2,500 Bibles sent to remote tribe that once killed missionaries

During the month of August MAF flew several flights of Bibles to the Yali people. They had received their translation back in 2000 but you can imagine what a bible might look like after 20 years in rough interior of Papua. What a joy to bring in new Bibles for the people and a for a new generation of young folks to have the Word of God. (Photo: Mission Aviation Fellowship)

A remote Papua tribe has received 2,500 Bibles 55 years after two missionaries trying to reach them with the Gospel were slain.

Some Yali tribespeople walked an entire day to reach the the Oakbisik airstrip in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia, to receive the shipment of Bibles in their own language from Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).

It was in 1965 that MAF pilots first located the Yali people in the Seng Valley region of Papua after conducting survey flights in what was then Dutch New Guinea.

The Yali were at the time marked by violence, being masters in jungle warfare, and practised witchcraft as well as cannibalism.

Three years after they were first found by the MAF pilots, World Team missionaries Phil Masters and Stan Dale made plans to start a church in the Seng Valley and share the Gospel with the tribe.

But when they arrived in the area to scout out a place for a new landing strip, rumours spread in the villages of two strange-looking white men bringing a new message.

Read the complete article here.