God's New Knot
Way back in the 1880's, Lutheran missionaries from Germany came to Papua Ne w Guinea to save souls, build roads, and teach literacy. In the early 20th century, some of the local Kâte [KAW-tay] people who had converted to Christianity wanted to travel inland and spread the Good News to their fellow islanders. They were committed to their work, but they quickly faced a truly staggering problem: the people that they met when they left their coastal villages spoke different languages – many, many different languages. In fact, we now know that Papua New Guinea has 840 distinct language groups, making it the most linguistically diverse nation on the planet. They really had no idea what they were getting into. After a strenuous three-day hike, the missionaries arrived at a settlement of Nabak people. They were not welcomed warmly, but at least these Kâte foreigners from the coast had the same skin color...