Back from Papua New Guinea

00:00
Sarah Esala
They can help one another. If one’s struggling with a term in one language, a related language may be able to say, hey, have you thought about this? This is what we’re thinking. So there’s a lot of synergy. They think of themselves as being together and unified, even though they have separate languages. 

00:24
Rich
Close welcome to the Essentially Translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. I’m rich Friedowski. 

00:31
Emily
And I’m Emily Wilson, and this past Concordia Mission Institute had missionaries and staff members from all over the world and our regional director for Southern and Eastern Africa, Papua New guinea and Southeast Asia, Sarah Esla, was in the office, and so I had the opportunity to talk with her about her recent visit to Papua New guinea and the partnerships that exist there and just how the Holy Spirit is working among the language communities and their excitement for Bible translation ministry. 

01:05
Rich
Yeah, it really is exciting how the lutheran church is taking a lead on Bible translation, and that’s what Sarah really got to see how much that’s developed and how they’re doing that within their context. So I wish I would have been there for the interview, but excited to share it with all of you. Enjoy this episode with Emily and Sarah. 

01:25
Emily
So today in the studio, I have Sarah Esla, regional director for Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia, Papua New guinea, and a bunch of other spaces and places. So welcome to the podcast. 

01:40
Sarah Esala
It’s great to be here. 

01:41
Emily
So this is the second time that I’ve had the privilege of interviewing you for the podcast, and both times Rich has been out of town. I don’t know what that’s about, but I’m also considering myself very blessed because I love sitting down and talking with you. So just a little bit of an overview for the listeners who maybe didn’t catch your last podcast episode. You were a missionary in Ghana for a number of years with the comba translation team, and then was in a member care capacity for a number of years and now regional director. So you just made a visit to Pablo, New guinea in June, just about a month ago. Right. How long were you there? 

02:20
Sarah Esala
I was there for two weeks. 

02:22
Emily
Okay, so what was the primary purpose of the visit? 

02:26
Sarah Esala
Yeah, the primary purpose was for me to connect with the lutheran church there, especially the national church body, and that was at the request of the Zaka district or the Zaka circuit, where we support some Bible translation projects. So at a maybe more of a ground level or local level, they were imagining that it would be great if the national church could be part of Bible translation, not just these smaller communities. 

02:58
Emily
The lutheran church in Papua New guinea is quite old. Right. I think missionaries in the 18 hundreds or so established a congregation there. But it is also a really interesting context, a country context of a lot of geographical barriers, of mountains and jungle and lush forests and such. And your attempt to visit there also proved to be a barrier earlier this year. Can you talk a little bit about what you were initially hoping for this visit earlier in 2023? 

03:32
Sarah Esala
Yeah. So originally were going to go in March, and everything was pretty much set, but when we applied for visas, there was three of us planning to go, myself and two people from the seed company trying to do some sort of collaborative effort with other organizations. And one of us got a visa and the other two did not get a visa in time to leave. And were even talking about delaying. We actually started delaying and wondered if we could get out that same week, and eventually it just didn’t work. So we canceled the trip and looked at our schedules, and the only other time that would work for all of us to go was at the beginning of June, which felt like, yeah, it was really stressful, actually, because there were so many moving parts. And like you mentioned, the context. 

04:23
Sarah Esala
To travel around Papua New guinea is very difficult. We had to coordinate so many things, know flights, like small flights with Sil and different guest houses and working out things with. We went to the Zaka circuit, which is a long boat ride along the ocean in a small boat and planning for them to be there, and plus planning the meeting for the lutheran church. And so there was lots of meetings that were having and all that had to be canceled and then rescheduled. So that was discouraging because it was legitimately a lot of time and they weren’t the types of things you can just go on the computer and do easily. 

05:09
Emily
But when it all came to fruition in June, I heard a little voice clip from Whatsapp that you were like, this was totally orchestrated by the Lord. And what made it so, what made it obviously like, okay, Lord, you delayed our plans for three months, but this is for your good. 

