Feasting
When showing the JESUS film in a language you don't understand, you might notice awkward little things—like toads gathering for a feast of bugs sliding off the glowing screen.
You may not picture toads as creatures that get excited, but when they’ve got bug after bug dropping down around them, after months of using only the moonlight for bait ... Let me tell you: toads get excited.
By the end of the JESUS film, at least a dozen happy amphibians are jumping over each other, fighting for the cricket that bounced off disciple Peter's nose, or the beetle that lost its grip on King Herod's robe, inevitably sliding to its unfortunate encounter with a warty predator.
Once they’ve tucked one of these meals away, toads close their eyes and stay still for about two seconds. Then they’re off again, competing for the next insect, as if it were a ball in a rugby game.
Of course, all those who understood Ngambay had their eyes glued to the screen; they didn’t even notice the huge moth I stealthily picked off the lower left corner. When I released it, the moth flew right back onto the blind man Jesus was healing. Nobody else noticed.
It annoyed me, so the second time it landed—this time on the poor traveler going to Jericho, who had been brutally beaten by bandits—I graciously incapacitated the fluttering creature.
It made a long, four-second, close-your-eyes meal for a happy toad.
What struck me that night in Andoum, Chad, was that there was an unusually large crowd ... and it was unusually quiet. Seeing their attentiveness made me grateful for my wife, Yezmin. Six months earlier, as we drove through Virginia, she interrupted my phone call with a worker from the Jesus Film Project.
"Bob," she said urgently, "ask them if they have the JESUS film in Ngambay, too." I had already ordered it in French and Fulfulde.
"Say, would you happen to have it in Ngambay, too?" Yes!
Now I was sharing the film with Ngambay speakers who had never seen it. There must have been 300 people, all watching in complete silence. Until now, I had been showing the film to the Karang, the language group we work with, who understand Ngambay only a little. Those showings were noisy, and the crowd got quiet only when there was some action.
But tonight was different.
Then it happened: Zzz ... Bang! The whole screen wobbled, and something large hit the ground. A couple people noticed, but the tension was building as Jesus carried his heavy cross. When he could no longer carry the cross, Simon was commissioned by a Roman soldier to carry it.
In the next scene, nails were being taken from a bucket. And as if on cue, when the hammer came down and the women in the front row gasped, it happened again. Zzz ... Bang! Wobble ... thud.
What is that? I thought. I've heard that noise before on our aluminum roofs.
I beamed my flashlight on the ground, and there it was: a huge dung beetle on its back, surrounded by five overexcited toads. I think the toads were trying to make up their mind about this one. Finally, one by one, they left the huge bug, its legs rotating futilely in the air. This one was too big.
Still, the Ngambay crowd was transfixed to the screen. Mary and her friends reported to the disciples, who were hiding, that Jesus' body was missing from the tomb. Something about angels, too. Peter ran to the empty tomb. By the time he came back, two others had reported seeing Jesus alive.
At this point, there was no extraordinary bug action. I was looking at the crowd. I'd watched this scene 10 times already.
When Jesus appeared, a loud cheer went up. It was a Ngambay cheer.
That was a first.
I will never forget that night, when I saw for the first time the impact of the JESUS film in people’s mother tongue. Later, as I brushed the remaining bugs off the screen and the crowd departed, I thanked the Lord for this opportunity. I yearned for the day when we could show the film in the Karang language.
I slept well that night. I'm sure the Ngambay of Andoum talked about the film late into the night.
And the toads—they had their feast until next time.
—Bob Ulfers and his wife, Yezmin, are translators for the Karang language group in Cameroon. In 2008, JAARS-trained vernacular media specialists began recording audio for a Karang translation of the JESUS film. The film is now close to completion.
