“Do you have books?” the man asked. Dafrosa (SIL Literacy/SE team) was on her way to teach in a Bungu village. “Yes,” she replied. “The fishermen need some,” he said. When they arrived at the lake, Dafrosa and the Language Area Officer found a crowd who bought books and calendars. “Please read to us,” several asked, holding out their books. “I will read them all,” Dafrosa answered…
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One of the Mbugwe translators attended a funeral in the community, and was asked to pray. Although religious activities are usually only done in Swahili, he prayed in their local language. After the ceremony he was approached three times by others who had listened…
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Long before printed Scripture is ready, while Linguists build alphabets and local speakers train as Translators, local church choirs can produce Scripture-based songs that begin to impact the community…
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Since the team’s “listening workshops” with Scriptures on solar audio players, Kabwa families listening at home now find neighbours — even those of other major religions — curious to know what they are hearing. In a recent follow-up event, one group chose to listen to the book of Jonah in Kabwa. As they began to discuss God’s message in the story, one point was very clear to them…
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In Mbeya Cluster Project office, the Vernacular Media team had visitors. A local secular radio station offered to broadcast mother tongue Scripture to three million people, three times weekly. “I gave them sample programmes,” said one team member, “to see if they were serious.” The station manager called back within the hour, to change his offer…
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In Mshewe village, there is a ladies’ football club which meets regularly to play. Each time, they also practice reading together using Scripture portions in their language. Recently, the team traveled to a nearby village to encourage them to do the same…
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“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The words carry great meaning for English-speaking Christians. But they posed a real challenge for translators working to bring God’s Word to the Bena people in their language. Read the short story of the solution they found…
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After years of research and testing, the Bungu team’s orthography (writing system) has been officially granted ‘trial’ status. So they quickly prepared materials and set out for Mkwajuni town, for the first-ever Bungu literacy workshop…
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Churches in the Burunge language community in 1997 began work together with experts to develop their language and translate Scripture. Almost exactly twenty years later, they celebrated their completed New Testament…
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