By Laura Roberts
2011 was the 400th anniversary of the completion of the King James Bible, the most widely read English translation ever produced. Now that 2012 has begun, I thought it would be interesting to research a little more about the history of Bible translation in my tok ples, or vernacular language, English. I am truly blessed as an English speaker, because I have many translations of the Bible available to me.
The first entire translation of the Bible in English was completed by John Wycliffe, an English priest, in the 1380’s. During the time of the Reformation, men such as William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale worked to make the Bible available to the English-speaking world. Then in 1604, King James I of England commissioned a committee of fifty men to create a revision of earlier Bible translations. The King James or Authorized Version was completed in 1611. (World Book Encyclopedia, 1986, vol. 2, pgs. 222 c-d)
In recent times, a plethora of English translations have been produced. This morning I went on a Christian bookstore’s website and found over twenty translations and paraphrases for sale, and I’m sure that there are many more available (www.christianbook.com). I am grateful for the access we have to God’s Word in English, especially since English is so widely spoken. However, it grieves me that there are so many people in the world that do not have even one translation of the Bible in their language. How can a person really know Jesus well without access to His Word? We have been blessed in the English-speaking world. It is time for us to bless others with access to the Word of God. That is why we do what we do in Pioneer Bible Translators.
 Laura is a teacher for missionary children.
By Rhonda Hayward
Yuwolim is my hero. He doesn’t even realize it. He is a man of incredible faith. Inspiring faith. Humbly, he considers it normal to trust God for all things, despite severe testing.
 A few years ago, Yuwolim’s son, Jonah, began having multiple daily seizures. We flew Yuwolim & Jonah to a large hospital. The seizures continued. Yuwolim tells the story: “We went to the hospital and got some medicine, but it didn’t help Jonah at all, so we came back to the village. I was very confused, ‘What should I do?’ I felt God saying to me, ‘You must not worry, but focus on me instead.’ So I released Jonah to God, to do with Jonah as He wanted. I realized that life or death were good in Jesus. Some people wanted to work magic by calling on the spirit’s aid to heal Jonah. I said, ‘No. God is the one caring for Jonah. Why would I go to someone else for help?’
Yuwolim & others kept praying for Jonah, but for over two years, the seizures continued unabated, with continued pressure to call in a shaman. Yuwolim adamantly refused & stood firm in his faith. Medicine was eventually found to help the seizures. We continue to pray for complete healing.
Yuwolim’s wife, Siliben, testifies, “God has cared for us—in good and hard times. He has helped and provided for us in many ways. We are never short or in need. He is so very big and good. We are not afraid. God is always with us”.
Steve & I have seen God answer prayers for healing. But another equally precious answer to prayer is faithfulness in the midst of trials. We have prayed for years that the Tay mature and become strong Christians, living life victoriously in God instead of in constant fear of Satan and his forces. God is answering that prayer powerfully in the life of Yuwolim and his family.
Join us in praising the Lord for Yuwolim’s strong witness. And pray for continued trust in God & healing for Jonah.
Steve and Rhonda are serving among the Tay language group in Bible translation.
By Emily Hinebauch
Day in the life of Emily wearing her buyer-shipper (person who takes orders from teams living in the village, runs around town to buy items, and ships them off via plane, helicopter, boat, or car)hat.
(7:30 a.m.) I had it all planned out. I was going to go into the office early put all the items to send out to Samban on the table ready to load, boss the radio sked, run to the Chemist for the last minute medicine order, send an office colleague to the market for the big market order and make the last dash to the store for eggs and bread. No biggie.
All items on the table ready to load-check- (8:00 a.m.).
Boss radio sked,-check- but while bossing radio sked I learn that my loading for the flight going to Samban is contingent upon the expiry dates on the fuel, the person in the bush is going to check the dates and send an email with them before the flight is due to depart from Madang-check-(8:30 a.m.).
Send a colleague to the market, check, she is sent off (8:30 a.m.).
Run to Chemist-check- quick and painless, actually easier than normal (8:45 a.m.).
Return, discover I need to ready some food for a patient who is in town for a treatment because my colleague hasn’t returned from the market to do this-done- (9 a.m.).
