| SIL Stamp History Here is how this PNG stamp series got started. It all got stated when Chuck wrote to the PNG Post and inquired about whether the PNG Post would consider producing a stamp series honoring SIL's 50 years of work in PNG in 2006. ______________________________________________________ The First Email: August 27, 2003 Dear PNG Post, I served for 15 years with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in Papua New Guinea, but now serve with its sister organization Wycliffe Bible Translators here in the USA. While serving the people of PNG I got hooked on your beautiful PNG stamps. In fact, I was so impressed with your countries beautiful stamps that I made a PNG stamp album for each of my four children so they could remember their years in PNG. Since SIL will be celebrating their 50th anniversary of their work in PNG in 2006 I am wondering if there are any plans to issue a stamp series paying tribute to SIL's work in the country? The Philippine government just issued a series of three miniature stamps honoring SIL's 50 years of work in the Philippines. If a stamp series is issued, I would like to suggest a stamp series featuring the unique number of languages of PNG. I don't think I've ever seen such a stamp series before. It would be great if the orthographies (alphabets) of several PNG languages could be featured. Also besides the Bible translation work SIL does, they also do literacy and community development work. There are several local artists who work for SIL in PNG along with a very good SIL missionary artist who might be willing to design a few stamps. Since I don't know how you select your stamp artists, I only give this as a suggestion. Personally I think it would be very nice combination if an SIL member artist and a SIL employee artist could both design some of the stamps if a series were issued. Thanks you for considering this idea. SIL's main centre of operations is in Ukarumpa, EHP. They have a PNG Post Office there which would be a great place to issue First day covers, which I know would be extremely popular with the SIL community and the whole of the country. Sincerely, Charles Micheals West Chicago, IL USA Email: August 28, 2003 Attention : Mr. Micheals, Your email message of 28th August,2003 is acknowledged. Yes we can include a stamp set of 6 stamps, however, your idea of showing Alphabets of PNG languages may not popular to the rest of the Collectors worldwide. We suggest feature of SIL activities/trips undertaken to Villages to open dialogue with the villagers etc 50 years ago and activities now with modern equipment/ transportation etc. i.e. 3 of the past and 3 of the modern or current. Yes we can try your Artists, however they will have to follow our specifications. Your views on the above would help. SIL once had a family working here [based] in Port Moresby. The name is Don Lawecky. Would you know his current address? He and his family were our personal friends. I look forward to hear from you soon. Regards, Paul Paiva. Manager Philatelic Bureau & Production. Post PNG Ltd. Phone : (675) 300 3740 Fax : (675) 323 3045 Email : philatelic@postpng.com.pg Email: August 30, 2003 Dear Paul, (Philatelic Bureau & Production Manager) Thank you for your timely reply. I have appreciated hearing from you and knowing that your are favorable to producing a set of 6 stamps in 2006 featuring SIL's work in the country. I have been in contact with the directorate of SIL at their Ukarumpa headquarters in the Eastern Highlands. They have indicated a willingness to work on such a project. Since I am no longer a member of the SIL PNG Branch, I inquired about this possibility only as a stamp enthusiast since I think that PNG stamps are the best in the world. Therefore, I would suggest that you correspond with them. They have told me that they are willing to work on such a project. The SIL administration had asked one of their directorate members, Michael Harrar, to look into this. Michael is both one of the current directors of SIL's work in PNG and an excellent artist. He is the one that I suggested may be willing, if asked, to design a stamp along with some of the national SIL artists. As a stamp enthusiast I am more than willing to help in any way I can on this project. I still work for SIL's sister organization Wycliffe Bible Translators here in the Chicago area and am involved in recruiting more members to join SILs work in PNG. Please let me know what I can do. I wanted to also let you know that I have inquired into information about Don Lawecky. I was told he died a few years ago, but that his wife Phyllis is likely still alive. I have not discovered where she is living, but if I find out I will let you know. We still have several SIL members (John & Helen Hobson) who are working and living in Port Moresby. I am copying them on this email so they know of your friendship with SIL. Sincerely, Charles Micheals Email: October 5, 2003 Dear Paul Paiva, I trust that you have been able to make contact with the people at SIL who can help you with the production of a PNG stamp featuring the 50 years of SIL's work in the country. I am so happy to hear that this stamp series may be able to become a reality. I am a big fan of PNG stamps and have been collecting your stamps for almost 10 years now. I'd love to be able to have a full collection of your stamps, but my missionary wages won't allow that. So, I'm satisfied to read your