We’re always pleasantly gladdened to hear the affirming responses from our viewers. The reason being is that the universal and timeless nature of the gospel resonates with those who have received and believed in Jesus Christ. This transformational experience results in a seeing and hearing that transcends our physical human limitations. The gospel is indeed good news. It’s the best news we could ever hear. Indeed, it is LIFE. Whether someone lives on an isolated farm, or in a city apartment block, or whether they’re just around the corner or somewhere far away on another continent speaking another language, the universal nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ has a powerful and reassuring meaning.
In this day and age, the multimedia connectivity we share via cable, satellite or wireless enables almost everyone to experience and benefit from our online work of sharing the gospel via video. I was in central Asia last month, where the availability of the smartphone was evident everywhere. The same is true for much of Africa, where more daily transactions are simply done with the convenience of a smartphone. This doesn’t mean that connectivity is as good as it could be all the time, but it does generally mean greater collaboration and communication. Learning is possible in places it never was previously.
Our video content is in English, with just a few clips translated into Spanish. How we would love to now increase our reach with a team of translators. I recently wrote a pastoral letter in English which within a few days was manually translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili. If only we could do the same with our film work.
Perhaps the next miracle, beyond the AI of translation algorithms, is the simultaneous translation of an audio track into the viewer’s native language. This was the miracle on the Day of Pentecost some 2000 years ago. The gospel proclaimed in Aramaic was heard in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Parthian, Hebrew and perhaps a host of other languages. The linguistic limitations placed on humanity at Babel was reversed at Pentecost. And, as the Kingdom of God grows, the visual nature of our mission work will only increase in importance, linguistic diversity and scope.
