Chasing Tigger … Well Sort Of

Well, of course, this tiger toy does not look a thing like the Disney cartoon character!

However … it is the way I remember the name of the language predominant in this area where I have been living these past few days!

Tigak is mostly spoken in the Kavieng region of New Ireland—which area, like the language that has no relationship to the Pooh character, has no bearing on where my family live in N.I. (Northern Ireland) and no connection to Ireland whatsoever! (Well, actually, it rains a lot here, so maybe there are some similarities!).

While taking my rest after the cluster, and time with YWAM PNG these past four and a half months, I have been doing a little research for YWAM (and the OBT team I worked with in Madang).

Tigak only has the New Testament available to them and nothing from the Bible for non-readers and those who prefer to process information orally.

Add to this the fact that it is a major language in the Kavieng area and on various islands around here and has (according to some sources dating back to 1991) 6,000 speakers, but also has anything up to 20,000 speakers of the wider language group (with its related dialects), this is definitely a language that needs an oral Bible.

Living in this beautiful area for several days and meeting some lovely people (speakers of Tigak) I am soon to leave their home patch, but I go praying that God will send workers here who will provide these people with Scripture in their mother tongue so they do not have to know God through pidgin English or English (their current Bible access points), neither of which is their heart language.

Everyone does deserve to hear God speak to them through His Word in their heart language, no?