The Jesus Film Premiers in 8 Unique Asian Languages
CBN News 07-01-2016
The gospel could be spread for many due to 'The Jesus Film' becoming available in eight different languages.
"The JESUS Film Project seeks to give everyone in the world at least one chance to hear the gospel in their own language. So whether a person speaks Swahili, French, or a language whose name is extremely difficult for most to pronounce, he or she will encounter the life and message of Jesus in a language "of the heart."
There are now eight new JESUS film translations for 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," Joe Class, from The Jesus Film Project said.
Each language group was able to get their own JESUS Film Premiere last month.
"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," Class said.
The strategy of the JESUS Film project is to connect with language communities and get them involved from the start of the translation through the creation of the film and then transform the community through church plants, according to the Mission News Network.
Active involvement is very important for the JESUS Film project because it makes the experience personal, which makes the impact of the Gospel greater.
"When you start with the 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."
The Films used to take two to five years to finish, but now it takes a matter of weeks, according to Class.
Class says, "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."
Once the translations are finished for a community, they then gather and partner with other church-planting organizations to continue the spiritual formation in the villages using the film as a key tool, according to the Mission News Network.
Class reflected on the growth and progress of their mission saying,
"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."
