Tyler and Emily in PNG

One of the joys of working with Pioneer Bible Translators is the ability to meet national co-workers such as Siria. Every morning I would poke my head into his office space and see how he was doing. Siria and I would small talk, smile and I would encourage him as he often gets discouraged from the process and others. As times I would encourage him to take a break and enjoy some hot tea or coffee to give him a rest.

Siria is a member of the Aruamu translation team. Back in 2005, this language group in north Madang Province dedicated the New Testament. This language group is now working on the whole Bible. The Aruamu translation team hopes to dedicated the whole Bible in 2020.

Over the past month, Siria along with another member of the team came to town to draft parts of the Old Testament. Siria (pictured) is doing his part in the long process of Bible translation by completing the first step of drafting. He is using the trade language of PNG, Tok Pisin, as a base layer to translate from. The Tok Pisin language has a complete Bible allowing Siria which he can read and understand to draft into his language, Aruamu.

Siria was tasked to draft the book of Deuteronomy. Siria reads the Tok Pisin, then does his best as in the sense of drafting into his local language, Aruamu. This is the very first step in the very long process of Bible translation. Siria is pictured writing in his notebook and using the computer program, Paratext for language resources such as the Tok Pisin Bible. Later, he will type his rough draft of Deut. into the computer program for others to check and edit.

Thank God for men like Siria who are working tirelessly to translate God’s Word into their language. Siria left his family, home, and garden to come to town which is an overnight truck ride to work. Pray for Siria that God will use him mighty to help translate the Old Testament for the people of the Aruamu language group. Pray for the translation team that they will complete the whole Bible by 2020. Praise God that they have the New Testament as of 2005.