Driven by "The Look"

Despite the practical challenges, it's what is reflected on faces of JESUS film viewers that keeps Keith Holmes inspired to produce Bible-based vernacular media.

With his new laptop computer booted up and running, Keith Holmes is ready. The vernacular media specialist is here in downtown Düren, Germany, set up in the sanctuary of Christus Zentrum, a daughter congregation of the Church of God Pentecostal Church in Neuwied.
Keith helps produce audio-visual materials in the Romani language.

The plan on this warm afternoon is to record Romani songs performed by a group of adults and children from three families in this Sinte church, located in a former office building. The Christian songs will be added to a new Romani language CD that will feature a story called "The Little Scared Sparrow," which teaches about the freedom from fear that knowing God gives.

But there is one big problem.

Keith doesn't know how to run the sound system in this sanctuary, which today doubles as a music studio. Unless someone shows up to get things operating and hooked into his computer, he won't be able to record anything. Wycliffe's Armin Peter is here, but of little help to Keith, because his expertise is Bible translation, not electronics.

Recording in Progress
Visually a bit agitated, but still in good humour, Keith can only wait as the singers practise their songs with gusto, accompanied by a keyboard.

Finally, a young Sinte man who can operate the sound systems appears and together they struggle successfully to get the sound into his Mac.

Two hours after this group has assembled, recording is in progress. The group sings heartily, swaying to the beat of songs in Romani. One of the songs is an assertive, "We are the Church." Now Keith is grinning, nodding his head and tapping his feet as the music and voices finally collect in his computer's hard-drive for later editing.

Based in Holland with his wife and two daughters, Keith serves as a vernacular media specialist with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, in both the Sinte and Kalderash Gypsy projects. He was trained by JAARS, Wycliffe's technical arm.

As today's delay showed, the work has its challenges.
"It's quite exciting—and sometimes it's frustrating," he explains after the recording session.

Working with volunteers means that people sometimes simply don't show up, adds Keith. Because the Sinte and Kalderash are event-oriented, rather than time-oriented societies, you never know when things might start.

Double-duty Mattresses
The practical and technical side can also be a challenge. When Keith worked with Armin and his translated script to record the Romani voices for dubbing the JESUS film several years ago, he had to first turn a church basement into a suitable studio. Mattresses used at night for sleep performed double duty as wall sound insulation for 10 days of solid recording. At times, spoken parts were unintentionally overlooked so the team had to quickly go out and fetch more people to record the odd line. Takes, and retakes, coaching the people providing the voices, on and on it goes—followed by a couple of weeks of post-recording editing.

But there' s the pay-off.

Keith calls it "the look," the expression on the faces of people who first view the JESUS film: "That look of absolute astonishment to realize that God speaks your language."

When the 30 Sinte people first showed up for the Romani recording, Keith immediately wanted to show them a sample of what the finished product would look like. Using a little clip about blind Bartimaeus receiving his sight, he quickly recorded several Romani voices and did a quick dubbing over of that film's segment.

Opening Doors
"When I hit 'play,' the whole crowd rushed in, to look at the JESUS video—a two minute clip of it—in their language," he recalls. "And then they all had 'the look.' I had to get up, walk away. I had tears in my eyes. . . . When they heard Jesus speaking in their language, and He said 'Then see!', then it meant something to them."

"So that's what kind of keeps you going—this notion that you are making a difference; that the people are coming to understand."

Keith is reluctant to call himself a missionary, because people often have the preconceived idea that "you're preaching to people in a grass-roofed hut." He actually spends most of his time in front of a computer.

"My job isn't to reach the Gypsies," says the 46-year-old American. "My job is to provide them the resources that they need to do their job better, of reaching their own people.

"It just opens doors for the Sinte Christians."