Four Future Tenses

Pastor Magesa baptizing new believers

 The Jita language has four different future tenses. The tenses reflect how far into the future the speaker expects something to happen, as well as the level of certainty of the anticipated event. So when we come to John 1:32-33, the Jita translation uses two different future tenses.

Then John testified, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”

This is a difficult verse to translate for multiple reasons. John is talking about what happened in the past, referring to something even further in the past, and in that distant past he received a message about a future event which will then trigger a subsequent future event.

The Jita translation of these verses uses two different future tenses to clearly communicate the timing of the future events, as well as the certainty of those events. It is such a glorious truth that when Jita people repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus for salvation, they will definitely be baptized with the Holy Spirit and become united to the body of Christ, the Church. 

Please pray for us as we translate God's Word into the Jita language. Pray that we will make it clear, accurate, and natural, and pray that people will be transformed by the Word of God.

Six Completed New Testaments

Praise the Lord for six completed New Testaments! 

Our colleagues in southern Tanzania recently celebrated the launch of six completed New Testaments. We thank God that the Nyakyusa, Vwanji, Sangu, Ndali, Kinga, and Malila people now have access to God's Word in their heart language. 

The dedication events were celebrated with lots of joyful singing and dancing...

...pastors thanking God for the arrival of his Word...

...men and women holding God's Word in their own hands for the very first time ever...

...and of course, lots of food...

We rejoice in the hope that future generations will grow up reading God's Word and believing in Jesus.

Here's what people said about the celebrations:

"It was so good to see people from every denomination coming together to celebrate God's Word." 

"I see people receiving the Word of God and receiving God himself."

Please keep praying for Ben and the Jita translators. They hope to print the New Testament in Jita in the next couple of years. 

{photos by Steve Pence, Katherine O'Donnell, and Mark Woodward}

Pray for Tanzania

Please pray for Tanzania. 

The president of Tanzania, John Magufuli, died suddenly last week, after not being seen publicly for over two weeks. Pray for peace and stability in the country as many rumors and speculations are swirling around about the cause of his death. Pray for comfort for those who are grieving. Pray that people will turn to Jesus for hope and peace.

Can you hear me now?

Those are the words that we all dread on a Zoom meeting.

"Hello? I can't see you."

"Uh oh. You're frozen."

"Wait, now I can't hear you."

Sadly, there's been a lot of that recently in my Zoom meetings with the Jita translators in Tanzania. Because of rising COVID cases in Tanzania, the translators have been working from home, which makes internet connection even less reliable than when they worked in the office. On top of that, the rainy season has begun and that seems to cause some extra interference (even though we're very thankful that God has sent rain). 

Thankfully we were able to make a lot of progress today, in spite of the difficulties.

Please pray that God would give us clear, stable internet connections and that our checking sessions together by Zoom would be very productive.

Jita Matthew books finally arrive!

Magesa is holding the book of Matthew printed in the Jita language for the first time ever!

We're so excited! The shipment of Jita Matthew books finally arrived in Musoma! It took longer than expected because we discovered a major problem with the first printing. Some pages were blank, other pages had words cut off, and still other pages were so blurry that they were illegible. After reprinting those books, they were shipped to Musoma, and now they finally arrived. This is the first time that the book of Matthew has ever been printed in the Jita language...ever! Praise the Lord! 

Thank you for your prayers during this long process. It took years of intense labor, input from lots of different people on multiple continents, and lots of prayer...but it's done!

Now let's pray that the Jita people will come to believe in Jesus as Messiah, Immanuel, Lord, and Savior.

Wycliffe update video

Check out this video about what God accomplished through Wycliffe Bible Translators in 2020. God's Word is still alive and active, even in the pandemic. If you look closely, you can catch a glimpse of Tanzania in a couple of the clips!

Longest word ever!

 

Ok, maybe it's not the longest word ever, but it's still impressive. Recently, I was working on spell-checking the Jita translation of the Bible and I discovered this word. It's in Matthew 17:12 where Jesus explains that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy about preparing the way for the Messiah. The Jewish religious leaders did not recognize the significance of John's ministry. That's what our word means.

:bhataamusombookeeywe means "they did not recognize him"

It's important to check the spelling carefully because one little mistake can change the meaning dramatically.