United for God's Word

by Ann Kuy

Philippines

Antique, banwa nga hamili (Antique, precious town)
Busay kang amon kabuhi (Waterfalls of our life)
Himpit kag tayuyon nga palanggaun (To love completely and continuously)
Ang imong pag-ugwad matigayon (Your progress carries on)

(Chorus from Antique Banwa nga Hamili, translated Antique, Precious Town, is Antique’s provincial hymn)

Final checking of the Kinaray-a New Testament by pastors from different churches and organizations and community workers

It is a beautiful sight to see pastors from different congregational backgrounds working together, no, not on sermons or related activities, but to see the Bible in their own language translated.

The Kinaray-a New Testament became more than a project for the Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP). It became a journey to serve the Lord, unite the Kinaray-a community - in short, to uphold the Kinaray-a culture through God’s word.

TAP has been working with Antiquenos for the translation project. Part of the team is Connie Gordon or Ms. G to many. She acts as the Promotion Officer for the project.

Ms. G is a popular figure in Antique. The majority of her former Sunday School students (now in their late 20s and early 30s) remember her as their teacher who read to them God’s word and sang songs to them in Kinaray-a. And as the Promotion Officer of the Kinaray-a New Testament, it cannot get better than this.

“Oh! Nice to listen to!” is a line she often hears from her students and contacts after singing praise and worship songs in their own language. Ms. G translates songs from English to Kinaray-a, on top of teaching and promoting it. She remembers having tears of joy even if she had problems while she sang Living for Jesus in Kinaray-a. Changes in the church were fast when they use their own language to sing praises to God and read His word. She trains them how to sing Kinaray-a songs that she herself translated.

The Christians in Antique, from its 18 towns and among 600,000 people, experience a different kind of joy singing hymns and learning about the love of Jesus in Kinaray-a. “I love my mother tongue,” Ms. G exclaimed after the question about her indefatigable spirit. She takes comfort in God’s promise in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

She dreams of putting up a Christian center for pre-school children, whom she envisions would be future missionaries from Antique.

Pastor Larry Alentajan’s wife Dina had the same vision. Igbunglo Christian School is a non-profit pre-school learning center. Nineteen students are now enrolled after two years in operation. The difference of this school among the other schools is the use of Kinaray-a as the medium of instruction, a Bible study for parents, and the school’s partnership with Igbonglo Baptist Church headed by Pastor Larry.

He said that he is a “helper” in the translation of the Kinaray-a New Testament.

Aside from pastoring his growing Church, the school and his Bible translation involvement, Pastor Larry mobilizes the youth and has a Trompa or loudspeaker ministry (an early morning devotional ministry aired through a speaker posted high on bamboo poles). With 25 young people to attend to, he grows with them. HOW? His Church’s youth volunteer as janitors, gardeners and handymen in Church. Three of them will go to Bible school for formal training, with one already an intern. These all started when Kinaray-a books of the New Testament and hymns were used in Church.

“Now the problem is lack of chairs,” joyfully states Pastor Larry. His daughter Gbeah, who is in first grade, is a testimony of how using Kinaray-a can impact the lives of Antiquenos. They thought she was only teaching her classmates how to sing songs and read Bible stories in Kinaray-a until she brought three of her classmates to Church.

Pastor Larry expressed his one sentiment with tears, “I want all the people in Antique to be saved.”

Another Trompa pastor is Pastor Anacleto Cabaya, resident pastor of Alangan Baptist Church of Sibalom, Antique. With the help of a DVD player, an amplifier, a microphone and two speakers atop long bamboo poles, Pastor Cabaya broadcasts live messages from 5:00am to 5:30am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He uses Kinaray-a and the Kinaray-a New Testament as he preaches on salvation and family issues reaching six to seven barangays or towns. (There are approximately more than 1,000 people in a barangay.)

Why did Pastor Cabaya preach in Kinaray-a? Before, “I am a Kinaray-a but I used to preach in Ilonggo, the regional language. We learned to preach in Kinaray-a. If you preach in Ilonggo the message is not understood. They can’t absorb it. In the barrios, the old people cannot understand other languages. But in Kinaray-a you only have to explain it a little and they will understand right away.”

Things changed when he started preaching in Kinaray-a. Elena, his wife, tells the story of a Church member.

“What was used was the Ilonggo Bible, so when the pastor read the Kinaray-a translation of Matthew, Colossians and 1 John, they did not believe it. They really felt that language sinks through your heart, they really feel the word of God in our language, Kinaray-a.  Even with songs, they really enjoy them and they are almost in tears and they can meditate on God’s Word in Kinaray-a and requests for hymns and the Kinaray-a Bible.”

As Romans 10:17 clearly summarizes, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

Photos by Aileen Agoncillo

Ann Kuy is a member of Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP), working as an administrator with Wycliffe Asia-Pacific.