Impact Report 2025 - Report - Page 20
From Papua
New Guinea to Kenya
In fall 2024, Andy Keener went to visit a remote village
in Papua New Guinea where there is an active Bible
translation project, along with several other Wycliffe staff.
From this village of roughly 400 people, it is an eight-hour
hike to the nearest road, followed by an eight-hour drive to the
nearest market town. There’s no space for an airstrip, but you can
reach an airstrip after five hours of hiking. Or you can take a short helicopter ride, which
is how Andy and the team arrived.
Once there, they were greeted by people who were celebrating — not because their Bible is
complete (there’s still a lot of work to be done) but because they were so excited for these
visitors to arrive!
The community is made up of subsistence farmers and hunters living primarily off the land. They
grow coffee beans, and when additional supplies are needed, like a new machete, they take the
eight-hour hike and eight-hour drive down to the market town. There, they sell the coffee beans
in exchange for needed supplies and return home with any additional cash.
During Andy’s visit, this small community presented the team with a gift as a way of thanking
Wycliffe USA for investing in them by sending a missionary to translate the Bible with them.
They didn’t give out of their abundance; they gave all that they had — a gift that equated
to $100. What do you do with a gift from a community that is actively working to receive
Scripture for themselves? You pay it forward! That $100 gift was allocated to a Bible
translation project in Kenya for the Nuru community, who now has received the blessing
of partnership from a small community in Papua New Guinea.
