Jesus Film in Kabwa and Zanaki!

Our translation team watched as two newly finished projects were showcased this last week: the Jesus Film in two new languages! I wrote about the beginnings of the work on the film here in northwest Tanzania three years ago. Now the first ones have been finished!

A team from the Jesus Film Project and their partners came to put on the first screenings of the two movies. Monday they went to a Kabwa village to meet with local church leaders and show the film in their language, and then they repeated the process in a Zanaki village the next day. The Kabwa village, Makutano, is very close to the town where we live (Musoma), so I was able to attend, too!

My teammates and I arrived early in the evening, during the set up for the film. (The team put up a big screen in an open field and hooked up lights, speakers, and projector to a generator.) Nothing was really happening yet, but curious crowds were already starting to gather--particularly kids. 

Personal story: 

Kids in rural areas, especially, can get excited about a chance to talk with foreigners. They rarely see light-skinned people up close, and they think we're fascinating. The result is often what happened this time: As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were surrounded by a crowd of kids, all pressing in for a good look. Frankly, I don't really enjoy the attention; it's uncomfortable to be people's entertainment just by virtue of my presence. However, on this occasion God gave me the peace to engage these kids and enjoy them, instead of avoiding them and guarding my personal space. They were thrilled that I knew Swahili and could actually converse with them. We just talked about normal stuff, like school, but I hope they were encouraged by someone giving them attention. (I know they were entertained!)

When I mentioned that they were about to see the story of Jesus in their language, the kids were incredulous. I don't think they doubted me; I just think they couldn't fathom what I was saying. After all, there's never been any movie in Kabwa before this! 

Almost ready. The sponsor group gathers for prayer underneath one of the lights.

Back to the main story:

As the sky dimmed, the film started. The crowd had grown, as you would expect in a location far away from any theater. As the opening music and images played, I could hear the chatter of several hundred interested, excited people. The came my favorite moment of the evening: The narrator's voice--a local voice, speaking in Kabwa--began telling the story. Almost at once, the crowd fell completely silent.

And their rapt attention continued over the course of the whole film.

People could (and did) watch the film from both sides of the screen.

Those in charge paused the movie during the crucifixion scene. A Tanzanian pastor took a moment to explain why Jesus was enduring pain and death. Then he asked if anyone in the audience wanted to accept Jesus or needed Jesus' help in their life. Practically everyone in the crowd raised their hands and came for prayer in the name of Jesus. The pastor led them in a prayer and passed out cards to get contact information for the local churches.

The pastor asked the children who raised their hands to stand to one side, and after he prayed with the adults, he led the kids in a prayer of their own. It was a beautiful, simple prayer, asking God to lead the children to know Him more (from wherever they were in their heart journeys).

How wonderful to see so many receptive hearts!

My teammate André Kamphuis returned to that Kabwa village to preach today, by invitation of a local pastor. He heard how people had loved watching the Jesus Film on Monday, and there were new people at the church today. From this church and other churches, we've received reports of people accepting Jesus as their savior after seeing the film, including Muslims! Praise God!

Here are more photos, taken by a teammate with a nice camera. ;)

Curious what the Kabwa language sounds like? You too can watch the film!

Gospel of Luke for the Zinza

Back in 2009, when I had just arrived in Musoma, I got to attend the dedication of the first book of the Bible translated in the Zinza language: Genesis. (Here is the link to that story.) Now, four years later, I again traveled by car and ferry back to the Zinza area for another Scripture celebration--this time, for the first completed book of the New Testament: Luke.

The Zinza are a small people group in northern Tanzania. Many of them live on islands in the south of Lake Victoria, others in the region along the shore. They're mainly fishermen, although the village we visited (on the mainland) is in an area known for pineapples! Most of the Zinza are very poor, even by Tanzanian standards, and they feel marginalized by the larger people groups in that part of the country. An alphabet developed and books published in their language affirms their cultural identity--and their value in God's eyes. Since education is low, many Zinza do not know Swahili well enough to read the Bible well. Translations into Zinza are needed and appreciated!