The office colleague returns with the news that the major market is closed down. Still need to find K40 of potatoes. Brainstorm, okay let go check out two other markets outside of town, still have a bit of time before the flight (9:15 a.m.).
Get in the car and drive out to other markets, no luck. Drive back to town and discover a lady on the side of the major market selling potatoes. Okay, acquired K40 of potatoes (10:00 a.m.).
Now to find some onions, run to the closest store (a block away) to check, none. Remember I need bread and eggs, run to other store for bread and eggs and check for onions there (10:30 a.m.).
On my way to the store I get a phone call from logistics saying, ‘you need to come back now, plane is ready to load we need to get to the hangar.’ Okay, arrange to have the other truck start loading the cargo I had previously set out for loading and grab the eggs and bread from the store. Hurry back to the office; check my email to see if we received any news on the expiry dates, no news. Load 384kg of cargo in the truck, thankful for teammate’s major help in this as I finish packing up the eggs and bread and grab the cargo list, knowing I will have to take some kilos off because we didn’t have confirmed expiry dates. Off to the hangar we go (11:00 a.m.).
 Arrive at the hanger; pilot says 375 kilos can go. Great, only have to take off 8 kilos, easy. Phew. Get everything situated on the cart to load into the plane, than the pilot comes back saying that we have to take off 53 more kilos because we were not able to get the expiry dates. Alright, rearrange some things pull of more boxes, 323 kilos ready to go to Samban (12:00 p.m.).
All in all, it went relatively closed to the plan. Didn’t for see the market closure or the need for expiry dates on the fuel drums in Samban.
Emily serves as the Scripture Use Specialist along with many other areas of ministry.
By Jacque Harper
While in Papua New Guinea GOOD HEALTH is of major importance to each of us but especially to those of us on the older end of time. We are fortunate to have a wonderful Australian doctor just 3 blocks from our office but he is limited in his services to us by poor laboratory and x-ray facilities in our town and often even by medications NOT being available. Depending on his findings he often must resort to advising us to get to Australia or our home country to get further diagnosis or treatment.
Bob fell and broke his elbow 9/14. Fortunately the x-ray machine was working and the E.R. had plaster for an elbow cast.
Health is an area where we have constant opportunities to depend on our faithful healer, Jehovah Rapha, in PNG. It is also an area where Satan likes to attack us whenever possible to slow down or destroy the work of Bible Translation as well as other ministries. We are on guard to prevent as much injury and illness as possible and get back in shape quickly. Despite all our efforts Bob and I have had several more doctors visits than ever this year in PNG and because of them we ended up returning to America for a thorough checkup in November and December 2011. We could not afford to have our illnesses cause any long lasting effects to keep us from the work God has called us to in PNG. Our doctors have given us the all clear, 30,000+ mile checkup and we are ready to return to PNG in early January 2012. For that we really praise our LORD.
During our first terms in PNG we had used the MIGHTY Papaya (Pawpaw) for several minor ailments and it did a great job. It was not able to help us as much during this period, however. Here is some very interesting information about it for you.
Bob and Jacque serve in the area of Technical Services and assist in many more areas of the branch.
Every year during this time, Pioneer Bible Translators has a special gift giving opportunity available. This year the branch in Papua New Guinea has two gift options.
Laptops
National translators in this isolated island nation are working to translate the Scriptures into their own mother tongues. As they work on Scripture drafting, they write out rough drafts of the text in notebooks. Laptop computers will empower them to type in the text and then use translation software to edit and check for accuracy.
$1000 per laptop (3 are needed)
Curriculum
You can be a part of enabling children in Papua New Guinea to read, so that when they receive the Scripture in their language group they will be able to hide it in their hearts! This curriculum will provide literacy teachers with detailed lesson plans in three languages.
$250.00 for each language
$750.00 for all three language groups
You can follow this link to donate for any of these items: Give Now
By Chris Urton
 Ede. Na mube kub kaiudi nono güre sinoyeregün. Bangar nub yanim Jisas yanübaue. Nu eregeam büreregeaga. Bangar Keriab Kekia Asaub Nono güdi yanübaweregen. Bangar Keriabüde, oyebeb Devit sibe erekokayau difereregeaga.
