Author Archives: toddaowen

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Day 13: He Tabernacled In Our Midst

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John chapter one uncovers, in just a few verses, the character of God, the purpose of Jesus’ coming, and even lays out what the gift that he is offering those of us who believe. I always pause and savor verse 14 when reading this passage: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The idiom for dwelt among us in Greek is that he tabernacled among us, i.e., he pitched his tent in our midst. Significant to him pitching his tabernacle is the relationship that the Exodus Jews had with the tabernacle. When the Israelites were wandering, the Tabernacle was always in the center of their camp with the twelve tribes arrayed around it. The place where God chose to dwell among the Israelites was in the center where it could not be missed. His presence was unmistakable as his glory was either visibly present or absent.

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness

Imagine Jesus, in the flesh, in our midst: God in human form, living, breathing, speaking, listening, healing, hungering, being tempted, praying, crying out to the heavenly father, showing us the Father’s glory, the glory of the One and Only.

Think of the text in Hebrews 3:1 which challenges us: “Fix your thoughts on Jesus . . .” I remind myself regularly that Jesus is encamped right in the center of my life, his glory shining, illuminating every dark, shadowy corner of my heart, not allowing darkness to dwell there. Much better to gaze at His glory than to shut my eyes to Him and stumble in the dark.

Living the missionary life is very like Jesus pitching his tabernacle in the midst of the Israelites when he came to earth. We go, in obedience to and love for Jesus, and make our dwelling in the midst of people needing the Word of God in the language that their hearts speak. Our intention, however imperfectly it is carried out, is to be a picture of Jesus alive and working, offering grace and truth and–significantly–light and life. Morning, noon, night, when it is convenient, when it is not, we seek to breathe out the life of Jesus upon all who will receive him. We seek to make Him known, to be vessels of his glory and character to those who do not have access.

What is it worth to you to have the light shining from the tabernacle that Jesus has pitched in your heart? How valuable is it to you to have His Word in your heart language? Together, fixing our eyes on Jesus, we have a collective opportunity to invest in the future of an entire people, providing them with access to the Word of God in the language that speaks to their hearts. Would you join us in this great adventure?

The Great Adventure
If you like to join the provision team by becoming a monthly financial partner or a special projects financial partner, click here to visit our Donate page. If you like to join the Prayer team, click here to drop us an email to let us know of your desire to pray with us.

I’m praying today that the glory and majesty of Jesus will shine through you, in your family, your neighborhood, your city, your country, even to the ends of the earth. I’m praying that even as you go about your daily business, His grace and truth will be your daily bread, even the bread you offer to those around you.

May the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace. Blessings!

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Please Pray — December 3, 2013

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By now you expect to see a photo, a story, a plea. I’m laying aside all these today in lieu of a call to prayer. Today is Day 12 of 40 days of asking God for 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special projects partners, and 40 prayer partners.

Rather than seeing scores of new prayer partners and financial partners, we’d say we’ve seen an increase in spiritual warfare 40 times greater than normal (how does one quantify this sort of thing?) we’ve seen the enemy attack at any and every weak spot we have and we’ve seen a hate-filled, bare-knuckles beating occur. It has been brutal. . . we can’t say that we’ve enjoyed any of it. Once upon a time we might have thought of finding the next boat to Tarsus (and away from Nineveh.)

The sheer intensity of attack is telling. We are on the road to something transformational, foundation shaking, and spiritually significant in heavenly places.

Please pray for us as we endure the challenge before us:

  • Pray that God will cause us to stand in the evil day.
  • Pray that God will give us spiritual wisdom, understanding, and discernment to know how best to overcome in this season of opposition.
  • Pray that God will indeed raise up 40 new mature and wise prayer partners to stand with us in the gap.
  • Pray that He will grant us victory in this intense spiritual battle that is being waged.
  • Thank God for mercies extended already.
  • Thank God for giving us the power to plod through intense opposition.
  • Thank God for what He is already putting together to get us from here to there.
Prayers and Provision
Of course, if you’d like to join the team of intercessors partnering with us in this spiritual battle, click here to drop us an email letting us know of your desire to join the team. If you’d like to add dollars to your prayers and invest in foundation-shaking ministry, click here to visit our Donate page.