books and look at stamps as I am able collect the stamps I already have. I for sure will be collecting this upcoming stamp should it become a reality! I have learned so much about PNG from studying your stamps that I have come to better appreciate all of what has and is happening in your great country. You have a wonderfully beautiful and diverse country and are surrounded by so much beauty each day. I have counted it a real privilege for your government to allow me and my wife work for 15 years in PNG. I spent most of my years in PNG working at a supply store for the missionaries with SIL. In the last years in PNG (1999-2000) I started a management training program to assist our national SIL workers to become better managers. So much of our work over the years has been nationalized, yet there was an ongoing need for management training. In the years I worked in the store in PNG I was able to nationalize the accounting and buying offices in the store at Ukarumpa and plans are underway for future work in that direction. To think that in 1956, the area near the centre of operations for SIL was largely undeveloped. However, today national workers work on sophisticated computer programs and hold very important positions within SIL's work in the country which makes me very happy. They have done a great job and in the years I worked in the store at Ukarumpa the employees were able to double their productivity through training and technology! When I came to PNG in 1985, it use to take our store 1 week to price and put away a container of grocery supplies. When I left in 2000, it took less than four hours to do the same thing! The increase in productivity through the use of the technology of computing and the training offered employees meant we were better able to contain cost, thus lowering prices for the shopper along with offering employees a good substantial wage which was higher than area wide wages. The future for PNG remains bright. With a high regard for the Christian faith, a strong democratic country and good leaders PNG will continue to be a beacon of light in the Pacific area. May your plans go well on this stamp project and if there is anything I can do on this side of the big pond, please let me know. I am eager to see your plans succeed. Chuck Micheals Wycliffe Bible Translators (Sister organization to SIL) Email: April 23, 2004 Dear Michael Harrah, Greetings from Chicago! I saw your photo on the PNG Annual Report and it reminded me that I wanted to write you to see if anything has come of the suggestion to have the PNG philatelic department design a stamp featuring SIL's 50 years of work in PNG. Any news? If so, are you involved in the stamp design? I'd love to hear how things are going if at all on this topic. On a side note, please congratulate the Christensens, Edmistons and the Conrads on recent NT translation competitions. Today we (at our regional office) just received a copy of the West Kewa NT revision done by the Franklins. What a joy to see the books coming in from our friends we spent so much time with. Chuck Micheals April 23, 2004 Dear Bev Harrah, Any possibility I could get a look at the designs or is this an artists privilege? Chuck Email: April 24, 2004 Dear Chuck, Michael is at the Conrads' dedication this weekend. Yes, the stamp project is moving forward. Michael will be the artist. He submitted our different designs and they have chosen some to feature! Friday he brought home a sample of three that he is pretty close to finishing. He hope to e-mail them this week and see what they think. We're really hoping he can finish all six before we leave on furlough but it just depends on how fast they are. Hi to Barb. Love in Christ, Bev Harrah Email: April 25, 2004 Hello Chuck, I just returned from Conrad's dedication. It all went smoothly. This was their fourth and last. They have given their life to the people of PNG, especially the Sepik. I'm doing the stamps. The style has already been approved. They want a series of 6, ready for 2006. I have two that I'm going to send down this week to POM as samples of possible real stamps for their approval. I'm interested to hear what their comments. I want to get as much on the stamps finished as possible before leaving for the US the end of June. Thanks for your prayers, interest and involvement in making this possible. Brata bilong Yu, Michael Harrah Email: April 25, 2004 Hello Chuck, When I have something to show you I'll send it but it will not be by email. I'll have to burn a cd or send a hard copy to you. SO, I need your address. Do you have any suggestions for one of them? It needs to represent something of the last 50 years in PNG. We decided we do not want to do pictures of the first director or something like that. We want to show what we've done for and with the people of PNG. I'm including Bilum designs as part of my designs along with individuals reading, working in literacy, CD. I want to include something about aviation too. What do Stamp collectors collect that would be good to include so they would be more marketable? We thought of things like butterfly borders, shell borders as well as the design borders I'm already doing. Any idea or suggestion would be very welcome. Brata bilong yu, Michael Harrah Email: April 25, 2004 Dear Michael Harrah, My ideas: Stamps: - Bibles of different PNG languages on a table or a national person reading the Bible with light coming on the Bible.