Luk 1.31-32
Listen. You will be body heavy and you will carry one baby boy. Thus you will call his name Jesus. He will be bigman. Thus they will call him Son of God Very On Top. And God will make him a very bigman like ancestor David.
Back Translaton of Luke 1.31-32 in the Sob Language
 It hardly seems possible that a year ago we were doing a consultant check of the first few chapters of Luke in the Sob language. After we finished the consultant check we worked hard to get a booklet done of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. The booklet followed the litergical readings for the week leading up to Christmas Day.
We distributed 50 copies of the booklet around the village. The Sob people could then read or listen to someone else read the Christmas story according to Luke in their heart language.
Please pray that we can remain strong in finishing the book of Luke so they can have a fuller understanding of Jesus.
Chris and Lori Urton has serving among the Sob language group in Bible translation.
By Diane Miller
 The two Akukem Bible translators on the left in the above picture and the two literacy worker on the right speak the Akukem language. They and one other literacy worker recently spent some time working in our Office in Madang. The literacy workers completed shellbooks containing 20 different stories for their Elementary Prep schools and worked on about 20 other titles which are now in various stages of completion. Caspar (grey shirt) doubled as a literacy worker and translator, joining the literacy team until Leo could get to town and then continuing to check printed stories in between translation tasks. Two of the men who came drew pictures for original stories being produced in a manner similar to shellbooks. As a part of promoting literacy throughout Papua New Guinea, Pioneer Bible Translators (PBT) produces hundreds of shellbooks , but just what is a shellbook and how is it produced?
Our computer files include templates for books contributed by other mission groups, by the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Department of Education and by various individuals as well as by PBT personnel. The booklets in the templates have pictures but no words—just shells of books—but we alsohave files with English and Pidgin versions of the stories  represented by the pictures. To produce a shellbook in a certain language we give speakers of that language a printed copy of the pictures and text for the book which we call a “shell for translation’ and ask them to translate the story into their language. Once translated into the desired language, the story is then typed into a computer and saved as a file. The printed file goes back to the those who translated it or to another speaker of the same language to be checked. After corrections are marked and entered into the computer, this process is repeated again and again until there are very few or no corrections. At this point the text is copied into the book template or shell. The checking and correcting process resumes and continues until the book is finally deemed finished and a final copy can be printed.
 The process for creating books with original stories is similar, but someone must first write a simple story designed for a specific literacy use such as school curriculum, adult literacy classes, or building of libraries. Someone must draw pictures to accompany the story and then both the pictures and story can be entered into the computer. Only after several checking sessions is the book ready to be printed and used. Having these templates or shells for producing books makes it relatively easy to provide reading material in a variety of languages for the people in those language groups who wish to learn to read. We have shells of Biblical stories as well as other stories and we pray that all of these shellbooks will be used to build reading skills which will enable people to read and understand the Word of God in their heart languages.
Diane serves through the ministry of developing curriculum and literacy material.
By Norm Weatherhead
In August of 2007, the Papua New Guinea Branch of Pioneer Bible Translators invited me to come over to PNG so that I could attend a six-week course to be trained to become a Bible Translation Consultant. This was very exciting for me as I had been asking God what He would like me to be doing next in my translation ministry.
Let me explain the importance of this training. The ultimate goal of everyone in PBT is to get the translated Word of God into the hands of the local people in a language that speaks to their hearts. First, there must be an initial rough draft of the Scripture portion being worked on. Then there is a lengthy period of testing and revising. Finally, a translation consultant is brought in to do one more check on the Scripture portion before it can be published.
The problem is that we see more Scriptures being prepared for the consultant checking phase than there are consultants available to do the actual checking. There often is backlogged material ready to go forward, so I was eager to get this training so that I could help out. Though my life had taken many twists and turns, I believed the principle that God does not waste the experiences of our lives if we commit ourselves totally to Him.