Thanks for praying!!!

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Day 11: Proverbs 31 and the Art of Groceries

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It was rainy season, the sky was a slate of swollen, black clouds just waiting to spew forth their rain and make our four-wheel drive trek impassable. We had been driving for the last few hours down the Ramu Highway, a saturated mixture of clay, gravel, pavement, potholes, and the occasional landslide through the mountains. We did not relish the thought of turning back toward town when we were so close to home.

Uria Trek Damage Near Water

“Lord, hold the rain back just a little while longer.” We inched up the 23% (this is not a typo) grade of the last mountain before turning onto our trek into Uria Village. All four tires were gripping the trek as we slogged over the first hill and began to skirt Somau. A few places along the way we had to power out of pig-wallow enhanced ruts. The final bog was a joyous mudfest, slogging mud from the hood to the rear of our Patrol as we finally pulled onto the soccer field that serves as sometimes helicopter pad and soccer field and our front yard.

Friends gathered around and I climbed on top of the car to begin handing cargo down from the cargo basket mounted on top. After the last box was carried up the stairs of our house, the sky opened and dumped six inches of rain in about forty minutes or so. “Thank you, Jesus, for your kindness.”

This was one of scores of trips just like it, necessary to keep our mission station supplied with goods, enabling us to live away from the urban center.

You might find what happens at the other end of the food chain equally interesting, though. Here in Florida I can go to Wal-Mart or Costco or Sam’s Club and get pretty much everything I need under one roof–from socks to steaks to stereos. Shopping in Madang is different. It is more . . . diversified. There is the butcher for meat, the grocery stores for other foods and sundries, the hardware stores for hardware type stuff, the auto stores for spare parts (if you can get them), the department store for anything from guitars to refrigerators to generators. There is the province’s largest organic outdoor vegetable market where people from Madang and neighboring provinces come to sell produce. There are what we just called the Chinese shops which sell a combination of a lot of things. There are also a few stationary shops. We have to visit virtually all of these places when we shop for supplies. I’m sure I’ve left many out.

Madang Produce Market

Madang Produce Market

Having purchased all this stuff, we head back to the Pioneer Bible Translators office where there is a room dedicated to buying and shipping stuff. Here we repackage all of it, including boxing, taping, labeling, sizing, sometimes weighing (if we are using an aircraft) the cargo for transport. All meat has to be frozen solid and flat so that it will stack into the small freezers that LP Gas refrigerators have. If we are driving our 4 x 4 we have to decide how to pack it in or even if we will have enough room. Are you exhausted yet? This kind of buying and packing can take a week or two to accomplish . . .

Shopping in Madang

Shopping in Madang

On the village side, everything is then repackaged again to protect against humidity, rats, and six-legged pests.

Who is in charge of all the buying and preparing? Let’s just say that a certain energetic woman of noble character considers this one of her spiritual gifts (as do many others whom she has helped). What do I say about her?

“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. . . Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ ” Proverbs 31:25;28-29

Join Today!
We are asking God for 40 new provision team members, 40 special projects donors, and 40 new prayer partners this month. Would you like to join us as we get the Word out in the daily grind? If you’d like to partner with us financially, click here to visit our Donate page. If you’d like to partner with us in prayer, click here to drop us an email.

Your partnership is deeply appreciated!

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Day 10: Obedient Children and the Incarnation

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One of the village realities we could almost always count on during our early years in Uria Village in Papua New Guinea was our neighbor walking to the edge of her “camp” and calling her children, at the top of her lungs, to come home. We could also almost always count on those kids to run the other direction and disappear into the bush. As one mother there once said, “Our children never do anything we tell them to do.”

