Completion of the Tigak New Testament
This week’s article was written by Aimee Hedrick who ministers to the Tigak people of Papua New Guinea.
"Mar 28, 2019 9:45 a.m., Tigak New Testament finished."
That was the text message I got from my teammate Ned yesterday morning. He’d been working with a couple Tigak guys and [our translation] consultants over the last weeks to check over the last remaining books of the New Testament. As you know, we’ve all been pushing, especially the last few months, to see this happen, and many of you have prayed. Thank you. God has provided and here we are. This is good news! It’s huge!
The first Tigak pastor, Bond, and his wife, Smarty
God Never Left the Tigak
God loves the Tigak. He loved them enough not only to send Jesus to make a way for them to be reconciled to Himself, but also to orchestrate things throughout history so that they would be given the opportunity to actually read about that — and so much more — in their own language. His love for them is great.
From the million drops of sweat on a tropical island…to the invention of the printing press and the development of computers…God has been in the tiniest of things and the biggest of things — making a way for more of His image-bearers, Tigak ones to be specific, to know Him.
The team working on the Tigak Bible translation
The Work Is Not Finished
It will be a while still before we print the entire New Testament in one book — maybe a year or two. Time will be given for it to be read, taught from and used by our Tigak friends. Effort will be made on buttoning up different things, so some work remains. But this is a very important cause for pause and celebration.
You know there are hundreds of languages around the world in which the written Word of God still does not exist? Sometimes I forget. Because His love for each of those people groups is great, God will continue His tiny picture/big picture efforts to change that, but let us also pray that He would send out more labourers to take on that task.