- Literacy classes in session with chalk board in background with words from the language.
- Cameron Townsend (no stamp featuring Cameron Townsend yet and he did visit PNG in the 1960s) along with Dr. Jim Dean stamp (historical - Many countries still do this type of stamp).
- Apprentice programs at Aviation (national and SIL member working on an aircraft).
- Ukarumpa printshop with and SIL member and nationals at the printing presses printing Scripture portions.
- Jungle airstrip construction in progress. (There is already a stamp from the 1970s with PNG helicopter featured flying over Ukarumpa)
- Several alphabets themselves or use and alphabet border on stamps.
- Bible dedication with stacks of Bibles on a table with PNG in bilas celebrating with an SIL translator family!
- Church service using tok ples Bible.
- Typesetting the Bible (use of computers).
- Kerosene or Coleman lamp with villagers reading the Bible at night in a village.
- Translation session going on in the village.
- The Bible breaking bow and shield.
- Featuring 869 languages somehow with 150 + New Testaments in these languages translated (or whatever the number is or will be by 2006) or 300 + languages started.
Borders: - Butterflies are good because PNG has many butterflies.
- Orchids - many different kinds in PNG.
- Tok ples languages.
- Bushknife (Bible sharper than a two edge sword).
Chuck Email: July 21, 2004 Wycliffe Associates News Release: 50 Years and Counting
In 2006 Papua New Guinea (PNG) will commemorate 50 years of service by SIL. PNG's Philatelic Society has selected SIL artist Michael Harrar to design a set of six commemorative postage stamps depicting SIL's work there. Praise God for the translation and literacy work already done in PNG. Pray for the 202 projects still going on and 300 languages that still need to be surveyed. Pray for Michael as he decides what to paint and for uninterrupted time to do it. Email: August 28, 2004 Dear Michael Harrah, Greetings from Chicago. Just curious how the PNG stamp series is coming along. Would you be able to send me any copies of drafts? I have a PNG stamp book I'm putting together and would love to include something on this stamp series as it develops. Thanks. Chuck Email: August 28, 2004 Hello Chuck, We're doing our best to get settled into Lancaster. Not an over night ordeal! I've started work at the office. One full week in. I have not touched the stamps since I left PNG but I knew it would not be until the end of August or early September before I would be able to get back to them. I intend to start some work on them this coming week. I do have some preliminary printouts that I showed to the folks at the POM post office before I left. The orientation is Portrait but the post office decided just before I left that they want them now to be in landscape format. It is truly a one off rendition at the early stages of development. Michael Email: February 15, 2005 Hello Chuck, I was elated, shocked, speechless this weekend when John Hobson wrote me an email with the following message. Please forward this following to Michael as per his letter to you for forwarding to us. The following corrections and amendments to be made to the designs for the stamps. 1. We prefer to go for the landscape for the stamps values and the drop out type to be included for the six stamps. 2. We have picked the following designs for the stamps and the values, a) 75t for Postal services b) 75t for literacy c) K 1 for the first director Jim dean d) K 3 for the tokples pre--schools e) K 3.10 for the aviation, we have selected the design with a crowd of people gathered around the plane. f) K 5.20 for the community development, we selected the design with two women sewing with beautiful pattern on the left. 3. The stamp values are to be on the top right hand corner and are to be all in same colour, white or black. 4. The Logo of SIL must be included and and in front of the 50th years serving the people of Papua New Guinea. 5. We have agreed that you delete the shadows on all stamp designs. 6. The patterns, we really like the patterns especially the pattern use on the community development design, with women sewing but can use the bilums patterns as well for the designs. 