The purpose of the Lower Ramu Bible Translation Ministry is to bring God's word to five different language groups in the Lower Ramu area of the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea. These five languages, Mbore, Bosmun, Awar, Kayan, and Marangis, comprise the Ottilien language family.

Working simultaneously with a group of related languages is a new approach for Pioneer Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea. Traditional Bible translation efforts rely heavily on the work of the missionary who prepares the linguistic analysis and performs much of the actual translation and checking work. This new approach will focus on developing and training the nationals themselves to serve as literacy specialists and teachers and to do the work of translating God's word into their own language. Much of this training will be conducted in short two to three week workshops. We hope that this approach will produce translation programs that are owned and managed by the communities themselves. In this way, regardless of whether or not a missionary is in residence full time, the work can continue.

Our role in this program is one of encouraging, training, and providing needed technical, exegetical, and financial resources. We will also be putting a lot of effort into checking the finished translations to make sure that they meet the quality standards of PBT. We will assist in every part of the program but we plan to leave the actual responsibility for the program(s) in the hands of the leaders selected from the communities.