God's grace in Ephesians for the Jita people

We finished the final check of the book of Ephesians in the Jita language!!!

I'm still amazed that a guy from the Midwest can sit in an office in Tanzania with a Jita speaker, skyping with a Consultant in the UK, discussing the meaning of Greek words using English and Swahili in order to create a clear and accurate translation in Jita. Amazing! And it's all because of God's grace.

Thankfully, now the Jita people can learn about God's amazing grace from the book of Ephesians.

Abhayefeeso 2:8  

Okubha muchunguuywe kwa obhwitiriranya bhwaye, ku‑njira ya okwikirisya Yeesu. Obhuchungusi obhwo bhutasookere kw‑imwe, tari ni echiyaanwa cha Nyamuwanga kw‑imwe.

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

We faced some big challenges in this book. For example, in English Bibles, Ephesians 2:14-16 is one long, elaborate, complex sentence containing 13 interrelated clauses.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

We spent a LONG time making sure that Paul's intended meaning was accurately captured in the translation and then we spent a LONG time making sure that the translation flowed clearly and naturally.

Then we had a very difficult time in Ephesians 4:19 and 5:3 differentiating between sensuality, sexual immorality, and impurity. How do we describe these things adequately enough in Swahili so that we can find the appropriate words in Jita?

I think I'm most excited about Ephesians 5:18-21, where Paul exhorts the believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and then describes what real Christian community looks like when we all walk by the Spirit and are led by the Spirit and filled with the Spirit.

mwijusibhwe Mwoyo Mweru

be filled with the Holy Spirit

Thank you for your prayers and partnership with us in bringing this great news to the Jita people.