedent, a change,
in a halfdeaf boy named
Irai.
It started one evening,
when I had
been talking to him about God.
I asked him,
"Irai, tell me your real feeling. Would you
like to have God as your friend and become a
Christian?"
His eyes l i t up as if to say,
I*m glad you asked,
and without a second
thought said, "I sure would!"
But then a
frown came to his face as he said, "But I
can*t hear well]

paused, "Can you?"

Who can teach me more?" he

Two days later I was his

Achooi. and decided to Apend it, in the bwsh

getting, to know ou/l QinJ^^ A^ many, of, you

teacher.
Months past.
We were done with
the lessons.
One day I asked him, "Are you

know, thefie an.e ei&ven cUxjuia on. viJUxig.eA,

but now we know of., ^ome twenty. cxjmpA of.

ready now to give your life fully to Christ

and be baptised?"
His eyes twinkled with
that, I*m glad you asked look for the second
time.
"Yes," he said, "I'm ready nowl" As
we walked down to the Ramu River, a tingle
of joy made my soul dance. "At last!"
I
thought.
At last and as he was eased into
the water and ceime out walking in newness of
life, and even while we wadked home, ray soul
was singing.
"A sinner has COTie home," sis
loudly as a soul can sing.
But, I now rea
lize that now I have to help him get stron
ger and grow. I Peter 2:2.

Qi/iiA iiving. deep in the buAh. and ^ome. cUo-^e

to the kam "Ri-ve^

We weJie thnJJJjed to ^ee

how many QiniA then.e aA.e but amazed to ^ee

how few of. them oAe educxited and how iiJJUje
time. hxLi changed ^ome. of. thenu
AijooAt aiX of the cxrnip^ took
Aome,

veny. much the.

Of couAAe, theA.e OAe the diffeAJznceA,

iJhe the one. AkiJJ4^uLiy decoAxvted gA/^e

Jiight in the middle of the viiJjage*
/ he
gAxive belonged to a ''big, man" who knew aii
the AingAing4, the talk of the duoM and
AtoAjbeA;

he.

JiexUiy mi^ed^

Some of owi

viliageA have had ^ome Catholic. infMxence.,

40 thene

l6 an

village we ^aaw a

occasional

cao^*

3n one

botlle of "hoiy wateA." and

a wooden confe^^ion booth in a gAxiA^ hut

which indicates how confuting, "religion" can
be to bu4h people^

We found a few people who dJidnPt know U4,

but mo^ knew who we weAe^
I he QiAiA Jju4t
weren't ^UAje we had cxxne to help theio. Aince.
we live with the QaAjotLi^
One. man had 'ieen
a man fAom. the SummeA OnAtitule. of Linguist
ics and

asked him to

send a

tnansiatoA. to

his village^
The SJL man toU him he could
not as they. alAeady had a man leaAning. thejji

language^ He siad, "3 was sad as 3 didn't

know you, now you have come and toid us of
youA woaA and 3 undeAstand and am happy* "
This was

a man in the VIa viJJjag.e which was

the last villag.e we visited*

3t made all
the sweating,, hiking., aching, iegs and plan
ning. woAth it to meet one new man who wanted
the Bibie. in his language*

DABAMPUL, FALLEN AND BACK

For a long time now we have been asking you

all to pray for the marriage relationship of
our language helper, Daran^ul and his wife
Dorothy.
We are saddened to tell you what
has happened y but know you all have been
praying for them and will rejoice with us in
knowing God can make good out of every sit

David began working with Namput and PstLau,

but we still needed Daraii9>ul*s experienced
help.
We prayed fervently, as have many of
you, as to what to do about Darampul working
with us again.
The day we decided we could
never
find a perfect
language helper,
Daranqsul wrote us a letter and told us some
big sins which the two new men helpers had
committed before.

He did not

want to down

the men, but wanted us to know there was not

uation.

man at Garati

that hadn't

committed some

Dorothy was not a girl from our Giri speak

ing language group; she came from Kar Kar

big sins.

Island.

Now we will have three language helpers. We

are thrilled to have Daran^ul back, as our

Because of all

the customs and culture

the differences in
of the Giri and Kar

Kar pe<^le, they always had village pressure

for Daraii9)ul to break his marriage
to
Dorothy and get a new wife trGm among his
own people.
From the first day we started
working with Daranqjul we began praying and
asking you to pray that through our exan^le,
counseling, and the power of prayer they
could conquer all their differences. Dorothy
had never stayed longer than two weeks at
a time at Garati before, but Darampul and
Dorothy came back to the village of Garati
when we moved here in August of 1978.
She stayed four months before she veodt back
to Kar Kar for Christmas. Prayer definitely
had been answered. We made progress in the
language because of prayer and having such a
good language helper. Dorothy would leave
to visit her people whenever Dave left to
make a survey trip for PBT, but she r^always
came back with him. However, the second we
ek of May, when the kids and I left
the
village for the first time in six months for
a holiday with Dave at Ukarui!Q)a,
Daran^ul
left witiki Dorothy, and Dorothy never
came
back.

