A Bible-translation project launched by Finnish Free Church missionaries in Papua New Guinea in 1982 has reached a milestone, recently receiving official non-governmental-organisation status and the ability to operate independently. Long-term missionaries Arjen and Maija Lock report that the Abau-language New Testament — completed two decades ago — now stands alongside an Old Testament translation that is well under way and a network of mother-tongue schools serving the region.
The Abau project is among the longest-running single-language mission efforts connected to the Finnish Free Church (Suomen Vapaakirkko). The Locks, who have visited the language area many times over more than four decades, write that nothing about the work happened quickly: securing NGO status took time, and the community's training centre was built by workers who arrived across many years and even decades. Their report argues that long-term presence lays a foundation of trust on which shorter visits can build — a quiet counterpoint to the view that short projects and rapid movement are the future of mission.
This summer the couple were joined by their 16-year-old granddaughter, Laura Kärki, who spent eight weeks in the village of Yabru. She read the Abau Bible with young people, played barefoot football with the women's team, and helped care for villagers — among them a malnourished infant and children with severe tropical wounds. Laura, who is training as a practical nurse in Finland, described a strikingly clear sense of what to do as she helped the sick. Team leader Alex Nomben summed up the wider picture: "Only because of the love European believers have shown has all this been possible."
(Originally published in Finnish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Suomen Vapaakirkko / Suomen Viikkolehti — svl.fi
