I am writing on Pentecost Sunday. This morning, I preached on Acts 2 at our church here in Mandritsara. It was ironic really because my Tsimihety, the language of the local people here, is still fairly basic. But the main thrust of the sermon was of about all peoples hearing the gospel in their own native language. This is what happened when God poured out his Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and many people, speaking many different languages, heard the gospel so that they might call on the name of the Lord and be saved.
When the Holy Spirit is poured out, Joel prophesied, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.” As Christians in Mandritsara ponder this amazing dream, and its fulfilment for the Tsimihety people here, there are important linguistic implications. One is the need for gospel workers who can speak Tsimihety, not simply French or Official Malagasy, so that unbelievers can hear the gospel in their own heart language, and believers be built up in their faith from teaching in that same language.
Another is for the Scriptures to be available in Tsimihety. The team coordinated by Debbie Simpson work their socks off on this and last year completed Luke’s Gospel. A tremendous achievement. We expect thousands of printed copies to arrive here within a few weeks and in a subsequent prayer update we hope to tell you about the distributions that are being planned.
However, the printed word is not the only medium available for spreading the gospel. Last year, after the completion of the translation of Luke, the translation team spent a couple of weeks recording it. A group from Global Recordings came up from Tana, a studio was set up, different parts were assigned and the whole text became a dramatized audio recording. The result is a highly professional audio file, beautifully and powerfully rendered and compelling to listen to.
Thanks to a UK based mission, called 100Fold, the recording has been transferred onto SD cards, tiny flakes of plastic and silicon about the size of the SIM cards you probably use in your phone. These are tremendously useful here because, in many of the simple mobile phones that folk have, there are slots for extra cards. This means that the audio can be played through the phone’s speaker.
Two pastors receive SD cards
Listening to Luke in Tsimihety on the SD card
Many people also have small solar powered transistor radios (which they often use to listen to the wonderful Voice of the Good News Radio station that is part of the project here). These radios can also take the SD cards and play them.
On three recent trips to remote villages by Helimission I took a stock of these SD cards with Luke’s Gospel in Tsimihety. In the first village, a very poor place, on the edge of the rain forest, two church leaders gladly received the cards.
I think they took a while to work them out but the next morning, they sat with some others for almost two hours listening to Luke in their own language for the first time. They had to stop when the helicopter came and they needed to say goodbye.
Sharing SD Cards
The second village was larger and relatively more prosperous but the pastors of the Baptist churches in and around the village had been coming under huge pressure from false teaching about sabbath observance which undermines the free grace of the Gospel. We were able to give some Bible teaching to help a bit with that, and also to give each pastor a Luke SD card.
Three pastors, delighted with their SD cards
The next morning many folk gathered at the helicopter landing site and as we waited someone connected their phone to a speaker and a crowd gathered to listen.
Listening to Luke while waiting for the helicopter
More recently I was with a team in another village. The pastor is experienced and able – he is just about to start teaching a Theological Education by Extension class of seven people. He was delighted to receive the card.
Another happy pastor receives an SD card
I haven’t done the detailed count, but I suspect that overall in the Bible, there is at least as much about listening to God’s word as there is about reading it. Of course, in Bible times there was lower literacy and no printed texts were generally available. I find it enormously encouraging that modern technology means that Tsimihety folk in remote villages can listen to a first rate recording of a first rate translation of Luke’s gospel in their own heart language. And surely the Holy Spirit will be at work through that!
Prayer points:
Pray that the SD cards would be well used and many people would listen to Luke’s gospel in Tsimihety.
Pray that Christians would feed on Christ in his Word and that non-Christians would respond to the gospel.
Pray for those from the hospital who go out to villages for primary evangelism and church/cell group support.
Pray for the safe arrival of the consignment of printed copies of Luke in Tsimihety and their distribution.
Pray for the translation team as they take this vital work forwards, especially Debbie Simpson in her demanding role as coordinator.
Date for your Diary!
Our Annual Prayer Day will take place at Trinity Road Chapel, London on the 12th April 2025