Angor Development

From SPARK

Brief Summary

"The Angor people are the important decision makers in the program.."

Learn about the relationships that begin at the translation table and move on to teaching as individuals come to understand God’s Word. Key people, working with translators, move beyond their own understanding to lead in the development of both the community and the church.

Introduction

Background:

• Angor People Group in Papua New Guinea
• 1000+ Population, remote, small villages
• Basically Monolingual
• No Christians
• First Christian 1968
• Few Christians in mid 70s, church meetings started in culturally appropriate way
• Epats helped first Christian to teach and preach by giving private instruction

Expectations for first term

We felt we were the heroes, Language training, did everything, e.g. linguistics, translation, literacy, etc. We felt the spiritual ministry would grow from our abilities. We had much sickness and learned to depend more on the Lord. First term one man came to the Lord through translating Genesis stories. He realized the world was created (it didn’t just always exist) and that he could relate to this Creator. We started teaching this young man to read and write. As a teenager he stood by our house thinking that he could learn something from us.

Literacy

After others became Christians, he started leading a church service. He asked us to help him understand the Bible. Then he would teach/preach it. He was excellent in using culturally-appropriate stories and illustrations in his teaching. From the beginning, the Angors led the church. It was a mutual learning and teaching situation: he taught us language and culture and helped with translation; we taught him and others literacy. We taught him whatever interested him. This included Scripture, health, science, political development, etc.

What was done

The translation table was a place to discuss all concerns. There were other Angors that we taught/trained and mentored. They asked us to teach the children. We told them that we would train one of their people to do that. We trained a grade one leaver (someone who has left formal education at grade one) to teach literacy and numeracy. (This was in response to community request for Vernacular education program for children.)

We also started training/mentoring one educated person who became a national translator. He suggested that we help the community start a vernacular education program for children since there was no government school in the area. We helped start the program using adult literacy materials. (This was in response to community request.) This program was very successful and the government gave them a community school. After that another language group requested vernacular education for their children. Now the province is very committed to an initial vernacular education. But after 5 years, the community had not been assisting the teachers.

Results

Later we worked with men who had learned to read and write in their own language. They retranslated, revised, and edited the Angor New Testament. Now they are translating parts of the Old Testament.

By Bob Litteral