Holiday in New Zealand: tribe hoopla received the long-awaited publication of the complete Bible in their language

What happens when representatives of living in a remote area of the nation for the first time receive the Word of God in their own language? If it is a province of Papua in Indonesia, the answer to the question — a big feast!

Singing and dancing started as soon as the members of the tribe gathered at a small airstrip in the mountains of Papua province, Indonesia.

“We are here to celebrate the publication of the complete Bible in the language hopla — says the pilot-missionary Mike brown. We’re very excited about this event. For many years we have cooperated with the missionaries who worked on this translation. So it is great that today we can join the celebration!”

During the past forty years, brown and other pilots, missionaries brought the planes here and back to the group of translators. Among the passengers was often sue Trenier, Irish missionary. She helped the Christians from the tribe to translate the old Testament.

“We are sitting here on the runway Soba, where in 1968 he landed the first plane. Most members of the tribe hoopla, which has three thousand people, now dug a pit to cook the pig. Here they are to worship and praise God. They still will sing. Here gathered many people from different churches. So everything we see here can be called a celebration of the whole tribe hoopla,” says the translator sue Trenier.

To feed the crowd, it took more than two hundred roasted pigs. Spears in the hands of these men, but since 50 years ago came here the gospel, they have ceased to use them in tribal wars. The new Testament was translated into their language, and the newly created Church began to grow. During this event, was baptized 26 new believers. But the culmination of the celebration was the presentation of the complete Bible in the language hoopla.

“This group of people have long had translations of the New Testament, but today’s dedication is unique in that it summarizes a line. Now they have the old Testament. I feel very happy, thinking that they will be able to cover the entire history of God’s salvation that began in Genesis,” — says the pilot-missionary David Holsten.

The first copies of the Bible were donated to the youth as a youth representative, a woman, representing all women, and the elderly as a tribute to those who have waited many years for the appearance of the full Bible in their native language.

Kanwal, the son of one of the translators. He says: “this morning our leader received a box of Bibles. They were taken to the place where we slept. We immediately arranged a joint reading of the Bible. I think that now I will be able to explore more deeply the Word of God. Sitting with my fellow, I will be able to read the Bible, we can read it together.”

The translation of the Bible into the language of hoopla implemented with the support of the Indonesian Bible society. And according to the information society “Wycliffe”, carriers more than 1,800 languages still waiting for the start of the project of translating the Bible.

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