The Yali people in Papua recently received more than 2,500 Bibles, 52 years after they martyred the first missionaries to visit them.
Regions Beyond Missionary Union (now World Team) missionaries Phil Masters and Stan Dale were killed when they went to the Indonesian province to share the Gospel and start a church in 1968.
The same tribe now has members walking for a day just to receive a Bible.
Tragedy to joy
Three months after Masters and Dale were killed, the Newman family, another missionary family, went in search of them. Their plane crashed, leaving only their son Paul alive.
Paul was sheltered by a sympathetic tribesman, and when new missionaries came to find him the Yali people took it as a positive sign, inviting more missionaries to stay with them.
Today, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) continues to serve the isolated tribe, flying several aircraft to support church plants and Bible translation in the region.
Word of God
The 2,500 Bibles delivered are written in the Yali language and include 1,400 children’s Bibles.
Linda Ringenberg, wife of one of the pilots involved, shared how God has worked amongst the people.
“Because God in His far-reaching love, worked through a killing, a plane crash, faithful missionaries, translators and organisations like MAF, these Yali tribes no longer walk the path of darkness. Their path is lit by the Word of God.”
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