William Butler
Do you remember one of the biggest reasons that I came to Papua New Guinea? Because of the translator who had been asked to come into the finance office after the Administrator of Finance suddenly passed away. I got here and Joni and I “took over the finance office” so William could go back to what he has been called to Papua New Guinea to do; translate the Word of God in the Waran language.
He has been working on this translation for over 30 years… and now he could begin where he left off. Well here he is holding a printed copy of the Book of John in Waran!! How cool is that?!? THIS is why I am here!! THIS is what brought both me and Joni to Papua New Guinea to work in the finance office. Thank You God for allowing me to be a part of this!
Samuel is seated to Williams right
I wondered why I hadn’t sent this out as my most recent update. Now I know. There is another factor in this story that needs told. I will paste part of an email that we received last Monday morning. We need your prayers, please.
EMAIL: “Today, Sunday, May 24th, the youngest child and only daughter of our co-translator Samuel Sangon went missing. Salon (Sharon) is about three years old. After church she was playing with other children, at least some of the time with a large group of children playing in the river where there is a sandy, sloping shore to the river. When she couldn’t be found, the whole village was alerted and a thorough search was made of the entire village and the river around where the children had been playing. She was not found. She is presumed to have drowned.”
Monday morning at daylight canoes will be dispatched to alert downriver villages to be on the lookout for her body. Others will search the shoreline, if by some chance her body surfaces and gets caught on a tree or stump in the river. This will continue until she is found, a process that can be expected to take days. However, it is not a certainty at all that she will be found. Many things could happen to prevent that from happening, none of which you even want to think about.
Our first prayer point is that God will comfort and strengthen Samuel, his wife Delila, and sons Caleb, Joshua, Eutychus and William. There are days of wondering, second-guessing, recriminations, and pain ahead for them. Pray that the church will rally around them and support them in every way they can.
Pray that Salon’s body will be found, and found quickly. Even though finding the body only confirms what is already known, it does help the family to achieve a certain level of peace of mind and to grieve.”
Please pray for the Waran people, William and his family and all of us… we need your prayers.
UPDATE SINCE THIS WAS WRITTEN:
The search was completed Monday – they found her little body. Per William, “She was found in the water very near where the children had been playing.”
He had more words of comfort
“Though this event is still as tragic and painful as ever, there are some glimmers of mercy in today’s news:
- Finding Salon’s body at all is something to thank God for.
- Finding her body not much more than 24 hours after she disappeared is another reason to praise God.
- When I spoke to Samuel on Monday morning he asked that we pray that they would find her close to the village. The thought that she might not have gone too far away seemed comforting to him. Since she was found very near where she drowned, I am sure will bring some measure of comfort to them.”
There are obviously other things going on, but I wanted to at least give you this much. Now the healing can now begin.
Please continue to pray for Samuel, Delila, their children and their extended family. There will still be difficult days ahead.
Thank you so much for your powerful prayers; they were obviously answered. I appreciate you very much!
MANY of our other language groups are struggling with spiritual warfare. Please pray! We really need your help… this is hard.
