L to R: Colin Edwards of VVMI, John Stacknik of ICLD, Darwin Banyani of VVM, Mike Thorud of PAMI
As mentioned in the previous posting, we were happy to have visitors in Minneapolis from VVMI/VVM. Darwin Banyani came all the way from the Philippines and Colin Edwards came from central Illinois. About 22 enjoyed their presentation at Emmaus Lutheran church on Sunday evening, October 28. I also enjoyed seeing them give a short presentation at International Christian Literature Distributors on Wednesday, October 24. We’ve recently been talking with ICLD about distributing Christian reference books to Filipino pastors via balikbayan boxes.
Darwin is the VVM field director based out of Baguio in Northern Luzon, and Colin is the VVMI U.S.A. executive director. VVMI stands for Vernacular Video Mission International, which supports production and use of culturally relevant Bible-based media with local dialects throughout the world (see https://vvmi.org/ ). While VVMI started with field branches in the north and south ends of the Philippines, it now includes partnerships throughout the Philippines, and other countries in Asia, Central and South American, and Africa. Some interesting cross pollination has included dubbing South American VINA finger puppet Bible stories for children into other languages for use in other countries.
As part of VVM’s Church Mobilization Initiative, VVM has reached out to new areas of the Philippines the last couple years, including the area where PAMI is located. In fact, Darwin has spent a couple months setting up a small branch office/studio in Irosin and worked with PAMI pastors like Gumer Gile and Lorenzo Fugen. Colin has also visited Irosin. Pastors Gumer and Lorenzo have helped with dubbing films, doing a lot of film showings, distributing Bibles, and conducting follow-up Bible studies.
Here is a VVM CMI report that includes a lot of testimonies from PAMI film shower, Ptr Lorenzo Fugen: