Int'l (MNN) — A recent update from The JESUS Film Project
provides forward motion for the Great Commission's fulfillment. Previously, the
JESUS film was only translated into languages with 100,000 speakers or more;
that threshold was recently lowered to 50,000.
"That's significant because we desire to provide media
tools and training and strategies so that we can connect with every major
language in the world," said Berry Fiess with the JESUS Film Project.
"We believe that's part of the mandate of taking the Gospel into all the
world. Our goals are to provide a catalyst to help mission
agencies do that."
The JESUS Film Project first finds a common language that encompasses
all regional dialects of a people group. Then, working with other mission
organizations including Wycliffe Bible Translators and The Seed Company, The
JESUS Film Project translates their film into this language.
"The cluster concept speeds up translation
efforts," Fiess says. "Yet at the same time, we've always wanted to
reach these smaller language groups and we just didn't know the best way to
approach that."
By translating the JESUS film into one common language, more
people can hear the Word of God in a basic form of their native tongue.
Says Fiess, "It's very important that we move from the trade
languages into the heart language because individuals will respond very
differently if you communicate with them in the language that they first
learned when they were growing up."
Fiess says challenges posed by this new threshold motivate The
JESUS Film Project.
"We're excited by this new challenge. We're going into
areas where very little work has been done in the past, and we are getting more
help from more organizations than we've ever worked with before."
Pray for The JESUS Film Project teams as they
translate Gospel media into common languages. Click here to learn how you can
get involved.
