NEWS AND PRAYER REQUESTS

FROM JOHN AND BONITA PRYOR

Missionaries with Pioneer Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea
January, 2007

As we begin a new year, may our thoughts turn to the new life that we have in Christ
Jesus and may we rejoice and be thankful that we have the Word of God in our mother tongue.
Many people in the world do not. Pioneer Bible Translators is seeking to remedy that around
the world. Your partnership with them and their missionaries, John and Bonita Pryor, makes
you a vital part of that ministry as well. We thank you for your faithfulness.
John and Bonita continue on leave of absence status with Pioneer Bible Translators

while helping to care for his mother. Both have been battling viral congestion in recent weeks.
Pray for them to have the energy needed to continue their busy schedules with school, church,
meetings, etc. Pray for their work with their students and with the church at Coyle. Praise God
that they were spared when much of Oklahoma received an ice storm earlier this month.
Please pray for safety for them as they travel back and forth to Coyle nearly daily, especially in
these winter months.

Pray for Maso, their national co-translator in PNG,that he will have the time and energy
to devote to the translation work. Pray for his family as well.

Jesse and his family were in Madang earlier this month to conduct VBS for the PBT
missionary children during the group's Annual General Meeting. Pray that the PBT team in
PNG will grow closer to God and to each other as a result of this meeting and that the decisions
made would be pleasing to Him. Pray that Jesse, Karie, Naleh, Eli, and Judah will remain
healthy.

Josh has begun another semester of college studies. Pray that he can balance work
and studies and continue to be a shining example of the love of Christ to all he comes in contact
with.

Thank you for being such a blessing to this ministry with your prayers and love. May
God bless you as you continue to serve Him.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

JOHN & BONITA PRYOR

FORWARDING AGENTS:

215 Marshall

Bruce & Mary Ann Graff

61 North Liberty St.
West Alexander, PA 15376-2456

Stillwater, OK 74074
Phone: 405-372-3462

E-mail: bJpryor@sbcglobal.net
E-mail: Jepryor@sbcglobal.net

Phone: 724-484-7515

E-mail: graff77@netzero.net

Missionaries translate through language maze

his parents in translating

Two families serve

the

New Testament.

"I was just 8 when we moved

to Papua New Guinea," he said.

on Pacific island

"So I learned the language play

By BOB BARRETT

ing soccer and volleyball with the

people. By the time(my parents)
had devised the grammar,I knew
(how to speak)the language.
His decision to help translate

News-Sentinel staff writer

'T'll never marry a mission

ary.

That's what Bonita Blevins

was made while he was in high

told John Pryor when he asked

her to marry him about the time
she was graduating from Young

school.

"We take high school by cor

respondence," he said. "Instead

High School.

of taking Spanish or French as

my foreign language, I took
Greek to help prepare me for the

"That's just fine because I

have no intention of becoming
one," he vowed.

At the time, he was a student

at Johnson Bible College in South

work of translating.

Knox County where she was the

daughter of Dr. William Blevins,
the academic dean. Pryor's older
brother, David, had preceded him

textbooks my parents had gotten

to the East Tennessee campus

Mark, the shortest of the four

"Meanwhile, I also read the

at the institute on creating a new
translation."

He started with the book of

from their home in Stillwater,

gospels with the simplest gram

Okla., and had written his youn

matical structure.

"I finished it a year ago," the

ger brother about the dean's

college senior said this week.

daughter.

"Then I went back this summer

"He picked me out for John,"

to revise it."

she said this week with a smile.

He said he does not plan to

The two are back on campus,

two missionaries on leave, along

Julie Elman-Roche/News-Sentinel staff

make Bible translation his life's

work, but he does plan to return

with their nephew, also John John Pryor, a senior at Johnson Bible College, translated the book of Mark into the Pidgin
to help his parents complete the
Pryor, the son of the elder John's English used by natives on Papua New Guinea, where he lives with his missionary parents.
New Testament, a task they hope
brother, David.
"We went to the International to be able to finish in eight years.
University of Tennessee in three ing the Bible into languages that
Both families now live in Pa
had no written Bible.
Linguistics Center in Dallas, TexIn the meantime, ham radio
pua New Guinea, and are busy years, majoring in education. She stillThey
went at it the hard way, as, operated by the Wycliffe Bible serves to keep the families in
graduated
at
the
top
of
her
class,
translating the Bible into the lan
how to first create a Translators," Bonita said.
touch with each other on the
guages of the people they serve. with her only B's in music educa studying
"It is nondenominational,"
written language and grammar
tion
and
art
education.
South Pacific island and with the
Although the two families pe
John added.
for languages that are only spo
"Once we decided to get mar
family members here on the
stationed only about 60 miles
"First they teach you how to Johnson Bible College campus.
ken.
ried,
I
was
in
a
hurry,"
she
said.
apart, the people they are work
Perhaps inevitably, John and make all the possible sounds with
"I was given help by Roy
ing with speak entirely different "Our parents didn't want us to Bonita became intrigued (after your mouth," Bonita said. "Then
get
married
until
we
had
finished
Ziegler, KF4CB, a salesman who
languages.
"We have 700 different lan

guages in Papua New Guinea,"

Bonita Blevins said. "Not just di

alects completely different

college."

True to his word, John Pryor

did not become a missionary

at first he trained for and be

came a minister of youth.
His older brother, David Pry

languages. But they all speak a

kind of Pidgin English as the
trade language. It has borrowed or, and his wife, the former Shar
from English, Spanish, German, on O'prien of Falls Mills, Va.,
howler, felt called to become
Chinese and others."
Bonita rushed through the language missionaries, translat-

their first reaction of incredulous they show you how to move from
snickering).
\
there to creating a grammar for
After all, it's bad enough to get (any)language."
into translating the Bible into an
The two have just completed a
other language, but to do it for a book on the story of Joseph and

language where there is no alphabe^ no grammar and no history

of/reading and writing? It was

his brothers from the Old Testa

ecough to make them laugh. And

younger John Pryor, son of Da

tley did. Then they didn't.

vid and Sharon, decided to join

ment.

Meanwhile,60 miles away,the

lives in Morristown," the older

John Pryor said.

"Bonita's dad was a signalman

in the Navy during the war

(World War II)," Pryor said."He

said, Tf you ever get your license,
I'll get mine,'" Pryor said.
"I got mine in 1980 while I was
Please see BIBLE, page B3

^!i
In Papua New Guinea, John Evin Pryor keeps
in touch with the folks in Kimberlln Heights
with long-'range ham equipment.

Bible

Special to The News-Sentinel

Bonita Blevlns Pryor uses a 2-meter rig for

short-range communications between their
Papua New Guinea home and trucks.

^ m theschedule
for checking
in each
with
other missionaries
area about
three times

Continued from page B1

home on furlough, and he had his in '81," he added

shaking his head in admiration

"We talk to East Tennessee about two or three

'

whirh
'she has
earned
herthe
technician's
license,
which moi
means
passed
written exam
for
we
substitute
for
it,"
Pryor
said.
"Where
'^eense, but still has passed only the novwe are, there are no telephones"
The two families use 2-meter rigs for short-ranee
Jht faster code exam
speed.toAll
to dolicense.
now is pass
getshe
herhas
general
SiX"
bS they
Jhf use long-range
their equipment
homes andtooutkeen
fn theThat
trucks. But
license allows ham radio operators to use
voice as well as code on a wide variety of frequen"Wo
Kimberlln Heights.
We (brothers) are in touch each dav" Prvor

fyear."
'

to toe

016S*

Should be a snap for someone who finished UT in

three years at the top of her class.