Global outreach

Gift Day for the Seimat project

St Paul's Church holds an annual missionary gift day. This year, we are encouraging members of the church to give to and pray towards the publication of the New Testament in the Seimat language of the Ninigo Islands of Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse nation on earth and geographically one of the most inaccessible.

Since Independence in 1975, the country has continued to face many challenges in its development and with 862 languages, education is an extra-ordinary challenge.

The Seimat language is spoken by the 1500 people of the Ninigo Islands, a remote group of coral atolls one degree below the equator. The Seimat Literacy & Bible Translation Project began in 2003 to assist the seimat communities in language and educational development. Theresa Wilson and Beata Wozna, members of Wycliffe Bible Translators, lead the project and work closely with school and church leaders to encourage reading and writing, the production of Seimat books for the elementary schools and Sunday schools and the development of the Seimat-English Dictionary. They also lead a team from the different communities on the islands in translating the New Testament into Seimat.

As part of St. Paul's ongoing involvement in this work we want to help support this valuable literacy work and the printing and publication of the Seimat New Testament. So on our Gift Day this year let's give something that lasts: skills for life and God's Word declaring the gift of eternal life.