The Mibu church which came into existence in March is eager for their Papua New Guinea neighbors -- the Jerung and Mina people -- to hear the Gospel.
Two men, Sesi and Keteng, attended a two-week translation seminar with missionaries earlier this year, and are now teaching others what they learned in preparation for an outreach to the tribes that border them on each side.
Sesi and Keteng wanted to teach translation principles to two bilingual Mibu men in a week-long seminar, but they got an overwhelming response and 12 men attended.
Thursday as missionary Joey Tartaglia was walking home from church, Bepeke shared his excitement of what he had learned about the sacrifices that William Tyndale went through in order to translate the Bible.
"What a joy it is to hear these guys chatting about the technical aspects of a good translation," wrote Joey.
Both the Jerung and the Mina people regularly intermarry with the Mibus, so there are many bilinguals. Members of each tribe attended evangelistic Bible teaching when the Mibu people heard the Gospel, and 54 Minas and 10 Jerungs have professed belief in Christ.
The Mina tribe consists of 850 people in 11 villages. The Jerung population of about 1,500 lives in ten villages. All of the Jerung villages have officially expressed an invitation for God's Word to be taught in their villages.
"Together with the Mibu people we have set the goal of reaching out to them early 2007," Joey wrote. "The church still needs to finalize the plan as to where to go first."
Meanwhile, the translation team will be kept busy translating more than 1,000 pages of evangelistic Bible lessons.
So far, Genesis chapters 1-2 have been translated into Jerung. Andrea Knotts, who is visiting for the summer, has typed the translated materials into a computer and is teaching two Mibu girls how to type in order to keep up with the workload.
Pray for God's direction in this outreach and for the continued growth and enthusiasm of the Mibu church.
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