Papua (MNN) — When Scripture translator Ed Maxey first set foot in Papua, Indonesia, he was closer to death than he knew. Mission Aviation Fellowship’s Linda Ringenberg tells the story.
“He was so exhausted from the hike that he laid down in the mud. He didn’t know that at that time the Ngalik warriors were hiding and surrounding him because they didn’t know who these people were, and they were going to kill him. The fact that he lay down was a sign of weakness, so they decided they were going to spare his life.”
That was over sixty years ago. Since then, the Ngalik people have benefited from Ed and his wife Shirley’s efforts to translate the New Testament into their language, a work that was completed in 1992. The Maxeys’ son Buzz and his wife, Myrna, became the second generation of translators, heeding God’s call to translate the Old Testament for the Ngalik people.
As of this year, the Ngaliks have a complete Bible in their heart language. It’s a milestone celebrated jointly by the Ngalik people, Bible translators, and MAF support pilots. Ringenberg says MAF has been helping transport Ngalik Scripture portions for years.
Pilots at Ngalik Bible Dedication Celebration. Courtesy of MAF.
“We’d been involved in helping transport even the manuscripts that were handwritten in the past and flown out of the village to be typed up.”
She says translating Scripture into people’s heart language is amazingly significant.
“They get it when it’s in their own language.”
But getting to that point is a long, involved process.
“Missionaries come and take the time to learn their language, which usually is oral and not written,” Ringenberg says. “So it takes many years for the missionaries to learn that language.”
If a people group is illiterate, the work also involves teaching them to read and write.
“The people are just so overjoyed once they are able to read God’s Word in their own language. Sometimes even the reading of their language is a newer thing to them,” she says.
Completion of the Ngalik Bible was celebrated at a dedication ceremony in Papua on February 7. Ringenberg’s husband, a head MAF pilot in Papua, took five plane loads of guests to the interior location where they had the celebration. Festivities included gifts, a greeting line, cultural garb, a worship ceremony, and a pig feast. Central to all was the cherishing of translated Scripture and its distribution to community members.
Praise the Lord for this gift!
Please pray that the hearts of the Ngalik people would continue to be open and drawn to the Word of God. Pray that they would read the completed Scripture and grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ, especially to see how the Old Testament and New Testament jointly tell the story of the Gospel.
Read more of this story here.
Ngalik Bible Dedication Celebration. Courtesy of MAF.