7. All the patterns should be on the left hand side of the designs. We have schedule this stamp issue to be release on the 19th January 2006, and if you can inform Michael also to submit preliminary designs for First day cover envelope, stamp pack, brochure and the design for the rubber stamp and also to prepare back ground notes for this stamp issue. For your information, any enquires regarding the designs for this stamp issue, you can direct them to Mr Serege Dada, acting manager Philatelic Bureau or myself. Thank you very much and hear from you soon. Kind regards Julian Naka Production officer Philatelic & Production Post PNG Ltd Chuck, I was prepared to send them more proposals for stamps, expecting them to want more designs to choose from. Well, now I can move ahead with the next stage. All of this has come about because of your dream. So I want to congratulate you for all you have put into this project. Have you seen the proposals? If not I can mail them to you hard copy if you send me your address or I can try and send them over the internet from the office. Could you tell me what a rubber stamp is that Julian is referring to? I'll keep you up to date as to how this project progresses. Brata bilong yu, Michael Email: February 16, 2005 Dear Michael, Wow, exciting!! Please make sure I know how to order sets of all of these. For sure I want to get a number of first day covers and entire mint sets! The rubber stamp I think he is referring to is the cancellation stamp that they put on first day covers. I'll attach a copy of some PNG stamps and first day covers in a book I created (just for my kids) so you can see what a stamp cancellation have looked like. You might want to double check if the rubber stamp is the cancellation stamp. Chuck Meeting With Michael Harrah: November 10, 2005 I met Michael Harrah at the Wycliffe Northeast Regional Office in Lancaster, PA to discuss progress on the PNG stamp series. Michael showed me several sketches of his early stamp design along with the most recent versions of the series. e-Newspaper Article: The National January 19, 2006 Stamps Hail SIL
POST PNG has issued postage stamps commemorating Summer Institute of Linguistics’ (SIL) 50 years in Papua New Guinea. The stamps issued on Jan 4 are now on sale for 80 toea, K1, K3.25 and K5.35. They represent SIL’s commitment to serving the people of PNG. The 80t stamp stresses on literacy in which people are urged to read in their own languages. The other 80t stamps focus on postal service which is an integral part of the community. The K1 stamp carries a picture of Dr Jim Dean, a Canadian who served as the first director of the organisation that became the SIL PNG branch at Aiyura Valley. The K3.25 stamp represents the Tokples pre-school that made a significant impact in the education of rural children, and SIL aviation.
The K5.35 stamp covers the institute’s commitment to community development.
SIL was founded in 1934 by William Cameron Townsend to address the major concerns that were no alphabet or printed material in languages around the world.
SIL was invited into the country in 1956 to serve the people of PNG through language development.
Although translation, literacy and linguistic make up the core of SIL’s service, there are a dozens of other areas of expertise in which they are currently involved in, including non-print media. e-Newspaper Article: The Post Courier January 19, 2006 Stamps a way of saying well done! POST PNG has issued postage stamps commemorating the Summer Institute of Linguistics’ 50 years of service to the people of Papua New Guinea. The stamps were issued on January 4, representing segments of the institute’s commitment to serving the people of PNG. Post PNG Philatelic Bureau acting manager Serege Dada said it was a way of congratulating the institute for its tremendous commitment to the people of PNG. “SIL has done a tremendous job in language development through the many different languages and the issuing of the stamps is a sign of appreciation,” Mr Dada said. He sad the institute was invited into the country in 1956 and since then had engaged in literacy, linguistics, translation and other disciplines. “SIL makes its services available to all without regard to religious belief, ideology, gender, race or ethnic background,” Mr Dada said. | 