Uria kids coloring under the house

When we moved to Uria in 1997, we wanted to imitate Jesus in all things, so that in some measure our friends would see what it is to follow Jesus. We watched them to learn their language and culture, they watched us to learn what we were like and, hopefully, see Jesus’ life in us.

Sometimes, their observations of us were surprising. One day I went out to talk with a neighbor who was getting on in years. His back hurt a lot and as a result, he was up and down a lot in the night.”Did you get up after midnight and use the toilet?” “Yes,” I replied. “Did you walk down the hallway of your house with your flashlight and then walk back to the other end again?” “Yes, why do you ask?” “Just curious. I heard and saw it all.” Yikes! They were watching us!

Another time one of the village mamas was sitting in the grass, talking with Angela. “When we call for our kids to come home, they never come. We call until we are hoarse and they do whatever they want. When you call your kids, they come the first time.” Hmmm . . . We trained our children to first-time obedience because we wanted to have an enjoyable life with them, to teach them respect (and of course obedience) and to teach them to obey the Lord the first time. I don’t guess it really crossed our minds that our friends would inadvertently see Jesus in it. “Why do they listen to you?” they asked.

The big word used to succinctly describe Jesus’ coming is incarnation, which can be translated from Latin as in the flesh. You will find the concept described in detail in John 1:1-14. At Christmas, we hear the story of Jesus being born of a virgin and being laid in a feed box in a cave. Angels sang praises that broke through time and space and spilled into our world. Kings and wise men worshiped the baby. Prophets were consoled. Shepherds were awestruck. Herod schemed. From the day of his birth, Jesus was surrounded by onlookers, curious spectators, penitent worshipers, men and women and children awed and astounded at his manner of life and the words that flowed from his mouth.

When we tried to live like Jesus in Uria Village, there were plenty of onlookers, curious spectators, and those who would follow Jesus watching us. Yet even as they watched us, that watching could only yield so much fruit in their lives. The Somau Garia had no amount of Scripture in the language that speaks most dearly to them. Our example was imperfect and subject to our understanding of Scripture and our ability to consistently live out our understanding. They need for us to live Jesus-honoring lives to be sure. More importantly, though, they need access to the Word of God in the language that speaks to their heart. They need it to penetrate, convict, and transform.

If you follow Jesus, you already have much of what is needed to provide access to the Word of God in their heart language. First, you have time. All of us have 24 hours per day, graciously given to us by our Father. You have the Holy Spirit living within you. Put the two together and you find a tremendous capacity for prayer. Most of us in the West also have resources that exceed our basic needs. All of these gifts can be employed to historically change an entire people.

Change History!
If you’d like to partner with Pioneer Bible Translators in getting my family and I back to Papua New Guinea to finish the task of translating the New Testament into Somau Garia, you have a few basic options. First, join the provision team by clicking here and committing to financially partner either on a monthly basis (we are seeking 40 new partners before the beginning of 2014) or for special needs (special gifts to help with special projects like airfare or set up costs). Second, join the prayer team (we are seeking 40 new prayer partners by the beginning of 2014) by clicking here to commit to pray with us on a regular basis for published needs.

Thank you for your kindness in responding to these tremendous opportunities!

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Day 9: Finding Rest in the Daily Toil

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The notion that a rooster crows when the sun comes up is largely rubbish. All the roosters I’ve ever shared real estate with are early risers that take some perverse pleasure in crowing at 3 a.m. under my house (which is on poles). The more I became accustomed to living in Uria Village, though, I realized that the insomniatic chicken was really awakened by some of our village neighbors, up and around, stirring the fire, making an early breakfast for their children, some of whom might walk two or three hours to school (and back again at the end of the day). When their kids would head off to school, they would head out for their mountainside gardens, which also might be a few hours’ walk away. The Somau Garia are mostly subsistence farmers and they must work or they will not eat. Period.

There is another toil that my friends labor under. Though I will write in more depth about it in coming posts, I will say here that my friends labor under the weight of a worldview that keeps them bound to appeasing ancestral spirits, animistic rituals, and consensus in society. This labor is exhausting to the soul and only adds to the heaviness of life. It adds a fatalism and desperation that cannot be removed short of divine intervention.

