Thursday, August 29, 2013
Touching the Hearts
of the Totonac People of Mexico
The work that was begun in 1972 by
Manuel Arenas, a brilliant Totonac Indian, is continuing today
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
NANACATLAN, MEXICO (ANS) -- The hearts of the Totonac Indians, based in the
highlands of Mexico, are still being touched by Totonac Christian leader, Felipe
Ramos, as he continues the work that began in 1972 as the Totonac Bible Center,
Inc.
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Manuel Arenas
(Photo: Dan Wooding)
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At that time,
its primary goal was to support the work of Manuel Arenas, a brilliant Totonac
Indian who was the principal translation helper for Herman P. Aschmann, who
translated three versions of the Totonac New Testament.
Manuel helped Aschmann in his early translation efforts with the Summer
Institute of Linguistics (SIL). (Mr. Aschmann died on February 18th, 2008 – his
94th birthday -- at the Life Care Center in Longmont, Colorado, due to
complications from pneumonia.)
After having gained an excellent education in the United States and Germany,
Manuel Arenas determined to establish a school among his own people. He
recruited Felipe Ramos, another Totonac in seminary at the time, to help him
begin the project. The Centro Cultural Pro-Totonaco in La Unión, Puebla, is a
witness to his vision.
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Herman P.
Aschmann
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Over the years, Manuel tried in
various ways to expand his vision to all the tribal groups of Mexico. He
organized three different consultations of Christian leaders from other tribes.
The first was held at the Totonac Center, the others in the states of Oaxaca and
Chiapas, as he wanted to attract more of the pastors from those areas. He also
opened his school to students from other tribes.
After Manuel's death in 1992, Dr. Dale W. Kietzman, a former head of the U.S.
branch of Wycliffe Bible Translators and a founding board member of ASSIST
Ministries, became president of the Totonac Bible Center board in the United
States.
Increasingly, the support activity focused on other tribes, following
Manuel's vision. As a consequence, in 1996, the Board voted to change the name
of the corporation to Latin American Indian Ministries (LAIM). Its website is:
http://www.laim.org/.
Now the work amongst the Totonacs has continued under the leadership of
Felipe Ramos who was, some time back, was asked to give a report to a gathering
in Oaxaca, capital city of Oaxaca state, of CONIMEX, which represents mission
leaders in Mexico.
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Felipe Ramos preaching
in a Totonac church
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Ramos began by
reciting the history of the church in the Totonac language area, where he said
at that time there were now more than 150 congregations in the Highlands dialect
alone. He stressed the key role a weekly radio program had played in that
growth. He reported that, “in every Totonac village, they played the program at
highest volume,” both out of pride that such a language program was on the air,
and also so everyone could hear.
Now the almost weekly appearance of a new group gathering for Bible study has
shifted the emphasis once again to training leaders for the new congregations.
Dr. Kietzman, who once took me to visit Manuel Arenas at his center in La
Unión, told me at the time of his report, “Ramos, in his presentation to the
conference of the Mexican Missions Association, particularly explained how the
Gospel was expanding in his area. He noted how Hispanic churches are, in recent
months, beginning to come to the aid of the tribal congregations. He also
suggested that training schools should be opened in every tribal language area,
teaching not only Bible subjects, but also trades that would make it possible
for the pastors to more easily support their families.”
Now, Peter J. Petry, LAIM's Totonac Ministry Coordinator and President of the
Board, has given an encouraging update to ANS about the continuing ministry of
Ramos to his Totonac people.
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Felipe makes a point
during his
Totonac radio
broadcast
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“At the center of Felipe
Ramos’ success in ministry among the Totonac people of Mexico lies one
undeniable truth: People have a great hunger for and natural attraction to the
Gospel written in their native heart language,” he began. “Wycliffe Bible
Translators founder, Cameron Townsend, applied this principle to people groups
all over the world, but one of his most successful projects is among the Totonac
Indians of central Mexico.
“Listeners to the Totonac Radio Hour call frequently to request a free copy
of the Highland New Testament, recorded Gospel messages, and the Jesus video,
all produced in the Totonac language. Lives are changed when the Good News is
heard or read by the people in the language they understand best.