Even during the training course I could see how God was able to use all the previous years of my life to help me do a good job as a consultant. The theological degrees, the linguistic training, the pastoral ministry experiences and life in the village as a translator for five years gave me insights into how to bring God’s Word to life in meaningful ways to people of a different culture and language than mine. What a privilege it is to serve God in this way.
Norm is a translation consultant based in North America.
By Jill Riepe
My day started normal enough. I got up at 5:30 am and got ready to run with the dog. However, as I was getting ready, I noticed that my new kitten, Piita (means speedy in Ap Ma), had had an accident on the bathroom rug. Well, that meant today would be a laundry day as well. I took Bella, the dog, for her run. She did extremely well even staying with me when I let her off the leash on the airstrip. Of course, the doggy treats that came in a recent care package may have been the reason behind this. We did 5 laps around the airstrip and headed back. When we got back to the house, I pumped water into the header tank on top of my house so I would have plenty of water to wash clothes and drink for the day. I started getting ready for the day and threw the laundry in the bath tub with some soap. As the tub was filling, I made myself some coffee and refilled the water filter. Then I heard, “Ma, ma, dispela voltmeter, em i no wok.” It was my waspapa, Maso. The one of the batteries in the translation office was not running the inverter so the translators were not able to charge their computers from it. I had given him the voltmeter to check to see if the battery was actually charged. However, something was wrong with my voltmeter. Since I had changed the battery for that the day before, I doubted that the battery for the voltmeter was dead. So I suggested that we borrow a voltmeter from the missionaries in the next village over and I offered to do that since I had to go to radio sked at their house. I checked my watch. It was 7:56 am and sked was at 8:15 which meant that I needed to hurry so I could make the walk in time to get to sked. Pioneer Bible Translators has a scheduled radio time every work day at 8:15 am for village teams to check in and to communicate with the national translators in other allocations. I got my coffee and slipped on my sandals and walked up to Samban. I borrowed a voltmeter from the Jesse and Karie Pryor who work in Samban doing community development. It was in the midst of the radio sked that I realized that I had forgotten to turn the water off on the tub. As soon as my traffic (what I needed to communicate/what others want to communicate to me) was done, I rushed down to my house to turn off the facet. Fortunately, the water did not overflow, but now there was enough water in the tub that I decided to wash my bed sheets so I threw them in there as well. I let those soak in the soapy water and I walked over to talk with my wasmama, Dani, and deliver the voltmeter so that my waspapa would be able check the battery.
As I was stomping on my laundry to get the dirt out, I heard, “Golo, golo, ñin komputa miña bola kal.” It was my was-uncle who is working on the Old Testament translation team. He had come to me earlier and said that he wasn’t able to get his computer to save his work. I had worked with him yesterday, but had not been able to recreate what the problem was so I told him the next time he had the problem to put the computer on hibernate and come see me. I explained that I was doing my laundry and that once I had the clothes out in the sun I would come help him. I finished washing my clothes in the tub and rinsed them and hung them on the line that I put up in front of the house. I have the line in a loop attached to two pulleys so I can pull the line and the clothes get hung up under my eaves. This protects them from any sudden rain storms as long as the wind is not too strong.
Then I went to see my was-uncle at the translation office. I had him show me what he was doing. We discovered that the problem was that when he saved he typed Sam 100:1-5, but the computer did not allow (:) in the file name, therefore he was getting an error message and it wasn’t saving. I explained the problem to him and showed him that he should type Sam 100.1-5 and it would save. I was so glad that it was a simple fix; however, it’s sad to realize that he’d been struggling with this for about 2 months because he had no one to help him. I headed back to my house and mixed up my bread for it to rise as I write this story. Whew! All this happened before 10 this morning.
Not every morning is exciting as this, but generally there are things that come up and that pushes back the work that was planned for the day.
Jill is a Bible translator among the Ap Ma language.
By Tyler Hewitt
As a temporary role assignment I am filling in for three months doing the routine Technical Services task list. Mostly the job consists of supervising and training two national men as they are the backbone of this job. Tech Services is another fancy name of ‘super maintenance man.’ Tech Services does anything and everything that deals with fixing and keeping things running as they should. PBTPNG has numerous housing properties and keeping all properties in viable condition is an ongoing task in itself.
