The Pehrsons have served with Wycliffe since 2000, now team leaders for the Aitape West Translation Program in Papua New Guinea. Ben's passion is to equip translators from eleven languages to produce and improve their own mother tongue Bible translations. Mandy has trained a group of local literacy teachers from these languages.

It's a real joy to see a fire for God's Word growing since the first Scripture portions were published in 2011. A growing team has been working to produce additional portions, Bible audio recordings, dictionaries, and to address other spiritual and language development needs together with local church and community stakeholders.

A key goal is to train local trainers to serve other language groups in the region and help them receive God's Word for the first time in their own heart languages. To that end, some are already serving as mentors each year in regional workshops where Ben has served as a trainer in New Testament Greek, Translation, and Linguistics courses.