Following is a story sent out by one of the missionaries we serve here. For me it brought into focus again the great need that we're here to help fill.
"We have to hurry," Bungon told me. I looked at her with a wrinkled brow. We were sitting on her porch, chatting, and I didn't know that we had plans to go anywhere.
"We have to hurry and finish the Hobongan translation," she said.
"After that you and I are moving to Metalunai to learn Hobukot."
Hobukot is the Hobongan or Punan name for the Bukat people who live in the villages of Metalunai, Nanga Barang, and Nanga Hobat. They live like the Punan did 20 years ago, nomadic hunter-gatherers. Much of the time Nanga Hobat stands as a deserted village while its nomadic inhabitants travel. The Punan believers had, at one time, tried to teach at the village of Metalunai but quickly realized that their limited understanding of the Bukat language was not enough to share the Gospel effectively with these people.
The burden to reach the Bukat still lingers, but the Punan church needs some help in order to plant a church among the Bukat. Learning another language is harder than they realize; it takes perseverance to learn it well enough to teach the Gospel. It takes some linguistic training in order to write an unwritten language and work on Scripture translation.
The Punan church planters are in need of co-workers in order to carry out their vision of reaching another unreached tribe. Do they need to wait another 10 years until the Punan Scripture translation is complete?
Do the Bukat people need to wait even longer before they get a chance to hear the Gospel?
"Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -- Jesus in Matthew 9:38
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