New Translator

Linus Wairapu is a member of the Arop translation team in Papua New Guinea. Before July 17, 1998, Linus was the team’s boat captain, safely navigating the breakers as team members went to and from the village. He also did light carpentry, kept the roof of the translators’ house in good repair, and did whatever else needed doing. But he was not directly involved in doing the translation. That changed after July 17, 1998, when a tsunami wiped out his village and killed his wife and baby daughter. His other six children survived. When the translation project was re-started, the team relocated inland and no longer had a boat, so Linus’ skipper days were over. But Linus did not want to be the team carpenter either. He wanted to be a translator. Although he only graduated from 6th grade, Linus is a natural translator with a talent for finding the right word or expression that fits the context.

These days Linus not only works on the translation in Arop, his own language, he also helps translators in two other related languages as they use the Arop translation as their source text. Since the tsunami, Linus has also remarried—to a woman with six children of her own.

In 2006 Linus recommitted his life to Christ. Right now he is suffering with what is apparently a recurrence of tuberculosis. Please pray for his complete recovery, and his development not just as a translator and helper to other translators, but as a husband, father, church leader, and disciple of Christ.