Foreign Films

“Seigneur Jésus, je crois que tu est le Fils de Dieu. Merci d’être mort sur la croix pour mes péchés…” That’s the French translation of the prayer, “Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins…” Last month Jackie, a pastor from southeast France, came to Orlando so I could record 17 videos for French translations of Jesus2020.com (evangelism) and LookToJesus.com (basic follow-up). Once completed, these web sites will reach French speakers around the world, from Quebec, Canada to Francophone Africa.

A key goal of Global Media Outreach is to share Christ’s message in the top internet languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Italian, German, and Swedish. Over 80% of internet communication is in one of these languages. Our hope is to reach even more people in their primary or secondary languages. Since we’ve seen such a great response from using video on the internet, our ministry is trusting God to provide committed and telegenic people to present in each of these languages. (For a some languages, this also means finding a native speaker who won’t be put at risk by being identified as a Christian on the internet.)

Recording and editing video in a foreign languages is an interesting and challenging experience. For the French videos, I could pick out maybe one out of every twenty words Jackie spoke — mostly ones that were similar in English. I had to rely upon my French-speaking coworker to operate the teleprompter and make sure my directions — “sit up, straighten your shirt, and smile” — were sufficiently communicated.
As GMO’s sole videographer, I’m hoping that God will give me opportunities to record the other languages in the near future. I’ve already recorded some videos in Spanish and Arabic, but not the full number we need. While this could bring some new adventures my way, and let me meet more truly neat people like Jackie, the most important outcome is allowing more people to hear the gospel.

Would you please pray that GMO could soon complete this translation process? Pray that God would bring us the right people to do presentations in each language. I’ve said it many times, but it’s very true: there are many times each week that I can sense, in a way that’s difficult to put into words, that people are praying for me, my work, and the ministry of GMO. I sincerely and humbly thank you for your prayers. And I ask that you continue to pray that God would give me provision, guidance, strength, and resolve in pursuing His will.