Small wooden benches jammed with eager children littered the
Mountain of Glory church in Marikebuni, Kenya. As darkness descended, adults
began replacing those small sleepy heads so that by the time the second film
began there were more than 50 adults in attendance. Given the distance between
homes, this number is pretty significant.
Four NOOMA films – Rain, Lump, Luggage, and She – offered
these Kiswahili speakers a visual telling of some key messages found in
Scripture. Never before had these people seen such messages packed in a visual
form they could understand. Though some of the visual images may have been
outside their understanding, Pastor Njuguna retold the stories in Kiswahili with
explanations where necessary.
The best part…Pastor Njuguna indicated that post film
interaction with people revealed that they seemed to understand these simple
messages from Scripture in a new way given the visual mode of delivery. Isn’t that
what they were intended to do?