God wants everyone to have a relationship with Him. It’s why we share the Gospel with others, why we take part in what’s called the Great Commission. The Bible says that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?” Paul laments in Romans 10:14. “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
We are called to go, therefore, and make disciples. We are called to share the Gospel, to share our story of our relationship with God, to share the truth of Jesus and His commands. But there are unique challenges that come with bringing the Gospel to every people group so that all of them can be saved. One such challenge is in translation.
There is a lot of evangelistic content out there, various pieces of great Gospel content that help people share about Jesus. But there are also so many languages that have little to no evangelistic content. For the people who communicate through those languages, God still wants them to hear the Gospel.
Even if they can’t hear at all.
Deaf in Nigeria
According to the Joshua Project, there are more than 2 million deaf people in Nigeria. Though English is the official language of Nigeria, deaf people in the West African nation communicate through Nigerian Sign Language.
In 2018, the Indigitous Jos community started engaging with a group of deaf individuals in partnership with Deaf Technology Foundation. It was decided that Christian members of that deaf community needed help creating digital tools to share the Gospel among the deaf.
At #HACK2019, Indigitous Jos and Deaf Technology Foundation partnered on a challenge to create a tool. As people gathered in October in Jos, a team decided to use the Four Spiritual Laws presentation as the template. With their smartphones, they made a simple video that explained the Gospel through the Four Spiritual Laws in Nigerian Sign Language.
The recording was simple, done at the hackathon without any professional recording equipment — no professional microphones, cameras, sound dampening, or lighting.
Still, they knew that the resource could be improved. The Indigitous Jos community and Deaf Technology Foundation then collaborated with the media team of Great Commission Movement of Nigeria. With professional equipment, they created a much better video that can help deaf people in Nigeria share their faith. They have started engaging the deaf Communities in Nigeria as they plan to begin making follow up materials for the community.
Missions work is a team effort
It was a team effort. The team that worked on both versions of the video collaborated so that everyone could use the talents with which God had gifted them. Thanks to their hard work and trusting of God, more people will come to know Him.
This is just one story of the amazing things God has done through Indigitous #HACK. The event is still happening at different locations throughout October and November. Join us at one of our #HACK2022 locations to see what God does next.