Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – “It’s Our Bible”: The Passion of the Kapingamarangi for God’s Word

By Nico and Pam Daams
January 2007

The Kapingamarangi and Wycliffe Bible Translators Nico and Pam Daams worked to get God’s Word into the Kapingamarangi heart language.

The Kapingamarangi are a group of about 1,500 Polynesian people located in Micronesia. Half of the population live in a settlement on Pohnpei, while the other half live on the remote atoll, sixty miles north of the equator. A government ship provides transportation to and from the island every few months. In many people’s eyes the Kapingamarangi people may seem insignificant; however, their great motivation to have the Bible in their own language makes them an example to other language groups.

In 1982, the Kapingamarangi community contacted Wycliffe personnel and asked for someone to help them with Bible translation. For many years, there was no team available to help meet the need. But the request was not forgotten. Nico and Pam Daams, who worked with related Polynesian languages in the Solomon Islands, remembered it. In 1994, they visited Pohnpei. That was when one of the Kapingamarangi church leaders asked them, “What do we need to do to get you to come to help us?”

Two years later the Daams family arrived to help with the translation. Nico and Pam discovered the great commitment these island dwellers had for the Bible in their own language. For years the Kapingamarangi community had been saving money to pay for Bible translation, mainly by working copra or selling handicrafts. They had also been translating portions of scripture for the daily church services. Soon, twenty-four of these translators began work on the New Testament and nearly one hundred reviewers checked and commented on the translation. Nico worked with this team, providing training and exegetical expertise. Through their combined effort the New Testament was published in four years, with the Kapingamarangi community paying all the publication costs from the money they had saved all those years. The Kapingamarangi people felt such ownership for their project that when the question of paying the translators arose, their response was, “Why should we be paid? We are doing this for our own people. It’s our Bible!”

The translation team has continued work on the Old Testament. In 2004, forty percent of the Old Testament was published; they are now working on the remaining sixty percent. At the dedication of the published version, one man said, “The Kapingamarangi Bible has given our people new life.”

(This article is translated and adapted from an article that first appeared in “Volken & talen,” a publication of Wycliffe Netherlands.)

Nico and Pam Daams have worked with Wycliffe, serving as translation advisors for Polynesian languages since 1978. They are now based in Melbourne, Australia, and assist translation projects across the Pacific.

Comments on this article

To Nico and Pam Daams, “Dimee huala bolo goolua.” It is a pleasure to have a couple to come and translated the words of God into our own language. Now all the people of the island know how to read the Bible. Dime bolo goolua, di tuumalia o Tamana gi madalia golua nia madagoaa huogodo.

Liverson :: 14 Aug 2011

I was a teenager when I visited Kapingamarangi village on Pohnpei in the 1980s as my family lived on Kwajalein. I saw the celebration on Ebeye when the Marshallese translation was finished. What a joy to see that the scriptures are being translated into Kapingamarangi!

Michael :: 25 Jun 2007

To Nico and Pam Daams, “Dimee bolo goolua.” Now the word of God is speaking to us in our own language. We are forever grateful for the work you’ve done on Kapingamarangi.

mike :: 10 Jun 2007