Book Reviews
Moroland:
The
Story
of
Betty
and
Jay
Abrams by
Betty
Abrams
Two
missionaries
and
their
family
spend
36
years
in
the
Philippines
with
a
Muslim
tribe.
"In a full century of Christian and Missionary Alliance effort, the Philippines has had more than its share of outstanding missionaries. Possibly none tops the record of the late Jay Abrams and his equally dedicated wife, Betty. Their achievements are the more remarkable because they ministered primarily among unresponsive Muslims on the large southern island of Mindanao.
"Jay and I were contemporaries, both of us ex-GIs of World War II vintage, who swelled the ranks of colleges (including Nyack College) in those postwar years. Even then I had great admiration for Jay. Marge and I were already in the Philippines when we learned that Jay and Betty would soon be joining us. We were delighted. Jay and Betty were assigned to Dulawan, Moroland, while Marge and I went farther east to Moncayo, to work among the pagan Dibabbawons.
"I cannot forget, a few years later, the arrival of Salik and Judy Sinkiat and their family at Ebenezer Bible College and Seminary, where I was then a teacher and officer. Salik was a full-blooded Maguindanao Muslim. He and Judy had embraced the Christian gospel because Jay and Betty Abrams loved them into God’s Kingdom. And Jay didn’t stop there. He made sure Salik was well discipled. Even after he arrived at Ebenezer, Salik would come nightly to our house to let me see his progress in the study guide Jay had given him. Salik and Judy’s story is in this book. They exemplify the solid work that characterized Jay and Betty’s ministry.
"Read Betty Abrams’ story with empathy but not with sympathy. She does not want the latter. Jay and Betty lived their lives in the center of the will of God. She says it, and Marge and I say it: There is no better place to be!" --H. Robert Cowles