When my teammates and I arrived in the village where the celebration was to be held, we were met by one of the pastors in charge, Stefano Kamahanga. He welcomed us warmly, obviously excited about the ceremony ahead. However, very few other people were around (and we'd purposefully come "late"!) Stefano explained that there had been a funeral, and many people were still returning home. I love how unavoidable delays cause so little fuss in this country; we'd start once we were ready.

Meanwhile, food preparations were underway.

These ladies are sorting rice, peeling potatoes, and pounding grain.

Tim turned his vehicle into a booth beside the road. He set out books, tracts, and literacy materials in Zinza and played some Zinza scripture recordings for passersby to hear. That got lots of attention!

We ladies just had to get a picture in our colorful dresses! I'm on the right, Pastor Stefano's wife is on the left, and the rest are teammates. Chris (wearing blue dress in center) is married to Tim, in the previous picture. They have worked with the Zinza translation project for the last decade.

Pastor Stefano began the ceremony once a small crowd had gathered. We were meeting next to a little church building, under canvases put up for shade. The clouds looked a little threatening, but Stefano urged everyone to stay, explaining that God would take care of his event! Indeed, we did get some very light rain later, but people just put up more tarps to shelter the growing crowd, and it never rained hard enough to affect the proceedings.

Along the front of the covered area sat local church leaders and several key people in the translation work. In the foreground here are the two Zinza translators with Tim, the translation advisor. (You can see Tim and Chris' son, Braden, also--read more about him here.)

Zinza translation team, L-R: Beltazari, Lukafuba, Tim

I love watching the choirs! We had several, each group performing at least two or three songs.

This girl has to be my favorite Tanzanian choir leader EVER. So expressive!

We were also treated to some traditional Zinza music and dance. The drums, shakers, and whistles built up the rhythm, and people from the audience came forward to join the circling dance, swaying lower and lower as the music continued. A couple of the missionary guys bravely joined, too! The crowd loved it.

By then the crowd had really swelled: standing room only!

These kids were first merely peeking over the curtain behind our seats in the front corner of the enclosure. Eventually curiosity won out over caution. They were especially intrigued to see themselves in the display screen on my camera.

Speeches were given by several church leaders. I don't remember this fellow's name, but he preached a great message. Also memorable was Pastor Stefano (in the cream-colored suit) as he translated the Swahili into Zinza. The speaker was highly expressive, in voice inflection and in movement, and Stefano imitated every tone and gesture!

Finally it was time to parade in the ceremonial first boxes of the new books. Somehow I found myself part of the procession! I felt very honored (and rather self conscious--I can't dance!). As the gift-wrapped boxes were danced up to the front, we followed behind, clapping, singing, and dancing (well, some of us). The audience added their voices, singing, cheering, and trilling.

Padre Balingi, a Catholic priest and the ceremony's keynote speaker, stood and gave his own message. He spoke passionately about the blessing of having God's Word in the Zinza language, sharing the history of the project and urging everyone to read Luke's Gospel for themselves.

Both of these leaders, Balingi and Stefano, impressed me with their dedication to God and to their people. Oh, and did I mention that Stefano is a Pentecostal pastor? And here they are, Catholic and Pentecostal, working together. Both have been on the advisory committee for the Zinza translation project for quite some time. Chris told me this is one way she's seen God use Bible translation, even before books are completed. These men have said it themselves: "This project has given us a reason to come together!"

Padre Balingi and Pastor Stefano hold up the new book for all to see.

Afterwards a meal was served, and in the meantime people swarmed to buy their own Luke copies. Translator Beltazari and my teammate Ronit (who has done a lot of linguistic work for the Zinza project) handled the distribution.

Tim and Chris put together a nice little video of the event:

Can't get enough ethnic folk dance? I found myself in a good position to take some video after the ceremony, when everyone started dancing again, just for fun:

Thankful for Big Things

Along with my post about small blessings, I want to also mention two huge, exciting reasons to thank God.

I now have a colleague!  Crystal Lucas arrived in Tanzania the same year I did, and she taught missionary kids (and others) at an international school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city and unofficial capital.  When she told me she was thinking about coming to Musoma to join me in teaching the MKs here, I was so excited!

