God’s Story: From Creation to Eternity July 6th, 2007
“God, the Creator and Giver of Life. Does he speak? Does he care about us? Can we know him? Yes! He spoke, he cares, and his message for all people tells us how to know him…”
So begins the 80 minute film, God’s Story: From Creation to Eternity, the chronological retelling of the Bible from Creation to the New Jerusalem. This film presents the gospel in a way that is simple and clear across cultures. Málaga Media Center (MMC), in cooperation with several partner organizations, took up the challenge of translating and dubbing this film into three North African dialects: colloquial Arabic, Tarrifit (Riffi Berber) and Tamazight (Middle-Atlas Berber).
Each of these three language projects faced several challenges. The first challenge was finding the median dialect which most people would agree was “correct.” The varying landscape and people groups scattered across North Africa create dialectal variations between villages. Great care was taken to produce a translation as universally understood within its region as possible. For the Tamazight dialect, three-person checking teams from separate parts of the region were formed to review and validate the translation.
Next, narrators were chosen. It was not possible or practical to transport the narrators to the recording booth at MMC in Spain, so recording was often conducted in homes using mattresses and blankets to construct makeshift sound booths. Occasionally, voices were digitally altered for security reasons.
Today, the first phase of the project is nearing completion: the creation of master disks on Video CD (VCD) for the three languages. Although little used in the West, VCD is the preferred video format in North Africa. The VCDs will be powerful new tools in the evangelistic toolbox of missionaries and nationals as they build the Church in North Africa.
The final step in the God’s Story project is the creation of a DVD containing all three languages. This will be chapter bookmarked in such a way as to be an effective Bible study tool. We also hope to create a master tape suitable for satellite television and a web-streaming version for Internet use. Thanks to your gifts and prayers, this important new tool will soon be ready for use.