At the conclusion of my studies at both Cornell and ANU, I had oral examinations. I also wrote a thesis at Cornell and a dissertation (which I have mentioned) at ANU. The materials were published later. My studies and work have always included my family, so I want to mention Joice and our two children, Kirk and Karol.
Joice was not simply my typist, editor, and helper. She was my encourager, a student of Kewa, who had also published papers on the language. With her musical background, she could identify tonal nuances much better than me and because she interacted with the women, she provided information and insights that I alone could not gain. We both had computers and small adjacent offices, shared our data, worked and prayed together. Early on, she began to compile readers and other materials to acquaint some Kewa men and women with their own language.
Literacy requires great insight and determination, and Joice had both. We had purchased a small mimeograph machine and she prepared books and printed them. To teach people who have never held a book in their hands how to read and write requires fortitude. I was not good at it, but Joice was, and she taught the first Kewa men (initially, the women were not allowed to participate) to read and write. We did books on geography, traditional stories, traditional artifacts, learning Pidgin and English, Bible stories and sections of the NT, and other matters. We even “published” a weekly news sheet, which we distributed to the local mission stations.
Joice also homeschooled our kids, teaching them to read and write, and providing for them in every way, often when I was traveling and researching other areas of the Kewa and Southern Highlands. We had plenty of books for them to read and we gave them the Living Bible to read, even though we had devotions and other readings from the NIV.
Kirk learned to speak Kewa when we resided in Muli, in East Kewa. In fact, it was his first language, and when we talked to him in English, he would often answer in Kewa. Karol, ever the teacher, had a class of kids that she tried to teach English and Pidgin.
Missionary kids (MKs) commonly straddle two cultures and often several languages. Our kids did not grow up as “normal” American kids with TV and movies. They had considerable freedom in the villages and later at high school in Papua New Guinea. They also attended schools in Australia and in America, but their educational and cultural roots were firmly in Papua New Guinea. However, we often related stories of other missionaries.
One example was John Eliot, who was born in Widford, England in 1604 and died in 1690. He was a missionary to the Massachusetts Indians, a tribe of the Algonquian language family. A brilliant man who first graduated from Cambridge University and later from Harvard University with a B.A., sailed for America in 1631 and in 1640 began to learn the Massachusetts language and in 1653 published a catechism. Although the language had been unwritten, by 1663 the whole Bible was translated and published. In addition, Eliot wrote a grammar of the language and published a dictionary. My academic experience in SIL, where we attempt to analyze and publish materials on the native languages of each country we work, was similar to that of Eliot. He also established 14 “praying towns” and the present-day Natick and Ponkapoag cultural groups claim descendancy from them. They are based in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
Another early missionary in America was David Brainard, who was born in 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut. Brainard lived only 29 years, but in the 1700s he visited the Susquehanna River area, near where I grew up in Pennsylvania, mainly further south towards Sunbury. Brainard felt a burden to preach to and convert the small bands of Indian tribes along the river. Although in poor health, he made 4 trips to the area and covered over 3,000 miles by horseback. He visited small bands of native Americans on the border of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania by horseback on several occasions.
We wanted our children to know about early pioneer missionaries. I have mentioned only a couple, but there are hundreds more, continuing from St. Paul to the present day. Those I have listed should give some idea of the contribution of what I call “missionary-scholars.”
Our children have continued the tradition. Kirk, who was dyslexic and dropped out of college in the US, went on to complete his MA and PhD at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. With colleagues, he has published 3 books, as well as his dissertation and several articles.
Karol and her husband Mike and their 3 children spent 4 years in Ecuador as missionaries. Karol had studied at the University of Texas, Austin and was granted a MA and PhD in Hispanic Linguistics. She is now a full professor of Spanish Linguistics at Baylor University, teaching Spanish Linguistics and Medical Spanish. Both of our kids worked hard and graduated without debts, another example of the provision of God and His encouragement.
Both have married wonderful spouses, and each couple has 3 children. I now have 6 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. Wes, a graphic artist, is the oldest and is married to Heidi. They and their 3 boys live in Bendigo, Victoria. Alissa works with troubled girls in Melbourne. Sam an architect, is married to Lyndsey and they also live in Melbourne. Evan, the oldest son of Mike and Karol is a Financial Advisor and lives in Waco; Cam is finishing his final year in electrical engineering; and Kirsten recently completed an MA in Communications. God has blessed our offspring in wonderful ways.
Karl Franklin
