Our Stories
The Word of God, Just a Click Away
Bonifas P.Korangia also known as Boni served as a Technician Missionary for 22 years, Boni served with CRMF from 1997 – 2001. In 2002, Boni moved from CRMF to MAF, where he served till 2011 as a MAF Technician. In 2014, Boni joined New Tribes Mission (NTM), but by 2018, he felt called to take a year off from doing missionary work and refocus on his life.
“For the last 22 years I’ve been the IT guy fixing missionaries’ and mission’s computers as a Technician Missionary. I felt (needed) to burn out some stress and refocus on my life and what the Lord was saying and doing in my life. ” – Bonifas P. Korangia.
Boni left missions work and has now taken this year to teach the word of God to the tribe in his village, located in the Highlands of Madang in Bundi, Yandara. Going back to his village Boni reverted back to his tribal lifestyle and daily routine of clearing the forest, making garden and taking care of livestock.
Apart from his daily routine in the village, Boni also gives 1-hour session teaching tribal church planting. He runs this class every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in two different villages, including his own village. Because most of the things in the Bible are based in Jewish culture, he uses their culture to explain the Biblical truth to his people.
“Last year and this year has been a learning curve for me. I’ve been relearning my tribal culture and using what I’ve learnt about my tribal culture to explain the Biblical truth. I’ve done this because this is one way my people can relate to the Bible.” – Bonifas P. Korangia.
In the past, Boni bought Pidgin Bibles for the women and men in his village but realized they did not make use of the Bible because they were either busy working in the garden providing and taking care of their families, or their vision was too bad to read.
“Some of them struggle to read, so I have to go find them reading glasses…Because our place is mountainous and gardens are located 1,2,3 kilometres away from the house, the women would have to walk all the way to their garden and walk back to their houses, and by the time they get back they have to prepare food for the family. By then they are really worn out and tired. This are some reasons why they could not spend time reading the Bible” – Bonifas P. Korangia.
When Boni bought the audio bibles for his tribes, he saw tremendous changes in the people he distributed the Bibles to.
“The people in my village would say,’ This Audio Bible is amazing! While we are walking to the garden we can just listen to the word of God from the Audio Bible, or in the afternoons while we are cooking for our families we can just press a button on the Audio Bible, and the word of God is shared to us.’ ” – Bonifas P. Korangia.
After witnessing the changes in his tribe and the impact that the Audio Bible has brought, Boni has now bought two Audio Bible and three were donated to him by CRMF. Boni has also seen the Audio Bible impact the younger generation in his village.
“My eldest sister has six grandchildren and they would always come by her house and filled with enthusiasm they’d ask, ‘Can we please listen to your Bible Boom Box (Audio Bible)?’ In the village children would come together to tell stories, but when I introduced them to the Audio Bible, they now had something that would tell them stories.” – Bonifas P. Korangia.
Because of the kids enthusiasm towards the Audio Bible they would quickly pick up the scripture from the word of God through the Audio Bible.
“What my people love about the Audio Bible is its’ solar powered and the word of God is easily accessible with just a click away.” – Bonifas P. Korangia.
We thank God that such tools as the Audio Bible continue to impact Boni’s people in Bundi, Yandara. We also look forward to hearing the testimonies of the lives that get impacted through the 5 audio bibles.