Apr-Jul: I'll be in the South Pacific.
Archive for October 2006
"Living Word in Papua New Guinea"
One of my primary responsibilities over the last several weeks has been the production of a 12-page booklet called Living Word in Papua New Guinea. Regular readers may remember my mention of a four-phase communications strategy several months ago. Living Word is Phase 2 of that strategy.
I’ve done most of the writing for Living Word, and I’ve worked closely on the design with Michael Jones (who also did the layout for our Post-Courier piece). Carle, June, and their team are working out many of the printing and distribution logistics in Dallas, and I’ve been marketing the booklet and assembling address lists for distribution.
Demand for Living Word has been greater than I anticipated. So far, it looks as if we’ll be distributing more than 24,000 booklets in virtually every US state and countries on every continent except Antarctica. Wycliffe Finland wants to translate the booklet and distribute it in Finland.
If you would like to order some copies of Living Word, send me an email. We could also use help with mailing and distribution, so if you live near Dallas, Texas, and would like to volunteer a Saturday to stuff envelopes or slap labels on packages, let me know!
Living Word is at the printer now and should be ready for distribution in a couple of weeks.
categories papua new guinea
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Abau New Testament dedication
The Abau people live along the Sepik River and its tributaries in extreme western PNG. Their remote homeland is accessible only by plane — or by many days of travel along the labyrinthine waterways.
October 12 was a day of great celebration for the Abau people. It was the day they received the New Testament in their own language.
Arjen and Maija Lock have lived among the Abau people for over 20 years, working with them to translate the New Testament and set up schools for children. They have also helped to set up courses for adult literacy, theological education, Christian families, and many other practical skills.
As men carried the New Testaments down the river and up the hill to the celebration grounds, people along the way bowed in thanksgiving and reverence, murmuring prayers of exaltation to God.
Hundreds of Abau speakers attended the event, and some visitors even came from a neighboring group of people — once the enemies of the Abau. Abau villages are widely scattered, so some people left their homes the day before the celebration and paddled for hours along the river to reach this place.
Olavi Rintala, representing Maija Lock’s church in Finland, was one of many speakers during the dedication. Arjen, originally from the Netherlands, interpreted Olavi’s speech from Finnish into Abau. Arjen and Maija are both fluent in Dutch, Finnish, English, Tok Pisin, and Abau, and they used every conceivable combination of those languages during dedication day!
As the time drew near to bring out the New Testaments, people danced and sang with evident excitement. Here, the women dance behind a box containing the ceremonial first New Testament.
Arjen and Obow Inaru both weep as they receive the first New Testament. Obow is the team’s senior translator, and he compared himself to Simeon, expressing his thankfulness that God had let him live through severe illnesses and accidents to see this day.
I saw tears on many faces as Obow held that first New Testament high. Some people stood; others knelt and raised their hands or bowed their heads in deep emotion.
So many people crowded the stage to purchase their New Testaments that somebody heard it start to crack. As I walked back and forth across the dedication grounds, I saw men, women, and children looking through their New Testaments for the first time. What an amazing sight.
categories papua new guinea
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To build a better airplane
In a comment on yesterday’s post about our planes and pilots, Corey asked about a plane called the Kodiak and about fuel for the Cessna 206s that we currently use.
Avgas, the fuel for 206s, is expensive and difficult to obtain, which means that our travel costs are high. And, the 206s are limited in space and load-carrying ability, as I mentioned before. (For that reason, I left clothing, batteries, toiletries, and other things behind forever in Wewak on Tuesday.)
The new Kodiak aircraft are designed to overcome some of these limitations and are intended specifically for mission aviation. We’ll be getting Kodiaks here in PNG soon.
To find out more about the aircraft — and to contribute toward the cost of purchasing them — visit the Kodiak Project: Keep ‘em Flying!
categories papua new guinea
posted by david | permalink | comments (3)
Getting from here to there
In my email newsletter two weeks ago, I mentioned that I did not yet have a flight from Sandaun Province back to Ukarumpa.
After I sent the message, I realized that my statement could have used some elaboration. Some of you probably wondered why I hadn’t just clicked on over to hotwire.com and booked my ticket already!
Actually, PNG is dotted with hundreds of tiny airstrips, most of which are never serviced by the major airlines. Flights into these airstrips may be weeks or even months apart.
Here is one such “bush” airstrip on a misty morning in Sandaun Province. Airstrips like these are often located in areas without powered mowing equipment, so the people living nearby cut them by hand with long knives. If you think that sounds like very hard work, you’re right.
To help make sure that we get where we need to go, SIL-PNG maintains a fleet of small aircraft and a high-quality staff of pilots, mechanics, and technicians. Since they have been such an important part of my work over the last eight months, I think they deserve special mention here.
I did make it back from Sandaun Province, thanks in part to Chris Bowers, who flew in to get me at a very remote and isolated airstrip late on Monday afternoon. The unpredictable clouds and approaching nightfall left little room for mucking about, but our safety standards are high, and I felt quite at ease with Chris at the controls.
Chris and an assistant refuel a Cessna 206 near Yabru village in Sandaun Province.
The next morning, Gavin Jones (a fellow LeTourneau alum) flew me and four others the rest of the way to Ukarumpa, after quite a kerfuffle about what to do with all our bags. The small planes we use are limited in the amount of weight they can carry, which keeps life interesting.
Some locations are not suitable for airstrips, like this flood-prone river village. In addition to six planes, SIL-PNG owns two helicopters, which are used to access villages like this one (note the small cleared landing pad in the upper right corner). I’ve ridden in the helicopter twice now, and I like it. The people in this village speak Yale, a linguistic isolate.
Aaaaand we’re off! I’ve flown to some of the remotest parts of the country in SIL-PNG’s planes, and I’ve consistently been impressed with pilots like Chris and Mark Wuerffel, whose presence of mind once saved me from getting stuck for two days in Daru! Thank you, pilots, and thank you mechanics, who work so hard behind the scenes to keep the aircraft safe to fly.
categories papua new guinea
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