South Pacific (MMN) — World Missionary Press recently sent a shipment of Bible materials to Papua New Guinea for the first time in seven years.
Distributions were made among the island nations of the South Pacific. Helen Williams with WMP sayswork in this area is difficult for several logistical reasons.
The fourteen island nations of the South Pacific are home to 800 indigenous languages spread over numerous islands.
“The population is spread out over these islands,” Williams says. “The people that we communicate with out there, they love the material. They want to keep it and keep it coming, but they don’t use it in great quantities because they just don’t reach people in the same way because of the distance and the language and all that goes on in the South Pacific.”
WMP has good, long-time contacts in this region, so the organization is making an effort to reconnect with people who may be out of materials.
Additionally, Williams says that coordinating shipments is “a networking thing” and that a contact with the Bible Society helped get materials to the islands.
Despite challenges, the ministry has seen fruit.
The container held over 3,700 booklets in Tok Pisin and English, and another pallet of materials in other languages for the Island of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands.
Williams received the report that the distributors are “Going into places where their relentless spirit not only conquered mountains and valleys, but also transformed lives along the way, equipped with gospel booklets and the powerful message of Christ’s love.”
These missionaries are not only seeking conversions. They are building relationships with locals and are seeing a ripple effect of families and communities seeking a relationship with Christ.
Despite travel challenges, Williams says, “We, as a donor-based ministry, try very hard to make every dime count, every penny count. Using these containers and then combining shipments for others in that same region, and making it possible for them to get the material more readily, more securely, and a great reduction in cost, keeps these missionaries supplied and helps us be good stewards of the funds that we have.”
WMP is sending these materials all around the world, whether that’s to the South Pacific, Scandinavia, Argentina, South Africa, Mali, wherever.
“The whole point of all of this is to share God’s love and His Word and His salvation with a world that does not know that even exists and still has a hunger for something that they don’t know what it is,” Williams says.
Please pray that English and Tok Pisin materials will be used by the Holy Spirit.
Pray with WMP over every step of the process, including production, staffing, funding, shipping, and waiting, as they seek to provide free Scripture to people around the world.
“We are seeing the Lord work in so many places around the world,” Williams says. “…If you listen to the news and read this-and-that, the world is in chaos. And it is, but I can tell you from where we are that God is working. People are coming to know Him. Villages are being changed,
and so keep up the good work.”
Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press.
