By JB Tolentino
Our prayer was: "Lord Identify me with the heart of my offender with his hurts and wounds in compassion. Bring to death in me that which would declare my wonder as sinful and me as righteous I am not better than him. I am one with him at the foot of the Cross. I cry out, "Forgive us from the traps of hate. Set us free. Enable me to identify not only with the evil in him but with what you created him to be. Restore us oh Lord."
After a recent trip of the Medical Mission Team to Sagada, Mountain Province in the Northern Luzon, the driver of the team was encouraged and quoted this short testimony with the congregation. "The Medical Team had been ministering to the people in that place regularly, telling the stories of Jesus in English, Ilocano, and Tagalog, it is quite difficult for us to in sharing Bible stories in their own language ..."
The Pastor and his wife of the Sagada Mountain Province joyfully cranked the hand wind cassette Player as they listened to the audio cassette messages on tape.
Edith, wife of Jurine Tolentino, was with the team. She had with her cassette tapes in the languages of the Ibaloi, Kankana-ey and Benguet. Edith demonstrated the use of the hand wind cassette player with these recordings. The people quickly gathered around as they were hearing the messages in their own languages.
"It was a break through, the people in the village gladly came and listened intently on the cassette recordings, as if they were listening to a radio program! They clearly understood the Bible messages and stories in their own dialects!"
The driver was surprised when he saw the effectiveness of the ministry of recording the gospel in peoples own language.
