Journey Christian Church Mission Support
Pioneer Bible Translators

Pioneer Bible Translators (PBT) is a translation ministry whose gigantic task is bringing God's Word to people groups still not having Scripture in their mother-tongue. PBT has 25 active programs already providing Scripture in a native language or dialect. Two examples from 2003 will illustrate PBT's ministry. First, in Papua New Guinea, 20 years of labor by David and Sharon Pryor came to fruition with the dedication of the New Testament in the Kire language. Previously, the Kire language group had neither written language or dialect access to God's Word. The second example of PBT's ministry was when the first printing of Isa Mesich (Jesus the Messiah) in Crimean Tatar crossed the border into Ukraine. Isa Mesich consists of 40 key Scripture portions from the 4 gospels with water color pictures by a noted Crimean Tatar, telling the story of Jesus from birth to ascension.

Our monthly support to PBT will be divided two ways, first to the International Service Center(ISC) in Dallas, TX, and secondly to Greg Ohrenberg, Missionary in Training with PBT. ISC provides critical support services for field missionaries, such as intercessory prayer, security planning for missionaries serving in dangerous areas of our world, and vision sharing with sending churches to recruit new workers.

Greg Ohrenberg visited with a few people from our congregation in May, 2003, informing us of his desire to prepare for translation ministry. As a result of Greg's visit, the Senior Adult Bible School Class provides about $30 monthly support . Now the entire Wayne congregation will add to that support. Greg recently received the Certificate of Applied Linguistics and is now working to develop new financial partners. Greg's target for entering a field of service is mid-2005.

PBT is entering the newly opened fields on Mainland Southeast Asia and Vanuatu. Greg is very interested in working on Vanuatu, a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia. One hundred thirteen (113) language groups and many more dialects are found throughout Vanuatu. This makes it one of the most culturally diverse countries on earth. No written language exists on Vanuatu!!! One entering translation ministry on Vanuatu may well spend the rest of their life there, bringing the Word of life so those culturally diverse peoples may know Christ, "the Way, the Truth, the Life".

Greg and his wife, Rondalyn, who also works in translation ministry with PBT, have been married since March of 2004. Please pray for Greg, Rondy, and PBT.