I hope you enjoy watching a short clip about what Technical Services is and what they do on a regular basis.
Tyler serves the branch through Information Technology but more recently accepted the temporary assignment in Tech Services.
By Lori Witham
Returning after six-months in the States, it was almost as if I was seeing this hot and humid South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea for the first time. For the first two weeks while my senses were keenly aware of the differences from life in America, I jotted down everything that caught my attention. Here’s what I wrote:
While at my house, I’m always sweaty; I’m always wearing either flip flops (“thongs”) or bare feet. If I am outside for any length of time, my clothes and feet get dirty (mostly the fault of my dogs.) I got an infection on my toe within the first week. I’m aware that if I use too much water, the rainwater water tank shared by the Duplex neighbor will empty quickly. But I’m drinking lots of  water throughout the day so as not to become dehydrated.
I have a fourteen foot papaya tree at my door that wasn’t there seven months ago, with six small papayas already growing on it! I’m hanging my clothes outside to dry, though it’s taking longer with it being the rainy season. I’m buying fish, honey, bananas, tea, and sugar all grown in PNG.
I hear roosters crowing almost any hour of the day or night. In the mornings I’m listening to the missionary children staying next door, being homeschooled by their mother and grandmother. I hear cheering on the neighborhood road early in the morning, and out the window I see a large group of college kids marching against corruption. In the back yard, over the fence in the neighbor’s yard, a national boy is shinnying up a palm tree to collect betelnuts. Finally, when I go grocery shopping at my usual store, two young cashiers recognize me and welcome me back from America!
Lori is the administrator of Publications and serves through typesetting scripture.
By Lindy Pate
Every language has idioms which are not understood by outsiders. Outsiders may simply find such phrases incomprehensible or slightly funny. The language of Apal is no exception. One time I  overheard a conservation about bad water. Apparently, in a neighboring village there was lots of bad water on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As I listened, I was trying to think of a reason that normally good water would be bad on the weekends. How would water be exposed to contaminants only part of the time? Later I expressed my confusion to Martha Wade, a translator who has worked with the Apal for 30 years and knows theirs idioms. Apparently, ‘bad water’ refers to alcohol. After knowing that, the conversation made perfect sense.
Apal also has a whole set of idioms that use the ear. As Christians we are supposed to follow God’s ear and now follow satan’s ear. Wise people have long ears. God has long long ears. So naturally, the phrase, short ears, refers to people who are foolish. One time I lit a match in a building where fire is forbidden. I didn’t know, so I apologized when corrected. One of the Papua New Guinean translators responded that it was okay because I was getting an ear. I’m still working on getting an ear in hopes that I will have long ears one day.
Lindy is a Bible translator being mentored by Martha Wade among the Apal language group.
 Taking the life-transforming Word of God to the peoples of Papua New Guinea requires a diverse team working together with flexibility and resilience. We’re prayerfully asking God to grow our team by sending men and women who will facilitate Bible translation for some of the language groups you’ve just read about. We’re also seeking literacy and Scripture use specialists to help assure that the Scriptures people hold in their hands will reach into their hearts.
Their work could not be sustained without a host of other teammates who provide technical and administrative support. We need men and women with expertise in finance, technical services, and general administration.
If you believe that God is leading you to join our team, please contact director@pioneerbible.org.pg.
By Mike Herchenroeder
The Akukem people of Papua New Guinea are a small language group nestled in the jungle not too far from the much larger Aruamu people group. They were acutely aware that Bible translation was underway for the Aruamu people. They were also aware of how very much they desired this same blessing for themselves.
 And so they did the only thing they knew to do. They started praying. They pled with God to send someone to translate His Word for them so that they, like their Aruamu neighbors, might have it in their own language – the language in which they think, talk, dream, and sing to their children.
And God answered – but not in the way that any of us could have anticipated. Using the Aruamu translation and complex computer software developed specifically for this kind of situation, a rough draft of the entire New Testament in Akukem was generated.
