While in Papua New Guinea Tania and I had the privilege of sitting in on a key terms session with key Manambu leaders. This group is situated up on the North Coast in the Sepik Province. Robin and Marva Farnsworth are working with the Manambu translation team to revise the New Testament and to translate the Old Testament. The team met in Port Moresby at the Bible Translation Association HQ – the National BT Association of Papua New Guinea.
It was great hear for me to hear them working their way through which terms to use in the translation for spirits, angels, Holy Spirit etc. The team were talking in Manambu while we watched the process but we could understand what they were doing. It was a thrill to see these men and women taking an active part in their own translation, revising the New Testament and getting to work on Old Testament portions.
But what was even more significant was hearing Ken Nayau introducing the members of the team at the beginning of the session. He told us several times that they were only a small language group consisting of 2,000 speakers, mainly in the heartland in the Sepik but with a scattering of others around the nation. Then he started to tell us the names of the people and the roles they had in Port Moresby.
I couldn’t believe it when he said each one’s name and added “ . . . he is the chief of the army.” “. . . she is the secretary to the deputy Prime minister.” “. . . he is a wealthy businessman here in Port Moresby.” “. . . she is the Head of the Education Department.” As Ken went around the table introducing each person and telling us what they did, it was amazing to see how God had taken this little, seemingly insignificant language group, given them His Word and then placed them in some key, influential roles for the nation.
Source: Robin & Marva Farnsworth and Ken Nayau and team
[PNG, small language group, smart people, in key roles, translation, power of mother tongue, God’s Word]