The last week of June, Dave was gone on a

survey and during that time Daranpul broke
his marriage to Dorothy and took a new girl
Garati

to be

his wife.

After

much

prayer, in Dave's absence, I called Darampul

and Dane in and with scriptures told them
what I felt God would have me say.
They
listened, but at that stage were too bliad^
by their own lusts to hear ndiat God*s words
said As a result, when Dave got h<^e he
told Darampul that he would not work with us
for a cotq>le months so that we would have
time to pray and ask God what we should do.
We couldn't get much work done on the lan
guage without a helper* At first no one was
interested. We had to continue to
the Lord to show us with %dioa

wait on
to work.

In time, two young fellows, one married, one

not, esqpressed interest in helping us.

work wsis detered without him.

keep Na2i9>ut

and Palau.

We will also

This way,

between

the three men, we always have someone avail

able to help us at anytime.
Also, we now
have three men, who through our daily hours
of work, can get to know our Savior and
Lord.
Even ^^ihen Darampul was not working
with us he knew we loved him, and i t helped
him to realize God

a long
ways,
Dane,
taught

s t i l l does too.

He has

way to go to really understand God's

but this is what he wants.
Also,
Darampul's new wife, wants to be
about God so she can become a Christ

ian.
Prayer makes things happen.
Don't
stop praying for us, our three language
helpers, and our work.

(cont. from front page, left column)

The time is iri,jBlit: ftsr our work in PNG.
They want to leam to read and write.
They
want to leam about the world; they want to
record their old stories.
We hc^e scnaeday
many peqple we met in the bush will also de
cide they want Christ as the Guide for their
new life and all its changes.

We ask you all to pray that God will

find
His ways of revealing His power to our Gara
ti neighbors. We have had maz^ deaths among
them, and some of them are very scaled of
the evil spirits. Some of them have return
ed to the old wayst beating the drums all
night long, and calling out to the devil of
man to end the dea-Uis.
Our people need the
Bible in their language to help them under
stand fully what some have heard about God
in Pidgin for years.
Pidgin is great, as
far as i t goes, but s<ie of our people are
ready to understand a lot more than just us
ing Pidgin will allow.
There has been a
noticeable falling away since we came, but
we can see a real desire developing for them
to understand God's talk.

(cont, from front page, right column)

for all four of us,

I ho. Aa^buji^QA^ ato. ^tLLL ujiXh ll4,

as we strive to

Qod i^

be

for all four of us, as

to speak the Giri language.

helping

?3T/hSQ

in

all

an.e.a4 in ^pLte of.. deveJjoping. wiJJx

a daily witness to our people who constantly

bewilder us with their ways and culture.

many.

OAg.anJ..^ationaJ. ncedyi.

jtrive to learn

for continued good health

full opacity for our Lord.

to

work a t

for the Augsburgers who still need more

support to reach full-support.

We thank God daily for the continued flow of

letters, cards and packages that give us
daily encouragement as they assure us that
we are loved and uplifted faithfully to God

by your

financial

and prayerful

support.

God bless all of youi

vmsse wsTH as:

OaxlL, a iU^yjOJo/i-oXd bot^piLejui of.

inm&A/ied a beJJjzvQji gXving. IiLa
koxuLt to Qod on AugjMt 12,

ujoa
and

f-ive., yx)ung. ijz.eiiag.e. gJjUA cUao now want to

become. CJuLbstjjan/i,

The. houyAe. onxL cxin. a/ie. paid o^f^

Ihe. oppo/itunJJ^ to nie.&t many.
ing.

a chance,

to talk

wiMi them

kfonk and what Qod luanJi^

and hav
about ou/i

to gJ-vo. thenu

PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATORS

David W, & Sharran 0, Pryor, Missionaries

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

Non-Profit Org.
Permit # 7
Oakland City, IN

Kevin L, & Donna J, O'Brien, Forwarding Agents

R.R. 2, Box 19

Oakland City, Indiana

47660

47660

MISSION SERVICES ASSOC.

RESEARCH DEPT.
BOX 177

KEMPTON, IN

46049'