Today is Sarah’s 10
th birthday. It was extra special to be able to celebrate it with our missionary family today. This photo of Sarah with all her missionary ‘aunts and uncles’ reminds me of this promise that Jesus gave:

“

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.

Of course there are the
real aunts and uncles in the United States, but it’s a blessing to have Australian, Dutch and Finnish ones as well to help fill the gap on special days like this one.

This morning our group gathered for a worship service. At the end of the morning, our director talked about his experiences as an MK (Missionary Kids) and how special his missionary ‘aunts & uncles’ where to him. Then he asked the kids to stand in the middle of the room where we gathered around them and laid our hands on a kid that was not our own. We spent time in prayer for our MK’s. It was a special time and we trust that the kids felt honored and blessed.

This is Joshua Lui, a national Bible translator from the Western part of the Solomon Islands. Joshua is the chairman of the Solomon Islands Bible Translation and Literacy Program (SIBTLP), a group of Solomon Islanders dedicated to Bible Translation and Literacy. Joshua is currently translating the New Testament into his mother tongue, Simbo.

This afternoon Joshua gave a biennial report for SIBTLP at our conference. We are very blessed to work who have the dedication to help bring God’s Word to their own people. Often they work alone and their efforts are not always understood or supported by people in their community.

After each personal report, we all gather around the person or couple and spend time praying for them, their family and ministry. It’s truly a blessing to be surrounded by friends and colleagues and be lifted up before the throne.

Our biennial group conference began last night with a dinner and games. We also took time to celebrate the 4 Solomon Islands language groups who received a New Testament in their own language since our last conference two years ago. One of languages is the
Sa’a Language of South
Malaita Island. Here our director, who was the advisor to that language. shares about the dedication service in December of 2005.

I’ve never translated a Bible verse in my life, but I couldn’t help bursting out with singing the Doxology at the end of our time celebrating these New Testaments. Isn’t God good let us be a part of the awesome task of giving God’s Word to people in their heart language?

The last week or so Tim has been busy helping to prepare for our mission group’s biennial conference which begins on Friday. All of our members here in the Solomons will come together for 7 days of meetings which will include spiritual ‘retreat’, team reports, prayer and several days of business meetings.

Tim is the head of the ‘Advisory Committee’ for our group and has been putting together the agenda for the business meetings. This is a critical time for our group as we look for new ways to approach Bible translation in this country. Traditionally we have had missionary-translators who have come from their home countries and worked in one language group until a New Testament translation is completed. A slowing trickle of missionary-translators, and new computer and translation resources are challenging us to explore new strategies for helping to bring God’s Word to His people here in the Solomon Islands.

One exciting development in the past few years is the number of Solomon Islanders who are interested in doing translation themselves instead of waiting for a missionary- translator who may never come. These dedicated men and women are eager for the Scriptures in their mother tongue and want to learn to translate. While this is great news, we don’t have the personnel needed for the checking and editing of the translation before it goes to print. We are looking for ways of encouraging these national translators while ensuring quality Bible translation at the same time.

Please pray for a fruitful week, good discussions and God’s clear leading in our planning.

The Solomon Islands is an independent country under a parliamentary democracy. It is also part of the British Commonwealth.

Last week and this week, parliament is meeting here in the capital city. The primary task at hand is to pass the annual budget. However, last Friday the opposition party put forth a ‘motion of no confidence’ against the prime minister which is due to be voted on this Friday. If the motion is passed, the prime minister would step down and another member of parliament would be elected to that position.

There has been much political turmoil in the Solomon Islands over the past year. In April 2006 when a new Prime Minister was appointed, riots errupted and wide spread damage occured with a large part of Chinatown here in the capital city. More recently there have been some diplomatic issues between the Solomon Islands and Australia which have caused tensions.

Would you please pray that there will be peace this week in the country and that God’s will be done.

I haven’t written a blog for a few days because we have been pretty busy and then when I had time to write, the power was down.

After such a crazy year in the USA of traveling, we left feeling pretty worn out. I made a promise to myself and some friends that I would concentrate on getting the family settled and the house in order before I jumped into ministry. This week some cracks in that resolution began to form.

Just before we returned to the Solomons, we read in an email that the Solomon Islands Pijin Bible is due to be launched in July 2008. Some people in our group were talking about the event and how it should be celebrated. It was suggested that the Matzkes take this project on. I felt my resolution start to crack.

The Solomons has about 65 different languages. Solomon Islands Pijin is a trade language that has developed as a means of communication between the various languages. It is spoken widely around the country.

Our group is working hard to help translate the New Testament into a number of the indigenous languages but there are many languages still waiting. But for those who don’t have any Scripture in their own language or for the people who only speak Pijin, the Bible in Pijin is a milestone. The Pijin New Testament has been available for a number of years, but except for Genesis and Psalms, the rest of the Old Testament has not been published.

One of the challenges to the acceptance of the Pijin Bible is that while Pijin is widely accepted as a spoken language, many Solomon Islanders are not excited about reading it. It is our hope that good publicity will help people welcome God’s Word in Pijin.

For a long time I have thought that a Pijin section in one of the English newspapers in town would be an interesting way to promote Pijin reading. Stories from the Old Testament could be included in serial form along with other interesting features. We could have puzzles for the kids and coloring pages.

My resolve cracked further as I picked up the phone and called Elizabeth, one of the reporters that I know at the newspaper. She asked about my year in the USA and what was happening in our mission group here. When she asked, “Are there any new projects you are involved in?” I couldn’t resist taking advantage of that open door.

I talked to her about my idea of a once-a-week Pijin feature in the paper. The reporter got excited about the idea and promised to help set up an appointment with the editor for me in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure where this will lead, but I am really excited about helping promote the Pijin Bible. Please pray that I will have creative ideas that will be accepted by Solomon Islanders and help them welcome the Pijin Bible.