Jesus spoke to this kind of toil: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Aruamu Child Sleeping in a Meeting

How can any of us come to Jesus for rest without having access to his word in a language that makes sense to us, that speaks to our hearts? How can we begin to know or love or follow him if we cannot know objective truth as it is proclaimed in the Scriptures? Pray for the Somau Garia translation committee and for the Owen family, too, that God will see fit to bring us all together around the task of Bible translation–that we might, together in Christ, finish the translation of the Somau Garia New Testament. Pray for divine intervention for all of us involved in this process. Pray for the Owen family, involved in building a prayer and provision team to partner with Pioneer Bible Translators in sending them out to get the job done. Pray for rest for all of our souls. We are in desperate need of Jesus’ yoke, touch, and power. Pray . . .

Join the Prayer and Provision Team!
During the remainder of 2013, we are asking God for 40 new provision team members to financially partner with us monthly, for 40 provision team members to contribute to special projects, and for 40 new prayer team members to join us. For those of you feeling called to join the provision team, click here to visit the Donate page. For those feeling called to join the prayer team, click here to drop us an email letting us of your commitment.

Rest well, today. Allow the Lord to wash over you and to heal and restore you. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace.

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Day 8: Black Friday: The Future for Bibleless People

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I was sitting at the wheel of our Nissan Patrol one afternoon preparing to take a sick friend the 40 miles to a hospital situated several miles outside of the provincial capital, Madang. He was a young husband and the father of two toddlers. He had been sick for some time with what appeared to be tuberculosis. Just as I turned in my seat to see whether or not he was ready to get going, something odd happened. The club-footed shaman named Peter hobbled up to the back of the Patrol and, leaning in, he blew a handful of grayish powder in my friends face. He started wailing and speaking some sort of incantation over him. A few guys who were standing at the back of the vehicle grabbed Peter and took him aside, warning him to control himself–or else. They slammed the rear doors shut, I pushed in the clutch and put the 4 x 4 in reverse, turning around. Peter was still shouting at the vehicle as we rolled away. Three days later, the young daddy died.

A few weeks later, as I was trying to verbally unpack what had happened with one of the men who taught me language and culture, I became angry and disgusted at the whole affair. The young husband had been to town some months earlier to see a doctor. The doctor had diagnosed tuberculosis and prescribed appropriate medication–which happens to be a certain kind of antibiotic that must be taken for several months. When the local shaman found out what had happened, he upbraided this young man for taking “white man’s medicine” and told him to throw it away, that his real problem was that he had offended ancestral spirits. The Somau Garia view of the world is much more likely to see troubles as having spiritual roots than physical ones. My friend threw the medicine away. He started follow the prescribed rituals given him by Peter. It cost him his life.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, writes the Psalmist (119:105). Peter’s worldview was one that lacked the light of God’s word. His worldview would overshadow physical realities, making all spiritual. (In the West, we overshadow all spiritual realities with physical ones, making the opposite error.) His heart was darkened by an ignorance of the light of God’s word and was not only personally deceived, he led all astray who would follow his direction.

I wish I could tell you that he was the only one. He was not. He was only one of five shamans that lived in a village of 240 people at that time. That’s about one shaman for every fifty people. It is vitally important that the 4,000 people who speak the Somau Garia language have the opportunity to have God’s word, his lamp, in the language that speaks to their heart.

When Jesus began his ministry, he moved to Capernaum, fulfilling a prophecy from Isaiah, “Galilee of the Gentiles–a people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ” (Matt. 4:16-17)

Many Somau Garia people live in the shadow of death, dwelling in the darkness of those who would lead them astray into demonic practices and fear. Will they have the opportunity to know the light of life? Will they have the opportunity to have a lamp for their feet and a light for their path? Will they have the opportunity to step out of the shadows into the light?

