![]() People would believe it if they could hear it!” ![]() I longed for the Balangaos to embrace the translated Scriptures, but none did–until one day I asked Ama to use his new skills of reading Balangao to “correct” my translation of 1 John. They wanted someone to come and write down their language. A few were familiar with the local trade language, and their contact with the American GIs during World War II opened the door to Ama’s invitation for us to come and live among them. Headhunters by tradition, the Balangaos were isolated from the outside world by fear of the spirit world and by the mountains that surrounded their beautiful rice-terraced valley in the northern Philippines. I’d shared the Gospel with Ama and the Balangaos almost daily for the five years I’d been with them, but it didn’t seem to be making an impression. Here in the Gospel of Matthew were the actual names from the beginning of the world–written down. ![]() ![]() The Balangao people were among the Bible-less until missionary Joanne Shetler and a co-worker went to the mountains of the northern Philippines in 1962 to conduct linguistic research, translate the Scriptures and do medical work for the Balangao tribe, known to be headhunters.Ĭasually opening an English New Testament to the first page and seeing the genealogy of Jesus, my Balangao “dad,” Ama, suddenly came alive: “You mean this book has a genealogy in it? This book is true, these things really happened?!” More than 2,500 language groups still do not have a single verse of Scripture in their own language. ![]()
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