Does God Speak Our Language;Jesus film translated into local language among the nomads.

I have been in countless meetings where people speak different language that what i speak or hear. Sometimes you feel the odd one left out of the conversation that is flowing. Thousands of years ago one of the early church fathers said that God becomes real and reachable if He speaks in the language that the natives could clearly understand.

Throughout the history missionaries and linguistics have made an attempt to translate the Bible into the language of the local people and the Jesus film for Samburu was launch in the year 2012. And today we can be able to take it wider in northern kenya among the samburu and rendile

For the first time people who have never heard Jesus speaking were excited and jubilation as they listen to words so close and passionate spoken to them.

Six months ago we decided to do an outreach in partnership with a local pastor who is pa-storing a church at the base of the mountain in Chalbi district in northern Kenya.

The local community had assemble by 6pm and all were excited and curious to encounter a God-who does speak in their language. Unfortunately the picture that majority of the local people have about God is that God is white and not black, God speaks only English

 Many year ago a missionary by the name William Cameron went to Guatemala as a missionary and he was confronted with a deep questions from the locals, and the concern was if realy His God was so great and all powerful why doesn't he speak in the Guatemala language. The missionary knew very well that indeed God speak 6,500 languages spoken in the world and the difference here is that the Guatemala was not just written. 

And indeed by the time we were beginning the Jesus film by 8.30 pm we had a huge crowd of people and all were moved and could clearly identify whatever their Savior was saying. In one incident old women were crying and were wondering what did the innocent man(JESUS) do to cause roman Soldiers to kill him.

I  have not experience such an excitement filled with passion for quite so long- here nomads community have not been able to fully been reached and few of them have gone to schools. Our culture as nomads is more narrative and JESUS FILM is a powerful tool that we need to take to the villages, where people can sit down, gather together and hear the same old story.

In the next few months IN HIS FOOTPRINT-AFRIKA will be reaching out to the Maasai and Samburu with the good-news of Jesus in their local language, Its our hope that just as it caused great revival few years ago when it was launched it will continue to inspire and bring many men, women and children into a life-long commitment to their Savior.

The challenges are enormous in doing this outreach-but God will enable us to make the gospel real and close-so that these communities can finally say our father ''papa' in heaven in their language-Please pray for the provision of mission truck and the equipment needed to take Jesus film to the villages.

And its clear that Jesus film translated into local language among the nomads will help the nomads in seeking to resolve the question, Does God Speak our Language?

Looking into the Future; Why It’s of Great Importance to Train the Next Generation.

When I was growing up- I walked to school for miles. As a young kid you always looked forward to the opening and closing day for the term session. In recent weeks, I have had privileged to travel to three town which are higly inhabited by the nomadic, namely kilgoris, narok and maralal. In my recent trip through MCPI a local organization we visited Kilgoris town and alongside others we were able to train a big number of Maasai Pastors.

We had a conversation with the indigenous pastors and it’s clear that there is desire for them to take their congregation into a future that promises so much yet offers so little in terms of spirituality. And that was a challenge worth taking. The nomads are gradually transiting and encountering many challenges in their churches.

For instance, almost 80% of pastors have no formal theological or Biblical training. They are teaching and leading many churches, we notice in their churches that we have many people who are educated. The pastors have a fear that they are not effective and communicating as much as they would have done if they had a chance for basic skills in doctrine, evangelism and discipleship.

I can clearly see the future, if nothing is done in providing training, these pastors will look irrelevant and out of touch, others who are educated and lack basic teaching on Bible may bring wrong interpretations and scatter the church among the nomads which in itself is struggling to emerge. We will have half backed Christians who are incapable of giving a enough defenses for the faith that they all profess. We will then release a unprepared church to reach out to the unreached people group.

Most of the pastors have families and other responsibilities- we want to take training and these materaisl where they are, we don’t have to displace them from their places of family and ministries, Its here that In HIS FOOTPRINT is committed and dedicated to be where these men and women of God are-in the deepest and remotest parts of the country.

However all is not lost- we can still make this happen. IN HIS FOOTPRINTS is committed to replicate a annual training for pastors, evangelist and church elders across the Narok, Samburu and probably in Marsabit County. The pastors who are in the remotes areas are our targets-we can transfer skills and knowledge to these pastors and in turn they can begin to equip their churches.

Already rural pastors in Narok are meeting for these training. We trust that there would be provision of funds to help others benefit and then redeem the church among these nomads. In these communities Pastor are respected and are counted as opinion leaders, just imagine what if they have basic skills in Bible, Evangelism and other areas-then am sure they can cause tremendous change. 

Please join IN HIS FOOTPRINT in translating this dream to be realities, you may help in donating Bibles, supporting a training through prayers and financial support. We look forward to see these trainings happening in these communities and finally seeing the faces of these pastors filled with excitement and confidence as they shepherd the Church

Until then let us keep looking into the future-and imagined a prospective and growing church for the glory and honor of God-

IN HIS FOOTPRINT-AFRICA