Humble, Shy and Gifted

When I saw the equivalent of a local handbag hanging on the side of the school house a couple of weeks ago—see What’s in Your Bilum?” —I was curious about what was inside! Soon I was talking to the young mother of the baby in the bag. I was quite taken aback by her command of English and gob-smacked at the fact that she had learned her English at school. Her speech was without any of the usual PNG accent. It was quite stunning.

It was the first day of our Oral Bible Translator training a couple of weeks ago and I told this shy young girl that she was a translator and would do well.

At the end of that first week as we divided the 30+ translators into groups, I was quietly hoping that this young woman would be in our group so my wife and I could help coach her.

And so it was, not only was she with us, but I was praying she would be the one who would narrate the second chapter of Jonah for us in our group. But, would she step up to do it?

She was the first to volunteer to tell the story of Jonah’s prayer in that chapter, but the recording was faulty and we had several technical issues blocking us from getting a good rendition of the chapter initially. But, after some time, the group voted her up to be the one they would help succeed in narrating the chapter. Fighting back her shyness, she pressed through with the help of her colleagues and hers became the Chater Two voice of the first draft in the Manam language, along with the men who recorded chapter one and chapters three and four in other groups.

It’s just the beginning and there is much work ahead to get the book into the final draft, and eventually, production, but it was beautiful to watch the LORD answer prayers and see this humble, gifted young woman work through her shyness and bravely record that first step of Jonah chapter two.