This Guy Might Be Crazy (A Siane Language Adventure)

As I watched him I thought, "This guy might be crazy." He was an old man. For the first time ever he was listening to an AudiBible in his own language. The Siane language has had the New Testament for many years, but its use is not widespread. Many people cannot read. We were on a short exploratory trip to determine if an audio recording of the Bible would be well-received and if people would use it. As I watched this guy holding the Audi Bible to his ear, it looked like he thought he was talking on a cell phone. He kept talking to it. I thought he was saying "Nau nite. Nau nite.", which in Tok Pisin means, "Tonight. Tonight." I wondered who this poor old man thought he was talking to. As it turned out, what he was really saying was "O Nae! O Nae!", which in his language means, "This is True! This is Good!" He was in fact an old believer, and he was absorbing every word that came out of this little solar-powered device. Every time someone listened to it they had a similar excited reaction.

 Our trip started out rough. Scott Carey, Ivan Dishman and I left our center early on a Saturday morning, the day after Christmas. Other drivers and people along the road kept warning us to turn around. About an hour into our trip we realized that was good advice. We came upon a road block.  It was Boxing Day, a National holiday, and for some reason this caused unrest all along the Highlands Highway.  There were reportedly multiple road blocks. After seeing our first one we decided it would be better to turn around quickly and head for home. We would try again the next day.

Sunday was much smoother and after driving for a few hours as we were approaching our destination, something odd happened.  While having a different color skin is noticed everyday, we'd never had someone try to stop us like that. We were at the peak of the Dualo Pass, one of the highest points in the area. It felt a little like a different country and it was covered in fog. Normally we would not even slow down, however a nice Toyota Cruiser was pulled over and they were waving us down. As we hesitantly pulled up next to them, they asked us if they could take a picture of us with them. We first said no and that we needed to head on. However after finding out that the driver was a police commander, we thought it might be a good time to stop and reorganize our cargo which was not strapped down well.

 Not fully realizing that this might be a divine appointment, we got out. Another police car pulled up. After learning what we were doing, they said that Siane was their "Tok Ples", their language! Scott immediately pulled out a small electronic WiFi device that contained not just the Siane language New Testament, but also The Luke video (Story of Jesus) and  Mark chapters 1-4 in Audio (which is all that has been recorded to date). This special device allows anyone within range to download all of that to their cell phones. Almost instantly the cell phones came out. The young kids understood the technology better than their parents, just like it is in America. At the same time, we began playing the Audio Bibles for them. Their eyes were big as they heard the Bible being spoken to them in their heart language. The police commander was very familiar with the printed Bible and owned one. He however, told us that hearing the Bible in his language was so "swit", sweet (but also means good or nice). Over and over he said how pure the language recording was and that it was so piercing and he felt it in his core. We left after half an hour, excited about our unexpected stop.
Our connection in the village was Pastor Benjamin and his wife Carolin, long time friends of Scott. They graciously hosted us. We slept in their home and Carolin cooked for us. I loved getting to know this genuinely happy family. I pray that God continues to protect them and let them be a light in their community.

Pastor Benjamin, his wife Carolin, and their family.

Jim, one of the original national translators for the Siane Language.

This lady was so excited to hear the Gospel of Mark spoken to her in her own language. She sat right there listening for a long time, calling to others to come listen.

Some of Benjamin's family. Even though this wasn't his dialect, he said it was clear to him and he really liked hearing it. He asked if we would leave it with him for the afternoon and so we did.

Ivan and I loved meeting new friends in the Siane area.

Our trip was short, but encouraging. There were many other things that occurred on this trip that were out of the ordinary, including running into Sam Kenni (striped shirt), who works on our center. This is his language and he has the ability to record all of the Siane language onto AudiBible. He was randomly there for Christmas break. Coincidence? I don't think so. He works closely with our center and could be instrumental with making this happen. We now realize that many people in this language group could definitely use the full recording of the New Testament. This has been a long-time desire for Scott and I was thankful to be included. We are contemplating how to make a complete recording a reality.