Kire New Testament the fruit of collaborative efforts
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — With more than 800 languages, Papua New Guinea poses an enormous challenge for those involved in bringing God’s Word to people in their native tongue. The Bible Society of Papua New Guinea has recognised that this challenge demands a collaborative approach, and this is why it has undertaken to link with leading translation agencies, particularly to boost awareness among the churches about how they can be involved in translation work. The Kire New Testament provides one example of how collaboration, teamed with years of devoted hard work by a few individuals, can reap success. Around 2,500 people living in scattered communities in Madang Province, in northeastern Papua New Guinea, speak the two dialects of Kire, a language which has some features in its sound system not found in any of the country’s other languages. Pooled resourcesThese features, along with the fact that Kire was not a written language, prompted the Bible Society and Pioneer Bible Translators to pool their resources. Even with a collaborative approach, the progress made by the translation team, consisting chiefly of Americans David and Sharron Pryor, Kire-speaker Michael Waisi and a group of local checkers, was inevitably very slow. In Mr Pryor’s words, the challenges posed by this project were so great that it was “an absolute necessity to break up the task into numerous short-range goals to battle the doubt and despair of wondering if you are ever going to finish.” The Pryors’ first goal when they arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1977, after training for three years in the US, was to learn the language. They then had to analyse its various grammatical elements and devise a written form, with the actual translation work taking place at a much later stage. There were many obstacles to overcome during this lengthy process, but Mr Pryor emphasises that “numerous times during that long period we were affirmed by God that we were where God wanted us to be and doing what he wanted us to do.” ‘Dream come true’The Kire New Testament, Pioneer Bible Translators’ first full New Testament, was eventually published by the Bible Society and dedicated in June 2002 at a special ceremony in Garati, where the Pryors made their home and brought up their three children while, in Mrs Pryor’s words, working to make “a lifelong dream come true.”A few days after the ceremony, the Pryors’ son John preached in Kire at the village church, and Mrs Pryor reports that “it was a joy beyond words to see Sonsi [the village pastor] and all the church leaders come to church with their New Testaments, and to see them turning the pages to follow along as John preached in Kire and used the Kire New Testament for all his Scripture references.” The Pryors do not regard the publication of the Kire New Testament as marking the end of their ministry in Papua New Guinea, however. Teaching literacy skills to local people has been a key element of their devotion to the translation project, one which has grown in importance as a written form of Kire has become established. They wish to ensure that the Kire people can read and study God’s Word together and that it is made available to people across the Kire-speaking region, not just those who live in Garati. As Mr Pryor says, “Our purpose has never been to just hand them a completed translation and then leave. It is a waste of one’s life and God’s resources if there is not a sufficient number of people who can read it, if there is no ongoing program to ensure that children and children yet to be born will be able to read it, and if there is simply no interest in reading it.” Their greatest desire, according to Mrs Pryor, is that “God will use the Kire New Testament to reach and change the hearts of all the Kire people.” Some of the material for this article was taken from the Autumn 2002 edition of The Storyboard, published by the Papua New Guinea branch of Pioneer Bible Translators. (WR 374/1 - 2.03) [PHOTOS] |