That was the easy part. The adaptation was very rough, requiring a lot of checking and revision to get it ready for publication. Additionally, complex spelling issues surfaced that needed to be resolved. And because we had no translation specialist living among them to provide technical assistance and to work with them to make accurate revisions, they would need to come to town to work with part-time advisors. They could also learn to do some of the corrections themselves.
They were eager to begin. And so, for the past few years, groups of Akukem men have made regular trips from their remote village into the town of Madang for checking sessions that typically last two to four weeks. During each session, a translation specialist sits down with a team of four or five Akukem men to go over the translation verse by verse. One man reads the text, and others explain to the translation specialist in the Tok Pisin language what the Akukem text says. Together they work to make the text readable, understandable, and accurate.
Sometimes small things can make a big difference in the accurate interpretation of a text. For example, in Matthew 23:24, Jesus’ scathing criticism of the Pharisees’ habit of “straining out gnats and swallowing camels” came across very differently to the Akukem. They understood it to mean that the Pharisees picked ants out of their camel meat before they ate it. To people living in a rural tropical environment, removing little creepy crawlers that invade the food supply is perfectly normal. Why be upset about that? One small change corrected the text, and Jesus’ words are now ready to address 21st-century Akukem legalism as powerfully as they confronted 1st-century Jewish legalism.
Some problems are not so easy to fix. Occasionally the advisor will spend half a day with the team on a couple of verses. Sometimes this happens because their world view must be challenged by the truth of Scripture, such as when the team insisted that their term for “good sorcery” was the correct way to identify Jesus’ miracles.
Checking sessions are not the only reason the Akukem men come to town. Sometimes they come for computer training, or to work on spelling corrections. At other times someone will come to develop literacy materials for use in teaching school-age Akukem children to read and write in their own language. Sometimes just one person will come in for a few days to clean up a few chapters in preparation for a checking session.
Whenever they come, we provide them food and a place to stay, a place that they share with people from other language groups like the Mbore, the Aruamu, the Mum, the Waran, or the Apal, people who, like themselves, are pursuing the desire of their hearts. We are grateful that we will soon have sufficient housing for these and for the many others that God will send to us in the years ahead.
Mike is the acting Director of PBTPNG and also the current Director of Language Affairs.
By Brian and Hannah Paris
Recently we went on an SIL survey to visit a language group in West New Britain, the Anem, that does not have their own translation of the Bible. Our goal was to see if the community still spoke their language and needed a translation. Beforehand we prayed that God would open the survey team up to understand the spiritual situation among the Anem, this is something that rarely happens on survey because the people tend to keep their traditional beliefs very close. However, one of the few miscommunications (that we knew about) occurred when we arrived in Karaiai village. The church leaders misunderstood one of the questions as “teach us who Jesus is” and began to do just that. We expected their beliefs to be heavily influenced by the Catholic doctrine since that is the only church in the area. What we didn’t expect was the deep-rooted syncretism between the Biblical story of Jesus they are taught in church and a traditional story about a man named Titikolo. We found out that to them, Titikolo and Jesus are the same person. Jesus is the English story and Titikolo is the Anem story. We prayed together as a team for wisdom in how to interact with them on this issue. We tried to combat through logic (there are very extreme differences in the way Jesus interacted with humanity and the way Titikolo interacted with humanity) but the answer was always, “Oh yes, but Jesus and Titikolo are the same”. No amount of Biblical knowledge or facts, no matter how expertly defended, will convince them that their beliefs are a deception craftily designed and orchestrated by the Devil. Only God can change their hearts.
Please pray God will use the academic report we will write, which is the concrete result of this survey, to bring a long-term missionary into the Anem language area. We ask, too, that you would be praying for that person and for God to be softening hearts and preparing the Anem people to hear the truth. We have no idea what His plans are for the people in the Anem area but we feel truly privileged that He opened doors along the way for us to share our faith. Even though we have left the Anem language area, He has not. We are trusting in the promise that He cares more about the Anem and Amara people than we ever could.
Brian and Hannah are language surveyors currently on internship with SIL.
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Laura is a teacher for missionary children.
