SIL-PNG has a long history of service to, and partnership with, the Church in Papua New Guinea. Partnership among agencies has been a hallmark of the Bible translation movement in PNG since the 1950’s. These partnerships are productive. For example, collaboration among agencies – including SIL and the Christian Brethren Church – was a significant factor in the completion of the Tok Pisin Buk Baibel, as coordinated by the Bible Society of PNG.

Partnering with the Church in PNG has always been important to SIL-PNG, and recent decades have seen a strengthening of relationships. SIL-PNG invited increasing Church partnership in Bible translation through the video ‘Kam, Yumi Pul!’ around 2000. Subsequently, the Bible Translation Partnership was formed. We sponsored meetings with Church leaders in 2002 and 2004 to continue to grow together.

Such partnerships are not easy to build and maintain! Relationships with the PNG Church faltered from 2004-2008 with the dissolution of the Bible Translation Partnership. Efforts were revived by a joint effort of SIL-PNG and PNG Bible Translation Association (PNGBTA) with the National Scripture Use Conference in 2010. Over the following three years a series of Bible Translation Weekends were held in Alotau, Goroka, Kainantu, Lae, Madang, and Port Moresby to restore connections and become fruitful together again. The project also hosted a number of regional Bible translation conferences in Kavieng, Kokopo, Wewak, and Ukarumpa (Highlands). The effort culminated with the Second PNG Tokples Scripture Conference in January 2013.

In 2008, a parallel effort of international agencies (including SIL-PNG) working in the Pacific founded the ‘Pacific Wa’a’ (the Hawaiian name for an ocean-going canoe) with the goal of working together to eradicate Bible poverty. This group laboured together for over 10 years, seeking to inspire and enable new ways to reach every people group in the Pacific with God’s Word. In 2017 and 2018 SIL-PNG worked with PNGBTA and other members of the Pacific Wa’a in holding two important stakeholder meetings. The first was focused on international agencies, while the second was focused on PNG Church leaders and Bible translation agencies.

This second meeting was a highlight in relating with the Church, as PNG churches and stakeholders were asked to take the lead. The SIL-PNG Director apologised to the PNG churches for having been ‘in the driver’s seat’ of Bible translation longer than we should have. He invited the Church to take the wheel.

These multi-partner, multi-church efforts contributed to the formation of the Bible Bilum Forum in 2023 (a successor to the Bible Bilum Partnership formed in 2013). The name highlights that nearly everyone in PNG has a bilum, or woven bag, in which they carry the most important things for daily life. The Forum desires to see a Bible in every bilum, in the language people understand best.

The Bible Bilum Forum includes an array of international and national organisations, as well as many church leaders from across PNG. An exciting development is work towards a governing board of PNG leaders to coordinate and guide Bible translation work in the country.

SIL-PNG is proud of our contribution to Bible translation. We are also humbled by the long participation and patience of the Church in pursuing God’s Word in every language. We look forward to supporting the PNG Church as they lead this effort into the future.