CHRISTIANNEWS.COM.- In 1968, the Yali tribe of Papua New Guinea, who practiced witchcraft and cannibalism, killed two missionaries. Today they are hungry for the Word of God.
In August, the people of Yali received 2,500 bibles delivered by plane through the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). Some members of the tribe walked a whole day to reach the villages where the Bibles were distributed. Before the plane landed, the women sang to celebrate the arrival of the Word of God.
Among the delivered bibles, 1,400 were for children that were carried by one of the eight MAF planes based in Papua New Guinea.
“After 20 years of heat, humidity and use, these bibles wear out,” MAF director of corporate communications Brad Hoaglun told the Christian Post. “Like any item that gets used a lot, it needs to be replaced.”
It was impossible 52 years ago
The arrival of the bibles was marked by a celebration complete with dances, songs and speeches. Many people might have thought that this scene was impossible just 52 years ago.
The Yali were once known as the most feared tribe in the Snowy Mountains of Indonesia. They were aggressive, they used their bows and arrows to kill other tribes and eat them. Even when the tribe was not at war, they hunted people for meat. The few who entered their mountains did not return.
The tribe did not know that people existed outside the mountains of Papua New Guinea, or that there was a way to live without killing each other.
“I still remember the day the first missionary came here,” an elderly man said in a MAF video. “It had a huge impact. Without MAF, we could continue to live in our old way of life.”
Hoaglun said that when the Gospel reaches a new tribe, it changes everything. the bible sets free people from fear of powerful spirits and cruel cultural practices. They find hope and peace in faith in Jesus.
“It’s transforming people,” he said. “There are missiological debates about leaving them as intact as possible. But when you realize how people treat their children, their spouses, it’s not acceptable. Having a message of God’s love changes everyone’s lives.”
1960: The two missionaries who died for preaching the Gospel
Missionaries Stan Dale and Phil Masters began reaching the Yali tribe with the Gospel. In the 1960s, Dale visited Yali to share the Gospel.
Along with Yali’s first Christian, a man named Luliap Pahabol, Dale translated the New Testament book of Mark into Yali. It was the first step in a Yali Bible translation that took 30 years to complete and is read by Yali today.
In 1968, Dale, Masters, Pahabol, and a group of porters from the nearby Dani tribe entered Yali territory to tell them about Jesus.
The Yali threatened the group and told them they would be killed, so they had to leave, however the Yali chased them to an open river beach, and from their bows shot a large number of arrows at the missionaries and their porters.
Masters and Dale stopped on the beach, to remove the arrows that had wounded them, but in the end they died along with several members of the Dani tribe.
The Yali ate their bodies, ground their bones into powder, and scattered it around to prevent the “resurrection” that the missionaries had told them about in their previous meeting.
Three months later, a man from Yali gave shelter to the son of one of the missionaries who had been the sole survivor of a plane crash. Soon after, a search party arrived and the Yali saw this as a positive sign and allowed the missionaries to live among them and teach them the gospel.
“Because God in his far-reaching love worked through a murder, a plane crash, faithful missionaries, translators, and organizations like MAF, these Yali tribes no longer walk the path of darkness. His path is illuminated by the Word of God,” Linda Ringenberg, wife of Dave Ringenberg, told The Christian Institute.
Today, the Yali have left behind their violent traditions to follow Jesus.
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