05:30
Sarah Esala
Yeah, I would say two big things were that the order of the trip completely got reversed. So originally were going to go in and meet with the National Lutheran Church in lay, and then I was going to go meet with a lot of other different partners that LVT has maybe some connection with in a historic way or currently, and that got switched so that I met with a whole bunch of partners ahead of time, individually, and it really helped me understand the context of Papua New guinea. The Bible translation landscape and what’s being done there and what organizations were thinking. And so that by the time I got to the lutheran church, I just had a greater understanding and awareness, and I think that facilitated the conversation. Additionally, it helped bring partners, more partners to that conversation with the lutheran church. 

06:25
Sarah Esala
So were invited to go. Lutheran Bible translators was invited, but it opened the door for, I think, five or six other organizations to be in the same room with us. And so it just brought this unified front to the lutheran church where they could be like, okay, there’s a lot of people that are interested in working with us. We’re not in this alone. There’s a lot of resources, and we are, as Bible translation organizations, we’re unified, but we want to help this happen, and that speaks a lot to a culture in which consensus is a main value that they have. So this just helped with the consensus building and I think the acceptability of what might happen with Bible translation at a national lutheran church level. 

07:16
Emily
That’s amazing to be able to see how even though the plans completely flipped, and I think that’s, for me personally, I want to almost like this was the original plan, let’s stick with the original plan and to be able to see how the Lord is working through the relationship building and the context building. You’ve been in conversations for a couple of years now with different translation teams and members in Papua New guinea, but this is your first visit. And how does that change going from almost a two dimensional conversation to three dimensional? What is gained from that regional director visit to the. 

08:00
Sarah Esala
You know, you can only work so long virtually, but when you go into a context. I got to meet some of the families. We had a lot of meals together. We got to know people not just professionally, but a little bit more informally. And I think it increased the trust we have with one another. I think we got to be more honest with challenges and what excites us and what we are anticipating might be a future barrier or opportunity. So I think conversations just got to be extended and, yeah, you could pick up a conversation at another location. I stayed in a guest house where other partners were staying. We could get together a lot, and it was really fun. I mean, I shot hoops with someone. We would walk to restaurants together, eat together, grocery shop together. So it was pretty fun. 

08:57
Sarah Esala
It was fun to meet some of their wives. That was good, going to church with them, hearing their input about that. So these are all things that just fill out my understanding of the people that we’re working with as well as the context, and they could inform me. I could ask questions and get really good answers right there and then. 

09:19
Emily
Absolutely. And just in those things of being able to eat meals together and fellowship together, and even recreational activities, how the Lord is working through those relationships and being able to build bridges of, oh, these are your interests, and these are where we overlap. And here are different means of our different backgrounds, and how it’s all for his glory to be able to be in ministry together, and how we sharpen one another. So you mentioned being able to articulate opportunities and challenges, specifically when meeting and doing life together those two weeks with the different translation partners. Can you share a little bit about some of those opportunities and challenges that you learned about specifically during this trip? 

10:12
Sarah Esala
Yeah, I think I’m going to start by just talking more at the local level with the Zaka circuit and a little bit about the uniqueness of that context, because it was really out of that we’ve come to this point of talking with the national church. So I had the opportunity to take that, I say take the four hour boat ride on this little boat on the ocean to the Zaka circuit. And we climbed a big hill to get up there and my flip flops. Oh, my goodness. But there was all these people waiting, these three language programs that we are helping to support, and they had the whole program organized. I mean, they were very organized, and they are very driven, and that has been exciting. 

10:56
Sarah Esala
But to be there in person and see how they’re making it work and to hear their voices was really powerful. And something that’s really fun is that these three projects essentially were told where the Zaka circuit was told by Bible translation organizations, we can’t help you. You don’t fit our criteria in some way. But the Zaka circuit has a vision to have all six languages and their circuit have the full Bible by 2050. So this is their vision. And so they, just as they were being told by different organizations, they were like, well, how are we going to make it happen? So they reached out to Stephen, to Boko, who is a main contact for us. And Stephen had ways to connect with LBT, and he really shared about the vision of the Zaka circuit on their behalf. 

11:46
Sarah Esala
And I now got to talk with the leaders themselves about this vision. And they realized they might not get help from other people, but they needed to have God’s word. It was so important for the church’s growth and life. And so they came up with their own system for how it was going to happen, and they started reaching out to people that might be able to help them, and they were able to get a computer or two. They had Stephen. They worked out with Stephen, who has the ability to do training and consultant checking to help them on an individual basis. And then how are they going to pay for this? They decided that all their people would be volunteers. We sometimes think we all are involved in the church. 

