Matt and Ellen Tyler are preparing to serve in Vanuatu with CMS. Matt finished college in 2018 and since then has been working as a lay minister in southwest Sydney.
Moore Matters
You and your wife, Ellen, are currently at St. Andrews Hall, preparing to go to Vanuatu. Why are you going there?
Matt Tyler
We’re planning on going to Vanuatu to train people to understand the Bible, translate it into their heart language and apply it to their lives. So Bible translation will be my main focus, working with locals to workshop a passage, draft a translation, and check it. Ellen will focus on discipling the women she meets and homeschooling our three kids.
Why Vanuatu?
Vanuatu has had a long history of Christian mission. The first missionaries arrived there over 150 years ago. But today, while most people call themselves Christians, not many have that personal relationship with God.
The fear of witchcraft and evil spirits is still prevalent in their underlying culture. And part of why that’s happened is the sheer language diversity in Vanuatu. There are over 100 different languages spoken in Vanuatu, which has a population of 300,000 people.
MM
There’s been a Christian presence there for 100 years. Doesn’t Vanuatu already have a Bible in its various languages?
MT
Only six of those 100-plus languages have a complete Bible. And there are probably 30 to 40 language groups asking for a translation. Most people still use their first language daily. Yes, there is a common language called Bislama, which lots of people would speak, but it’s not their first language. One lady I read of said: ‘when I’m angry, I use Bislama. But I’ll use my own language when I want to say something lovely‘. So that’s why there’s that need for Bible translation that speaks to people in their heart language. And the lack of translations in their heart language impacts teaching in churches, which tends to be legalistic, or the prosperity gospel. People are easily persuaded by whatever new cult or false teaching comes their way.
MM
Part of your preparation has been your study at Moore College. How has Moore College prepared you for this upcoming role?
MT
Moore College has been excellent preparation for the job of Bible translation. And for cross-cultural mission work in general. The focus on original language exegesis will be my bread and butter. All those skills will be valuable and useful to pass on. But also thinking theologically, seeing how one big issue impacts and connects to others, particularly as we’re coming across cultural differences or where the Bible challenges culture.
MM
How is CMS training preparing you for your mission service?
MT
The training is about 20 weeks across two terms.
In the first term, we spent a lot of time thinking about what mission is and how we should approach it in a way that honours God and the people He’s made. There have been significant shifts in mission work from white people crossing the oceans to take the gospel to the unconverted nations. In contrast, mission now is from everywhere to everywhere. So missionaries are going from Korea to Africa, and Africans are coming to Australia to evangelise our people.
We learned about the different characteristics of cultures. Different cultures can be characterised by different values and ways of thinking, such as honour, shame, fear, and power. We’ve looked at different worldviews. We’ve done Bible storytelling, which will be beneficial for discipling people in an oral culture!
The training has prepared us to go slowly, humbly, and carefully across cultures. We’re not coming with all the answers, but to work with people and empower them to live for Jesus. So the big questions for my systematic theology in 21st-century Australia will be very different from the big questions in Vanuatu. In Australia, we don’t have to think much about spiritual warfare or land rights, but they’re the big things in Vanuatu.
MM
What do you expect will be the joys of serving the Lord overseas?
MT
I expect there will be joy in seeing that God is strong when we’re weak. We’re aware that it’ll take a while to feel like we’re on our feet. And I’m looking forward to seeing people’s eyes light up as they understand the Bible and grasp just how much God has done for them. I’m really looking forward to people understanding grace!
MM
What do you expect will be the challenges?
MT
Learning language and feeling (not very) useful. CMS Missionaries usually enter a country as tertiary-qualified professionals. But they immediately drop to the capacity of a two-year-old, who can barely say, what’s that? Or, I’m hungry. I want food. You become a baby again when you learn a language. I won’t be able to hop out of the airport and start preaching!
MM
How can readers pray for you as you head overseas?
MT
Please pray for our kids Tom (6), Beth (4) and Harry (2.5), that they will stay resilient through ongoing change and moving countries. Pray for us that we keep parenting patiently. Pray for more workers to go to Vanuatu. There are enormous needs for Bible translation and people in Bible colleges.
MM
So what encouragement would you give our readers to consider mission work themselves?
MT
Do it—please consider it!
A helpful question we found is to keep asking why not? Why not go?
Not, why should I go overseas, but instead asking why shouldn’t we? What’s holding us back? After asking this question, you might realise nothing is holding you back!
Another helpful metaphor we picked up in College is to keep leaning on the door of mission. You might not be able to go yet. But keep leaning on the door, keep going to CMS Summer School, keep praying for CMS missionaries. And keep asking that question, ‘Why not?’.
