PBT Prayer Partner Letter (June 2009)

Dear Prayer Partners,

Bethaney Butler is the daughter of PBT missionaries William and Robin. During most of her growing up years she and her parents lived among the Waran people in Likan village of Papua New Guinea (PNG). She is now a young adult, a graduate of Johnson Bible College, and committed to serve Christ as a PBT Short-Term Assistant in PNG for two years. She has been ready to return for months but has not been able to do because she lacks the needed financial partners to enable her to go.

Her parents now live in another location in PNG, but William periodically flies to the bush airstrip near Likan to do additional work on the Waran New Testament he is helping to translate and to minister to the people in various ways. At the people’s request, William spent Easter weekend in the village. On his last day in Likan, as he was preparing to leave for the airstrip, he heard a persistent knocking on the door of his village house. It was Arakun, the wife of the village pastor. When he opened the door she and several other Waran people quickly entered. Arakun was holding a plastic shopping bag, and she was saying how glad she was that she made it before the plane arrived. In telling what happened next, William wrote Bethaney the following:

By then she was starting to pour out the contents of the bag…. Then she said, “I went to every house in the village and asked for a contribution for Bethaney.” At that, she dumped a pile of money out. I was speechless. That is when I lost it. She was going on about how she hadn’t counted it yet and I needed to help her count it. Nobody was really looking at me but at her and what she was doing. When she looked up at me and saw me crying, I heard her whisper, “Ma taapaset (he’s crying),” then everyone looked at me. The whole thing was an event too tender and precious. After a while I calmed down and…I asked her why she did this and she said, “She is our family and this is what families do. They help each other out. She wants to come back to PNG and she is short of money. We want to help her.”

…the initial contribution Arakun brought was 121 kina but others kept bringing bills to add to the bag before the plane came. I was even handed some as I walked to the plane. The final total is 155 kina [about $55 U.S.]…. Maybe this is only the widow’s mite but this is the gift Jesus honored, wasn’t it? You should know this money was given after there had been major offerings during the Easter gathering.

The Waran people have thrown down the gauntlet in faith. We pray that those with greater resources will take up the challenge.

Please pray that the monthly financial commitments that Bethaney still needs to be able to serve in PNG will soon be made. Pray also that the others in PBT who are seeking funds to serve overseas will soon receive the financial commitments they need. Pray that even in these hard economic times Christians will generously give of whatever income God provides for them so that His kingdom will grow both in North America and throughout the world.

Thanks for your prayers,

Gerald Denny
PBT Director of Missionary Care