The Pugh family are working in North Central Tanzania with a small people-group, many of whom have never been told about Jesus. They have been working on a multicultural team there since 2010, originally led by a Tanzanian Pastor but Owen and Miriam have been leading the team for the last few years. The team is involved in evangelism, discipleship, Oral Bible Translation (OBT), education, small scale development projects and nurturing the newly planted church.
The language of the people that the team are working with is not yet written down. Working with some from the local community the team developed a set of 29 oral Bible Stories that have been recorded in the local language. It has been exciting that people are listening to these recordings and sharing the stories with their friends and relatives. Some people have started to follow Jesus through these stories and are continuing to be discipled.
Having completed the Bible Stories, the team, in partnership with SIL and Seed Company and a group of local translators have been using OBT software to translate books of the New Testament. They have finished the gospel of Luke and are getting close to completing the gospel of John and ready to start working on Acts. This is a tremendous resource in helping to disciple new believers and bringing the good news to those who have never heard it in a way they can deeply understand it. The Bible stories along with the book of Luke are now available on memory cards people can put in their phone and so many are listening to Luke.
This summer, the team also finished recording the soundtrack to the Jesus Film in the local language and the dubbed film is now being shown in different village locations. Please pray that this will continue to be well received, and that as people hear and see the truth about Jesus together that fruitful conversations will happen and people follow Jesus together.
Miriam and Owen are committed to working in this remote part of Tanzania and seek to sacrificially love their friends and neighbours and those in the wider community. Pray with them for their vision to see disciples of Jesus who are themselves making disciples.