Bible Sales
Ryan has his Bible Box, a plastic toolbox, which he takes with him most days when he’s flying into bush strips. Unfortunately, there are a number of airstrips which are still closed to MAF, for safety reasons or because they are still waiting for a survey to be completed at their location. As a result of this, when I (Shiv) was helping to cover at the base in Telefomin recently, I had the pleasure of selling Bibles to a lady from Urapmin, a village half way between Telefomin and Eliptamin airstrips, and to a couple from Gubil, a village whose airstrip is still closed. It was great to see their enthusiasm at being able to buy God’s Word as we’ve been out of stock of Bibles for a few weeks.
I did ask the lady from Urapmin, in Tok Pisin (The PNG trade language), if she was ok for me to take her picture, however, she did not understand me. Thankfully some people waiting around the base spoke her language and asked her if I could take a picture. She said yes, but she obviously wasn’t used to people taking pictures of her. There is nothing in PNG culture which says you cannot take pictures of people, but obviously it is common courtesy to ask first. When we land in some bush airstrips we can be greeted with people wearing grass skirts and holding smart phones who are enthusiastic to have their photo taken, yet this lady, who lives less than a day’s walk from Telefomin, a main center, wasn’t familiar with having her photo taken. However, it could just have been that my Tok Pisin is still not very fluent, even after 7.5 years in PNG! ;-)
The Pilots’ Bible Box contains a variety of resources including Tok Pisin Bibles & commentaries, English Bibles & Bible dictionaries, Audio Bibles for those who cannot read and even eye glasses when they are in stock. These resources are kindly subsidised people people all over the world so we can sell them for a significantly reduced price which is affordable for the isolated people we serve. We do not give Bibles away for free as, within the PNG culture, this would lower the value of them and would risk extra Bibles being requested and used as kindling.
A lady from Urapmin, a 4-hour walk from Telefomin, who paid K10 for her Tok Pisin Bible. This is the subsidised price.
Ryan re-stocking his “Bible Box” from supplies we keep at Telefomin base, before he heads to some bush airstrips.
A couple from Gubil, whose airstrip is currently closed.
