In remote Karimui, there are no roads to connect people to the rest of Papua New Guinea. There are no bookshops. So, how can people buy Bibles? We talked to Pastor Kimin Mauwe to find out.
Story by Matt Painter
“God’s Word has power,” said Pastor Kimin Mauwe, of the Karimui Baptist Church.
“The Bible itself says, in Hebrews 4:12, that God’s Word has power and is sharper than all kinds of things – sharper than a sword.
“All of God’s Word has pawa (power),” he said, speaking in Tok Pisin, or Pidgin English.
Pastor Kimin has had ample opportunity to witness the power of God’s Word. He began ministry here 33 years ago. He is married to Susan, has a pet cassowary and vulturine parrot, and grows peanuts.
He’s also the church and community appointed agent for MAF, giving weather reports and readying passengers and cargo for travel – and he’s been doing it for 32 years.
“People here usually buy many Tok Pisin Bibles. When the MAF plane comes to the airstrip, everyone gathers around the pilot, and they buy them quickly.”
MAF pilots sell the subsidised Bibles from a ‘Bible Box’, which is carried on each flight to remote communities.
MAF helps us. They bring Bibles to our hands. This is good.
Sometimes, people from outlying villages wish to purchase Bibles from MAF, and like other MAF agents, Pastor Kimin helps.
“We send a request to MAF. I say, ‘There are people here who would like a Bible, the money is here, so bring Bibles’.”
It sounds straightforward, but the availability of Bibles in the bush is not something people take for granted.
Pastor Kimin spoke of the limited opportunities to purchase a Bible before MAF sold them from the back of the plane.
“From time to time, if we went to town, we could look for Bibles in the Christian bookshop,” he said. “Sometimes, people would find them some place, and they would get them.
“But the main method we see now, is that MAF brings lots of Bibles. They carry them in the back of the plane and help lots of people who have no way to get to town. Where they don’t have the funds to get to town, MAF brings them around to all the airstrips and helps those people.
“So, we see it like this: To get ourselves to town and back, it’s expensive. And if we put our money in the hands of another man, he will consume it, or some of the time, lose it.
“MAF helps us. They bring Bibles to our hands. This is good.
“If MAF didn’t sell Bibles in this country and bring them to us, all the people in the bush would have a really hard time. But MAF makes it easy for us.”
The team at MAF Technologies in Goroka supply Bibles to the pilots.
Johnson Irarue, Administration Assistant, orders and distributes these Bibles.
“Every time an order comes in and I start to pack, I pack it nicely and neatly,” he said. “I pack it believing and praying that when this Bible or audio Bible goes out, somebody, a mother or a young man – whatever situation or need he or she may be in – my prayer is that this Bible will become the answer to their needs or to their prayers.
“So, when I pack it, I just don't pack it anyhow. I pray over it. My heart is in it. And I’m just wishing that when it lands in that person’s hand, they will find hope, will see his or her breakthrough, and ultimately give her life or his life to the Lord.”