God is Not Finished

Story and Photo Credit: Karen Weaver

For generations the Pinai-Hagahai people have lived in small villages nestled among the high mountains of Papua New Guinea.  When surveyors visited the language area, they found a people group with no schools, no cash crops, no airstrips, no roads to the rest of PNG, and very little use of any outside languages.

It was to this people group that Markus and Liisa Melliger allocated in 1994. After months of prayer for God’s direction as to where to build their house, they settled in the one village that had a fledgling church. Their excitement at the beginning of their work was crushed a few months later when criminals entered the village, looting their house and using violence against the local people. Eventually the whole village was destroyed and the entire population was forced to leave.

But God was not finished with the Pinai-Hagahai people. The villagers fled to safety across the river. They went to a region of the language area where there had been virtually no knowledge of the Lord. Through the work of these refugees, some members of the host village came to know the Lord. Five years later the displaced people were able to return to their home area. In the village where they had lived for half a decade, there was now a small but thriving church, as a result of their testimony.

By 2008 the Melligers had completed the translation of the four Gospels and Acts. However, with no schools in the area there were only a few people who knew how to read. Although illiteracy was an obstacle, God was not finished with the Pinai-Hagahai people. The five translated books of Scripture were not only printed but also recorded and strategically distributed to all the villages on MegaVoice players before the Melligers left for an extended time in their home country of Switzerland. While they were away, these MegaVoice players were used frequently. In villages all across the language area small groups of people listened to the Scriptures on the audio players and the lives of many were changed: some committed themselves to Christ for the first time, others started going to church, and others became deacons and church leaders.

Five years after their departure to Switzerland, the Melligers returned to the Pinai-Hagahai people. Sadly, when they returned they found that practically their entire team of co-workers had dissolved. Some had died, others had moved away or gone their separate ways. How would they translate more Scripture without a team of people to help them?

Once again, God was not finished with the Pinai-Hagahai people. Markus and Liisa were able to find new co-workers and used the five books that had already been translated to disciple these young people.  As a result, they are not only able to help translate more books of the New Testament, they are also growing in their faith in Christ, in their understanding of the Scriptures, and are becoming leaders in the local churches.

As he shares about God’s faithfulness, Markus likes to remind others, “God was not finished with the Pinai-Hagahai people, and he’s not finished with any of us. Whatever your situation, God is still at work. Perhaps a few years from now you will look back and see how God worked through the hard things in your life, just as he has done for the Pinai-Hagahai people.”

Translator Transformed

Story: Karen Weaver

When Naki was a child, he left the village and went to live with a cousin who was working for a big company. He became a town guy. Unfortunately, he also learned the ways of the town and fell into bad behavior. In the end, he was put in prison for seven years for killing a man.

After he left prison he wanted to change. Because he also wanted to provide for his family, he went to Lihir to work in the gold mines. At the end of a year there, his young daughter died and he went back to the village to attend her funeral. But he was sad to go empty-handed; he had spent all the money he had earned, most of it on drinking. This was a “wake up call” for him. He realized that as much as he had wanted to change and provide for his family, he had not.

About that time he met Miskum David, who was the team leader of the Tigak translation team. Miskum David looked beyond Naki’s troubled past, saw the potential in him, and invited him to join the translation team.

At first, Naki doubted his own ability to stick with the translation work. He knew his faith was weak and he still struggled with anger. But Naki had some computer skills and good English. The translation team was in need of such a person to join them. Naki attended the seven modules of Luke Partnership Islands project and has been working faithfully with the other two Tigak mother tongue translators. The team is nearing the completion of the Gospel of Luke, their first Bible portion in Tigak.

Naki himself testifies, “When I joined the translation team I did not know if people would approve. Everyone saw me as an angry, violent, short-tempered man. But interacting with God’s Word daily has changed me. I am no longer a slave of anger or a dangerous man. Now my wife is happy and people come to us for marriage counseling. I know this Bible translation has really changed my life as I have studied God’s Word.”