Standing Tall: A Marginalized People Group Responds to JESUS

Imagine viewing Jesus’ life captured on film.

Just as you’re leaving the theater, a reporter and his crew approach you. You’re asked, “Which scene of the film most impacted you?” As you stare blankly into the black lens of the television camera, you begin to answer ….

Well, it didn’t happen quite this dramatically for those we interviewed. But I’d like to share with you an answer that amazed us.

Kaylars Identify With Crippled Woman in Luke 13

On December 14, 2011, the JESUS film made its debut in the Kaylar language.* Kaylar is spoken by about 549,000 people in South Asia. Made possible by The Luke Partnership, Kaylar translators had translated the Gospel of Luke — the foundational script for the JESUS film.

Among the many testimonies of impact, one Scripture passage came into focus:

One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” (Luke 13:10–12, NLT).

Jesus Speaks Kaylar, Brings Healing

A Kaylar evangelist shares the testimony of a woman who watched the JESUS film.

After sharing the JESUS film, a Kaylar evangelist asked the crowd, “What was the best part?” A woman shared with conviction the scene of the woman with a physical deformity.

She said, “For 18 years she is in the same position. She comes to church, goes home and, meanwhile, no one has the power to raise her. But one day, while she is in prayer, Jesus recognized her. He asked her to come forward and He healed her.

“This scene reminds me of where we are. Nobody recognizes our community. But in Christian love the producers of this film recognized us, and they loved us to bring us to Jesus Christ.”

Church Leaders Rise Up, Commit to Use the Kaylar Language

Before the JESUS film and newly translated Scriptures in Kaylar, local church leaders used only the state language to “preach, teach and sing,” reported Simpson of Rhema for the Nations. Yet now they’ve developed a new commitment entirely of their own initiative: to use only the Kaylar language.

Simpson explains, “They decided that there are tools coming that they didn’t have before, and they want to use those tools because that’s their mother tongue.”

*Pseudonym for a sensitive South Asian project

Learn more: You can make a difference for projects like this. Learn more at theseedcompany.org/leastofthese.