Story number 4 for 16 Aug 2000

We turn next to Papua New Guinea where nationals will be on the receiving end of translation education. JAARS, which is the service agency of Wycliffe Bible Translators, is proposing a new 19 building training center. Pat Hakanson (hohk-ehn-son) is a JAARS engineer. “At commercial rates it will cost 4.6 million U-S dollars. If volunteer help is used it will be quite a bit less than that. In which case, we’re hoping we can use the money for other needs at the training center.” Hakanson says the government supports the project and will help train PNG nationals to be Bible translators and literacy workers. However, she says it’s unclear when the facility will open. “We’re hoping the construction supervisor will be able to go over some time in October, then it will depend mostly on volunteers who are available to go over and get things built, so it could be quite a long project.”