“I now clearly see that the Bible has background meanings which I can use to interpret it accurately, if I study it well. This means that all the context of what I’m trying to teach and preach must agree with its original context. As I teach, preach or mentor other language groups, this will help me correct or straighten anything that is wrong.” Jino Gideon (Milne Bay), participant on New Testament Introduction course.
“The first thing I learned when I came to the Introduction to Hebrew course was when I was given a book that was all Hebrew words and pictures – I learned I had to open the book from the back! The next thing was to learn to read from right to left. It was very hard to work out which words we were on because it was very hard to work out which way to turn the pages – and hard to flip the pages because I am right handed. After a couple of weeks I got used to working from right to left. I learned these things first, but it was still difficult to me – I was thinking in my head, ‘Why did I come?’
“The next thing was learning the alphabet. Grasping the alphabet of the Hebrews was much harder than the first alphabet I learned as a child – I learned the consonants and then the vowels and I thought things were becoming clear – and that must be good! But no. I was listening and trying to write down what was said – but then I realised my spellings were not close to the Hebrew spelling. As the weeks went by a few pictures and words began to stick in my head and my confidence grew in identifying a few words.
“But the most important thing has been translating the Hebrew into my tokples. One thing I learned was that going from the original text into tokples may help the people in my community, because I found out that the English translations differ in some ways. Some Bible versions have put different connotations in there. So it is good for me that I can now begin to translate straight from Hebrew into my local language.” Kiso Duri (Central), participant on Introduction to Hebrew course.
“I’m glad that I was a student on the New Testament Introduction course. I learned and discovered many things, like the author, date, purpose, audience and main theme of each book in the New Testament, which has really boosted my thinking about the New Testament. It will help me as a preacher of God’s word in the church.” John Kenneth Evura (Eastern Highlands), participant on New Testament Introduction course.
“This course really helped me as a Christian. When I look at the church there are many translations of the Bible – many versions in English, and in Tok Pisin, too – but because I took this course, I can now go straight to the original. In the Highlands we grow coffee and there are middle men – factory buyers offer a different price to the middle men – but in this course I can go straight to the original language that God used for the Bible – that is something else! I was very happy to come, and am looking forward to coming back to further training.” Nathan Yowano (Eastern Highlands), participant on Introduction to Hebrew course.