‘Who’s taken my life?’ That was the question Papua New Guinea mother Mary recently asked her children. She was asking about her AudioBible, onto which her Kamano-Kafe language New Testament had been recorded. ‘It is my life!’, she said. ‘God speaks to me when I listen to it. I put it on the table this […]

‘Who’s taken my life?’

That was the question Papua New Guinea mother Mary recently asked her children. She was asking about her AudioBible, onto which her Kamano-Kafe language New Testament had been recorded. ‘It is my life!’, she said. ‘God speaks to me when I listen to it. I put it on the table this morning and now it’s not there! Who has taken it?’

None of the children with her at the time knew the whereabouts of the AudioBible, so she asked her other son when he came home later. ‘Here it is, Mother’, he said. ‘I took it with me this morning to listen to.’

‘That’s good for you, but not for me’, she said to him. ‘You learned to read at school, but I can’t read my language, so please leave it home for me to listen to. God is with me when I hear his word and this player is my life, so please don’t take it!’

As the Highlands Audio Project Manager, for me it’s been exciting to have teams from four Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highland languages come into the studio in the past three months to record Scriptures for their people.

I came here so that the word can be heard. About 85 per cent of PNG village people cannot read their own language, so it is very important for them to have these wonderful AudioBibles. My goal here is to put 10 completed New Testament translations into recorded (audio) form over the next 10 years.

Romans 10:17 tells us that ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word of Christ’! My aim is to see lives and communities transformed by the power of God’s word. As at Pentecost, God’s word comes alive when people hear it clearly in the language of their own heart and mind.

The challenge, though, is that each player costs about $AUD40. To make them affordable for the people, we sell them at $10 each. So, we incur a $30 loss each time.

To make it possible for us to keep distributing these AudioBibles, we would be grateful to have individuals and churches subsidise the extra $30 dollars needed for each player. A gift of $300 would enable us to sell 10 more AudioBibles, which ‘hold out the words of life’ (Philippians 2:16)!

Many of our partner churches are working in new territory for the kingdom of God; therefore, spiritual attack is their everyday reality. As a member of a congregation, school, or family, or a couple or individual, you are invited to commit to praying for our partners in mission. For regular prayer point updates, go to www.lca.org.au/international-mission/act-now/pray

Read more stories about our partner church in Papua New Guinea at https://www.lcamission.org.au/category/stories/international-partners/papua-new-guinea/