Building capacity,,,

 “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” Psalm 127:1 (NIV)

As we support the work of Bible Translation in Papua New Guinea, one of our tasks is to, with God’s help and guidance, build the capacity of our Papua New Guinean staff. While capacity building has always been an important part of our ministry here, personnel shortages have greatly accelerated the process. The fact is that fewer expatriates are coming to the field and those that do come are staying for shorter periods of time. Since our return to PNG in September of 2020, Scott has hired and trained a new Field Security Officer (FSO) and a new Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), and he is overseeing organizational changes which have allowed other qualified PNG citizen staff to assume greater levels of responsibility. Scott is now beginning a new role as Security Consultant, where he will support our staff and leadership by providing security advice and training, as well as administrative and project support. Scott will continue to serve on the Crisis Management Team and support the HR department on certain projects as requested. Kathy continues to teach science and serve as the head of department and has recently been involved in a project to make the chemical storage room more earthquake-resistant. Building capacity and continuing to make incremental improvements in each of our departments is just one more way we can honor God with our skills and talents. We are also beginning to prepare to go on a six month Home Assignment in June and we look forward to seeingmany of you while we are back in the States.

Above: Scott with the new CHRO, Nellie Tabie

Photo credit: Helen Krause