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Quick
Facts
 Location: Oceania,
group of islands including the eastern half of
the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea
and the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia
Climate: tropical; northwest monsoon
(December to March), southeast monsoon (May to
October); slight seasonal temperature variation
Terrain: Mostly mountains with
coastal lowlands and rolling foothills
Population: 5,545,268 (July 2005
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My Ministry
Location is in the Sepik region near the border
of Indonesia (see star on map for location). The Language
group is the Uriai people and the village I live in is called
Wabuku.
Papua New Guinea lies south of the equator
and north of Australia. The indigenous population of Papua
New Guinea is one of the most heterogeneous in the world. Papua
New Guinea has over 850 distinct people groups. The isolation
created by mountainous terrain is so great that some communities,
until recently, were unaware of the existence of neighboring
groups only a few miles away.
Most native languages are extremely complex grammatically.
In Papua New Guinea, about 650 different languages are spoken;
of these only 350-450 are related. The remainder seems to be
totally unrelated either to each other or to the other major
groupings.
Divided by language, customs, and traditions, these communities
have engaged in tribal warfare with their neighbors for centuries.
A folk saying, “For each village, a different culture”,
reflects this tremendous diversity.
New Tribes Mission (NTM-PNG) is currently ministering in 61
tribal groups. 29 of these tribes have heard the gospel and
have believers. There have been over 50 self-governing, self-supporting,
churches planted in these remote locations. Some are beginning
to reach out to neighboring tribes with the Gospel. Still many
remain without hope of hearing the Gospel |
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