In 1985, while we were on furlough, Dr Vida Chenoweth, a translation colleague, was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Vida was an accomplished marimbaist who had performed in Carnegie Hall before she joined Wycliffe.
Joice and I were asked to represent Wycliffe at the function. It was no ordinary missionary gathering. Joice was asked to wear a gown, and I had to rent a tux. We travelled to Oklahoma City and, like good missionaries, stayed in a Motel 6.
We must have looked the pair: dressed for an outstanding event yet staying at this low-priced motel. Joice had gotten the gown through unusual circumstances (of course) and had painted a pair of shoes gold, which by the end of the evening, were losing their luster. She felt like Cinderella.
There were about 7 inducted into the Hall of Fame that evening and following a meal of chicken and something a video of Vida was shown. It alternated between her concert performances and sitting with the Usarufa people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Afterwards we went to the area where Vida was seated, visiting with some of the several thousand who attended the function. Vida and others had also completed the translation of the Usarufa New Testament, which was on display. Vida had moved to Wheaton and was a professor of ethnomusicology at Wheaton College.
When we returned to PNG, I was asked to head up the Technical Studies Department, which consisted of sub-departments of translation, linguistics, anthropology, community development, and literacy. Joice was a senior consultant in literacy, and we interacted regularly with students from the nearby Aiyura National High School. We often had picnics with some in our back yard.
In 1990 we once again left PNG, this time to head up our training school at Kangaroo Ground, where Kirk and Christine were also stationed.
Karol and Mike Hardin were getting married in 1994, so, after our stay in Australia, we took an assignment back at our school in Dallas where I was involved in various activities associated with the school.
We returned to PNG in 2002 for several months and met with Wopa Eka and other West Kewa men at Ukarumpa to revise the WK New Testament. Wopa was staying with a relative at the nearby Aiyura agricultural station and would come each day to work with me and others. Joice was our typist, editor, cook and encourager.
A nephew of Wopa’s named Robert, was also helping us. He would arrive from the nearby agricultural station where he was staying with his uncle, then wash and refresh himself in our bathroom before we started work. One day Joice said to me, “I think someone has been using my toothbrush. I always turn it with the brushes facing outward,” “Is it wet before you use it?” I asked. It was and it turned out Robert was also using it. (Anything left out is for community use in the Kewa culture.) Joice went quickly to the store, purchased a new toothbrush, and gave the used one to Robert. When she told the story to someone, the reply was that it was a good (missionary) way to save money.
The work was moving along well, but I had also observed that many small languages were left without the Word of God. I wondered why we couldn’t simply give these small groups Bible stories, which could be followed by translations if there was sufficient interest. I researched the problem and published two articles in the International Journal of Frontier Missions called “Special strategies for small language groups.” I also led some workshops devoted to storytelling techniques and later published a book called Loosen your tongue: an introduction to storytelling. (2010, The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics: Dallas, TX).
We (Joice me, and some SIL colleagues) conducted three workshops that promoted storytelling, one in Amanab, near the Indonesian border, one at Hauna, on a tributary of the Sepik River, and a third at our Ukarumpa training center. While in Dallas at our school, I also mentored Jim and Janet Stahl, who have become proficient and dedicated Bible storytellers and have conducted courses in many countries.
In 2002, while we were working on the West Kewa NT, a young woman named Rose Poto Lomba from the East Kewa approached us about a translation into East Kewa, where we had worked from 1958-1972. She put together a team and we worked with them for two years, locally and then by e-mail, to adapt the West Kewa NT into the East Kewa. A computer program developed by SIL International enhanced our work.
We returned to full-time work at our SIL Dallas center until 2005, when Joice and I went to Australia. Joice stayed with Christine and the grandkids while Kirk and I went on to Port Morseby and Mt. Hagen and then, with police escort, we traveled to Kagua for the East Kewa NT dedication. There were probably at least 2000 at the event, but everything seemed to have changed, and not necessarily for the better. The introduction of alcohol and gambling was having an adverse effect on the lives of many of the people. We prayed (and still do) that the word of God in the Kewa language would be used in the churches.
Simply having the Bible does not solve problems, as we know from American culture.
Karl Franklin
