About Balangaos
Balangao is a beautiful place surrounded by mountains. It is a good place to go and relax from the stressful life from the city. It is quiet and peaceful and no air pollution. Outsiders call Natonin as Farangao or Balangao. The language of the Balangaos is Finarangao but usually refered to as Balangao language.
The source of living for most of the Balangaos are wet terracing, upland farming and by gardening. Rice is the primary crop of the Balangao people. In a year they harvest twice from their wet field and once from the upland farm. Other crops that they cultivate are corn, vegestables, peanut, sweet potatoes and fruits. They only work for their own family consumptions because of the undeveloped road that makes it hard for them to bring their produce to the wet market.
In the year 1960, Joanne Shetler and Anne Fetcher came to Balangao to learn the culture and language of the Balangao people and to translate the Bible into the language. After the Balangao orthography has been developed, they started translating the Word of God into the heart language of the people. The problem is that the people cannot read what is being written so Robyn Terrey from Australia came to help with the literacy. Through literacy classes, the Balangaos learned to read and write and now can read the word of God into the language they can understand.
The New Testament was dedicated in 1982. It was only available in printed format before. But now, with use of internet the Balangao Scripture is accessible online via website and apps. As for the Old Testament, it is in the process of being translated and hopefully in the near future, the complete Balangao Bible will be available to all Balangaos around the globe.
