There are 840 languages currently spoken in the small country of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea could fit inside the United States 21 times. To put that number of spoken languages into perspective in a country that size: If Papua New Guinea were as big as America, that would put the number of languages spoken in America at 17,640. (Think about that the next time you complain about the nerve of someone to speak Spanish in the United States. How dare we allow more than one language in our country.)
When you live in a country that diverse, how do you overcome the communication gap to survive? The answer is establishing a common trade language. In PNG, the trade language is called New Guinea Pidgin. Almost all tribal groups in Papua New Guinea have some members who can speak Pidgin well enough to get around to trade and communicate with other nearby people groups and in the cities. Because the trade language is basic and most people only learn it well enough to communicate at a sufficient level, it has not been effective when used by Americans to try to teach the Bible.
The only method that shows success is learning the native, first language of one of the 840 people groups. To do that, you have to first make contact with a tribal group through the Pidgin language (the only thing you have in common) and from there you’re able to learn their native language over the course of several years. After gaining fluency, then you can teach them the Bible in the only way they can truly understand. After that comes literacy and discipleship and a self-sufficient church.
Below is a story from New Tribes missionary Seth Callahan in Papua New Guinea. An elderly man approached him from a nearby tribe, and they had the following conversation in Pidgin:
Elderly PNG man: “Come live with us, learn our language, and teach us God’s talk. I’ll give your family ground, we’ll feed you, and we’ll look after you. You need to come stay with us.”
Seth: “I’m not in this area permanently. I’ll be leaving again in just a few weeks.”
Elderly man: “I’ve been to one of the churches near here and they only teach from Pidgin or English Bibles. If I don’t believe God’s talk, I’m going to a place of fire. I don’t understand God’s talk though. This is really weighing on me. If you don’t come live with us, then I’m going to cut off my finger.”
[In this area of Papua New Guinea, people will cut off their finger to express extreme grief.]
“Send someone else to us. Get another missionary to come so we can hear God’s talk in our language. After you leave here, you’ll talk to people, right? You’ll tell them what I just told you? We need someone to come here!”
From Seth-
What if a few of you who read this went to your local church next Sunday and said something like, “I love you guys. You’re awesome. It’s a joy and a privilege to worship and serve God alongside you, and I’m going to stay right here with you if someone here will cut off their finger.”
If there is such a dire need for you to stay in your fellowship of believers that someone will actually sacrifice a finger to keep you there, then by all means stay where you are.
But if not, well, I know a guy over here who would do it in a heartbeat, if it meant you would come and share what you have with his people.
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