12:35
Sarah Esala
Some people sing in the choir, some people help with count the offering and an usher and do different roles in the church. And they felt like Bible translation is like that. And so instead of hiring really special translators and these three people are going to do it all, they looked at their congregations that make up their parishes and they selected teams, and a lot of their teams have like 15 to 20 people that work part time. Wow. So a lot of people, but they don’t get paid, so they’re just volunteering, doing a little bit. They’re able to then do their gardening, which is how they support themselves and feed themselves. And these people do hand translation, so they don’t have to learn computers and stuff. 

13:22
Sarah Esala
They handwrite out their translation after they’ve gotten some help with exegete work and everything, and then they bring it to a team leader, and then that team leader then can work with the coordinator or the consultant or something in that way. And so the team leader is doing a lot of coordination on who’s going to do what and everything. This was all their model. They came up with it. They felt like it was sustainable and it would be the way that they could do translation. However, there are a lot of expenses that come with translation. For instance, they didn’t have computers or good computers, and that can really help with translation work. They don’t have power in their remote areas, some solar setups help. 

14:04
Sarah Esala
And these, I would say extra costs are especially what Lutheran Bible translators has been able to come alongside them and support them. It’s not necessarily the day to day operations. They’ve figured out a way to support that and to sustain that. But some of these large expenses is the way we can really contribute. And so they came up with this great model and they’re very excited. These three languages work together. They’re related somewhat, so they actually can help each other. So when they come together, they’re all there for this similar training and stuff. They can help one another. If one’s struggling with a term in one language, a related language may be able to say, hey, have you thought about this? This is what we’re thinking. So there’s a lot of synergy. 

14:54
Sarah Esala
They think of themselves as being together and unified, even though they have separate languages. So this whole model is exciting for me. I’ve seen how Bible translation projects work elsewhere. I know some of the struggles, I would say. So that’s the exciting part. The challenges are kind of, like I said, getting the computers, maybe having a good place for training. Transportation challenges are big. There are some people that literally have to walk a half a day to get to a place where they’re going to do their training. And when it comes to going to places where they’re currently getting more extensive training, that’s like a three day trip, at least three days. Those are a lot of barriers. That’s one direction. So that’s six days of travel to go where you’re going to learn it. 

15:47
Sarah Esala
And it’s very expensive to do it outside your language area. They’ve found ways now for. So that’s a challenge and they don’t have the money for that if they stay more locally doing that. So one of their requests is that there would be some sort of building or facility where they could bring the current three translation teams and hopefully all six as they add more ones on more locally, because then they can provide all the food for it. Just like some people are volunteering as translators, other people volunteer and come and do the cooking. The whole community can bring their own food that they grow from their gardens. And so in some ways it’s free. It’s not free because they are providing gifts in kind, but that’s how they can sustain it. 

16:34
Sarah Esala
And so they come along and they feel part of the team, and it’s appealing because it’s community ownership, it’s really community and church driven. And this is how they’ve decided to do it. And it’s working. 

16:47
Emily
Kind of reminds me of the early church in acts of being able to say, this is what I have to contribute, and these are my gifts, these are my spiritual giftings of hospitality. Or maybe the Lord has gifted them with that insight into their language and being a representative. One of the things that Ishni and Ruthie had shared during their visit to Tanzania. We shared about this in a previous episode of how the community talked about, yes, it’s important for our translation to be accurate, beautiful and clear, but also for members of the community, the translation team member, what makes a good translation team member? That they’re in the church, that they’re in the word, and that they’re actively involved. And I’m hearing that this is a volunteer task, but it’s more than just a task. 

17:42
Emily
It is their heart’s desire to be able to have God’s word, and not only for their own community, but for surrounding communities. That’s kind of what the heart is of this more than words comprehensive campaign. Is this ministry entrepreneur like Stephen or his colleagues of saying, we want God’s word for our community, but even more than that, we’re wanting it for surrounding communities, for everyone to know that they are dearly loved children of God. So there’s a lot of exciting opportunities ahead. Those challenges that you mentioned, very real. But this has been something on their heart for a number of years. So they’ve had this, what was it? 

