Tyler and Emily in PNG

One of my favorite times of the church service here in Papua New Guinea is testimony time. This is the opportunity for the church to stand up and give praise, thanksgiving, recite a Bible verse, sing a song or simply testify. Some weeks there are four or five and other weeks there are none, but usually there is at least one testimony.

One of my favorites comes from a regular attender and you knew the Holy Spirit had been working on this particular morning. When he got up to speak he honestly said, ‘the Spirit has awaken my soul this morning so I had to get up and say something about it.’ I love to hear what God is doing amongst His people.

This morning at church a man from out of town was visiting Madang. As testimony time approached the song leader provided the lead in for anyone to come forward and testify. The visitor quickly rose with his pocket size New Testament in hand that was coverless. His message and encouragement to the church was obedience is better than sacrifice. He went on to explain that following Jesus is better than any offering or sacrifice that we may bring to him. Jesus calls his disciples to ‘follow me.’ As he called Matthew the tax collector, the four fisherman, etc…Jesus simply said ‘follow me.’ To follow after Christ we are called to obedience in Him.

There are often times at church my mind wonders or I don’t understand what is being said or I am simply overwhelmed with the surroundings but this morning there was only one testimony from a visitor which spoke to my heart.

A couple weeks ago we left town and headed to the village of Ono. It is about 1 hour 15 minutes drive on the Ramu Highway. The Ono Church of the Nazarene is situated along side the dusty, bumpy highway. We were drawn to this church because one of the PBT workmen, Frank, is from this area. (He actually lives about 2 hour walk from Ono on another mountain ridge.) The Ono church resides inside on of PBT’s language groups, Somau Garia. We not only used this chance to visit and encourage Frank but we encouraged the people to use vernacular scripture and hand out a few books of Mark in their local language. It was a pleasant trip to meet the people, pastor, and worship with them in Spirit and in song.

Pastor Titus is the church pastor. He is not from the area but from the Southern Highlands Province. He is a recent graduate from the Nazarene Bible College and has been at the Ono Church for five months. As I anticipated him asking me to preach I politely declined replying I wanted to hear his message. He did give Emily and I a chance to speak following the message.

Pastor Titus like most Papua New Guineas gave an illustration relative to their culture to that of Biblical reference. He referenced the story of Joseph when the King of Egypt granted Joseph permission to take the King’s wagons and bring Joseph’s family to live with him in Egypt. (Gen 45). The imagery in Tok Pisin was a car or perhaps a bus. He stretched the story to tell about the Holiness Bus is coming. Not a Greyhound bus or school bus or some kind of taxi, but a bus destined for Kingdom of Heaven. This bus is one way, direct, and without any stops. The best part is there is no fee for the bus ticket. The ticket can be found within scripture and anyone can ride the bus. “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” John 5:24.

It was a joyful day to see a village church with over 90 people (men, women, and children) worshiping the Lord. Emily and I both shared the ministry of PBT and encouraged the use of their local language. They currently have the book of Mark and have drafted portions of the New Testament. Please pray for the Somau Garia people that their lives will be transformed through God’s Word.

The future is here! The ability to put translated scripture onto smartphones and like devices is now here thanks to a brand new SIL application called, Scripture App Builder. While attending a recent conference in Australia, I learned how to create and develop many types of scripture related apps. I would like to give a quick demonstration of what the app would look like on your smartphone or Android device.

First let me tell you the sequence of events to the short video clip:

– You will see scripture text (Gospel of Mark) from the Mborena Kam language. The app opens to Mark 1 and it is demonstrated how you scroll up/down the page.
– Next, select the chapter number which opens a chapter selection box. Chapter 2 is selected.
– This screen is different because there is accompanying audio with the text. You will notice a speaker icon in the top icon bar. Once you unmute the speaker and press play you will notice each portion of the text is highlighted and synchronizes with the accompanying audio. After a few portions are read, the text is advanced by pressing fast-forward. The screen scrolls automatically along with the highlighted text.
– Chapter 2 audio is paused then it is demonstrated how you can swipe to the next chapter as an alternative to selecting the chapter selection box as before.
– Last you can also change text size and background color of your choice.

This application is currently only for Android devices. The reason being that most smartphones in developing countries that nationals are purchasing are Android based devices.

Scripture App Builder is not only a Bible or scripture app but it can be tailored to other uses as well. It can be used as a picture book for oral Bible stories, it can create a song book or hymnal, plus others. The neat thing is both the text and audio can be synchronized with a matching highlighted area to easily show the reader where to follow along. In a highly illiterate country this feature will play an integral part in fluency and literacy rates amongst language groups.

The future is not only here but it is bright and alive.

Happy New Year or Hepi Niu Yia (Tok Pisin)!

One of the new year activities is to toss out the old calendars and hang up the new calendars. Yes, it is time again to roll out the new calendar with the pretty photos and replace 2014 calendars. Your new calendar may already be filled with events, vacations, appointments, and birthdays. Or you calendar simply looks like the one below.

Neither Emily or I are into New Year Resolutions so we like to set goals moving into the New Year. This New Year we have one goal in mind. We both fully believe that serving in ministry requires one thing, prayer. In fact the strategy of Pioneer Bible Translators is exactly that, prayer.

We are both humbled by the continued support by many of you either financially or prayerfully or both. Our ministry with PBT in PNG would be literally a heap of rumble if it were not with prayer. I believe prayer is the grease to the gears which God enables the wheels to turn. We are grateful and honored to those who are faithful in prayer.

This New Year we have committed to praying for those who support us financially. Our calendar is not filled with events or appointments rather with the names of those who regularly give to our ministry with PBT. Each day we will be praying for one financial partner asking God to bless the giver and return blessing in their daily life. If you are a regular financially partner, you can be assured that we are praying for you this year, 2015.

Not to be forgotten, each Sunday we will be lifting up a different church that is a partner with us. As an extension of the church in PNG, we are appreciative of the global outreach each church has demonstrated. We will be praying that God will bless the church’s local efforts in reaching the lost and making disciples.

May God bless you in 2015!