Pray for Philippines

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of SIL's work in the Philippines, SIL Philippines has published a biography of Dr. Richard "Dick" S. Pittman. Dick Pittman was the initiator of SIL's work in many countries throughout Asia and the Pacific. His vision for language development among minority peoples brought recognition in the Ramon Magsaysay Award awarded to SIL in 1973. Dr. Pittman also initiated the Ethnologue, a comprehensive volume that catalogs all the known living languages in the world today. Praise God that Dr. Pittman's vision continues today in the work of many Asians who care deeply about Asia's languages and cultures.

Thank the Lord for the faithful team working on the Old Testament translation for the Matigsalug people. Bern, Ricky and Diony are being trained to work with Alex in the translation office. Another person, Tano, is finishing his advanced degree. Then he hopes to split his time between translating and serving as a translation consultant for other teams. Pray for ongoing funds for these talented translators. The translation facilitators are having difficulty finding funding for a trip back from New Zealand to work with the team. Pray that funds are provided for their coming trip and also for their monthly needs.

Praise God for a recent global conference on archiving held in Manila. It focused on the digital archiving of valuable language and culture materials so that they can be accessible to people in the future. Pray for the SIL Philippines archiving team. They are digitizing and making available resources for community consultations being held by the Philippine Department of Education. Pray for these consultations as participants make decisions about writing/spelling the minority languages. One good result will be that more children can be taught in their first language in the early grades of school.

Preparing the Brooke’s Point Palawano New Testament for printing involves a myriad of labor intensive tasks. Pray for mental alertness and focus as the team finishes consultant checks, word lists, subheadings, cross-references, introductions, illustrations, maps and footnotes, checking and re-checking their work. Pray for 1) Palawano hearts to be prepared for the coming of His word in their language, 2) for Christian leaders to be raised up among them to teach and spread the Good News, and 3) decisions on scheduling an audio recording, and future dedication ceremonies.

Praise God for a mother-tongue based Multilingual Language Education workshop taking place now. It is in partnership with an NGO that aims for literacy development. Participants are mostly educators representing three language communities in Southern Philippines. This is to aid development of literacy materials for each community that could be published and used in schools. Thanks for your prayers. The dates are April 23-26. But please continue to pray for ongoing development and results from the training.

Pray for the Bantoanon translation team as they work toward completing the New Testament by 2015. There are many translation tasks yet to be accomplished, including a list of Key Terms*. Pray for the remaining books, Hebrews and 1-2 Corinthians, still to be translated, and as the team makes decisions on what to publish as books, videos, audios, or as online items (e.g. Scripture songs, dictionary, etc.) before the New Testament is finished. May these decisions result in more Bantoanon people learning and responding to the gospel message.

*Refers to those words in the biblical texts that convey key theological concepts that are repeated throughout the Bible, such as "sin", "grace" and "faith."  Deciding how best to refer to God as "Holy Spirit" is also "key," as every culture knows the spirit world but needs to know how God's Spirit is different from others.

Pray for the implementation of a Multilingual Education (MLE) program for the Ayta Mag-Indi people. Their language group is often put down, making it hard for them to value and celebrate who they are. Recognition and use of their language in schools would legitimize their language in their own eyes and in their neighbors’ eyes. It would also help the Ayta Mag-Indi church reach their goal of enabling people to read the translated Scriptures. Pray that the Lord will provide a literacy consultant who can help them with their orthography and train teachers to develop MLE materials.

The twenty-three Audibible players distributed among the Agusan Manobos are bearing fruit. Villages are enjoying the recorded songs and use the players for Bible studies. One Manobo man takes the Audibible everywhere, even into the forest and plays it for whoever will listen. Jesse was part of a small group from an upriver village who listened to the story of Jesus healing a demon possessed man. As the story finished, a spirit possessed him. The believers in the group prayed earnestly for him and Jesse was delivered. He said, “God is powerful, even through that player!” Please pray for God’s continuing work in the lives of Manobos listening to these players.

SUBANEN, NORTH; Philippines; 85,400. Rejoice with the Subanen people! Their New Testament was dedicated on February 18, 2012. Pray that God’s Word will have a powerful impact on the community. www.theseedcompany.org

WESTERN BUKIDNON MANOBO; Philippines; 19,000. The Western Bukidnon Manobo received the New Testament in 1978, and soon they will have the Old Testament as well! Typesetting was completed and it’s ready for printing. Ask God to provide the finances still needed to cover the printing cost. Pray for God’s protection over this stage of the process, and for the safe arrival of the books in the language area once they’re printed. A Scripture dedication is planned for May or June. Pray that the Bible will inspire transformation among the Manobo communities and fuel the spiritual growth of believers.