Heart to Heart, Glory to Glory P.1/3

Story by Kairu Tumae

(Kairu is a Papua New Guinean graduate from the Ukarumpa International School, this is his testimony continued…)

After graduating in 2016, my plan was to go to college. I mean that’s what most people expect you to do right?  Go to a nice college, pursue a career, get a good job and make your parents proud. At least that is what most Papua New Guinean’s families and relatives expect when they are attending an international school, as I was.

This expectation was one of the biggest things I struggled with after finishing high school.  I watched all my friends leave and go to college. My parents were going through a hard time financially so it wasn’t possible for me to continue my studies right immediately.  However, over this past year God has taught me so much more than I could have learned by sitting in a classroom.

Often we tend be so focused on what we ourselves desire that we start thinking that our desires and plans are the same plans and desires that God has for us. Then we start praying for those plans in our life that we think are God’s plans, not realizing that they aren’t. We keep praying and the plans never happen and we ask God, “Why are you not fulfilling your plan in my life?” Then it hits us. All that time it wasn’t God’s plan, it was ours. God had a different plan all along and had been working on that plan while we were complaining. One of the biggest things that I have learned this past year is exactly that: not letting my own selfish desire overcome me so much that I start thinking it’s God’s plan. Many teens do that without even realizing it and learning from it.

When I graduated from high school in 2016 I had no clue whatsoever that I would be in place like Kompiam working with a mission this early in my life. I had planed since 11^th grade to take pre-med classes in the United States after I graduated. I took all the science classes I could. Whenever people asked me what I wanted to do after high school, I told them I hoped to go to the US to study pre-med and come back and serve people in my country in the medical field. Little did I know that while I was planning all of this, God had a plan for me to serve people in my country now without having to go to college.

We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9 NLT

Sweeter Than Honey

 

Story by Stephanie Ernandes

Photo by: Jude Snelson and Maggie Ferris

“Read it. Read it. Read it. Read it.  God will make it clear to you!” one church leader shouted out over the 500 people attending the Barok New Testament dedication.   Approximately 1/5^th of the Barok people, a language group of about 2400 in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea, showed up to celebrate.  A group of women celebrating through dance decorated themselves in colorful clothing, arranging brightly colored flowers in their hair and wearing the typical PNG clothing for ladies, known as meri-blouses.  Singing arose to the heavens and many speeches were made.

Over and over leaders and speakers emphasized the importance of reading the Word that they would receive that day.

“This book has power to change you if you read it and live it.”

“This book is “swit moa” (very sweet). This book is a seed. Plant it and watch it grow.”

After sharing a childhood memory of his dad having saved a man from a cliff by throwing down a rope to him and pulling him to safety Ed Condra, the translation consultant working with the national translators encouraged the Barok people, “Grab the rope, a rope that will save you from falling to your death. Hold on tight. This New Testament is your rope. Hold on tight!”

A national translator from another translation program stated, “This book will set you free.  Food must be eaten to benefit the body. The Bible is food for your soul.”

“After the speeches and songs finished, a traditional feast with roasted pigs and garden produce was held while people gathered in groups to open and read their Barok New Testaments for the first time – food for their bodies and indeed, food for their souls,” reminisced Maggie Ferris, one of the invited guests.

“Remember this day. September 8, 2017 is the day we received our New Testament. Remember this day.”

During the ceremonies an elderly woman thanked the translation team for making the words so sweet.  It’s hard to imagine how difficult it must be to try to understand the Bible in a language that is not your own.  But this old woman instantly recognized what David exclaims often in the Psalms:

How sweet are your Words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!   (Psalm 119:103 NKJV)

 

Menya NT Dedication

Video by Amy Evers

Spontaneous Worship

By Rachel Greco

When mission organizations first landed in an area in Papua New Guinea, they were faced with about fifty languages. The organizations decided to find a dominant language and translate the Bible into that language as well as songbooks, materials for schools, etc. When the mission traveled to a neighboring language, they taught the people this dominant language, so that they became bilingual.

In the Rabaul area, the dominant language, or language of wider communication, was Kuanua. Wherever the church traveled in these first days, they took Kuanua with them. Now, several generations later, no one has been schooled in Kuanua, however it is still used in some churches because there are a few people from that language group still scattered throughout this part of Papua New Guinea.

The churchgoers in this area are reverent and quiet in the services. But when the Baining people are able to use their language, Ure, in the service instead of Kuanau, the difference is as huge as the ocean. “It’s electric, like someone has turned on the lights,” one of the language helpers for the Baining people said.

People will clap, kneel, raise their hands in the air, confess sins, praise God, and dance. No one came in and taught the Baining people how to do these things; it is all spontaneous, a rush of joy and delight in their God bursting out of their hearts as they’re able to worship Him in their own language.

Sometimes if an outsider is at one of these church services, they prefer to listen to the service in the language of the Baining people because of the passionate atmosphere, even though they can’t understand the words. The people’s spontaneous worship contrasts so sharply with the usual quiet, reserved behavior of the Baining people, and reveals that their love for the Lord is real.