5fish for the Bemba people

5fish for the Bemba people

I have been working with my people for all of my 44 years. As a child, I often had to implement different ways to share the Gospel, speaking between 3 languages. I was born in Zambia, raised between there and D.R.C. I attended schools in Zimbabwe and South Africa and the United States. Attending school in the United States was a shock to my system but there we spoke and understood English so sharing about life and the Gospel was not an issue. I say this to mean that many people, unless they are M.K.s or T.C.K.s, do not realize that other parts of the world have a hard time communicating. At the beginning of last year I was introduced to the app 5fish and I have used it ever since. Though I do know my tribal language and can communicate in it, I find that adding pictures and such to a story is more helpful. The Bemba people, as well as many other tribes around the world, communicate best in story form. And to be able to hear a story in your own tongue, well that just makes it come alive!

We were working with street kids who were high on sniffing liquid (paint thinner) and so their attention span was not the best. Though the kids were in the town, and so they all knew English, they really enjoyed not only hearing the Bible stories but also watching the short videos in their own language. When we moved to our family land in the bush of Zambia, in January this year, we saw that here, though English is spoken country wide, the village people were not as fluent.

We were able to start not only a small children's ministry but also an adult Bible Study. And though there are online Bibles that read the scripture out loud, I have found that using the Bible in Bemba with 5fish, which allows downloading, is so far the best. Other apps do not let me start scripture halfway through the verse whereas Five Fish let's me, as long as I remember the time/place of when I last ended the scripture, I can then find it and pause it until I am able to share it with my people.

Having this in our lives has made speaking to our people easier and better. Thank you to all of the creators of 5fish!

Related information

5fish Testimonials - How people are using 5fish, and what effect is has on those who listen

5fish: GRN content on your device - Applications for easy distribution and playback of GRN's recordings on mobile devices.

Zambia - Information about Zambia