Frank Fortunato ahaa} Paul Neeley ana Carol Brinneman ya00 matt World isEvangelizing the multitudes from every tongue, tribe and people centers on free- ing them to worship God and express their faith in Christ in their heart language, music and culture. Yet historically, missionaries too often were not sensitive to this fundamental need of believers from newly evangelized cultures. This excel- lent reader counters such tactless errors of the Church—and does so in a way that moves us to tears. These stories show how people groups have found new spiritual freedom through mother tongue worship. Get ready to see your heart overjoyed and enlivened at the workings of God. But also expect to be chal- lenged yourself with a deeper desire to worship the Lord of the Nations. BYRON SPRADLIN President, Artists in Christian Testimony International Nashville [Brentwood], TN USA God gave human beings the wonderful gift of music. It reaches into the internal world of our emotions. When combined with words from Scripture, the Message penetrates to the core of our beings. And when rhythms and melodies from our childhood and culture heritage accent the Truth, the impact goes deeper still Read these stories, and marvel and rejoice at the power of God’s Word, clothed in music from cultures around the world! Jorn WarTERs International Director of Wycliffe/SIL All the World is Singing is a ground-breaking publication and provides, for the first time in book form, a collection of reports of the power of using heart music in Christian ministry from many different cultures and regions. The readability of the text makes it attractive for full-time missionaries and lay people alike. The value of this collection is inestimable and it should be a standard text for any course on missions and music, and required reading for any general course on missions. Tom AVERY Ethnomusicology Coordinator for Wycliffe Bible Translators These stories let us see real faith at work—peoples of the earth wrestling back from Satan the God-given music treasures he has stolen. God lets us take a peck, along with heavenly witnesses, at what is often kept for his eyes and ears alone. As we read these amazing testimonies about creating mother-tongue worship music, may we rejoice together that what had been lost, sometimes for genera- tions, is now being found. Davip aND Date Garrat pioneers of the Scripture in Song movement and presently encouraging people groups to release indigenous worship. | | | &§ All the World is inging Glorifying God through the Worship Music of the Nations FRANK FORTUNATO with PAUL NEELEY and CAROL BRINNEMANAfrica God Will Make a Way by Carol Brinneman Ina restrictive A frican country, three teams of nationals braved travel on bone-jolting roads to reach a remote area to show the JESUS film. A few Christians welcomed them, accompanying them from village to village. Using a portable 16 mm projection equipment set, each team showed the film every night for a month—a total of ninety presentations. The team hoped to find local Christians they could train to follow up new believers and then start worship groups. However, suddenly, a civil war broke out, forcing them to leave extremely disappointed. Six years passed without any word of the spiritual seeds they had sown. Their frustrations continued, as well as their prayers. Then, one day, a man who had accompanied the teams on the film showings visited the capital city and looked up a national staff person from the project. Amazed to see the man again, the staff person invited him in. The visitor began, “You know, | was with you that month you and your team showed the JESUS film. I watched it every night. In fact, I memorized it.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out eighteen well-worn sheets of paper filled with words. They contained the story line of Jesus’ life— set to music. He had written a song from the words of the film! It was all there: the Lord’s birth, his teachings, his miracles, his death, his resurrection. Gad as MaestroIn an oral society, such as that of the composer, people have tremendous power of recall, and knowledge passes from generation to generation through stories and music. The man had created a most effective evangelistic tool for his culture. He revisited the areas where the teams had shown the film and began to teach his JESUS film song to the people. He said, “I first taught the song to a few of my people—all eighteen pages. They learned it, and then they taught it to others; it went from person to person and from heart to heart.” Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” God indeed, through his Holy Spirit, passed right through language and cultural barriers and the isolation of that remote region, singing his love and his story into thirsty hearts. The people could not get the captivating tune out of their minds. The team’s long years of disappointment and frustration soon exploded into praise. Seeds planted during their ministry and through one believer’s song grew into forty-eight new churches! In Psalm 2, God laughs at nations that reject his sovereignty. He must also laugh, even scoff, at barriers that threaten to stop the advance of his powerful Word: man-made walls, confusing languages, cultural taboos, political isolation, and geographically remote places. His ways of breaching them astound us, and our hearts can only respond in songs of praise: God will make a way where there is no other way . . . All the World Is Singing Chapter 2 po h ee ‘ e e e@| @ e | Brazil A Singing Lesson for the Nadéb by Rodolfo and Beatrice Senn with Carol Brinneman Rodolfo and Beatrice Senn admit they are not great singers. “We can keep a tune if somebody leads, but we hardly feel capable of teaching others to sing.” Who would show the Nadéb people how to praise God in their own language and music style? The Nadéb people of Brazil, numbering about 350, live in the northwest Amazonian rain forest. In the fifties, the Nadéb raided small Brazilian river communities, stealing machetes and axes. These incidents resulted in