Bibles help rural Yali people who haved moved to town

story by Geoffrey Stamp, freelance journalist

WAMENA, Irian Jaya, Indonesia — On a clear morning, in fields outside Wamena, a representative from the UBS meets several Yali villagers and presents them with a few copies of the Yali Bible.

Most of the Yali live in the villages that lie scattered in the densely-forested mountain region of central Irian Jaya, but these few have forsaken their isolated rural existence for the town.

Most of the Yali people still live in conditions which are basic, even by Developing World standards, but the Gospel has had a major impact on them. The Southern Yali Bible, the fruit of 29 years’ translation work, was published by the Indonesian Bible Society (LAI) in May last year and launched in Ninia, in the Jayawijaya regency. More than 3,000 Yali attended the launch.

They are the third major language group in Irian Jaya to receive a Scripture in their own tongue, but the Southern Yali Bible was the first to boast a complete Old and New Testament.

Thanks to the efforts of missionaries and the churches, and subsequently to the spread of education, levels of reading among the Yali have improved significantly.

Anita, an elder in a church in Wamena, works among the Yali towndwellers. She helps them to adapt to their new way of life, and to raise the standards of their personal and household hygiene.

“There are few Yali near Wamena – their territory is further south and east and at least a plane journey away,” she says. “So those who do end up here feel like strangers. We visit them and talk to them.