A Tanzanian New Testament Dedication

Several days ago Jenneka and I had the opportunity to attend our first New Testament dedication.  It was about a 3-hour drive to a village, a center for one of the languages that our PBT branch is involved in.  It was a very good for us to be reminded of why we are here in Tanzania, and the hopes that we have for one day the language we will be working with.  It was also an honor, as we were seated with the prestigious guests and given respect for being with PBT, who facilitated this project.

Please enjoy the photos below!  Click on any to open a photo-viewer.

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The New Testament was presented to the guest of honor, who is a professor and a mother-tongue speaker who has had work published in this language. The mzungu (white person) in the picture below is Yancey Yarick, our branch director as well as the translation adviser for this project.

Several people were invited to speak, including a couple of our teammates, some village leaders and a local mchungaji (pastor).  The lady below is from Faith Comes By Hearing, which records and provides audio scriptures.  She is playing a sample scripture for the people to hear in their language.




Interspersed was traditional dancing and music, and the New Testaments were distributed among the people.

This is a photo of Yancey and the two mother-tongue translators.  The way the mzungu and the people of this tribe pose for photos is quite different!  In PBT translation projects, translators are trained who are native speakers of the language.  We as missionaries act as advisors, bringing translation, linguistic, and biblical expertise to the table.  A better translation is produced through such a partnership.

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I really like to take photos of watoto (children). On this day they were very interested in the pomp and excitement, but many seemed to be a bit bored with the whole ceremony. We normally need to be careful taking pictures of people, to always ask permission. During this dedication, though, media was more expected.