First Bible translation in Bolinao

In the late 1970s when the American couple Gary and Diane Persons, working for the Wycliffe Bible Translators based in San Francisco, California, were assigned to the Philippine Summer Institute of Linguistics they started with a translation project to create a first Bible translation in Bolinao or Binubolinao, a language spoken in the western Pangasinan towns of Bolinao and Anda. The couple arrived in the Philippines in 1977 and the following year was learning Bolinao by communicating with residents and reading local literature, said Harrison Caasi, 75, a member of the translation review committee. When the Personses were ready, they started to translate the Bible, aided by Rhoda Carolino and Emerita Caasi, and later by Nery Zamora of the Bible Association of the Philippines.

The Bolinao Bible was launched in the island town of Anda (pop: 34,398 as of 2007) on October 29 and in Bolinao (pop: 75,545 as of 2010) on October 30 2012.

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Find out more: 30-year effort yields Bolinao Bible