$100,000?! We couldn\u2019t believe our ears!<\/p>\n
\u201cWow\u2014that\u2019s hard to believe!!\u201d A good friend and coworker in Papua New Guinea recently told us that in the last two years they\u2019ve ordered $100,000 worth of the Chronological Lessons for Pidgin speakers in PNG. Since starting working with this project back in the \u201890s we never imagined that it would be so well received. But we are thrilled to hear how God is getting His Word out. We\u2019ve seen second, third and even fourth \u2018generations\u2019 of Christians being taught through the Bible with the help of these books. (None of us receive royalties from these books, and they are subsidized so that they will be more affordable but it still costs about two days of (PNG) wages to buy a book there, so you know these people must be serious about getting them!) With 5-6 million Pidgin English speakers, it looks like these books will be in demand for years to come. <\/p>\n
When we left PNG in 2003, Jim Tanner carried on with the books. He produced more lesson books and he and Greg Greenlaw have been all over the country helping Bible teachers with the lessons. Here\u2019s what Jim wrote recently: <\/p>\n
\u201cOur new ministry has gone in directions we had never expected. We are able to do pastors’ seminars\u2026 in Pt. Moresby, Manus, Mt. Bosavi and Orokana and Goroka so far\u2026Word is getting out \u2026many groups in PNG are asking to be taught\u2026We’re also working on translating a simple English version of the lessons for PNG\u2026\u201d Some churches are asking for the curriculum to be put into their Bible Schools. Here are some responses from pastors, after having been taught through the first 13 lessons:<\/p>\n
Gireva \u2013 \u201cThis is better than Bible school because it\u2019s understandable to the layman and it\u2019s targeted to our PNG culture. Our spiritual maturity level shows poorly for the 100 years of having the gospel in PNG. We are blown around by all kinds of new movements, but this is different. This curriculum is different and can bring real help to our churches because it\u2019s JUST GOD\u2019S TALK: it doesn\u2019t change or disappoint. We pastors need to finish learning this so we can pass it on to our congregations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casper \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve had 7 years of Bible School and Seminary but I\u2019ve never seen this. I\u2019m realizing that we have come to Christ so suddenly that we have no Christian Heritage. We have come from tribal religion to Christianity in a single generation and we have no firm roots. Most of us still believe in sorcerers and witches. It\u2019s like that with physical things, 1 \u00bd generations ago we were living in caves and wearing leaves. Now we\u2019re suddenly living in fancy houses with metal and glass and fibro-board, but we don\u2019t know how that stuff is made, how to value it, or how to maintain it. Our Christianity has the same problem, we don\u2019t know its history and so it\u2019s hard to value and sustain it. We were \u2018short-cutted\u2019 to Jesus and now we\u2019re here, lost and confused.\u201d<\/p>\n
These testimonies have inspired us to keep working on more books to help the nationals of PNG! I\u2019m now working on another book and planning to take it with me on another teaching visit to PNG this summer. Please pray for the focus and clarity of mind I need for the next few months (and for my chiropractor to be able to keep my neck in shape). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
$100,000?! We couldn\u2019t believe our ears! \u201cWow\u2014that\u2019s hard to believe!!\u201d A good friend and coworker in Papua New Guinea recently told us that in the last two years they\u2019ve ordered $100,000 worth of the Chronological Lessons for Pidgin speakers in PNG. Since starting working with this project back in the \u201890s we never imagined that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3728],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","category-prayer-request","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/gordon-wohlgemut\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}