Since the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil, Maranatha Christian Church (MCC) organized itself rapidly, after the temporary closing of its temples in March of 2020, to transmit services, Sunday bible schools (SBS) and the program Announcing the Eternal Gospel through television networks and digital platforms. Among them, it is worth mentioning the MCC channel on YouTube, which plays live services daily and stores them for unlimited access. In addition to the daily services in Portuguese, there are sporadic submissions of voiceovers in five other languages, Spanish, German, Russian, French and English, in order to assist members and foreigners around the world.
“Access to the same revealed message, the same teachings and the same doctrine”
On December fourth of 2019 was published the first dubbed service in the English language and with the beginning of the pandemic, the work intensified. At the end of March 2020, the creation of a structure composed of 20 volunteer members in the United States, divided into four teams, began. Each group has voice actors, video editors and slide translators.
“The dubbing has been developed by pastors, anointed, deacons, workers, Sunday Bible School teachers for children, intermediates and adolescents, and sisters that are in charge of the Ladies’ work. Servants who have voluntarily dedicated their time to the Lord so that everyone can have access to the same revealed message, the same teachings and the same doctrine”, emphasized Pastor Gerson Beluci Miguel.
Voice actors are adding songs sung in English to dubbed digital services in order to provide experience close to the presential services for foreigners. The playlist (playlist) of the English channel contains about 60 videos.
Hezekiah’s Life Extented
Pastor Ricardo Bravin and Sara Konrad are the voice actors for the German content on the MCC YouTube channel. Due to the time zone, the service is attended by the voice actors after the live broadcast. The volunteers record the dubbing and the audio file is sent to the MCC communication system in Brazil to be inserted in the video and made available in the language playlist, which has more than 20 publications. This work also gained continuity due to the quarantine.
It is worth mentioning that the collection of praises in German already reaches the number close to 80 hymns. This translation work carried out by the German sister, Bianca Witzel Bravin.
A remarkable experience was lived by a lady in Munich, who attended the last presential service before the suspension. At the beginning of the quarantine, she received the April 12 SBS link that mentions the biblical passage on Hezekiah’s wonderful healing and his life extention, described in Isaiah 38: 8. The lady identified with the message, because 15 years ago God spoke
to her heart with the same biblical text when healing her from a serious illness in the hospital. “She sent her Bible photo with the note from 15 years ago,” said pastor Ricardo Bravin.
The work takes time and dedication
In 2018, SBS voiceovers for churches in France were the first content produced and sent to the headquarters of MCC, in Brazil, in order to also serve the churches of Francophone Africa, a region composed of countries where French is the language official or dominant. With the confinement promoted by the global pandemic, the spread of the SBS dubbed in French on the MCC channel was a natural sequence of this work that was already being carried out. For now, there is only one voice actor, Brother Alessandro Victorino. The work consists of recording the audio and applying it to the video by the MCC satellite transmission team in Brazil.
Currently, the dubbing of the TV program “Announcing the Eternal Gospel” has also been performed. The third edition is in the process of being finalized. The job requires more volunteers as it requires dedication and time. “We have seen the extraordinary results of this work, both in the churches here in France and in Africa. God is doing a great Work in the Francophone world. This is enough to motivate us to continue dedicating our time to this work ”, concluded Alessandro Victorino.
“We have several experiences of brethren receiving the blessing”
In the Russian language, the work of translating Bible teaching materials for Children, Intermediaries and Adolescents (CIA) began to serve Russian and Eastern European churches by Pastor Samir Abbasov more than three years ago. Since the beginning of the quarantine by Covid-19, the dubbing of worship and SBS has been daily, even with a small team, the pastor and his wife. After recording the dubbing, the file is sent on the same day to the telecommunications sector of MCC in Brazil, which inserts it in the video and publishes it on the official channel.
“We have several experiences of brethren receiving the blessing, the revelations, being built up when attending the service, saying that a text spoke to their heart, or that they prayed for the Lord to answer and were answered in the service message; have several experiences in this regard for Russia and Uzbekistan, ”said Pastor Samir Abbasov, happy with the result of this work. The Russian playlist on the MCC channel exceeds 100 contents.
The Announcing the Eternal Gospel Program is also being dubbed and broadcast on the Russian TBN television network to the nations of Israel, Russia and Ukraine. Pastor João Cidade, president of the Maranatha International Christian Mission (MICM) informed that the institution has supported the translation and television broadcasting service. “There is a contract between the Mission and Russian TV-TBN for the broadcast of the program Announcing the Eternal Gospel,” said João Cidade. The program is translated by a Russian teacher and is voiced by the TV-TBN team.
Voiceovers that serve the Spanish and Hispanic Culture
In Bolivia, the translation / dubbing of services into Spanish is carried out. Cochabamba deacon Iver Sevilla Morales said that work began 10 years ago, since the beginning of satellite transmissions. According to Iver, there was a need to take the doctrine into Spanish, as the main target was foreigners who still did not understand the gospel. The voiceovers do not only serve Bolivia, but also Latin American brothers, hay islands in Miami-USA, Europe, Spain, Stockholm, Sweden, Africa and other countries of Spanish and Hispanic culture.
The team consisted of three men who voiced the voices of pastors Gedelti Gueiros, president of MCC, pastor Gilson Souza and Josias Júnior, during SBS. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a need to dub the CIA classes and the Program Announcing the Eternal Gospel and, consequently, there was an increase in the team with female voices. There are currently two families, with a total of seven people involved in this work. In addition to dubbing, the team edits the video, inserting the new audio in Spanish and sends the ready file to the ICM communication sector in Brazil for publication on the official channel. Each material takes around four hours to make the one sent to Brazil. In the Spanish playlist there are more than 70 contents.
In 2000, the first experience that marked the beginning of this Spanish dubbing work took place, during a seminar in Cochabamba, in which worker Marcelo Espinoza participated and received a prophecy from God that it was necessary to read the Bible in Portuguese to understand the language, because one day it would help in the work of translating the services into Spanish. “That word always stayed with me, after a while we started to translate communiqués, services and seminars that started with satellite transmissions”, confirmed Iver.
MCC Channel grows during the pandemic
MCCs YouTube video channel was created on June 6, 2018 and currently has around 900 videos and over 33 million views. Work on the live broadcast of the daily services began in March 2020, at the beginning of the quarantine by COVID-19. In addition to the services, the channel hosts Sunday Bible Schools, specific teachings for babies, children, intermediaries and teenagers, praises, editions of the television program Announcing the Eternal Gospel, publications of the Bible Conversations Program and Lamp for My Feet by Rádio Maanaim, some videos from the Amazon Mission editions, some stories of the praises, content of public utility as an organization and method for parents and children and, finally, about Maanaim and the United as a Family Seminar.
By Andréia Talma
Translated by Sara Abbasova