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With the true Word of
God
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“One noteworthy example comes from a
group of Jehovah’s Witness that congregates near Felipe’s home town of
Nanacatlan. A young man named Manuel, who is an elder and teacher of the
congregation, called to request a Bible. Several weeks later he called Felipe
again to ask questions and request a personal visit. ‘Of the two Bibles I like
the Totonac copy,’ he explained, ‘because I understand it. The Jehovah Bible is
in Spanish. I have compared the two Bibles. Yours is different from the version
that we teach in our church.’ Continuing, Manuel said, ‘In reading the Totonac
New Testament, I understand that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is the One
Jehovah God of the Bible who is savior of your soul. My Jehovah Spanish Bible
says that Christ is lower than Jehovah God, not one in the same.’”
Petry went on to say, “With various other teachings from that day forward
Manuel accepted Christ as Savior and began teaching a Christian church in his
small village. Manuel’s wife also accepted Christ. Since then other elders of
the Jehovah’s Witness congregation have come to ask for copies of the Totonac
New Testament for their people because they better understand the Words in their
own language.
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A Totonac
baptism
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“In this way the New Testaments
available to distribute have become a great blessing to the Totonac people. Of
similar impact on the tribe are the CDs, cassettes, and the radio program that
are distributed through door-to-door evangelism and on the air waves, all
produced in the Totonac language. Soon all of this material will be available
for download on Pastor Felipe Ramos’s website http://misiontotonaca.org/.
"Please look for up-to-date monthly reports, pictures, and music on the
website. There you will find information on all of Felipe Ramos’ ministries
supported by LAIM. Tax deductible donations can easily be made through the
website.
“Every week brings reports of people finding faith in Jesus through the radio
program and through personal contact, and every month small groups of believers
contact Felipe or Silvestre and request help in forming a congregation. There is
much work to do and we need your help.”
You will also find information on the http://www.laim.org/ website about other areas
in Latin America where LAIM is making a difference and you can sign up to be
added to the LAIM monthly newsletter at this website.
“Overall giving has declined this year due to the economic situation in
America,” Petry concluded. “At the same time, the financial needs of the
ministries presented to us are very great. We ask for your support to continue
to carry the Gospel message to many who have not heard. And I hope one day we
will together have the experience of meeting many Totonac brothers and sisters
whose lives were changed for eternity by your generosity.”
Note: The Totonac Culture was a rival city state to the Aztecs, who had ruled
most of what is now Veracruz in Mexico before the Aztecs conquered them about 25
years before the Spanish conquistador Cortés landed in AD 1516. The capital city
of the Totonac culture was at Zempoala, and at the time of the Spanish arrival,
they numbered about 100,000 people. In 1980 there were 185,836 Totonac speaking
people, 117,533 in Veracruz and 63,303 in Puebla.
According to Wikipedia, the Totonac people speaks Totonac, which together
with Tepehua form an isolated language family; that is, they are not known to be
related to any other languages or language families. There are several local
varieties of Totonac that are not mutually intelligible. The first grammatical
and lexical descriptions of Totonac accessible to Europeans (unfortunately now
lost) were by Fray Andrés de Olmos, who also wrote the first such descriptions
of Nahuatl and Huastec (Teenek).
Note: To read more about the work of Herman P. Aschmann and Manuel Arenas,
please go to: www.assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08020214.htm
See all ASSIST News articles at http://www.assistnews.net/
| Dan Wooding, 72, who was born in Nigeria of British
missionary parents, is an award winning British journalist now living in
Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 50
years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live
in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to
Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he
hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern
California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the
world. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried
via the Internet to some 192 countries. Dan recently received two top media
awards -- the “Passion for the Persecuted” award from Open Doors US, and as one
of the top “Newsmakers of 2011” from Plain Truth magazine. He is the author of
some 45 books, and one of the latest of which is “Caped Crusader: Rick Wakeman
in the 1970s.” To order a copy, go to: Caped
Crusader - Amazon |
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