horrific measles epidemics that wiped out most of the population estimated to be around five thousand. In 1966 an SIL" team, Joe and Lillian Boot, began working among the Nadéb, but health concerns later forced them to leave. Helen Weir replaced the Boots in 1974 and continued until 1995, completing the grammar analysis of the language. Now the Senns are reaping the fruit of those decades of work. Since the year 2000, most of the Nadéb have accepted Jesus as their Lord. They started worshiping him four to five times a week in a beautiful round church capped with a traditional, thatched roof. The Nadéb had Scripture to read; they prayed, but they wanted to sing too. A Brazilian pastor had visited the group a couple times and had sung songs in Portuguese. The men assumed his language and style was God as Maestro182 Avatii tiipiiichi tpanan wiiniitikyat. Padmanéni uwdias ura?n tiiii?ait. Uwas ka-iiviiii sumdi?niwat, Tam6?inigean.” Anna knows her Creator is pleased with her song and chant offerings, rising to heaven in praise. As the psalm says, even in old age, the Lord shepherds this former shepherdess and strengthens her to do good— singing for God and her people. “Betty Howe has translated many hymns into Ute and sings them at church services and funerals. She has made CDs of Ute singing and has drawn other people into singing and reciting Ute Scriptures to background music. An outspoken Christian, she won a seat on the tribal council, which has helped her introduce more people to Christian literature, CDs, and videos in Ute. All the World Is Singing Chapter 40 e Philippines “Semi-Tribal” Songs Unite Generations by Glenn Stallsmith “Why would you want us to use our language? We don’t even like it ourselves!” When Robert and Margaret Hunt arrived in Mindanao, Philippines, in 1989, they told the Matigsalug Manobo community they wanted to translate the Scriptures into their language. The people were incredulous. Many Matigsalugs questioned the Hunts’ motives. Caught between their own traditional way of life and those of the dominating Cebuano lowlanders, the Matigsalugs had trouble defining exactly who they were as a people. This was an especially difficult problem for the Matigsalug believers. The only Christians they knew were outsiders—lowlander Cebuanos. In fact, the word Kristiano is synonymous with “lowlanders.” In order to be a Christian, the Matigsalugs thought, one must become like the lowlanders, adopting their language, culture, and even their styles of clothing. Despite the opposition, Robert and Margaret persevered. Over the years, they taught from the Bible how God wanted the Matigsalugs to honor him with their culture and language. In time, the Matigsalug Christians began to value their own cultural forms and embrace their traditional ways that were compatible with scriptural truth. In the process they established local organizations that were directed by Matigsalugs: Movement 4: Culture Affirmation 183184 the Matigsalug Christian Language Association and the Matigsalug Literacy Education Incorporated. In early 2005, I had the opportunity to meet with some Matigsalug Christians who wanted to create new songs for worshiping God. Because of the Hunts’ and other translators’ commitment and work, the churches already had two books of worship songs with Matigsalug language texts. But most of these songs sung in the churches used tunes from other culture groups—English language hymns, Filipino choruses, and others. We spent one week together in a workshop, exploring ways to create totally new songs comprised of Matigsalug words and new melodies. The participants were eager to write their own songs and began doing so _ on the first day. Two young men who came were gifted in composing songs that uniquely blended traditional and modern elements. They called their style “semi-tribal.” On the first day, they shared a song that used a modern seven-note scale for the verse and a traditional chant in the chorus. These two new believers were serious students of their culture. They even led some of the young people in traditional dances. Their “semi-tribal” songs had a special way of uniting Matigsalugs of all generations. There were enough modern elements to appease the young while retaining traditional components that satisfied the older generation. The workshop concluded on Friday afternoon with a concert of songs composed during the week. As the participants gathered, dressed in traditional Matigsalug outfits, Robert Hunt said, “This never would have happened fifteen years ago. The Christians were too ashamed to wear their traditional clothing.” One of the pastors who had participated in the workshop opened the concert with an uranda, an extemporaneous traditional song used to greet visitors and relate news. At the end of the week, thirteen songs had been recorded and were ready for distribution throughout the language area. Since the time of the workshop, media specialists have helped the Hunts produce and distribute cassette tapes from these recordings. A Christian family in the All the World Is Singing main Matigsalug settlement has installed an outside speaker and now plays Matigsalug Christian music to the entire neighborhood. A recent Christian Talent Night held during the Matigsalug fiesta, a wholesome alternative to the secular activities, featured a new category this year: original compositions. Several churches entered this category, and so the new songs continue. The Hunts plan to build an audio recording studio in the language area in late 2005 to produce radio programs and cassette tapes with Matigsalug songs. As we have seen happen elsewhere in the Philippines, the Matigsalug song-writing workshop brought energy into this dynamic translation project. It helped identify talented people previously unknown to the translators. It also highlighted the translation and literacy work for some Matigsalugs who were previously unaware of these activities. We praise God that he continues to raise up unique Matigsalug forms of worship for his glory. Movement 4: Culture Affirmation 185