Tigak: It’s Official!!!

For some time now we have been praying for the Lord’s direction for our future ministry location. We are excited to share with you that the decision has been made!

As you may be aware, our goals include evangelism, teaching and discipleship among the least reached peoples of Papua New Guinea. We have had several options of locations and works, and we have been praying through all of them. One of our options in particular has stood out in many ways, and is the direction we believe the Lord is leading us in.

Right now, as part of the remainder of our trade language & culture study, we have been living on an island among the Tigak language group.

Tigak is a language group with up to 20,000 speakers. Our organization placed a team among this language group about eleven years ago, and has done some literacy, Bible teaching and translation on this island. Of the original team, however, only one family has remained on and has continued working among the Tigak.

Ned & Linn Beall along with their family have lived among the Tigak language group for about eleven years. Before they became missionaries they were engineers, and when they are not in Papua New Guinea, they call Texas home.They have seven children, though only four currently live at home.

Ned is translating the Bible into the Tigak language, and has about 42% complete. He is also a New Tribes Mission Translation Consultant, which means he is qualified to check other translator’s work. He & I have gotten along very well, as we both enjoy discussing theology and translation… and drinking coffee.

Linn’s part in this ministry is home schooling their children and taking care of the needs of the home as well as ministering to the practical needs of the Tigak people (medical, etc). She also helps with certain aspects of the translation process and acts as Ned’s secretary in scheduling all of his travel schedules for translation workshops, checks, consultant visits, etc. Beth & Linn get a long really well, and Beth is happy to have someone to talk to about everything from homeschooling to surviving in the village. 🙂

It is also worth mentioning that Jude has fit in very well with all the Beall’s kids currently living at home. He is especially attached to the nine year old Christina who is very sweet to play with him out in the yard for hours with the village kids. We think that Jude has decided that Christina is in fact his sister (or girlfriend) and also that the Bealls home is his second home.

Because of the lack of a complete team working among the Tigak language group, its goals are far from being accomplished. It is for this reason that we, along with our co-worker Aimee, have decided to join the Tigak team. We believe that this is the direction the Lord is leading us in and are excited to be joining this work. We are also excited that we will continue working with Aimee.

We have made some great friendships with a number of the Tigak people on the island and are looking forward to getting to know them better. We’ve talked to people about us coming to join the team, and they have all been positive about the idea. Some have expressed a desire for the literacy program to continue, as well as help with Bible teaching. Our hope would be to help bring the small church here to maturity, revamp the literacy program, as well as teach the Bible and train other Bible teachers.