Faith comes by hearing (and hearing in your mother tongue helps), in Umalila

June in the Umalila* is chilly, with the small town of Ilembo, where we were staying, being nearly 2100 metres (7000 feet) above sea level. On our first night there it wasn’t until I put on my coat to wear in bed that I managed to fall asleep! The guest house room bore the marks of a cold, damp climate, with walls looking in need of some treatment and paint, and the blanket on the bed was rather thin and smelt musty. I tried not to think about whether it had been washed since it was last used. I was glad we were only staying two nights!

(*Umalila: this is the Swahili way of describing the Malila language area – the ‘U’ denotes place, while if I were talking about the Malila language in Swahili, I would say ‘Kimalila’, and the Malila people are ‘Wamalila’).

The cold weather and unwelcoming guest house environment weren’t the only reasons that I was glad the trip would be short. We (my Malila colleague, Heri, and I) had come to facilitate a one-day seminar about the distribution of Malila materials, particularly the New Testament, followed by a day and a half of training on how to prepare and lead audio Bible studies. While discussing distribution is something I always find frustrating, this wasn’t the main reason for wanting the trip to be over as soon as possible. Instead it was the presence of a particular person who isn’t always easy to work with. I felt like I was walking on egg shells for much of the time, worried that I would say or do something to bring out the side of his character that can reduce me to tears.

Planning distribution trips

The first day was good but long, having left home at 7am in order to arrive by 9am, and then not finishing-up until nearly 7pm. Although we finished the meeting before that, there were various things to discuss with the Malila NGO* leadership, including a letter to edit that could be used to advertise where New Testaments are available for sale plus the printing and photocopying of said letter. Most small towns will have at least one small stationery shop where you can print and photocopy, so I took my flash drive to just such a shop and waited as he printed over a 100 copies of the letter, playing him some Malila audio Scriptures while he worked.

(*Malila NGO: this local organisation was set up to facilitate ongoing ministry in the Malila language area. It is made up primarily of former and current SIL Tanzania staff, local church leaders and other members of the community committed to seeing the local language Scriptures distributed and used and, possibly, an Old Testament translation begun. It is independent of SIL Tanzania, but we seek to work with them and support them in various ways.)

The path to Heri's house - just about
managed to negotiate it with my
Toyota Prado!

As usual, I was glad that I had brought my own food for tea, as lunch was distinctly unappetising. The rice was nice, but the three lumps of chewy beef in an oily tomato sauce were not. On the plus side, I was able to put in an order for day two to have greens cooked without onions or oodles of oil and salt. And very nice it was too, though the cook couldn’t quite get over the fact that this was all I wanted with my ugali! I had hoped to find some eggs to provide some protein accompaniment, but I failed on that front, so I chomped on peanuts instead. While on the topic of food – on Wednesday evening (day two) Heri asked if I could give him a lift to the house he has built (and continues to add to and improve) in Ilembo, so that he could greet his tenant and check up on it. Heri has been on crutches for a few years, since a motorbike accident, which is why he wasn’t able to walk the fairly short distance to this house along the rough roads and sometimes slippery, hard-packed dirt paths that would be difficult to navigate on crutches. His tenant welcomed us warmly and disappeared to prepare a little something for us. She apologised for the meagre fare, which was not meagre at all, a hotpot full of white sweet potatoes (it’s rare to get orange ones here), and was so happy that we had ‘blessed her’ by eating her food. People truly value guests here, and the blessing of having a guest is not complete until you have eaten something in their home. I find this to be both a humbling and beautiful aspect of the culture, while at the same time one that can be quite hard when coming from a culture where you generally only eat at someone else's home if you have planned in advance to do so. For me it’s a particular challenge because of my diet, as it would be rude to not eat anything, though the food offered isn’t always something that will be agreeable to my intestines!

The second and third days also went well, with people engaging in the audio Bible studies and showing a readiness to learn and a desire to use the audio Scriptures in their different contexts. They were encouraged by the testimonies of Majaliwa (the former literacy/SE worker for the area) of people coming to faith through hearing the Malila Scriptures. It feels like enabling people to read or hear the Scriptures in Malila is really important because their language is still being used by people of all ages. In contrast to our experience in the Vwanji language area just a couple of weeks earlier (see my previous blog post to read more), I rarely heard Swahili being spoken. As I listened in to people’s conversations (without understanding a word), I could hear that even most of the children and youth were using Malila.

Practising how to prepare to lead an audio Bible study

The audio Scriptures were on special audio devices that can be charged by a solar panel on the back of the device or by using electricity, making them ideal for rural situations. These ‘KULUMI X’ devices are smaller than a smartphone, so you can easily carry them in your pocket, and produce enough volume for a small group to sit around and listen. This wasn’t our first time to provide the Malila community with audio devices. After the Malila New Testament translation was completed it was recorded, and at that time we gave 40 audio devices to the Malila community. Having seen their impact, I wanted to increase the number out there, which I was able to do as a result of someone I barely knew leaving me and other Wycliffe UK missionaries a generous gift in their will. This gift not only funded the purchase of the KULUMI but also the costs of the trip as well as many other Scripture engagement activities in the past year.

Here are a couple of testimonies from people who received an audio device in recent years:

In March 2023, Huseni (who had recently come to faith through hearing the Malila audio Scriptures) listened to the Malila audio Scriptures with people at a funeral in Sanje. When one elderly person heard, they said they said, “God has decided to seek us out with our language, surely God is amazing!” The following Sunday, this person went to church and has become a believer and continues to attend that church in Sanje.

Eliza, in Ugaya, said that since she got an audio player she has been listening to it with the women at church and now these women have been strengthened and are able to lead Bible studies for the women without fear because they have come to know the Word of God well through listening to the Malila audio Scriptures in the group audio Bible studies.

Although we finished more or less on time on Thursday, around lunchtime, it then took a couple more hours to finish giving out money for participants to buy lunch and to cover their travel fares, and also for the participants to go and pick up boxes of Malila New Testaments and other books from the Malila language office a few doors down from the church. Heri and I went back to the usual café for a quick lunch (more rice and greens) before starting the journey home with four passengers crammed together in the back seat, who were dropped off at different points along the way.

I was very thankful for how God had answered prayers, such that for much of the time the individual who I was so anxious about had been engaged and supportive, though one or two blips in his attitude had left me on edge and battling to focus on why I was there rather than worry about what he might say. Despite that, it was clear to me that God was at work, and my prayer is that the participants will be faithful in implementing the plans we made and passionate about listening to the Scriptures with people in their churches and wider community.