by Craig Throop
Located in the South Pacific just north of Australia is the country of Papua New Guinea. Described by some as a tropical paradise, it is a resource-rich land full of natural, cultural, and linguistic diversity. Papua New Guinea has the distinction of being the most linguistically diverse country on earth. Scattered over an area a little larger than the state of California are some 850 people groups, each speaking a distinct language.
The challenge of communicating the gospel in a country with such cultural and linguistic diversity led many missionaries in the earlier years to use Melanesian Pidgin (a trade language spoken widely throughout the country) or one of the more prestigious local languages as their medium of communication. Since the mid-twentieth century, a concerted effort has been made by a number of mission agencies to translate the Bible or parts of it into the local languages. Despite all the work that has been done, there still remain nearly 400 people groups who do not have any portion of God’s Word in their own language.
My wife Linda and I began working among the Kaulong people in 1979. The Kaulong people live on the island of New Britain, a large island northeast of mainland Papua New Guinea. Over the years we have concentrated on translating the New Testament into the Kaulong language, believing that having the Scriptures in the vernacular language is a necessary foundation for establishing strong indigenous churches.
We joined Baptist Mid-Missions and its translation division, Bibles International, in 2004. Since then we have been involved in church planting and leadership training in addition to our Bible translation work. We have planted two churches and are hoping to plant at least two more before we leave the area after finishing the New Testament translation project. After completing the Kaulong New Testament translation, we would like to devote the remaining years of our ministry to translating the Old Testament into Kaulong, and to promoting Bible translation in the local churches. Linda and I would also like to be involved in helping set up a local-church-based Biblical-theological training network for training spiritual leaders at all levels of society.
Even with all that has been done by missionaries and local believers over the years, much work remains to be done to complete the Great Commission in Papua New Guinea. Most Papua New Guineans would say they are Christians, but they do not have a clear understanding of the gospel of the grace of God. Spiritual leaders need to be trained who can systematically teach the whole counsel of God’s Word to their own families and tribal groups in the language they understand best, their own mother tongue.