And now she's here!  We can brainstorm and plan together and divide the teaching between us!  (Parents will still be helping, too, thank goodness, but it's so nice to have two of us full-time MK teachers!)  Already this semester I have been feeling that I'm not teaching all the ages and classes well, and we have more families coming, more preschoolers and toddlers on the horizon!  You know how you sometimes wish you could clone yourself?  Well, this is even better, because Crystal is a fabulous teacher with different areas of training and experience than I have.  The Musoma families and I are very thankful for her!

We are also very thankful to be seeing some of our team's hard work finally in print.  In the past year, there have been seven Scripture dedications!  That means people from seven different local ethnic groups have seen and heard God's Word in their own languages for the first time.  Wow!  These dedications celebrated (and distributed) the Gospel of Luke, and in several instances, the smaller books of Ruth and Jonah, as well.

Check out this slideshow, made by my teammate, Michael Nicholls.
Scripture Celebrations in the Mara Region of Tanzania

Thank You, Lord!

National Orientation Program

There has been a lot of action at the translation office these last two weeks.  Our staff here in Musoma got to participate in a National Orientation Program.  "National" because it's for the Tanzanian nationals (as opposed to us internationals), and "orientation" because... well, that's what it is!

If you think about it, we Western missionaries get a lot of training that our Tanzanian coworkers are never even exposed to.  We take Bible and theology courses; many of us have advanced Bible degrees (we're in a translation organization, after all).  Both before and after coming to the field, we are taught about different cultures and how to relate to people who think differently.  Meanwhile, those who join us in the work of translating scripture into their languages often have to figure it out as they go along.  Try as we might to behave and communicate in culturally appropriate ways, there must be many things we do that leave our Tanzanian colleagues scratching their heads about "those crazy foreigners".

(It's so good to have the nice big conference room in the new building!)

The National Orientation Program attempts to address these issues.  A variety of presenters, including Westerners and Tanzanians, conducted a whole host of sessions on many different topics--ranging from theology and Bible translation itself to poverty and physical health to culture and the many things culture affects.  Although I was not present for these sessions--I was teaching the kids, naturally--I heard a lot of good reports from both presenters and participants.  Lots of good discussion and new things to think about!

The program wasn't all lectures, either.  It sounds like everyone had a lot of fun with various team-building exercises (read: games!).  :)

Cup stacking!  Except you have to cooperate with 3 other people to position each cup...

And then, maybe you graduate to this balancing act?!

Always fun to blindfold a whole group of people!  They had to figure out how to make a square.

There was even an impromptu office party last weekend--volleyball, soccer, and lunch at the Nicholls' house.  (Note:  All photos in this blog entry come from Michael Nicholls' facebook album.)  We hope and pray that God will use the classes and the fun of these two weeks for increased unity and understanding as we all seek to serve Him together!

Don't miss this great video, put together by Danny Foster, our Director of Training & Development and  leader of the program.

First Scriptures for the Ikoma!

Monday, October 3rd, was a day of celebration in Mugumu, an Ikoma village in northern Tanzania.  The first book of the Bible had been published in their language!  In fact, the Gospel of Luke is the first book of any kind in Ikoma--a language which had never been written down before our translation project.  On this day the community gathered to dedicate the newly printed books.  I was not able to attend (being still in America), but thanks to my teammate and photographer extraordinaire, Michael Nicholls, I got to see pictures!

The dedication was held in a church building that had been festively decked out for the occasion.

Below are the members of the Ikoma translation team: Mussa, Rachel (from Canada), and Muya.

Many of our translators and other staff made the trip, most dressed in our organization's "God Speaks Your Language" t-shirts.  They were the ones to bring in the representative box of Luke books.  Tanzanians love ceremony, so it was quite the production.  The box was gift wrapped--so you not only get to cut the ribbon but unwrap it as well--and our translators formed two lines and "danced" the box down the aisle.  Meanwhile, those gathered clapped and sang, call-and-response style.

(I love this picture.)

Bishop Stephen Mageri held up the first copies.

