The engaging story of the Malila Scriptures

‘It touches their hearts in a special way’

Engaging people with Scripture takes many forms. For the Malila people, the promotion and use of audio Scriptures has been key – and is vital for orally based cultures. Several books of the Bible were recorded as translation progressed, and were made available through solar-powered audio devices, memory sticks and phones. Once the New Testament translation was completed it was recorded in its entirety.

‘There have been times when I’ve been teaching in Swahili [the national language of Tanzania] and the women and children haven’t understood well. The research shows that people are understanding God’s word better now they can read or hear it in Malila, and that some people have come to faith through engaging with God’s word in their language.

The leader of the women’s group in Iyunga Mapinduzi now uses Malila in their meetings. She says that if she uses Swahili, eight out of 20 may understand. However, if she uses Malila they all understand! Not only that, but many raise their hands to answer and ask questions – something they never do when she uses Swahili.

A pastor was doing house-to-house evangelism in the village of Shigamba. He came to the house of a woman and read her some Bible verses from the Malila New Testament. The woman said that others who had visited had never read this book to her (they read in Swahili and she didn’t realise what it was). She said, ‘Now I have seen who God is!’ and prayed a prayer of repentance in Malila.

Katherine continues: ‘The stories we heard through the research were encouraging, but we could see that there was still much to be done in the area of distribution, of both the print and audio Scriptures. There were only 40 audio players spread across a community of around 70,000 people, and with the impact they were having we could see a need for more.’