You Can Make a Difference!
You can make a difference by partnering with PBT in sending us to Papua New Guinea to finish the New Testament in the Somau Garia language. If you’d like to join the provision team by partnering financially either on a monthly basis or for special projects, click here to visit our Donate page. If you’d like to join the prayer team, click here to send us an email to let us know of your intention to pray with us. This will give us the opportunity to keep you informed by email as prayer needs are published.

Thank you, friends, for your ongoing prayers and support.

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Day 7: Giving Thanks in Trial and Tribulation

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It is impossible to know at any given moment how our trials are affecting either us or those who surround us as witnesses of God’s handiwork in our lives. During the first several months that we lived in Uria Village back in 1997, things started going haywire. I had gone from being in the best shape of my adult life to almost no ability to function. I slept 12 to 16 hours a day, was sick all the time, and couldn’t think straight. Angela was pregnant with our daughter, having to care for two little boys (3 years and 18 months, respectively) as well as me. Her heart began to sink under the weight of it all.

Garia Crowd compressed

240 of our closest neighbors were watching the drama unfold. As my health deteriorated and Angela’s soul began to anguish, our friends reached out to us. One evening, one of our closest friends warned us not to worry if we heard unusual noises near the house the next morning. As dawn broke we heard the sound of scores of shuffling feet and the murmurs of dozens of people. Every once in a while we’d hear the words “Papa God” (Father God) or “Bikpela” (Lord) float on the surface of the prayers. Around and around our house they marched, praying, asking God to intervene in our troubles. God had used our trials and tribulation to draw these people to prayer, to desperation for Him to do something extraordinary, to call upon Him for help. In reflection, we are very thankful that the Father would use our difficulties to grow the faith of those to whom we went. In the wake of those prayers came a diagnosis for me (hypothyroidism) and relief for Angela. During all the doctor visits, it was strongly suggested by the doctors that we give birth to our daughter in Australia. We went away for a few months and recovered, enjoyed the holidays, and welcomed our daughter into our family.

two men praying

I’ve been wondering lately whether or not the season we are in is not also meant for the good of others. Even as some of the Somau Garia people responded to a call to pray for us in our most desperate hour, I think God is calling believers to encircle the challenge and trial of building a prayer and provision team, to come alongside in those days when resources are short and needs are big, when our energy is spent and more must take place before we can return to Papua New Guinea. I think God is calling believers to encircle the Somau Garia people in prayer, prayer for God’s protection and provision of the people who have both waited and worked for a few decades now toward the goal of getting the New Testament into their heart language. I think that God is calling believers to encircle the whole team that a history altering transformation might take place among the Somau Garia people, that their gifts and energies might be poured out so that Jesus’ name might be known across all of northern New Guinea, perhaps far beyond the borders of PNG to the uttermost parts.

Join us!
I’m praying that as you read this you might be cut to the quick and decide to join the team. If you’d like to join the provision team, click here to see how your donations can get the Word out to the Somau Garia people. If you’d like to join the prayer team, click here to drop us an email letting us know of your desire to pray with us through this great adventure.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Day 6 — Faith and Life Off the Grid

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Lightning spidering across the sky on a dry season night is mesmerizing. And maddening. The clouds that spawn the lightning hold such promise and deliver so little substance. At least that’s how it seemed in the late 1990’s in Uria Village.

Angela and I sat on the steps of our little house staring at the free light show, praying. We had been rationing our water as we watched the level in the fiberglass tank drop an inch or two each day. The clouds would usually gather in the late afternoon or early evening and spew a lot of lightning. No rain. Without rain we’d be unable to stay in the village for lack of water to drink, cook with, wash, etc. Day after day my attitude sank with the level of the water in the tank. I guess I felt like God owed me something. Pity parties are not useful models for prayer. “Oh God, I’ve come out here to the edge of the world to do this impossible work all because you asked me to. The least you could do would be to fill my tank to overflowing . . .” I’ll spare you the running commentary of whining. You get the picture.