Muya read aloud from Luke's Gospel.  This would have been the first time for most of the people there to hear the Bible in their own language!

A couple more pictures...  Pray for God's Word to transform this community!

This man is one of the first Ikoma believers.  Read his story at the Sandeens' blog.

Kicking off Work on the Jesus Film

The "Jesus" film has been used all over the world to introduce people to Christ.  Why is it so powerful?  I would say, first, because it is based directly on the Word of God (specifically, the Gospel of Luke).  But I would follow that with a second reason: because whenever possible it is shown to people in their own language.  Not subtitles--think of high illiteracy rates and languages that aren't written at all--but the actual words coming out of the speakers.

Currently the film is available in Swahili, the primary trade language of Tanzania, and also in a few of the local languages.  Our translation teams have finished working on the Gospel of Luke--final checks and typesetting happening now--so they are ready to begin making versions of the "Jesus" film for the Mara region!  This was one reason why it was decided to translate Luke first, to make use of this audio/visual presentation of God's Word.

Yesterday everyone at the office took a break from their normal project work and went to a local restaurant where we could all watch the movie in one big room.  But this was not your ordinary showing!  My teammate Alison Compton brought copies of the "Jesus" film in five different Tanzanian languages, including Swahili.  We started watching in one language... and then switched, picking up at the same scene in the next language... and so on, until the end of the movie!

Although none of these were the heart languages of our folks, a couple were familiar languages to various people.  The Sukuma language is spoken in a large area to the southwest of Musoma, and Kuria is a common language in our area.  When people recognized a language, they often laughed out loud--it was probably their first time to hear it recorded!  Later they commented on how much "sweeter" the story was in these nearby languages than in Swahili. :)  Even the waiters at the restaurant got a kick out of it.  One guy was thrilled to hear that we would be working on a version in his language, Kwaya.  He wanted to know when he could purchase a copy!

We hope that our translators will be excited about this project, inspired by the thought of some day soon watching the "Jesus" film in their very own languages.  The Zanaki team had already begun yesterday, and the other teams will be soon to follow.

Scripture Translated!

Friday marked an exciting milestone for the Mara Cluster translation project.  The first two chapters of Luke have now been translated and published into all nine target languages!  This year translation began in earnest, and the team started with Luke 1-2, aiming to finish in time for Christmas.  By God's grace this goal was realized, and we all came together Friday to celebrate.

Under a simple pavilion on the office compound we gathered to thank God and dedicate these new Scriptures.  It was good to see the Cluster all together, in one body (as many as could come)--missionaries and Tanzanians, translators and support personnel (like myself).  Usually I am not at the office, so I am very grateful to the sensitivity of my students' parents for making it possible for me to attend!  Several church leaders also joined us as our honored guests.  Here they are praying over the new Luke 1-2 booklets after ceremonially cutting the ribbons.

Each of the translators received a copy of the first two chapters of Luke in his or her own language.  Then we heard the Christmas story read aloud, one portion in each of the nine languages.  When the first translator stood and started reading in his language, Jita, I was surprised by how much it moved me.  His speech sounded so different from Swahili!  Imagine, hearing the story of Jesus's birth always in such a different language, never in your own.  As the story continued in eight more languages, I looked around at my teammates and saw that mine were not the only eyes suspiciously moist.

Gospel of Luke, chapters 1 & 2, first time in these languages

Our prayer is that these copies of the Christmas story will get into homes and churches, that people across the Mara region will gain a fresh understanding of God's love for them, for their people specifically, through the gift of His Son.

Prayer Day

Yesterday was a world-wide Day of Prayer for our organization.  Here in Musoma, all of our normal activities paused while everyone gathered at the office to spend the morning praying together.  It was the first time for me to see our whole staff (national and ex-patriate) in one place.  It's a pretty good crowd!  The long screened porch "lunch room" of our office could just hold us all, which was good, because the rain had us scurrying to bring chairs back inside before we even started. 

