TIGAK NEW TESTAMENT COMPLETE!!

Here is the update our coworker, Aimee, sent out after the Tigak New Testament was completed a couple of days ago. Hope you enjoy it!

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"Mar 28, 2019 9:45am, 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 a couple
consultants over the last couple 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!

Now can I get you to pause for just a minute?

In the midst of all you have going on (probably a lot), take a second
and think of the lengths God has gone to over the course of time so
that people who speak the Tigak language of Papua New Guinea may be
able to read what He has revealed of Himself through the written word:

Looong before today, God spoke to a number of men over hundreds of
years and had them write down what He said…and they shared it with
others…and others translated it into other languages – including
English, eventually…and others developed resources that help us
understand the original languages…and He just continued to preserve
what He wanted written down on paper about Himself for centuries and
centuries and centuries.

Then in 1999 He sent the Beall family to Papua New Guinea and they
moved in among the Tigak people. And for 20 years He sustained their
family in countless ways so that Ned could translate the New Testament
into the Tigak language. God gave the health, the motivation and the
help for Ned to keep at it, and keep at it, and keep at it.

God brought many along to help Ned – teammates that could speak Tigak
to help carry the load, outside consultants to carefully review and
evaluate it, Tigak men and women that gave of their time to help it
sound natural and be clear, others that could offer input, help or an
objective eye.

God loves the Tigak. He loved them enough to not only sent Jesus to
make a way for them to be reconciled to Himself, but He also
orchestrated 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.

Let your mind go for a minute with that….

A little overwhelming and surreal, huh? I haven’t really had much time
to process it myself. But let’s just give thanks to God. He knows what
He did to bring this day about, and we can just shake our heads in awe.
Thank Him. And pray that this incredible effort would be put to
endless good use in the lives of the Tigak for years to come.

It will be a while still before we print the entire NT 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.

Last, 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 laborers to take on
that task.