This Book is Alive

From SPARK

Impact Story

This Book is alive! That’s the way I began my last letter to you, and I’d like to say it again—This Book is alive! Just ask Andy and Audrey Minch, who helped the Amanab people of Papua New Guinea translate the scriptures into their language. After the dedication of the New Testament in 2001, the Minches left the Word in the hands of the Amanab people and moved back to Ukarumpa.

Two years later, during Christmas of 2003, the Minches returned for a visit and found abundant evidence that the Word of God was impacting the lives of the Amanab people. In fact, they were becoming a sending organization, sending one of their own as a missionary to a neighboring language group.

The church leaders told Andy and Audrey that they’d received a request for help from the Umeda people, who live a day’s hike from the Amanab. They wanted someone to go live with them, teach them about God, and help them start a church. After praying and fasting, the Amanab church felt God leading them to appoint a man named Simai as their missionary to the Umeda.

At the time of Andy and Audrey’s visit, Simai was getting ready to go. He didn’t need to take a lot because, like the rest of his people, he knew how to gather from the surrounding jungle what he needed to live. But he graciously accepted some basic gifts, including a Bible and a lantern. While he prepared to live with the Umeda people, they were preparing for his arrival by building him a bush house and designating a garden area for him. The Minches could not have imagined a better Christmas present than to see what God was doing through His Word in the Amanab church.

Several months later, in his role of overseeing translation programs in PNG, Andy received a request for permission to translate a children’s book called “From Akebu to Zapotec” into another language. Produced by Wycliffe USA, this little book contains a colorful illustration and a brief description of each of 26 Bibleless groups around the world (one for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet). The book is designed to encourage children to pray for these groups by name.

Leafing through the book, Andy discovered that one of the language groups chosen was the Umeda. Up until then, he’d assumed that only a handful of people even knew this tiny group of 300 people existed. Suddenly he realized that thousands of children were praying for them, and that through the prayers of these children, God had created a hunger in the Umeda to know him. He’d also created a willingness in the Amanab church to stretch their meager resources and respond to His call to teach their neighbors about Him.

When Christmas came, the Minches again went to visit the Amanab. Eager to learn more about the Umeda story, they hiked out to where the Umeda live. They found Simai there, telling people about Jesus. Not content with communicating in Tok Pisin (Pidgin), he was learning the Umeda language, and with the help of a young Umeda believer named Willie, he had indeed started a church.

God is doing it again! In Isaiah 55:11, he says, ”...my word…will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” His Word has gone out to the Amanab people; now it’s going out to the Umeda people, and it’s achieving the purpose for which he sent it. I’m very grateful for that.

I’m also grateful that he’s allowed you and me another glimpse into the role that prayer plays in accomplishing his purposes for the nations. “From Akebu to Zapotec” was not an easy book to produce. It cost some of my Wycliffe USA colleagues a lot of time and energy to research, create, check, publish, and distribute. It also cost field personnel time and attention, as they checked it for accuracy and sensitivity to local conditions. But far from being just a “publicity piece,” the book has become a tool used by God to encourage focused and effective prayer. If the Umeda were the only ones to benefit, it would be worth the investment, but I don’t think it’s going to stop there. Knowing God, I’ve a hunch he’s working in the other 25 language groups as well.

May God fill your heart anew with the wonder of Emmanuel—God with us. The Word has become flesh and dwelt among us, and we have been privileged to see his glory, full of grace and truth.

Warmly,

Bob Creson