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Happy New Year!

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season with friends and family. We were blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with family who visited from America and friends here in Tanzania.

We're so thankful to God that in 2014 Ben was able to help the Jita team translate the books of Acts and 1, 2 and 3 John into the Jita language. They also translated and recorded the JESUS film into Jita. One of Ben's highlights was traveling to Jita villages and seeing Jita people excited about reading and hearing God's Word in their heart language. Jeannette was a huge help to the teacher at the missionary-kid school last semester and she organized the school library. One of Jeannette's highlights was throwing a birthday party for Neema, the lady who helps Jeannette around the house. Neema had never experienced a birthday party before. Jeannette gave her a Bible and told her she loved her. Neema had never experienced that either.

In 2015, we're praying for God's wisdom for Ben as he takes on extra work responsibility. Because some missionaries have left for furlough, Ben will be supervising another translation team. He also oversees the budget and compiles progress reports for the entire translation department. But he's most excited about helping the Jita team translate Titus, Thessalonians, Timothy and Philemon. Jeannette will continue to help at the missionary-kid school, homeschool Jenna and experiment with cooking Indian food.

Please pray for God's grace:

as we train our kids to love Jesus and serve others
as we plan to begin furlough around August of this year
as we endure many health challenges

Thank you for your love, prayers and encouragement.

Love,
Ben and Jeannette

South of Scorpion Pass

In our family Bible time we're reading the book of Joshua. Last night we came to Joshua 15 about Joshua dividing the land of Canaan for the tribes of Israel. Did you know that the southern border of the tribe of Judah goes past the Ascent of Akrabbim, or in other translations: Scorpion Pass?

We all thought, "Hmmm. That's an interesting name." And we moved on.

Later that night, I stepped out into the garage and saw this:

In two and a half years we have never seen a scorpion. And now suddenly... That's just weird!

Chrysalis or Cocoon?

Look what fell out of our mango trees!!!

Our kids are studying BUGS at the missionary-kid learning center. Actually, they correct me and say, "Not bugs, Dad. Insects!"

Exactly... bugs:)

Here are some more examples of backyard bug science...

Kara: "This is a beetle because the outer shell is divided and it has membranous wings underneath."

Luke: "This insect is camouflaging and it folds its antennae when we get close."

Ben: "The little spiky thingys really do hurt!"

Recording the JESUS film

Now it's time to record the script of the JESUS film in the Jita language.

  You can see the other posts about Jita Jesus film here:
  http://www.gerthfamilytanzania.blogspot.com/2014/11/next-big-project-jesus-film.html
  http://www.gerthfamilytanzania.blogspot.com/2014/11/scripting-jesus-film.html

Guess what it is?

This is our sound-proof recording studio!

This Jita man played the part of the narrator in the film.

The temperature inside "The Box" felt like 150 degrees but the Jita "actors" were such good sports. They endured the heat and the claustrophobia and repeating their lines over and over again until it was perfect.

Magesa and one of our friends from the Jesus Film Project

Our friends from the Jesus Film Project came to do the actual recording. They travel all around the world doing this exact job.

My friend Jeff (far right) organized the whole recording process. He coordinated with the Jesus Film Project, handled all the logistics, organized the actors and the traveling and the location and so much more. Good work, Jeff!

After two weeks of recording for 6 days/week and 27 Jita "actors," it was time for a final review.

After a few minor revisions, the JESUS film is now finished in the Jita language! Praise the Lord! We're looking forward to a big celebration showing of the film maybe early next year. Thank you for all your prayers!

King Jesus is With Us

Join us on our Advent journey through God's Word. This year again we will go from Genesis to Revelation looking at God's promises to dwell "WITH" his people. These promises are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

You can follow our daily reading schedule here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1XCekGacO5fRFduakRtVDJKZ3M/view?usp=sharing

Enjoy!

Scripting the JESUS film

screen shot from Jesus film http://jesusfilmmedia.org/

So the Jita team is working on the JESUS film. The first step was to translate the script into Jita. We used a normal spreadsheet with the English and Swahili already included. After we inserted the Jita it looked like this....

It may not look like much but there were 1,206 lines to translate!!

Then my friend Mitchell took all 1,206 lines of Jita and copied them into a computer program. (Mitchell is our media specialist.)

We used this program to check the timing of each scene because we wanted to make sure that the Jita "actors" would be able to fit all their lines into a given scene. We also wanted to make sure that the lips matched the voice as much as possible. (We've all seen badly dubbed movies, right?)

screenshot of the computer program we used

photo by M. Wimbush

Then Neema and Magesa and I reviewed every line of script to make sure it was accurate and that it would fit with the timing of the scene.

Finally, we were ready to take the script out to the community and test it with other Jita speakers.

We gathered a small group of Jita Christians in the village and read the entire script with them. They gave us some helpful feedback about the Jita words and phrases in the script. And they also had some interesting questions for us. "In this movie, will Jesus be an African or a white person?" Sorry, we can't change the video, we can only change the audio. But at least we'll have a white Jesus speaking Jita! That will be cool!!!!


Stay tuned for recording the JESUS film...

Next big project: JESUS Film

This year with the Jita team, we have finished the books of Acts and 1, 2 and 3 John. We're thanking God for his abundant grace. Now it's time for our next big project...

You remember that old movie from 1979? It has been translated into 1,214 languages around the world! We are partnering with the Jesus Film Project to bring the Jesus film to the people of the Mara region in Tanzania. Last year, members of our team helped produce the Jesus film in the languages of Kabwa and Zanaki.

Hundreds of Kabwa and Zanaki people saw the film and heard the good news about Jesus. Many people trusted Jesus for salvation.

Now it's time for the Jita people to have the Jesus film in their own language!

Here's a sample from the Jesus film showing English and Swahili, but no Jita.




Sadly, the Jita people don't have the Jesus film in their language. That means they can't use this evangelistic tool to tell other Jita people the good news about Jesus. That's why we're working hard to bring the Jesus film to the Jita people. Please pray for us. This is a huge project, with a huge amount of work, but a huge spiritual benefit for God's kingdom. We have already encountered some spiritual attacks in the process. Please pray for unity, wisdom and endurance.

Stay tuned for more updates...




Jesus film project logo and statistics taken from http://www.jesusfilm.org/
Jesus film video segments taken from http://jesusfilmmedia.org/
Photos of Jesus Film celebrations taken by C. Lucas and M. Nicholls