We want to be friends of Jesus

by Matayo Tariwoi – Taveta Project Officer

Wambhona Yesu eteta Kitubheta, loosely translated as, “Have you seen Jesus speaking the Taveta language?” Nabhotoi, a 13-year-old girl, enthusiastically asked her friend as they walked back home after watching the Jesus film show at Python Hill village on the eve of the 2022 Christmas. Nabhotoi was among the sizeable congregants that had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior after watching the Jesus film in their Taveta language. “Those people were so cruel, imagine how they mercilessly whipped our Jesus and nailed Him on the Cross. They will surely be punished by God, what do you think?” Nabhotoi asked her friend. Her friend affirmed her thoughts. They continued discussing what they saw in the film, and as they were parting ways, each going to her home, Nabhotoi made a declaration, “I want to be a friend of Jesus like the girl we saw in the film.”

The Show also attracted the Taveta middle-aged and older generation in the cosmopolitan Taveta Town. This is the category that speaks fluent Kitubheta, the language of the natives. Some of them attended the film shows to confirm whether it was true that Jesus could speak in native Kitubheta as the village headman had called out the day before the show, “Come and see Jesus speak in native Kitubheta!” At one time, when Jesus was being nailed to the Cross, the crowd watching the film became very quiet, some were carried by emotions and cried.

“So it is true that what we are seeing actually happened,” a man in his late fifties, Othiniel Mramba, exclaimed! He continued, “If this Man died for our sins so that God could accept us, then we need to be more serious with God. I’m going to church this Sunday.” He affirmed.