My trip to the Philippines

(This was originally published in February, 2016.)

When the opportunity came up to make a trip to the Philippines, I thought it was a brilliant idea and a great adventure. Not only was the Deditos series going to cross the ocean, but I would have the privilege of meeting the very people who wanted to dub the video for the Asian continent. It was also extremely gratifying to know that Viña could offer training on dramatic recordings in that region of the world.

It was about 5:00 AM when we landed in a city of 16 million inhabitants. Even though two friends were waiting for us, I couldn’t help but feel vulnerable in the face of so many unknowns. It didn’t help that my wife and I had been traveling for twenty-four hours straight, and that we were in a different country on a different continent.

I was absolutely overwhelmed as I realized that a product created in my oh-so-small town, was the reason for this trans-oceanic voyage. Yes, the Deditos series was what brought us to the Philippines. 

After a few days getting acclimated to the city of Baggio, we began our planned activities: providing training in the area of dramatic direction, mentoring in the area of decision making during the production process, and technical orientation in recording, and of course, we also got to meet our Christian brothers and sisters in the Philippines, and thus strengthen the partnerships started several years ago.

Now, two months later, our partners in the Philippines have completed dubbing the first two episodes of the series into the Waray language. Production of these episodes continues in several other language groups. They have also realized they need a production center. Completion of the dubbing of these videos is not the final goal; rather the thousands and thousands of children transformed through the power of the Word in their own language, through the powerful medium of video. (by José Abel)