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Bombings and
Bible Needs in Remote Philippine City
New Zealand –
First Tokelau Translation Gives Believers 'New Lease of Life'
by Geoffrey Stamp
READING, England — It was Wednesday, May 3. I had just put down the phone after a conversation with someone in the Philippines. Edgardo Figuración had been telling me about the need for Scriptures in General Santos City where the bombs planted by anti-government rebels had killed four people that day. Two minutes later the phone rang again:
“There’s
been another bomb,” he said, “at the National Power Corporation at
Calumpang near the airport. That is the fifth today. The authorities have now
imposed a curfew on the city. All the banks and offices were closed today. Nothing
is happening and the fishing industry is losing millions of pesos.”
There was not much I could say except to reassure him as best I could from the other side of the world. We would pray for them. I promised to see what could be done to obtain the Bibles he needed.
The following day we made contact with the offices of the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) in Manila. There, Mr Figuración’s request was met with enthusiasm. Yes, the PBS would supply the Bibles needed in this case.
Since that Wednesday morning, General Santos City, the southernmost city of the Philippines on the island of Mindanao, had been almost under siege. It started with a bomb at the international fish port. That one killed two people, one of whom was Mrs Carmencita Bancuyo, a mother and grandmother in her mid-forties.
Her children and grandchildren travelling with her in the car had gone with the driver to buy ice creams. They were in intensive care in hospital. By the end of the day there had been five explosions across the city killing at least four people and maiming dozens of others. More were to follow in different areas of Mindanao where the anti-government rebels mostly operate.
Mr Figuración had been explaining the need for Scriptures in General Santos City, a fast expanding metropolis mirroring the growth of Davao City further up the coast. In fact people say if you want to see what will happen in Gen San – as they call it – look at Davao, today one of the most populous cities of the Philippines and geographically covering the largest area of any city in the world.
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“People forget us because we are so far from Manila, the capital. It is really hard to obtain Scriptures,” said Mr Figuración. What little stock carried by the shops is too pricey for the majority of workers, especially in Bula, one of the vast suburban low-cost housing areas. Here the population comprises mostly fishermen or people working in some way with the fishing industry.
This southern region of the Philippines is the second largest supplier of tuna in Asia; only Taiwan catches more. In fact, the current crisis has ruined more than US $25 million worth of fish exports, according to one national newspaper.
There are at least 5,000 tuna outriggers, and each carries around ten fishermen. Most of them can read to a basic level and would enjoy the colourful Bible Comics produced by the Philippine Bible Society.
There has been talk of supplying the fishermen with Scriptures, especially as they are away from home for days with nothing else to read. Edwardo Cabesas believes there should be a ready supply of Scriptures for the fishermen.
“I think we would see an improvement in many aspects of society if the fishermen had more access to the Bible,” he says, and he cites debauchery and drunkenness as two evils that would soon decrease. He himself runs a fleet of fishing boats fishing with nets – seiners – and these operate out of General Santos City. He estimates that there are some 2,000 fishermen operating in 200 seiners from the town.
“We would be happy to distribute Scriptures to our workers and to the other fishermen,” he says, “but we are waiting for some organisation to come up with an offer and the Scriptures best suited for them. Highly-illustrated, easy-to-read Bible stories – that’s what they need.”
He explains that fishermen are frequently struggling against hardship. Those who work for the companies are disgruntled by their share of the profits, which never seems enough. Everyone is dependent upon the harvest of the sea. Sometimes, as in 1997, that harvest fails and families starve. He well remembers the effect of “El Niño” that year.
“The sea rose and the fish were frightened and dived deep down. For three months the boats went out and came back with nothing. Children could not afford their school fees; people could not pay their electricity bills. Then they ran short of food. Families would get together to share what little they could scrounge just to survive, until the fish came back,” he said.
Mr Figuración’s Scripture needs are simple: 24 Bibles, 12 in Cebuano and 12 in Tagalog for participants in a Christian church program. Once also involved in the fish industry but now out of work, Mr Figuración explained that since early January, he and Mr Cabesas and several other couples had begun to attend a marriage encounter group at the local Roman Catholic Church.
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“I think we would see an improvement in many
aspects of society if the fisherman had more access to the Bible.”
