Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Richard and I pulled out of Oilcom a few minutes past dawn and after topping off with diesel.  The 2-hour ride to Makambako was uneventful although we were able to listen to two John Piper sermons using my media player.  Our stop in Makambako was necessary to pick up Mchungaji (pastor) Mbogela.  His home was our destination, the village of Makete. Spending many hours with two Tanzanians, one of which knows very little English, put my Swahili-speaking ability to the test.  Challenging and rewarding, it was.
Our next stop was Njombe to deliver 300 copies each of Ruth & Jonah in the kiBena language.  Mbogela (left) helped us present the copies to Mchungaji Muhehwa (right).

This was very special to me as it was the receipt of the first shipment for Muhehwa.  The translation work is coming along well.  I have some very hard-working teammates.  Good job, y’all.
From Njombe up to Makete is 70 miles, 1,500 ft. incline, and all-dirt road.  I stopped so many times to take pictures of the mountainous scenery, I joked with Richard and Mbogela that they should expect to arrive in Makete one day late.
We drove in to Makete a couple of hours before the sun went down, unloaded our things into a guesthouse and headed down to Mbogela’s house for an early dinner.  Awaiting the pastor’s return was an mzee (elderly man).  I’ll refer to him as Babu (grandfather).  He was the mzee who would ride with us back to Mbeya when we returned.  Let me tell you why…
More than one year ago, before I even left the USA, the then-current team leader e-mailed me about a Tanzanian, Sanga, who owns a studio close to Mbeya.  Sanga is a Christian and wants to be involved with audio scripture and songs.  Well, I finally followed up with the man about 3 weeks ago.  I called him, was invited, and visited his studio all in the same day.  It is a very nice setup, even by western standards.  As our meeting progressed, I told him more about my particular role in the Bible translation world.  I spoke of having eight different languages worth of Ruth and Jonah to record already!  Then, I told him of a great mother tongue song-recording opportunity I had recently been made aware of.
After a visit to Makete a few months ago, our current project team leaders told me of an elderly man (Babu) who has many Bible-based songs stored in his head and heart and all in his mother tongue (MT) of kiKinga!  Babu had nearly pleaded to have someone record them so he could pass them on and even develop a method of teaching others how to write songs in their MT.  I had started a little communication with the translation team (Tanzanians) working in Makete about coming to record Babu in the near future just before I spoke with Sanga.
Back to my visit to Sanga’s studio… As I was telling Sanga about Babu and his songs, his eyes began to widen along with his smile.  Suddenly he burst out, “I’m [a Kinga person]!  I would love to have Babu visit Mbeya and record the songs in my studio.  It would be such a blessing to see and hear songs in my own MT being recorded here!”  Wow, I thought to myself.  I had an upcoming trip to Makete planned to speak at a church on our Prayer Day.  I thought that would be a great opportunity to bring Babu back to Mbeya with me and have him be recorded at Sanga’s studio.  I talked with our Prayer Day coordinator and the plans were set; Babu would be returning to Mbeya with us.
Fast forward to our arrival to Makete and Babu awaiting Mbogela’s return.  After introductions, we made our way inside and sat down to converse.  It was amazing listening to over seven decades of life in a culture far different from my own being described by Babu.  We were served our early dinner.  I don’t know the name of the dish but I can tell you it had potatoes and eggs in it and it was GOOD!  After dinner, Babu’s brother’s wife, we’ll call her Bibi (grandmother), arrived to meet us.  She is Babu’s partner in song creation and singing.  They offered to sing a kiKinga song for us much to our delight.
It was only about a minute and a half into the first song when I heard Mbogela join in the singing.  I don’t know if he already knew the song or if he picked it up that quickly because he was hearing his MT.  Near the end of the song, he turned to look at me and pointed to his heart.  A gentle, emotional smile formed across his face and as I looked into his eyes, I saw feelings now words would come close to describing.  It was in that moment that I truly understood the significance of people interacting with God in their mother tongue, otherwise known as their heart language.

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