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Prayer Partner Letter
February 2015
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Dear Prayer Partners,
Brian and Hannah Paris serve Christ in Papua New Guinea. Last September Brian and some teammates went on a ten-day trip to talk with leaders of four different language groups about translating the Bible into their respective languages. Hannah wrote about a challenging experience they had on this trip. Her article follows.
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Accidentally Landing in a (Minor) Tribal War
Brian and his teammates arrived in Nemnem, a village found in the Bosmun language area, ready to work. The community leaders were already present and a large group of men were buzzing about excitedly in the “haus boi,” a structure that in many areas of PNG is built to house single men. In this area the “haus boi” serves a higher function as the “men’s house” where major community and religious events occur with men only. Women are punished severely for entering these types of structures.
The first thing the team did in Nemnem was to sit down with the leaders to figure out a good time to come together for the presentation on Pioneer Bible Translators’ new translation project their community was being invited to join. This discussion was interrupted when someone yelled from the bush and all the men ran off intent on a fight. Brian and his teammates were left alone with one community leader who quietly stated it would be safer for them to find another village to sleep in that night.
Animosity has existed between two Bosmun villages, Nemnem and Dongan, for a very long time. On this particular day an incident occurred at the primary school in Dongan where several Nemnem children were hurt by an out-of-control young man from Dongan. Just two days before the two communities had come together and found peace about this individual.
Dongan promised Nemnem they would control this boy and that no more violent episodes would occur. Nemnem promised to wait for Dongan to deal with the issue without getting involved themselves.
When Nemnem was told about the beatings at the school, they felt Dongan had betrayed their promises to take care of the problem and chose to respond in the only way they knew how; by sending a raiding party to Dongan to destroy the property of this boy’s father. It was now Dongan’s turn to feel betrayed after the peace talks and to respond in kind. Apparently they chose to do so right when Brian’s team arrived. The team quickly left the area and spent the night with a family Pioneer Bible Translators knows well in a neighboring language area.
The next morning a community leader from Dongan called and asked the team to come back to the area. Both Nemnem and Dongan had agreed to call off the fight until after the team completed their work in both villages. So in one day they presented in both villages, spent the night in Dongan, and left the area the following morning where presumably hostilities resumed.
In order to be part of this new translation project, each invited language group is required to create a board of leaders that includes representatives from each village dialect, church, and school. Though Pioneer Bible Translators is involved in the training side of this project, the weight of responsibility is on each language group to organize and direct the project. The Bosmun people are desperate to have God’s Word in their language, and despite our being encouraged by their willingness to step away from their anger for one day to hear how they might get God’s Word in their language we know it will take the power of the Holy Spirit to truly bring them into the cooperative relationship required for this project. |
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Pray that instead of seeking revenge and retaliation, these two villages will follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and consistently put as a top priority the working together with each other in translating God’s Word into their common language.
Pray that the right leaders in each village will be chosen to serve on the translation board and that they will grow in their love for each other as they feed their souls on the truth of God’s Word.
Pray that the Prince of Peace will increasingly impact and transform more and more lives in each of the 62 language groups where Pioneer Bible Translators now serves.
Pray that forgiveness and kindness will increasingly replace acts of revenge and retaliation in each of these people groups.
Thanks for your prayers,
Gerald Denny
Care Department Director
Pioneer Bible Translators |
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