Ted Abadiano This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Christianity.ca

   www.christianity.ca/missions/o - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/26/2003   Last Visited: 2/26/2003

   Amazing Legacy of Ted Abadiano Christianity.ca
   
   Home > Our Mission > Overseas Missions Wednesday February 26 2003
   
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   The amazing legacy of Ted Abadiano:
   
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   The murder of pioneer Bible translator Ted Abadiano in January ended the pilgrimage of a modern day hero. The astonishing ministry he did so much to birth, Translators Association of the Philippines, actually revolutionized the linguistics ministry far beyond the Philippines.
   
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   Not Ted Abadiano. When he tried to pull back the bag containing cash for mission work, the gunman shot him in the stomach. The gentle missionary, pastor and scholar was pronounced dead two hours after arrival at a Manila hospital.
   
   Ted lived and died so that every tribe and nation might have the Word of God in its own mother tongue. When the "experts" decided it was too expensive, the people group was too insignificant, or prevailing prejudices said natives couldn't do the job, Ted just smiled and did it.
   
   TED AND BEA ABADIANO met and married in their native Palawan, Philippines. They spent a lifetime together as trained linguistic missionaries and collaborated on two Bible translations. This photo shows them in 1995. Bea still heads the translation department of TAP.
   
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   Until Ted Abadiano came along, Bible translation was strictly a foreign enterprise. Outside anthropologists, linguists and scholars were the unquestioned masters of this task.
   
   Bible translators from the USA often set up elaborate jungle camps to study tribal culture and language--serviced by chartered aircraft and complete with two-way radios, computers and other modern conveniences. They hired native servants and language helpers. Bible translation looked like a paramilitary operation.
   
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   Much of this changed with the quiet, gentle appearance of Ted Abadiano and the band of indigenous translators. While a pastor in Cuyo on Palawan Island he caught the "translation bug" when he became a Summer Institute of Linguistics co-translator for the Cuyonon New Testament, his heart language, published in 1982. Later he trained under SIL and was assigned the task of translating the Kinaray-a New Testament. He played a major role in establishing TAP in 1983 and became its first executive director.
   
   Ted went on to earn a master's degree at Fuller Seminary in California, but the secret of his life was more than academic skills. His greatest gift was gentle, persuasive leadership. Through him the Lord brought the body of Christ together for translation work in a way never before seen.
   
   He not only founded the indigenous agency to recruit, train and support Filipino missionary scholars, but God used him to line up the early, meager support for the workers in the Philippines and overseas. Without that support, as inadequate as it so often was, Filipinos would never have broken free of their colonial yoke. In the first 10 years of his leadership, Ted was able to build a team of 55 translators working in 18 language groups.
   
   He inspired them to make staggering personal sacrifices that continue today. These were young professionals with master's degrees who could command good positions in business, government and universities. Some actually paid with their lives as martyrs for Christ.
   
   Ted always recognized the valuable role of supporting partners like Christian Aid from abroad and negotiated an arrangement with the Sponsorship Department of Christian Aid that continues today.
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   For the first time ever, Ted Abadiano and his colleges, proved that indigenous missionaries could take over the translation task once reserved for white foreigners. Ted showed the world that native scholars could often do the job less intrusively and more cost-effectively than expensive, high-maintenance foreign translators.
   
   He did it so well that as other national translation organizations formed throughout Asia, TAP became their model. Ted even became the Vice Chairman of the International Steering Committee of the World Fellowship of National Bible Translation Organizations and Vice Chairman of the Asian Bible Translators Fellowship.
   
   By his example and teamwork, Ted Abadiano helped bring the Word of God to many people, many nations. Gifts for the Ted Abadiano Memorial Fund will assist the Translators Association of the Philippines to carry on its significant work of Bible translation, literacy training, and community health.
   
   Translators Association of the Philippines Today
   
   Ted Abadiano's living legacy is the Translators Association of the Philippines, an indigenous mission that serves as a model for similar groups around the world.
   
   Three years before his death, Ted Abadiano successfully turned over the leadership of TAP to one of his disciples, Antonio Dasalla.
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   TAP continues to grow and expand under the leadership Ted has left behind. TAP translates the Scriptures and other Christian books and songs into tribal dialects. By presenting the gospel in an unreached people group's "heart language" TAP often preserves the ethnic identity of a nation from extinction. It also trains illiterates to read and introduces life-saving community health programs. TAP is deeply concerned with culture as it affects the economic development, health and welfare of native people. TAP has about 45 indigenous missionaries working in 18 of the 100 minority language groups of the Philippines. Many of these missionaries are committed to Bible translation projects requiring 10-15 years to finish.