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| Praying for the books at the dedication |
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| The pastor whom the story below is about |
This is a story I (Misha) wrote following the December 2 dedication of Luke in the Zanaki language:
On a day that was alternately hot and sunny and pouring
rain, a dedication event for the gospel of Luke in the Zanaki language took
place. The dedication was held in the village of Butiama, which is the
hometown of the first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere. Perhaps in
part because of Nyerere and the fact he was a Zanaki and a national hero,
Zanaki people are proud of their language and culture.
The special guest speaker at the dedication was in the
family line of the area chief and the top person in his denomination for all of
East Africa, so was a very important local figure. He was the one honored
with task of cutting the ribbon and opening the box of Luke books. After
he opened the box and another pastor prayed a blessing over them, the next part
of the ceremony was one of the translators reading a passage from Luke
aloud. When it was announced which passage would be the one read aloud,
he grabbed a copy of Luke from the top of the box he had just opened and turned
to the passage. While the translator was reading aloud, he followed along
with his finger on the page, listening carefully and reading it himself.
He was fluent in Swahili and could read it, but had never been taught how to
read in his mother tongue. But with the help of hearing it read aloud
while looking at the words, he was able to understand the writing system used
and figure it out.
Soon after this, the sales table opened and people eagerly
came up to purchase copies. The box which had been blessed and dedicated
needed to be moved from the table at which the special guest was sitting to the
sales table. When someone came up to collect the box, he refused to
return the copy he had taken to read, instead placing money to purchase his
copy in the box, becoming the first person to ever purchase a copy of Luke in
the Zanaki language.
