The sandbox Bible takes the words of Scripture and represents them through figures in a sandbox! You can tell a story and move the figures alongside. It’s also very interactive, enabling you to go back through different parts of the story, or to even place yourself in the story and to think about what God is saying in a new way. It is a creative, fun and beautiful way to share God’s Word.

Sarah, maker of the sandbox Bible, has used many of these stories to create stop-motion videos. (You can see them on the YouTube channel here)

Through Wycliffe Links, we have connected and started working with Bible stories that are in Makhuwa. Makhuwa is a language in Mozambique, covering about 1/3 of the population. There are 11 variations of the language, and through WSA we are working with teams to translate the Bible into 4 of them.

Over the past few months, Sarah and I have been working with the translation teams to represent the translated Biblical stories in culturally appropriate ways. We started with the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. This was chosen by the translation team as an engaging story that keeps people on the edge of their seat, which also reveals the glory of God for their context. Much time was put into representing a Makhuwa man, woman and child, representing the animals they live with, the houses they live in, and more. Eventually we have put together a stop-motion video that was greatly received by the Makhuwa translation team. (You can watch it here).

We are now working to create more videos as a series that can be used by Makhuwa communities and churches. Please pray with us as we move forward and bring God’s Word to His people in creative, fun and beautiful ways.

By Helen van der Walt & Sarah Beriyth