Project 8525

Papuan Malay is the language of wider communication spoken by 2 million people in the Indonesian province of Papua. The Papuan Malay Bible translation team has a goal of distributing 1 million Scripture forms (books, social media hits, Jesus Film views on YouTube, Scripture app downloads, oral Bible stories etc) before completing the New Testament, so that people are aware of, already using and hungry for Scripture in Papuan Malay before the New Testament is available as a complete publication in 2028. For this to be achieved, a robust and wide-reaching distribution, church networking and Scripture engagement program is essential and a major focus at the current stage of the project.

The Papuan Malay Distribution team is comprised of five local team members and one facilitator from Wycliffe South Korea. They are working hard to run Sunday School and oral Bible storytelling workshops, supply stock for bookstores, church ministries and individuals, visit local churches to raise awareness about Papuan Malay, network with church leaders, do live-streaming and radio broadcast, recruit volunteer distributors, and network with people in other parts of the province. They are investing in building relationships and partnerships at the church denominational and local congregational level with the goal of increased local ownership and widespread use of Papuan Malay materials and the New Testament when it is published.

The project will cover wages for the five local Distribution Team members so that they can continue their vital work.

“The team in West Papua has been going from strength to strength in recent years, as more and more people use the growing Papuan Malay language, and ask for Scripture materials to be made available to them in the language. Wycliffe Australia has had members involved in this work for many years and we’re delighted to be supporting the team to keep growing. After consultation recently with the Papuan Malay Team, we will move to assisting them by targeting our funding directly towards the wages of the Distribution Team. This will ensure employment of the Distribution Team members so that they can distribute the Scripture materials that have recently been printed and recorded. It will also free up funds to be used to enable other activities to take place – such as printing more materials for the Distribution Team to distribute, and Scripture engagement activities to teach people how to use and understand the materials. As our support is changing slightly there will be a name change to “Papuan Malay Distribution Team Support” from April 2023. If you have any queries about this change in funding target please feel free to contact us at projects-admin@wycliffe.org.au . “

Partner with us

Our partnership target for 2023 is $18,825

If we receive extra funds, this will go towards next year’s target.