‘Flying Bibleman’ Phil Zamagias loading his aircraft with Scriptures. Photo: Bible Society in Australia, Northern Territory (AUS05DJ-83.JPG)

AUSTRALIA — On a recent visit to the World Service Center, ‘Flying Bibleman’ Phil Zamagias, Director of the Bible Society in Australia’s Northern Territory and Outback Ministry, talked about how God’s Word is changing lives in remote indigenous communities scattered across an area of three million square kilometres.

Traditional culture meets modern life

“Life is very different in these communities from what most people are familiar with. Villages are made up primarily of extended families. Life revolves around tending the land that has been passed down to them. The land forms their identity. There is no single indigenous identity, though: some customs extend across many of the language groups, but it’s still a tribal existence. Trying to find food takes up a lot of time. The land isn’t particularly fertile, so it’s hard to grow crops. Also, hunting has become harder as permanent housing has been built, because the animals get to know where the humans are and keep away. This means that many indigenous communities are very dependent on having basic foods and services flown in. In the past, most services were provided by Christians who came as servants to the local people. Now, though, mission activity has been scaled down and many services are provided by commercial operators who often make indigenous communities feel that they are being exploited, rather than served.

Church under the stars

“Church life is also very different in these indigenous communities. You can’t expect people to meet indoors in the middle of the morning when the temperature and the humidity are almost unbearable. Instead, indigenous Christians tend to meet every night of the week after dark, when it’s cooler. They meet as a community, right in the middle of the community, often until midnight or beyond. Their fellowship will be a mixture of Bible readings, if they have a Bible available, preaching and a lot of singing and prayer. If there are people who can use the Bible, they’ll share the Word of God. They’ll go for it for hours!

“They’ll often express their understanding of biblical truths in song. In many communities where literacy levels are low, song is also a valuable teaching tool. There are beautiful songs in indigenous languages. Some can be quite complex, and people enjoy singing them over and over again. Dance is also a popular way of expressing their faith, especially among the children.”

Translation in the heart of the community

“It’s always very difficult to recruit suitable local people to carry out translation work. In fact, most of our translation teams would consider themselves very fortunate to have people who completed primary school. So trying to get translators to use complex translation software programs, for example, is not appropriate. Many of our people simply sit in their house or under a tree and write out their translation in a notebook. As well as asking people to do difficult work for which they are not qualified, we are also expecting them to do it for no financial reward, for at least 10, maybe 20, years. People still need to live! And often, the most promising men are offered highly paid government jobs, so they aren’t available to do translation work.

“In practice, translation work would probably not happen if it were not for the participation of women. Because they spend most of their time at home, women can combine their domestic duties with translation work. Also, women tend to achieve a higher level of education than men. In many communities, young men become involved in tribal duties and don’t complete their education. So the women are more literate. They are also very committed to church life and they encourage each other to persevere in their Christian work.

God’s Word challenging and changing

A church under construction at Umagico. Photo: Bible Society in Australia, Northern Territory (AUS06DJ-10.JPG)

“When a community receives the Scriptures in its own language, it gives people the opportunity to address issues that perhaps in the past were not talked about or were not even recognised as being issues. People tend to talk things over together and they gradually realise that Scripture addresses situations in real life. ‘What do you make of this?’ they ask. ‘This is not the way we thought the world worked. Do we need to do anything about this?’

“The greatest reward of carrying out this ministry is seeing lives changed. We can only know that our work is effective when we see the spirit of God taking control of people’s lives and changing them. You can’t put a price on what it has cost in human terms to bring the Word of God to these people when you see them change things that are unpleasant. When they see for themselves that their lives are ungodly and then advocate change within their communities, that’s what makes it all worthwhile.

Foundation

“If people don’t have a foundation for their lives – the Word of God – we can’t expect them to live in a godly way. There’s no point trying to preach the fruit of the Gospel to people if they don’t understand the root of the Gospel. It’s too easy to expect people to behave in a certain way without giving them a basis for it. We need to tell people, ‘Look, this is what God has revealed in his Word, this is what he is doing, he invites you to be part of it’. When we give people access to the Word of God, they then apply it to their own lives and it challenges their culture and beliefs. These ‘aha’ moments are great to see. They are the result of giving people God’s Word as a foundation for their lives and helping them to interact with it so they can transform their own lives and their communities.

Beyond translation

“Traditional missionary activity has established the foundations in indigenous communities, making people familiar with the story of Jesus. But now we have to look at going beyond the raw text and help people to understand concepts that are unfamiliar to them. That’s why we’re moving towards the study Bible idea. For example, how do you explain to people what sheep are like if they’ve never seen a sheep? When Scripture refers to sheep it means nothing to them, because they don’t know how sheep behave. Or how can you tell people that their sins can be washed ‘as white as snow’ if they’ve never seen snow? There needs to be a more integrated approach now of not only providing Scripture but also tools for using Scripture and understanding what’s behind it.

“Another positive development is the way in which translation projects are contributing to raising literacy levels and boosting a community’s self-esteem. As the texts are translated, they get used for literacy as well. One community I know of has taken to putting relevant Scripture verses on public buildings. For example, the police building has a verse that relates to justice. If the translation team and the local Christians are confident in the Word of God, they can positively influence the whole community’s thinking. Then self-esteem begins to rise. Instead of feeling inferior, a dominated people, communities start believing that they are privileged to have the Gospel and that they are brothers and sisters together. They realise that they are one in Christ and that they live and work together for his glory.”