2 x 2,000 gallons

2 x 2,000 gallons

A few weeks of this ritual began to take its toll. My selfish demands were going nowhere. God will not be mocked or manipulated into doing my will. To fully appreciate what I am about to tell you, you have to understand the design of my office. It is 11′ x 11′, has large windows on three sides (airflow), and a corrugated zinc-alum roof with no ceiling to muffle any sound from above. I sat down at my desk, opened my Bible, but didn’t read a thing. Instead, I bowed my head and allow the broken, submitted prayer to flow. “Father, you are God. You brought us here. It’s up to you whether or not we remain in the village or go to town to wait for rain. You do whatever is fitting to You. I’m your servant, not your master.” And as I prayed, it sounded like someone was shooting the roof of my office with BB’s. Slowly at first and then a torrent opened up and a month’s worth of rain came in an hour. The boys ran outside, splashing and dancing jubilantly. I stood in the office door and just stared at the rain, slack-jawed. Angela laughed.

Living life off of the grid is standard fare for most Bible translators. It can be wonderful and terrible but almost always faith-building in some way. When we built our “permanent” house in 2000, we installed two 2,000-gallon fiberglass tanks to catch rain water off of the roof. We had several solar panels mounted on a home-made solar tracker. Inside the house we had an 800-watt inverter that changed the direct-current power of the deep-cycle batteries into alternating current that our laptops, stereo, and other appliances could use. For high-load items like our washing machine and power tools we had a generator like what you buy at your local home-improvement store. Our refrigerator and stove ran off of LP Gas (Propane). Not all of it worked perfectly. LP gas refrigeration is a little dicey and very finicky. Even so, these “conveniences” make the task of Bible translation doable. Why?Solar Panel Example compressed

The simple answer is that without them we would spend all of our time washing clothes in the stream, maintaining subsistence gardens, hunting, fishing, carpentry, etc. The men who work alongside us in the task of Bible translation have large extended families that do extra so that they can give time to ministry. We do not. We have Maytag and Makita, DeWalt and ProWatt and Toshiba–and once upon a time, Nissan. Many of these items will need to be replaced or repaired when we return. Would you like to join us in making this possible?

Would You Join Us?
If so, click here to go to the Donate page where you will find instructions about how to partner with us financially. If you’d like to come alongside us in prayer, click here to drop us an email letting us know of your desire to do so. Between now and the year’s end, we are asking God to connect us with 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 special projects partners, and 40 new intercessors.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Day 5: The Wheels of the Work

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The kids had been asleep for a few hours at the other end of our twenty-foot long house. Angela and I were drifting off to sleep, talking quietly, listening to the night sounds of the jungle surrounding our little house. Our dog’s intense barking broke the peace of the moment and signaled to us that something was up. “Brother Todd,” a voice called. Our neighbor was braving our 110 pound Rottweiler-German shepherd to get close enough to get our attention. “It must be serious,” I thought to myself.

“Send Angela, her friend is in trouble. We think she is in labor, but something is wrong. We need help.” Angela immediately leaped out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed her Maglite and headed out the door. I was close on her heels. A few moments later she gave me the news. “Maybe a breach, birth. I didn’t think she was due just yet.” We would discover that it was something more life-threatening than that. I instinctively looked toward the path out of the village. It had been raining a lot and the road was pretty saturated. “Lord, what do I do? Can you get the 4 x 4 out of the village? I need help!”

Nissan Patrol being washed

The Nissan Patrol that played a part in this particular adventure.

We jumped into action. I ran to the house, gathered myself and my things and began loading what I would need in our Nissan Patrol 4 x 4. Angela attended to her friend. Her friend’s relatives got themselves together. I backed the vehicle down close to their “camp”. Angela’s ailing friend, nine guys with knives, and me piled in and headed into the dark, forbidding jungle. Through the bog, onto the main track, through the creek, over the mountain. Sloppy, sloggy, digging new ruts. We were really tearing it up. By grace we made it out to the main road and were headed to the hospital in Madang. Even on the main road, we needed to use power to both axles as the main road is gravel, filled with ruts, potholes, sinkholes, landslides, even stretches where the road is simply what I would call a clay bog, if you can imagine. We made it into the hospital just in time. Our friend was hemorrhaging and needed emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. The baby wouldn’t come for another month!

