Project 8520

Background
The delta area of Gulf Province in Papua New Guinea is an area with a variety of local languages which are used strongly by all generations. Most of these people have almost no access to God’s Word in a language that they can really understand. It is an area with low literacy rates, little infrastructure and few training opportunities.

Phase one: Training Centre
In 2020, Hanna Schulz, the Bible translation advisor to the Kope people, was able, through the generous support of donors, to build and open the Orioi’io Madei (Living Word) Training Centre in her village, Ubuo. Already this building has been a blessing to the Kope translation team, as they near the completion of Luke using this work space. In late 2021 it will host workshops to train vernacular literacy teachers, as well as a Scripture Use workshop.

In 2022 the plan is to hold more literacy and Scripture Use workshops, as well as to reach out to neighbouring languages through a multi-language project teaching Oral Bible Storytelling (OBS). OBS trains people to internalise Bible stories so that they can clearly, accurately and naturally retell them in their own language. These workshops will enable several languages to start getting God’s Word in their own languages very soon!

Phase two: Dormitory
The challenge with these workshops is accommodation. While the community has been able to host participants for the occasional workshop, the increasing number of workshops makes for an immediate need for a dormitory to be built. Without a dorm, the accommodation falls to the families in the village. Hanna says that there are approximately 60 homes but most of them already house 6-10 people. Ideally the dormitory would be ready for the first OBS workshop, planned for May 2022. Please prayerfully consider supporting this vital second phase of the project so that the Training Centre can be a blessing to many people from neighbouring areas.