South Asia (MNN) — Imagine a
population the size of Houston, Texas had never seen a film in their own
language. And then the first movie in their heart language features the
story of Jesus. It would open a door to the Gospel for millions of
people.
(Photo courtesy of The “JESUS” Film Project)
Joe Class with a partner organization of The JESUS Film Project
says that’s basically what happened. They recently finished eight new
JESUS Film translations representing 6.5 million people in South Asia.
“If you’re in a people group, and
there are 70 thousand people who speak that language, there will never
have been a film put in your heart language,” says Class.
“So when The JESUS Film is put into
that language, do you know how many people would be likely to see that?
About 70 thousand, because nobody’s ever seen a film in their own
language and everyone wants to!”
The Premiere and Dedication
Each language people group got their own JESUS Film premiere last month, and Class went to the dedication celebration.
“It was utterly amazing to go to this
location and have community members from eight different language
groups gathered together. All of us thanked God for what He’s done to
dedicate these to God’s glory. Our hope and our prayer is there would be
transformation and [that] churches would be started as a result of
this,” Class says.
“I don’t believe The JESUS FIlm
Project has ever had a dedication for this many languages all at one
time. So it was quite exciting to see the acceleration that’s taking
place in the translation and the dubbing of The JESUS Film globally.”
Active Community Transformation Strategy
When The JESUS Film Project goes into
a community to start film translation, they operate with an Active
Community Transformation Strategy (ACTS).
A premiere of The JESUS Film (Photo courtesy of MAF)
Class explains, “It’s a strategy of
The JESUS Film Project to connect with language communities and make
sure they’re involved from the beginning of the translation through the
creation of the JESUS Film and on through the transformation of the
community through church planting.”
It’s really important for The JESUS
Film to have active community involvement with the people they’re making
the film for. When community members take personal ownership of the
film and the process, the impact for the Gospel is greater.
“When you start with transformation
of the community, you get the entire community engaged. There’s
ownership of the piece from start to finish. There’s involvement,
because one of the things we insist on is we’re coming to help them make this possible and get the film in their own mother tongue.”
“On day one when we get folks
together, we ask for their feedback, their input…then we maintain touch
with them throughout the process, and then we come together at the end
of each one and have really a premiere.”
(Photo courtesy SGA)
These last eight JESUS Film
translations for South Asia were finished in record time too. It used to
take The JESUS Film two to five years for translation and completion.
Now Class says it takes a matter of weeks.
“With new software and new
methodologies, we’re able to maintain the Bible translation standards of
excellence in terms of making each product accurate, understandable and
clear; and we have done one in under six weeks. Most of them are taking
generally a couple of months. Easily 100 to 150 people involved in each
of the language communities.”
Long-Term Impact
However, The JESUS Film project
doesn’t just leave a community on its own once the film translation is
finished. The JESUS Film Project gathers and partners with other
church-planting organizations to carry on spiritual formation in the
villages, using the film as a key tool.
“The church groups and the mission
groups in that area, they become involved in the actual church
planting,” says Class. “We like to equip and then let them deal with how
they’re going to use it…. Some of the partnering organizations that The
JESUS Film works with have tracked this for well over ten years, and as
much as 70 percent of their church plants are a result of using the
film initially in a particular region. So God’s really using this film
in amazing ways.”
Pray for The JESUS Film Project as
they continue translating the movie into new languages and reaching
remote people groups for Christ. You can also support their ministry!
Class says, “If you look at the last
hundred years and you see how much translation has been done, and then
you look at the growth of the evangelical church over that same period,
you see an incredible ramping up. There’s just this incredible link
between translation God’s Word and the Gospel and churches being planted
and people coming to Christ. It’s an amazing phenomenon to be alive at
this point in history and watch all this!”
Source: Mission Network
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