Jesus Film

Can you image if you had never seen a movie?

Ok, so that’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?

Let’s say you’ve seen movies, but they aren’t in a language you understand.

That still may be too difficult to imagine, right?

In a time when Hollywood puts out five new movies each weekend and people receive Netflix movies in the mail without leaving home, it’s hard to believe that there are those who have never seen a movie. Well, there are. Lot’s of them. And many of them live here.

One enjoyable aspect of my ministry is spending a weekend out in the village and showing the Jesus Film. If you aren’t familiar with the Jesus Film, it was made in 1979 by The Jesus Film Project Group and since has been shown in every country and has been translated into over 900 languages – one of them being Runyankore!

I love going to the village to do this because when I arrive, the word has already been spread that there is going to be a film in Runyankore that night shown right there in the village. You can tell there is a lot of excitement in the air. (Although I’ve been told that many people don’t believe that a film could be shown in their village. I can understand why, considering there is no electricity out in the village.)

Before we show the film I will usually spend some time going house to house with some church members, visiting and inviting villagers to the film. It is a great time to meet, encourage and pray with these folks.

As the time for showing the film draws nearer, its fun for me to see the excitement in people’s faces as I set up the screen and projector and watch them as they try to figure out what all these strange looking things are. The excitement level increases to another level when it gets dark and we turn on the projector and the film begins. They are amazed to hear Runyankore being spoken! Not understanding the idea of a translated movie, many of them are amazed that there are so many white people (in the film) who can speak Runyankore so well!

It’s not uncommon for hundreds of people to show up for a showing of the Jesus Film. The amazing part is that we may only have 20 people in that particular village church! The people that come have such varied backgrounds. Some are Christian, some are Muslim, some are Catholic and some are agnostics. We take this opportunity to not only share a film with them, but also to share the Gospel with them.

Typically, we will pause in the middle of the film to take advantage of our captive audience and preach the Good News to them. We feel that if we do it at the end many will leave; if it’s done in the middle we found out that no one leaves. They all want to see the end of the movie.

If nothing else, this film gives us a great opportunity to plant a seed with thousands of people, but I know its doing more than just planting seeds. As a matter of fact, at church in Birere village one Sunday two women wanted to be baptized after viewing the film the previous night. Praise God for that!

( If you are interested in learning more about the The Jesus Film Project check out their website at www.jesusfilm.org. )