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“I am convinced that prayer and reading of the Bible have made a great difference to my life,” Mr Figuración said. “More people should stop and take time to get to know the Bible and think about their lives and what they are doing. I know that it will bring about improvement. God wants us to trust him and grow to know him better. Without the Bible we end up fighting and sinking in our own problems.”
The bombings have sent shock waves through the community. The problem is not merely religious – the Muslims are a minority living by and large peacefully in the Mindanao hinterland and around some coastal areas. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front wants political recognition and a separate Muslim state. This group is thought to be behind the bombings in General Santos City and other acts of recent terrorism.
Abu Sayyaf, a smaller militant group, is responsible for the two recent hostage incidents, one in which a group of 27 children and their teachers were kidnapped on Basilan, off the south coast of Mindanao, and the taking of 21 international tourists from a Malaysian diving resort.
Later in the same week 15 of the child hostages were freed but three of the teachers and one priest were found murdered.
The Moro separatists signed a peace treaty with the authorities in 1996 and since then incidents of aggression and kidnapping have been sporadic. Most people living in Mindanao know the trouble spots and avoid them. Mr Cabesas says he has to use his connections when he travels in an area known for its troubles. Now and again someone, usually from a rich family, is kidnapped.
The recent violence and bombing in Mindanao, including an attack upon Cotabato, have broken the peace treaty and the random killing of civilians has left everyone stunned. Mr Figuración knew Mrs Bancuyo who died from the morning’s explosion.
“This is a terrible blow for us all! She was our neighbour. The community will rally round and support the family. In all of this we need God’s guidance and peace, and we have a great need for Scriptures in our own language. Even our children need to know God’s purposes through his Word,” said Mr Figuración.
In this atmosphere of fear and violence there is an even greater need for comfort and encouragement from the Scriptures. Mr Figuración said that from one day to the next no-one knew what would become of them.
The PBS is currently celebrating its centenary and has printed 200,000 special low-priced centennial Bibles in five languages: English, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano and Hiligaynon, and these are being distributed through the churches.
Mark Castro, head of the PBS communications team, said that they would supply Mr Figuración with the Scriptures he needed and send some Bible Comics for their use as well. He hoped that they would be able to set up a more effective supply system in General Santos City.
It is not always easy to meet the demand for Bibles without more resources, and the PBS is hoping to develop contacts in all the major cities through which the churches and individuals can obtain the Scriptures they need. Maybe contacts could be established to ensure a steady flow of Scriptures to that remote area.
Cardinal Sin, the foremost Roman Catholic churchman in the Philippines, has called for an end to ‘hostilities’. He appealed to the warring camps on Friday May 5 to “return to the negotiation table.”
“Let there be a ceasefire. Let there be a recovery of brotherly trust and confidence. Nobody wins in war. Sadly, the first losers are innocent people,” he said. (WR 351/19 - 6.00)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The Tokelau Bible translation project has yielded its first fruit – Mark’s Gospel in Tokelau was recently published by the Bible Society in New Zealand after four years of work.
The new translation – Evagelia a Maleko – has been very well-received by the 8,000-odd Tokelau-speakers living in the Tokelau islands, New Zealand, American Samoa and other parts of the world.
One Tokelauan Christian in Auckland said that reading Mark’s Gospel in his own language was like “getting a new lease of life.” Another said that he was so excited when he received his copy that he read the whole Gospel three times over.
“This is just the start and there is a lot more to do,” said Ioane Teao, one of the translators working on the project. “But it is God’s work and he is faithful to complete what he has begun.”
Mr Teao was speaking in February to the 600 people who were gathered to dedicate the new Scripture to God. The dedication ceremony took place in the Tokelau Congregational church in Porirua, just north of the New Zealand capital, Wellington.
The Rev Tui Sopoaga, chairperson of the Tokelau Society for the translation of the Bible, thanked the Bible Society in New Zealand for supporting the translation work and for publishing the Gospel. Mr Sopoaga is one of 40 Tokelauans advising on the translation work.
The Tokelau translation team continues its work to translate the rest of the Bible. Drafts of the other three Gospels and the books of Acts and Romans have already been prepared and are ready for review. (WR 351/20 - 6.00)