The Bevans

- Proverbs 19:21

It's eight years since we first left the U.K. to go and work in Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe Bible Translators. And it's now nearly nine months since we left PNG for the last time to settle back here again. Here are some reflections on both the eight years of service with Wycliffe and also on these last nine months of transition.

At the beginning of 1991, as we set out, our prayer was that "the adventure of our walk with the Lord would sustain us through all the changes". Our first few months in PNG were spent down by the coast at the Pacific Orientation Course (POC) during which we were increasingly immersed in the culture of a nation that was soon to become home. During this time we began to get used to many of the things that were to become 'normal' for us: the humid heat and voluminous rain, endless mountain ranges, the profusion of tropical fruit and flowers, dirt roads, grass airstrips and little planes, mosquitoes and malaria, the astounding linguistic diversity (800 languages for only 3 million people) and Tok Pisin, the main trade language. One of our abiding memories of this time was of Rachel, then one year old, sleeping peacefully in a bilum, a woven string bag, on the back of one of the nursery staff just like Papua New Guinean children do.

After POC, we moved to the mission's centre in the Highlands at 5000 feet, with its cooler climate, rolling hills and two seasons: wet (mud) and dry (dust)! Here administrative, practical and technical support is given to a hundred or more Bible translators and their families, and this was where we lived and worked for seven years. David developed and tested computer software for use by translators, trained translators in the use of their computers and helped solve numerous computer problems for them. He also did some technical linguistic consulting. Penny taught maths to translators' children at the High School, teaching students from many nations including Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, PNG and the U.S. She was also involved in curriculum development at the school. Meanwhile, we involved ourselves in the life of the community, both its joys and sorrows: worshipping with the Tok Pisin fellowship, rejoicing in completed New Testament translations, mourning the tragic deaths of two translators, praying with friends in difficult situations due to volcanoes, drought, criminal activity, spiritual oppression, etc.

In many ways, our furlough year, 1994-1995, was quite a turning point in our lives. We returned to England dried out and one of our main prayers was for the Lord to refresh us Spiritually. Our prayers were answered way beyond our expectation and we went back to PNG with a greater experience of God's love, a greater desire for and a more tangible awareness of His presence in our lives, and a greater desire to serve and minister for Him. As a result, we found ourselves involved in leading weekly 'renewal' meetings, seeking to bring refreshing to those who were Spiritually 'dry' and offering prayer ministry to those who desired the Lord's touch in their lives. We also both ended up preaching in the Sunday services.

By the end of 1997, it had become very clear to us (and to many praying with us and for us) that the Lord was moving us on to new things and that we should return to Britain. He had changed us significantly and our hearts were no longer really in our computing and teaching work. We wanted to be involved much more directly in seeing God at work changing people's lives. As with many others, we had discovered that what we do for the Lord is incomparable in comparison to what He does in and for us. Our heavenly Father is much less interested in what we may do or achieve than in our relationship with Him, and that is where our focus should always be, on seeking to know Him better and walk more closely in communion with Him day by day and hour by hour.

And so, after tearful goodbyes, we arrived back in England again at the end of June last year. It has been hard saying 'goodbye' to PNG: leaving behind friends we lived and worked and worshipped together with and leaving behind a relaxed lifestyle in a climate of perpetual 'summer'. Jonathan and Rachel still refer to their special friends in PNG as their best friends, and miss being able to play outside nearly every day. But it has also been good to say 'hello' again to friends and family here after many years of separation, and to experience the cycle of the seasons once more.

Our future? We still don't know the details of our future ministry and at times the waiting and uncertainty has been a struggle. But, we are confident that the Lord will show us the way ahead at the right time. Until then, like passengers in a plane circling in a holding pattern before landing, we trust our Pilot to bring us in to land in the right way and at the right place and time. Penny is currently helping out in our church office, and is also involved in a pastoral care initiative called Careforce. David is presently writing a book, Prepare The Way For The Lord!, about letting God be the one and only Master in our lives. Meanwhile we continue to wait expectantly because our experience has been that in everything, God is completely and totally sufficient for all our needs and that He often gives us far more than we dare ask or imagine.

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