18:26
Emily
You talked about it as a movement of the Holy Spirit that they saw for these past couple of years, that the Holy Spirit just unifying them that they are of one heart and one mind to have God’s word. So what is it that has been in the community, the larger community, of how to approach Bible translation? Have they been having to not really advertise but promote Bible translation, or has this been known throughout, even beyond leadership? 

19:03
Sarah Esala
Well, I think so. In Papua New guinea, what kind of happened in the early years of missionary work is the country was kind of divided up where Lutherans would take this section and another church, the United Church, took a different section. So it was kind of carved up that way and it just for organizational purposes and mission. That’s sort of what happened. So what happens is you have parts of the country that while they may have other churches represented, now they are mostly Lutheran, and the Morabay area, where the National Lutheran Church is set, is one of those areas, and that’s where these projects that we’re working with currently are found. 

19:45
Sarah Esala
So when the Lutheran church, like the circuit from their level or the district level, puts something out and shares it with their pastors and everything, it kind of brings most of the majority of Christians and churches on board, and they do reach out to other churches, too, but that’s kind of how they bring people together. I would say another advantage to just really making this very local, and they’ve had the local training to some extent and the community checking. Is that a need in general that I hear from around the world is we need more continuing education for our pastors. 

20:21
Sarah Esala
They’ve gotten some training, but as we’re getting more familiar with Bible translation, there are some things that are part of Bible translation, whether the process or utilizing mother tongue scriptures or local languages, that we actually haven’t equipped our people for, our pastors for. Can you help us? So for continuing education, while we have these people from the congregations, and I’m guessing that there’s pastors as part of it or evangelists that help with the work too. When they do a workshop in their area, they open that invitation to all the pastors so they can come and get the teaching. Like what is the background on the book of Luke? Because we’re going to translate it. So kind of do some of the exegete process, but other people can be part of it and learn and grow with it. 

21:12
Sarah Esala
So the nature of their project is so inclusive and expansive as far as who else can be a part of it? The people that cook food, when they aren’t cooking food or getting water or something, they love to go and listen to whatever teaching they can get and they get super excited and they feel like they’re learning and growing from it. So you have all those people then going back to their communities and their really small, I think, settlements, and they’re so connected, they’re related to so many people and it just makes it naturally spread and they’re all feeling, I think, a part of it. So I think other opportunities there is like in the Zaka circuit, they have a radio program, they have ways to print things, so there are ways that they’re able to get the word out quite effectively and quickly. 

22:09
Emily
That’s awesome. And it’s just going to be a really natural process for the community. Review of translation drafts of as people are listening in, spreading the word that this is happening, and then when the ask comes later of like, hey, we have this translation draft, can we come and visit around this time? They’ll already know. It won’t be a mystery. Like, oh, this was a project you were working on. That is awesome. How communication is vibrant and that, I love that they have a radio program too, because as announcements go out, that’ll be right there for people to be able to hear and to be able to plan for. That’s awesome. 

22:53
Emily
So what are some of the upcoming events that need to take place for Papua New guinea for not only on Lutheran Bible translators side of how we might be able to continue the conversation, but also how our prayer and our financial supporters at Lutheran Bible translators, how can they be involved to be able to support the work that’s happening in Papua New guinea? 

23:23
Sarah Esala
Yeah. So I probably mostly focused on what happened at the very local level, but those people in the Zaka circuit were like, this is important. God’s word is so important to us and we know that there are really hundreds of other languages that are in areas where the lutheran church is the predominant church and we want it to be taken on at the national level with the national church supporting it, being involved so it can be for more people. And so they made that invitation and worked it. They were the ones that helped orchestrate the invitation for us to come talk to the national church and I think just praying for that to continue to go well. The national church, when we met with them, they showed us their strategic plan and they said, look, we already had Bible translation in our strategic plan. 

