One of this year's keynote speakers at Missionfest Manitoba will be a missionary with a powerful testimony of God's word reaching the least of these.
Nard Pugyao has worked with Wycliffe Bible Translation and JAARS for over 40 years, most of those as a missionary pilot with both planes and helicopters.
"I was born in a hut in Northern Philippines," says Pugyao. "I was seven years old when the first missionary came to my language group in 1956. Our language is Isnag. He learned our language, wrote our alphabet and four years later he translated the gospel of Mark. I met Jesus as a result of reading the book of Mark."
It took 66 years to translate the entire Bible into Isnag, and Pugyao was a part of almost every step of it.
"I grew up in the village where we go from first to sixth grade, and then we go on to high school from there but you have to pay for high school education. The missionary came back to the village and I told him I met Jesus. He was so excited but he said he was going to the southern part of the Philippines for the next four years. I was disappointed until he said he needed someone to teach him the language."
An opportunity arose for Pugyao to go with the missionary for the next four years, in which he also paid for Pugyao's high school education.
"I knew then God was real. It used to take him a week and a half to get to our village, so I helped him build an airstrip."
The first time Pugyao flew, he screamed when the plane took off from the ground. Yet God called him to become a pilot so he could bring the Bible and its translations all around the world.
"For the last 40 years, I came to the U.S.A, went to college and onto Moody Bible Institute. I got my wings and started flying in 1979 in the Philippines. The best part of my flying career was in 1982 when I delivered the first 500 copies of the New Testament back to my village."
In 2023, Pugyao returned to his village to celebrate the full translation of the Bible into Isnag, after 66 years.
"Imagine for one moment, reading for the very first time God's word in your heart language. It touches you to the very core. My passion is to make sure that God's word is given to people in the languages they understand best."
Pugyao will be speaking as one of the keynotes at Missionfest Manitoba at Church of the Rock on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m.
