The Jesus Film

I’ve been asked many times ‘why is the Gospel of Luke often translated first?’

A copy of Luke in Zinza

Well, one of the main motivations for translating the book of Luke first is that the Jesus Film script, in large part, is based off of the Gospel of Luke. So, once Luke has been translated it is easier to prepare the script of the Jesus Film.

In case you want to know more about the Jesus Film you can check out this site: Jesus Film

(Side note: My parents were in Israel when the original of this film was being filmed there!)

Back in December two of the languages in the Mara Cluster (Kabwa and Zanaki) recorded the adapted scripts. Over the last several months those recordings have been matched up and synched with the film so that the Jesus Film can be watched in either of those languages.

A group of Zanaki watching the Jesus Film in Swahili. Several of the voice actors who later were recorded for the Jesus Film are in this photo.

This week is an exciting week for the Mara Cluster. The Jesus film is being shown to the Kabwa community for the first time! You don’t have to watch the whole video (because it is over 2 hours, and in Kabwa), but here is the video that members of the Kabwa community are watching this week.

Kabwa Jesus Film

We are still working on adapting the Jesus Film for the other Mara Cluster languages, and I’m excited about getting to be there for future movie releases!

Bible Sunday in Mgango, Tanzania

This past Sunday four of my Tanzanian colleagues, my new house-mate Crystal and I went out to Mgango (about 45 minutes outside of Musoma), a village in the Kwaya language group area.

Upon arrival Crystal and I were informed that we would be helping with the kids program. It became apparent that we would be creating the program on the spot, so I grabbed some Kwaya Lukes out of the truck as well as some Lukes and Ruths in Jita (a related language). We then set about helping the children to learn to read in their language.

More than likely, this was the first time any of these children saw their language in writing. Some were shy about reading, while others jumped at the opportunity. It was amazing to hear how easily some of the older kids picked it up.

Crystal is a teacher, who came to Musoma to help teach the missionaries' children. This was her first trip out to a village in the area, and also one of her first times to get to see Tanzanians receiving God's word in their language. Her gifts in teaching came in handy as she sat with the kids and helped them read. We were both pretty impressed with the girl pictured below. She quickly was able to read in Kwaya and didn't want to stop.

During the church service we heard a sermon by Daudi Mornodoro (one of the Kwaya translators) about the power that God's word has. While he read a portion of Luke in Kwaya I watched the faces of the small congregation. They were smiling from ear to ear. It was truly a blessing to get to witness.

Finally; I was asked to sing and play the guitar (so that Kwaya women would know that they too could play the guitar). I chose one of my mom's songs and ended up getting to sing it three times before the end of the service. Here is a short video I was able to put together of the "performances":

October 2011 Newsletter