Tyler and Emily in PNG

We just got home from 10 days in the bush of PNG. We left town on Sept. 4 and returned Sept. 14 from Gandep Bible College. Gandep is located in the rural Madang province. It took a 7 hr. van ride, 6 hr. boat ride, and a long 6 mile jungle hike to reach Gandep. We anticipated the tractor to be fixed but it was not so with the help of the students carrying our cargo we made the hike to Gandep.

The week’s focus was on one of six courses that PBT teaches. This course was on Bible Storying. Emily taught the principles of taking a story or parable from the Bible and developing skills of how to tell the story. We taught them how to outline the story and how to ask questions. We also encouraged the use of drama, song, and illustrations as well to enhance the story. We broke the class of 34 into pairs and gave each pair a story from the Bible. It was their job to turn the passage of scripture into a story.

It was fun to interact with the students as they represented ten different languages. Each morning we had devotions followed by allowing the students to read in their mother tongue language. Some groups have the whole NT while others have a few books. There were at least three languages that had no translation done in their language.

We ended the week with a small program highlighting each language group as they presented a song or drama in their mother tongue language. As customary we celebrated with a Papua New Guinea favorite, pop corn.

 
Students reading in their language       Tyler leading morning devotion

Emily leading course discussion             The Ramu River

Class picture