Jisas Film

{the people of Songum}

One of our assignments in the villiage was to show The Jesus Film in Tok Pisin. It was such a highlight for us. We set up a screen made out of a white sheet tied to the "hausboi", we got the generator all set up, and we notified the right people to get a good turnout. When the night came the atmosphere was electric. We could feel the excitement. This little villiage in the bush was now an outdoor theater!

There is not an easy way to describe the experience of watching a film with Papua New Guineans. They are so empathetic that they feel as though the miracles they are seeing happen in the film are happening for real. There was so much tounge clicking (a sign of amazement) during the scene where James and John pull in more fish than the nets can hold that we could hardly hear the film.

We were so excited when the crowd grew as the film went on. We eventually had ~250 people watching.

 And then the sound went out on the DVD player. Right as Jesus is put before Pontius Pilot. Everyone was dismayed. We tried everything we knew to fix it but to no avail. We prayed for God to show us what to do, and we decided to call it a night. There were so many people and they didn't want to leave without the rest of the story. Some even wanted to watch without the sound. We assured them that we would somehow get it fixed and that we would play the whole movie again as soon as possible.

(part II next time..)