Balangao...Jo Shetler
In 1962 Anne and I hiked into Balangao—it had taken 3 days to get to the end of the road and now we had two more days of hiking over the mountains to the beautiful rice terraces tucked back in them. Headhunting wasn’t as active as it had been (only a few cases in my 20 years there), but they had never seen white women. They knew about, helped and loved American soldiers who shared their C-rations with them…guerilla warfare happened at the end of WWII there. We were adopted by the very-disappointed man who had agreed to allow Americans to live in their village…he was assuming men, like he’d seen in WWII. He become our beloved father whom we treasured.
In 1967 God defeated the evil spirits in a hair-raising experience for me, and people came by the droves, wanting to know “Who is this God who has more power than the spirits?!” Thousands have believed over the years; where only a Catholic church had been in the central village, now churches are in every village. People learned to read; the NT was finished in ’82 and celebrated with two days of song, gongs, stories… After some years of evangelizing, our Balangao brother told us, “Having the NT without the OT is like having a sword without the handle…we need the OT!” After the NT, I was assigned to another role, helping colleagues. So we formed a team of Balangaos, mostly whom we had helped through college. They are now in Balangao, but they have had no place to work. The priest has rented them a room temporarily; we are in dire need of an office building, since our original place I had built was taken from us. This new office building will house not only the Balangao OT translation project, but ne of the Balangaos is doing a NT translation across the mountain and they will share the office…so LOTS of translation to go on in this place!
We THANK you with all our hearts for your help and your prayers—please pray diligently for the team as they work so hard to provide this wonderful gift to all of Balangao.
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| Ignacio is on the right |
Today we introduce: Ignacio
Age: 57
He started working with Jo Shetler early in his career then he Joined TAP (Translator Association Philippines) in the early 80’s and has now joined Wycliffe Philippines also. He is working with Rudy on workshops for other translators. He was born and lives in Balangao. He has 4 sons and 1 daughter, and 2 grand kids.
Prayer request: Finish the translation he is working for a nearby village so he can join with Grace, Robyn, and Joanne and work on the Old Testament. For his wife, kids, and grand kids when he travels and for safe travel.
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| Ignacio's son and wife, he just returned from school |
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| Some sites Jo had to hike past |
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| Can you find the people walking on the terraces? |
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| Then you realise how big the rice terraces are |
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