Sparks of hope: Embraced by the Anuki community
by Deb Fox
Luz Maldonado and Karen Fernandez are young women from Argentina with a heart for the people of Papua New Guinea. The friends have been working with SIL-PNG in Milne Bay Province with the Anuki language group since May 2022. Luz and Karen are grateful for the support of their sending organisation, LETRA Argentina, which is part of the Wycliffe Global Alliance. They also appreciate the way the Anuki community has embraced them. Karen shares:
The Anuki have welcomed us warmly. They built a house for us and they built a classroom where we can work together. They love to be in relationship with one another, they love to be in community.
The support of the Anuki is important, especially when Luz and Karen need to travel among the 16 different villages that speak the language. These villages are often very small and incredibly remote. Many of the locations are inaccessible by road, involving up to seven hours of walking in the mountains. The village where Luz and Karen live is especially remote, only accessible by helicopter or boat. Karen says:
Every time we travel from village to village, we can see God providing for us through the Anuki. They are always there to help us cross the rivers, carry our backpacks or our bilums. We are there to do his work but he is looking after every single detail, through the Anuki people too.
As the Anuki grow in their understanding of God, their attitudes are also changing. Luz says:
When we first arrived, there was a feeling of resignation in the people. They didn’t care much about others. There were so many interrelational problems. But since they have started interacting with the Bible, they know there is another way of living. It brings hope, understanding, discernment and critical thinking.
One of the women in the literacy team working with Luz and Karen has gone through a dramatic change. Luz says:
In the beginning, she was fearful. Animistic cultures are often full of fear. But this lady has now built her faith on God’s Word. She loves the story of the house built upon the rock and relates to it a lot. She has gone through a lot of challenges but her faith and Scripture kept her standing. We see how the Word is little by little bringing transformation in her life.
An Anuki mini-Bible was completed and dedicated in 2015. This included the books of Mark, Acts, and a panorama of the Old Testament. Since Luz and Karen have been working with the Anuki, a draft of Luke has now been completed as well. Luz says that they are pleased to be working with God in what he is doing among the Anuki:
God is teaching us that this project belongs to him. He makes everything, our delays, our successes, every part of this project, work for his will to be done. That gives us peace because we know that we are just a tiny piece in the whole picture.
More: www.wycliffe.org.au/sparks-of-hope
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