Tiap Road Ruts

This is perhaps more dramatic than many uses of our 4 x 4, but represents the importance of having the right gear to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a place where there are few resources (like decent roads, hospitals close by, or even electricity in rural areas). The 4 x 4 in Bible translation ministry, as we do it in Papua New Guinea, is a vital tool to help the helpless, get us to and from the village, and support the translation and literacy program in myriad ways. We are looking at options currently–what kind of 4 x 4 will meet the needs of the ministry that God has placed in our hands.

Will You Join Us?
We are on Day 5 of a campaign meant to add 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special-needs financial partners, and 40 intercessory prayer partners to the team. Would you join us? If you’d like to partner with us financially (either monthly or on a special-needs basis) click here to visit the Donate page. If you’d like to partner with us as an intercessor, click here to drop us a note sharing with us your intention to do so.
new Landcruiser

The model of Toyota Landcruiser being sold in PNG currently.

Thank you, friends, and blessings to you!

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Day 4: Ten Years in the Making: Reflections on Translating Mark

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Getting the Word Out Somau Garia Style

Getting the Word Out Somau Garia Style

I think of the guys pictured here when I think of ten years translating the Gospel According to Mark into the Somau Garia language. Don’t picture for a minute a “brave” and lonely translator sitting alone in his study day after day, bent over the desk, scribbling away. My style of working the text over is all about team work and getting people working together rather than doing it all myself.

When I think of the ten years of translating Mark I think of James, pictured on the left. James leads by force of character rather than force. His soft-spoken word carries weight in his community as does is wisdom. I think of Wilolo, also known as Wai (pronounced “why”). Wilolo is longsuffering, faithful, always ready to help. Ezekiel, in the faded red cap, is the father of the group in many ways. His vision and intense passion has turned his Christian name into a name that characterizes his fiery, prophetic personality. Kenny, in the blue shirt, seems ver stern at first, but softens when drawn into a translation problem to be worked out or giving counsel on how a phrase will be understood by hearers. Sominak you met yesterday. Stanley is kneeling on the right. Stanley has been with us from almost the beginning. He once survived being bitten by a Death Adder while attending a worship service being held during a week of translation. God kept him from dying that night and he is still at work today, helping translate Luke and Acts. The man in the colorful, PNG shirt is named Siramia. Siramia is a natural clown, of the physical sort like Dick Van Dyke used to be in younger days. Siramia has fallen on hard times and needs your prayers.

For five years these men taught me their language and their way of life. I knew nothing of their world. They taught me how to count on my fingers, how to hunt pig, how to carve a garamut drum, how their people see the world and all those important events like birth, finding a wife and death. For the next five years I taught them what I knew about how to translate the Bible and together, we drafted, tested, corrected, back translated, checked, and published the Gospel According to Mark in the Somau Garia language. Together we celebrated on Easter 2007 as we sang and danced and sold copies to the 1,000 people who were in attendance for the event.

In September this year, on a visit to Papua New Guinea, I spent time with them again. Ezekiel and I were talking one day. “Ezekiel, we have ten years to finish the other twenty-six. Can we work hard enough to get it done in that amount of time?” Only God knows but we are marking the next ten years for completion of the Somau Garia New Testament.

The biggest hitch in this plan is building the team. In order for Pioneer Bible Translators to be able to send us, we need to build a team of prayer and provision partners. To that end we are setting aside the days remaining in 2013 to connecting with 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special needs partners, and 40 new prayer partners. We started the campaign last Friday. As of this afternoon, God has provided two new prayer partners. PTL!

Would you join the growing team?
If you’d like to partner financially with PBT in sending us out, you can do so by clicking here, which will send you to the Donate page. If you’d like to partner with us in prayer, you may email us by clicking here.

Thank you friends!