Bible Sunday for Tanzania
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Bible Sunday 2011 supports the Bible work in Tanzania. Make a gift today to help bring God's Word to people in Tanzania in the language that they can understand. More about Bible Sunday and how your church can participate at http://www.biblesociety.ca/biblesunday
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Bible Sunday for Tanzania
- 2. More than 400 people pack into an Anglican church in the small, rural Tanzanian town of Gairo.
- 3. Because fifty six percent of the Kikagulu tribe cannot speak Swahili, and even more cannot read it, the Bible has been a closed book.
- 4. Local farmer Simoni Sekaila reads from the Gospel of Luke.
- 6. “ It feels as if God is my best friend because he is now speaking to me directly. When I start, I want to keep on reading because God is speaking to me in my own language.” Josephine Mkala-Mungi
- 8. “ This is great. I had someone like Jospehine in mind when I was working. To hear her read it feels like I’m in heaven. It feels like Jesus is speaking in the synagogue, only he’s speaking here.” Michael Nhonya Bible Translator
- 9. “ Because of this New Testament, in the next few years these boys will be able to understand the Bible. They will grow up with it in their language. That means that Christianity will grow.”
- 10. Bible translations in Tanzania, and around the world, are setting people free
Editor's Notes
- The Republic of Tanzania . . . A large and beautiful African nation, it features an astonishing array of wildlife and natural vegetation along with breathtaking, world-famous scenery including the Serengeti National Park, Lake Victoria, and Mount Kilimanjaro. Settled at least two thousand years ago by Bantu speaking people, it has had a Bible translation in the country’s official language, Swahili, for nearly 200 hundred years. Yet, until now, not a single verse of Scripture has been translated for the Kikagulu – a tribe of more than 350,000 people, fifty six percent of whom do not speak Swahili.
- Little twelve year-old Diamoni writes in the dust, “People many, church.” He’s referring to the more than 400 people who have eagerly packed into a local Anglican church in the small, rural Tanzanian town of Gairo. It’s mid-morning and this is the second service of the day. Everyone has come to hear the Bible read in their own language, Kikagulu, for the first time.
- Outside the church, people are singing and dancing, praising God and giving thanks for the first ever translation of the New Testament in Kikagulu. Until now the Bible has only been read in Swahili, a language only just over half of the Kikagulu tribe can speak and even fewer can read. The Bible has literally been a closed book to them. The excitement about hearing God’s Word in their own language for the first time is absolutely palpable.
- Half way through the emotional service, local farmer Simoni Sekaila reads the day’s lesson for the first time in his language. It’s from Gospel of Luke, where Jesus stands up in the synagogue and says that he’s come to set the prisoners free. People strain forward to hear the words, with old and young alike captivated by what they’re hearing.
- Josephine Mkala-Mungi, a 33-year-old mother of three, is among the first to receive a copy of the Bible. Each copy is heavily subsidized so that local people – many of whom live on less than $1 per day – can afford it. Josephine lives in a small mud house on the outskirts of Gairo. She grows millet, maize, beans and peanuts for her family.
- ‘ It feels as if God is my best friend because he is now speaking to me directly,” she says, as she reads to her children. “When I start, I want to keep on reading because God is speaking to me in my own language.” Up until now, she reveals, the Bible had been “hard to understand.”
- A group of village children gather to listen as Josephine reads the Bible to her children.
- Also watching is Michael Nhonya. Michael has dedicated the last four years to helping translate the New Testament into Kikagulu. He’s a local man who grew up nearby and is thrilled to finally see his fellow Kikagulu-speakers reading the Bible in their own language. “This is great,” he shares. “I had someone like Josephine in mind when I was working. To hear her read it feels like I’m in heaven. It feels like Jesus is speaking in the synagogue, only he’s speaking here.”
- Michael notices a group of watching boys, “Because of this New Testament, in the next few years these boys will be able to understand the Bible,” he says. “They will grow up with it in their language. That means that Christianity will grow.”
- This Bible Sunday you can help set people like Josephine free to read the Bible in their own language. Around the world there are still more than 2,000 languages waiting for just one book of the Bible.
- H ere in Canada, teams continue to work diligently on Bible translation
- And, although there are many Aboriginal scriptures completed, there are still many others that are hopefully awaiting the entire Bible to be translated into their language.