The Early Years

My parents Neil and Carol Anderson, were Bible Translator missionaries in Papua New Guinea from 1972 to 2020. They were allocated to a very remote and isolated language group in the Southern Highlands Province. The language in called Polopa or Folopa (the P in Polopa is a soft p which sounds more like an f sound in English). The village they were living in was called, "Pukuta" or "Pukutau". The language was only spoken among the people and there was no written language for the Folopa at that time. My parents created an alphabet for the Folopa language, taught some of the Folopa people how to read and write in their own language, and then translated the New Testament into Folopa. This took many years to accomplish as they were living among the Folopa people for several decades. In order to accomplish this monumental task, they also had to learn the culture and customs of the people that they were living with. In 2007 they dedicated the completion of the Folopa New Testament. Here is a short video about that Folopa dedication made by Craig Campbell:

After the dedication of the Folopa New Testament my parents moved back to the United States, but my Dad continued to come back to Papua New Guinea once a year to work on Old Testament translation. In 2014 I started coming back with my Dad to assist him in the mission work every year. In 2017 the book of Genesis was completed. In 2020 my Dad officially retired from being a missionary and I took over the mission. Here is a short video with footage from the early years of their mission work:

I was born and raised in Papua New Guinea and lived among the Folopa people from 1975 to 1991. I moved back to the US in 1991 and had only visited PNG a couple of times between 1991 and 2014 when I returned with my Dad. I joined Tyndale Bible Translators in 2020 and have been working with the Folopa on Old Testament Bible translation since then.

Me with my Dad and younger sister in the village

You can order a copy of my Dad's book, "In Search of the Source" here on: Amazon Books

You can also order a copy of my Mom's book, "Do you know what you are doing, Lord?" here on: Amazon Books