The Kovol people of Papua New Guinea are a remote mountain people who number about 1000. They are subsistence farmers, living in small hamlets spread over the mountains and working the land to provide for their families.
The Kovol people are a 2-day journey from town, with the first day being a grueling all day slog up and down the mountains until they reach a road followed by a day on a public bus. The ruggedness of the terrain they live in means that medical care, education, or even bringing in supplies from town are extraordinarily difficult tasks.
It also means that while the Kovol people have heard the name of Jesus, that’s mostly all they’ve heard. They know the name Jesus, they have picked up church going, but they haven’t heard the gospel.
Not a word of the Kovol language is written down on paper, which of course, includes the Bible. So if a Kovol man or woman wants to know God’s truth where should they turn?

The poor will eat and be satisfied. All who seek the LORD will praise Him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.


Psalm 22:26

The Kovol may be an insignificant group (by the world’s standards) tucked away in the isolated mountains, but the Lord hasn’t forgotten them.
In following the Lord’s great commission to make disciples of all nations, he’s led us to the Kovol people, and with his help we aim to see his Church established in the Adelbert mountains.

The Adelbert mountains

The Kovol people are not alone in the Adelbert, and they are not alone in their isolation from the gospel. There are about 20 people groups very similar to the Kovol people who all would eagerly identify as “Christian”, without really knowing what that means. Our hope is that in bringing the gospel to the Kovol and training them to teach God’s Word, they will be a light to their neighbors whose darkness is not one of their choosing but comes with their remoteness.


You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:14