Taking God's Cues

The couple was overwhelmed by all the information they got at the Wycliffe course. At first, linguistics just didn't seem like it was their thing. They decided that God had to make their future clear to them, so they had numerous times of prayer.

"We even said that if God would lead us in different directions, we would call off our marriage," says Beate. "We were that serious about it."

Verses in Scripture spoke individually to each of them. They decided God was prompting them to pursue service with Wycliffe. After getting married in 1982, the Knaubers had their eyes on attending the linguistic training course in the summer of that same year. But it was not cheap.

Martin had started working as an electronic technician and was going to receive his first salary. "I had promised to donate that salary 100 per cent for God's purposes when I received it."

The Knaubers decided that if Martin's first salary made up the difference between what they had and the cost of the course (which had increased substantially by the time they planned to attend it), they would take it as the Lord's sign to take it that year.

"Guess what?" says Martin, laughing. "The salary came and it was exactly the difference. It was just a very strong confirmation for us. That is sort of how we did it. We took our cues from the Lord that way."

Didn't Understand

Knaubers did their training, focusing first on serving in Irian Jaya. However, God steered them next door to PNG, to serve among the then 2,500 hunter-gatherer Dawawa people.

The Dawawa asked the local Anglican bishop in the area to request someone to come and do Bible translation in their language. Church activity was held in a so-called "church language," which originates back to a PNG coastal language that was used by Anglican missionaries more than a 100 years ago when they moved inland to the Dawawa. However, it is not their heart language.

"People said they didn't understand what was going on," explains Martin.

Adds Beate: "People had a church building and often the bishop or his priests travelled around to different churches. So once a month the priest would come and conduct a service.

"The Anglican Church is High Anglican, so there is so much liturgy. Many Dawawa just thought as long as we do this 'magic' of the white man, we're okay. That was the sentiment."

"We spent the first few years just language learning, analyzing [the language], doing the phonology, grammar and anthropology and so forth," recalls Martin. Later, the couple also started seven schools among the illiterate Dawawa, prepared literacy materials, encouraged community development, and provided medical care.

Knaubers began Bible translation with two Dawawa people (they were not any type of leaders at the time): Copland King Gororiba and Jeno Gideon. These co-translators headed a translation committee of 12 people representing various villages. It didn't take long before God's Word translated in the Dawawa mother tongue began making an impact.

A cargo cult religion was entangled with the Dawawa traditional animistic culture, says Martin. "This got a real severe blow . . . because people said, 'Look, this is not right. This is not what the Bible says—all this cargo stuff is wrong.'

"Everything that happened," adds Beate, "really came from just reading and studying God's Word—nothing else. We were very careful not to impose our own religion on them, but let God speak.

"When Bible study started, spiritual life started to grow."

Turning from Past Ways

The Dawawa in their village continued to attend Anglican services, but many held a Sunday afternoon gathering in their mother tongue. The believers composed songs in Dawawa, held Sunday school, and started praying in their language.

Later, in a neighbouring village, the head chief among the Dawawa, already in his 70s, decided to become a Christian and threw away all of his traditional magic items. His believing nephew warned him that Satan would likely afflict him out of anger for his decision. Three weeks later, the chief got ill to the point of death. He had stopped eating, was in a coma, and people had begun wailing for him out of mourning.

Several Dawawa suggested the traditional shaman be summoned to heal him. His nephew refused and instead gathered two other Christians to pray for him. The old man was instantly healed, sat up and asked for something to eat.

"After that, many people in the village came to the Lord—they followed him," Beate says. "That made a big, big change."

Before the dedication of the Dawawa New Testament in 2003, the head chief summoned his colleagues and challenged them that before God's Word arrived, they should turn from their past practices. The day before the dedication about 2,000 people gathered. They were asked three times by a leader if they wanted to turn from their old ways and trust God. Each time, they shouted that they did. Magical potions, fetishes and other items were then burned.

"There is a very lively group of Christians there now in a number of villages these days," says Martin. "They are still in the Anglican Church; they did not split. They want to revive what they have.

"But there is real spiritual life going on there today, and we are very happy for that."

Jungle to Plains

The Knaubers are working with the Dawawa on the Old Testament, with sporadic visits to the people. Eventually, they will return to PNG to focus on the work more fully.

Several years ago, the Knaubers joined the Hutterisch translation project for the 45,000 Hutterites in North America. They are assisting Hutterite Tony Waldner to do a translation of the New Testament into their mother tongue, for an audio version of the Scriptures.

It's a long way from the jungle of the Dawawa to the prairies and plains of the Hutterites, but prompted by God, the Knaubers have made the transition to their new work.

"We wouldn't have imagined it," says Martin. "But we always knew that once we moved on from Papua New Guinea, something else was in store for us."

Indeed, the Planner of the universe always seems to have more for His people to do, somewhere in His wide world.