The day opened with prayer (naturally), singing, and a devotional.  We sang hymns and praise songs in Swahili and English, and one of our Tanzanian ladies led us in a call-and-response chorus, rhythmic clapping provided by anyone so inspired.  (Most of us foreigners just concentrated on keeping a steady beat, leaving the fancy stuff to our more talented colleagues!)  As I joined in the short refrain after each of the caller's lines, I thought, "This must be what Psalm 136 first sounded like.  Done this way, the repitition is beautiful."

Afterwards we split into smaller groups and rotated between different rooms of the office, each room having its own prayer focus.  In this way we lifted up Bible translation needs in our own Mara area, in Tanzania, in the whole of Africa, and around the globe.  Everyone was free to pray in his or her own language, to the glory of the One who created them all.

Part of our group.  Considering that our translators represent 9 different ethnic groups, and we foreigners come from 6 different nations, it's quite a mix!

On a personal note, I came to the event wondering how much spiritual/abstract Swahili I would remember (although most of the morning was bilingual).  I don't get much practice in Biblical vocabulary by going to the market or talking with my house help!  Nevertheless, I found I could follow along just fine; that was very encouraging.  On the whole, our prayer day was a great community/team experience for me, especially since I'm not part of the normal office work.  Plus, the thought that we were also joining our colleagues all around the world is inspiring.  May God answer our prayers in mighty ways!

Genesis in the Zinza Language!

Can you imagine reading the Bible in your own language for the first time? The Zinza people here in the Mara region of Tanzania now have the Bible's first book, Genesis, in their language. A dedication ceremony was held in one of their villages, and I jumped at the chance to go.

A large warehouse-type building had been festively decked out for the ceremony. The banner in the photo reads "The First Book" in Zinza. Everyone came who had a hand in the translation, as well as local church leaders, missionary guests, and of course, the honored guests: any other Zinza who could come (some of the communities live on islands in Lake Victoria). Standing in front of the table in the photo is Tim Gilmore. His family has been working with the Zinza language for several years before moving to Musoma to join the cluster project here (targeting nine languages simultaneously). This translation of Genesis is the fruit of their labors. Behind the table stands Rod McGarvie, director of our Uganda-Tanzania branch.



An Africa Inland Church choir helped lead the celebrations. Churches here love their choirs, and I was excited to be in an environment where I could finally take some pictures. Choir performances are a combination of song and choreography, accompanied by a keyboard and its synthesized beat. It's very neat to see.

In the picture below a little boy is visible on the far left. He's part of the choir, too. Church choirs are usually composed of men, women, and kids. (Also, I think most choirs wear matching clothes only on special occasions like this.)

The Zinza also performed some of their traditional dancing. This is not something we get to see very often! First they had to literally "warm up" their drums near a fire outside. Then they proceeded in, first the men beating the drums, and then the women.

A couple men sat in chairs with their drums, and everyone else formed a long column behind them. As the beat started, the column moved slowly forward, curling around the drummers, gaining energy as the dance continued. As Chris Gilmore said, "The Zinza like to have all the bells and whistles." Indeed, several of the men had whistles clenched in their teeth and bells tied around their ankles. Every stomp and every breath added to the cacophony of sound. Women did their part with their joyful high trilling.

Here you can see some of the audience. Everyone stood up to get a better view.

At last it was time to bring in the boxes of the new books. The choir carried them in, a pair to a box, dancing their way down the aisle. The local bishop did the honors; after slicing the tape to open the first box, he pulled out two copies of the Zinza Genesis and held them high over his head for all to see. The whole building cheered. Afterwards two of the Zinza translators read selected passages aloud--the first time God's Word had been read publicly in their language.

Now this people group can read one of the Bible's 66 books in their heart language. More books will (hopefully) soon follow. How wonderful to think that I can have a small part in this work!

The whole dedication lasted longer than this account might indicate. "Pomp and ceremony" is the rule at proceedings such as this. Various VIPs gave speeches, but they were relatively brief. The whole program, plus the following meal, had to be kept within a time frame that would allow several of our vehicles to make the afternoon's last ferry back to the city of Mwanza!

When the Zinza danced, I switched my little camera into video mode for a while. The resulting "footage" isn't of the highest quality, but the experience was unique enough that I wanted to share: