Page 26 - Presbyterian Connection, Spring 2024

Connection
INTERNATIONAL
The Pinuyumayan New Testament and 65th Anniversary of Christian Mission
26
PRESBYTERIAN
SPRING 2024
presbyterian.ca
By the Rev. Dr. Paul McLean, International Mission Staff
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! An- other new Bible is in the hands of an Indigenous people group in Taiwan. This time it’s the Pinuyu- mayan people, who have their very first New Testament translat- ed into their own mother tongue. We worked together on this NT project for eight years. On Nov. 26, 2023, we gathered to praise God for the fruit of our labours.
The Rev. Haluwey Tapang, Chair of our Pinuyumayan Bible Trans- lation Committee, picked me up along with the Rev. Chung Shou- hui, the newly appointed General Secretary of the Bible Society in Taiwan (BST). The sun was shin- ing on a gorgeous 22-degree Sunday morning as we drove 20 minutes from downtown Taitung to the mountain foothills. We ar- rived at the Bei-nan Visitors Ser- vice Centre and drove around to the open field behind. Gradually, members of the six Presbyterian Churches which form the Pinuyu- mayan Church District (not large enough yet to form a “Presby- tery”) danced into the circle, then took their seats to prepare to wor- ship God, “Viruwa i itras.” I and two other ministers were asked to light an ‘Amis bamboo “canon” to start the gathering with a bang!
The worship service was di- vided into two main par ts. First, we praised and thanked God for 65 years of mission history since the Pinuyumayan Church District was formally established. Children
and young people led us in prais- ing “Viruwa i itras” for his loving kindness and faithfulness over the years. We sang traditional Pinuyu- mayan tunes with gospel lyrics as the youth played traditional bamboo instruments and drums. Parents were moved to get up and dance in a circle to praise God with their bodies. The youth sang some familiar praise and worship songs in Mandarin, which had people raising their hands.
Using the Pinuyumayan trans- lation typed in the bulletin, we professed our faith in unison us- ing the deeply meaningful words of the Presbyterian Church in Tai- wan’s Confession of Faith. (You can find the English translation at english.pct.org.tw/enWho_con. I was at the PCT General As- sembly in the 1980s when it was approved.) Scripture was read in Mandarin-Chinese and from a Pinuyumayan draft translation of Joshua 4:1–7.
The sermon was preached by my friend the Rev. Peto, current Chair of the PCT General Assem- bly’s Indigenous Mission Com- mittee. The Rev. Peto is of Sediq- Truku ancestry. He has pastored Snuwil PC in the Sediq-Toda Dis- trict and happens to be convener of the Sediq-Toda Bible translation team, which I also support. His sermon in Mandarin was trans- lated seamlessly into Pinuyuma- yan by gifted Elder Pilay, a faithful member of our Bible translation team, who speaks a minority dialect within the Pinuyumayan language family. It was a beautiful
testimony of how Christians from one Indigenous group share in the joy of another group. People were also there from ‘Amis, Paiwan and Han ancestry, as well as this Ca- nadian brother in Christ.
The Rev. Peto spoke about the commemorative acts recorded in the Old Testament passage, and the message not to forget God’s saving actions in times past and present. Looking at the Pinuyu- mayan context, we considered what God has been doing in their recent history.
The national government es- timates that there are 12,000– 15,000 Pinuyumayan people in Taiwan. Among Indigenous peo- ples, they have one of the lowest percentages of Christians due to early assimilation with nearby Han settlers. There are six PCT churches in the Pinuyumayan Church District. Members on the six church rolls number around 500–600 in total, though only around 100 people attend wor- ship on a Sunday. (There are more Roman Catholic church- es, but they face a shortage of priests and active members. A few churches from other denomi- nations are starting to sprout up too. We hope all of them will enjoy the new Bible.)
The first Pinuyumayan person to become a Christian was a man named Dalisen, who came to faith in Jesus in 1928 when he’d heard the gospel in Japanese at a Holi- ness Church in Taipei. After some seminary training in Japan, he re- turned to his Pinuyumayan home-
land in Taiwan. There, from 1934 to 1938, he and a Canadian Angli- can missionary named Narcissus Peter Yates taught basic evange- lism in Japanese, singing Jesus Loves Me and telling children and families Bible stories. (The Rev. Yates, 1862–1938, is buried at the Tamsui Foreign Cemetery near where Dr. George Leslie Mackay and other Canadians are buried.)
After World War II, when the Japanese left Taiwan, revered Tai- wanese missionary, the Rev. Loh Sien-chhun, and several China Inland Mission women who had fled from China, shared the gos- pel and started “family churches” among both ‘Amis and Pinuyu- mayan peoples. In 1958, small churches started taking shape in the Bei-nan or Pinuyumayan vil- lages, near the larger ‘Amis speak- ing region. Hence, 1958 was cho- sen as one way to date the start of Christian mission through the first established churches.
The Rev. Peto invited us to re- member and give thanks for what God has done in previous genera- tions. Give thanks for the first gen- eration of Pinuyumayan families who’d become Christians. Some became the first pastors, elders, deacons, leaders of women’s and youth groups, and Sunday school teachers. He emphasized the fact that over the years Pinuyumayan Christians, like other Indigenous Christians in Taiwan, have shared one and the same confession of faith: <maw i Luzu i Yēsu Kiris- to> “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phi- lippians 2:11). Remember their
Reviewing Psalm 104:35 with the Rev. Chang. How will we translate “Hallelujah”?
trust in the Lord, their resurrection hope, their joy and their enthusi- asm in sharing the gospel—even before they had the Bible in their own mother tongue.
The Rev. Peto also encouraged trusting in the Lord as all Indig- enous churches in the PCT face challenges these days, such as the challenge of Taiwanese folk religion as more Han people move into Indigenous areas and set up temples to various gods and god- desses. And social challenges, including issues over traditional Indigenous land rights, and eco- nomic concerns in rural or moun- tain villages. Even the challenge of changing ways we worship God: traditional or modern hymns/ songs; scripture on slides or in written Bibles; worship in-person, online or not at all. Each challenge is an opportunity we can face by trusting in God. Six little Pinuyu- mayan churches can do amazing things in God’s hands and, as the Rev. Peto concluded, by obeying Jesus’ words in the Great Com- mission in Matthew 28:18–20. Now God has blessed us with the seed of the gospel, the New Tes- tament, all 27 books translated into the Pinuyumayan language for the very first time!
My friend the Rev. Pu’ay Chang A-syin, who recently turned 83, read an account in Pinuyumayan explaining how he and the team translated the New Testament. Later, the Rev. Haluwey, Chair of the Bible Translation Commit- tee, added more details. In 1986, the Pinuyumayan Church District gathered leaders from local PCT and Roman Catholic churches, plus village leaders, to try to start translating the NT. Unfortunately, people could not agree on which
Pinuyumayan Bible translators and friends