24:16
Sarah Esala
We hope to start conversation in 2022. We’re so happy you’re here because this is part of our strategy. We know we need to reach more languages and do translation and that will help the mission of the church. So that’s a great privilege to be joining them in their vision that was already there. However, there’s a lot of partners and potential in Papua New guinea. There are a lot of organizations doing Bible translation that have a lot of gifts to offer and figuring out how the church could maybe utilize some of the strengths of other organizations would be great and wisdom on how to do that. Lutheran Bible translators because we are Lutherans and Lutherans Trust Lutherans, a lot of times we’ve been asked to sort of be a guide in helping with that process. So just pray for wisdom. 

25:10
Sarah Esala
This is a newer context for me. This is really sometimes a newer way of doing Bible translation. So we’re trying to figure out what that looks like. Even for the right people from Lutheran Bible translators and within the country to come together, to be working together to figure out what the future can look like would be great. So they have accepted it on their agenda. It will be talked about more next January. So that’s a really important meeting, I think, at their national church convention at that time. So really prayers for the next month as we figure out, okay, what needs to be done, what conversations need to be had, who needs to be part of this would be great. 

25:56
Sarah Esala
Just praying for wisdom and all of that, and that God would orchestrate the right connections and conversations to make a really strong foundation for work ahead. They have a seminary there, so there’s implications for how Bible translation could be embedded somewhat in that, as well as what it would look like for them to reach out into other language communities and meet other needs. 

26:25
Emily
Just an exponential effect of how the Lord is at work and that it starts with a few conversations that seem like we just had this Concordia mission institute and how God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. And just having this know that the Lord has provided not only the passion that people have, but the partnerships and how essential that is, that people from North America, from all over the world coming together to say the word is our foundation for being able to have a relationship with the Lord and how we can grow together and sharpen one another, because it’s the reciprocal, that vertical and horizontal relationship between the Lord and his people. So we will definitely keep all of our partners in prayer in Pablo, New guinea and the various other regions where you serve. 

27:31
Emily
If you were to highlight one takeaway from your, you know, this is when I was standing on the mountaintop and could see it all, what is it that you would want to share with our listeners? 

27:46
Sarah Esala
I am always amazed at the gifts that our partners give to us as far as understanding. Sometimes we have a certain knowledge base and an expertise, but I am always amazed at how much I learn from our partners. And I think my takeaway once again is, wow, I would have never thought that this could be a way we could work and it would be hard from us to, I mean, even the volunteer part to suggest, why don’t you all be volunteers? But for them to have that struggle and to be part of that, to learn from them and imagine, like their dreams and their visions are even so much more than we have. And so that’s really my takeaway. I was blown away by how dedicated these people are and kind of like you alluded to immeasurably more. 

28:43
Sarah Esala
It almost is overwhelming to me to think of how big their vision is, and so I feel privileged to be part of it. But I think we also get to listen and learn, and I actually think that some of what they’re doing is going to bless other parts of the world and the church and other places to help meet their goals also. 

29:05
Emily
Thank you so much for sharing and we will continue praying for you and your ministry. Thanks, Sarah. 

29:11
Sarah Esala
Okay, thank you. 

29:12
Emily
Bye bye. 

29:17
Rich
Yeah, what really stands out to me in the conversation about the work as it’s developing in Papua New guinea is here’s a place where traditional methods of Bible translation have been used for quite some time, and that in past mission work has resulted in a vibrant lutheran church which in this season, the Lord has moved to be excited about and wanting to engage in mission and the recognition of the need for Bible translation. And so the way that they’re taking that and internalizing it and the way that it has a different expression than we see one in just church approach to mission in general, but also in the Bible translation space, the way, quote unquote, things are usually done, they just kind of turn on its head and it’s really beautiful to see. 

30:05
Emily
We want to encourage you that if you are feeling called to partner alongside the language communities in Papua New guinea, that you can check out lbt.org slash programs and you’re going to see a list of all of our different programs that we are working alongside, but also for Papua New guinea, how you can specifically be praying and how you can financially support this ministry. So you can go to lbt.org slash programs. 

30:37
Rich
Thank you for listening to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. You can find past episodes of the podcast@lbt.org Slash podcast or subscribe on audible, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible translators’social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s word in their hands. The essentially translatable podcast is produced and edited by Andrew Olson. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was designed by Caleb Rotewald and Sarah Rudowski. Music music written and performed by Rob Weit. I’m Rich Radowski. So long. For now.