Jan & Debbie Gossner
Papua New Guinea
Jan & Debbie Gossner have served in translation and administration with Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1989. Their main work is completing the New Testament with the Edolo people of Papua New Guinea. As of May 2021, their draft of the New Testament includes every book with the exception of First and Second Corinthians.
The couple’s interest in mission work grew while they attended Western Baptist College (now Corban University) and First Baptist Church of Stayton (now Foothills Church). Debbie served as a secretary at the church when it was located on East Washington Street in Stayton.
It wasn’t easy for the Gossner family to start working in Papua New Guinea. The couple and their children liked the rural setting, but the challenge came in adjusting to a new way of life. Jan remembers that lemons and tomato plants smelled the same as what he knew in the United States, but everything else was different. Today he’s thankful that it was difficult to leave the area in a hurry, because it forced him to continue the work until he adjusted to the new way of life.
The couple is now based in Montana and hopes to visit PNG for three months each year, and possibly more after not being able to travel to the country for two years.
September 2022 Video Update
The Edolo language did not have a writing system, so the work includes creating a written version of the language. While Jan puts his efforts into Bible translation, Debbie focuses on a literacy program to teach Edolo people how to read the written language.
Debbie pointed to Exodus 18:20 as an inspiration for the continued work: “Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.”
“That’s what we are trying to do: teach them God’s word, and teach them how to translate God’s word, and then leave it with them and let the Holy Spirit speak God’s word in their lives,” Debbie says. “So that when we’re not there – which it’s proven we can’t be there all of the time – God’s word is still there with them and it’s still part of their lives.”
Bible translation remains a need in PNG, where people speak over 800 languages. About 250 of the people groups do not have any part of the Bible available in their own language.
Jan sees the difference when people hear God’s word read to them in the intimacy of their own dialect.
“It’s so fun to read the Bible in their language in church to them. It becomes completely silent” as they hear God's message in their own language, rather than in the words of a neighboring language, he says.
Pray for the Gossners:
Pray for wisdom and timing of next trip to Papua New Guinea, and overcoming travel challenges due to Covid-19.
Pray for protection and health of the main Edolo translator Duluba Ibo and his wife Hagai.
Pray for the Edolo people and protection from Covid-19 with limited medical resources.
Duluba Ibo and Jan Gossner working on Bible translation 30 years ago.
A more recent picture of Duluba Ibo.