Tyler and Emily in PNG

When I was attending Jr. High Sunday School class at First Christian Church in Brazil, IN the teacher had a different title,  Jr. High University. We were just not an ordinary Jr. High class but we were students enrolled in University. Our teacher took the serious approach to Sunday School, this was not your social hour but rather University class. The class would start and he would ask how many chapters of the Bible we read last week. Everyone would answer and he would record. You could tell who the Bible Bowl students were from the average student. I knew during the worship service that I needed to read some chapters cause I didn’t want to be embarrassed in University class. I would diligently read during the sermon to up my chapters for class. At least I felt a little better about it than lying to the teacher about how many chapters I read the previous week.

Our teacher also believed in reading the Bible in a language that we could understand. Many of us today have a difficult time reading the King James or even the New International Version. Our teacher would give each student a Contemporary English Version Bible, simply stated, God’s Words in Your Words. It was much easier to understand and follow so this was the version of the Bible that we used in the University.

One Sunday during class our teacher made this statement, “All Bibles should be red” or at least how I understood the statement. My first thought was well yes, Jesus’ words are very important and they are in red. I agreed with the statement and thought, you are right teacher all Bibles should be red. I looked at my Bible and noticed it was blue and my Bible at home was black and brown. I though to myself, something is wrong, my Bible is not red. The conversation went on to explain that all Bibles should be ‘READ’. Ah…that makes perfect sense.

In Papua New Guinea as in any country, not all Bibles are read. Go one step further, not all languages in the world has a Bible to read. It is a huge challenge to translate the Bible or New Testament into the heart languages of the people. However this is just the first step, the next hurdle is to get God’s people to read the Bible. After all, all Bibles should be read.

The picture below is from Gandep Bible College in rural Papua New Guinea. It is a picture of the Tok Pisin Buk Baibel (Bible) along with a student’s notebook. This Bible might not be red, but from the looks it must be read quite often.