The church’s got talent

The Bible Society of Malawi is running a talent identification programme called Bible Youth Buzz (BYB), where music and fine arts are at the core of the contest.
The competition, currently in its final stage, is for youths aged 11 to 25 and based in Lilongwe.
Participants showcase own composition in different arts categories of fine art like poetry, drama, comedy and scriptural recitals. We have the music category where the youths are battling it out in instrumental and non instrumental, visual arts category like drawing as well as dance.
"Participants are coached and judged on talent, stage management, vocal production, message disseminated in performance, scripture content and connection with the audience," said the society's youth project officer Wongani Mhango.
He said the aim of this competition is to identify, unearth and promote young people's hidden talent to be used for the promotion of God's word.
"Bible Society of Malawi's desire is to encourage the youth to be Bible lovers and in turn to be vigilant in imploring others to own a Bible. There are a lot of young talented people who are just staying home. We would like to provide a platform for them to showcase their skills, develop them and use them for the glory of God
"We are, therefore, creating a forum where the youth will be encouraged to originate their Biblical creative potential ideas and display such through different media formats," he explained.
The competition was launched in November last year with about 100 participants. So far, 20 are in the finals which are scheduled for March 14.
"Top three winners will go home with a trophy and monetary value which we cannot disclose. Moving forward, we are going to have a proper review of the BYB Season one for further improvements. We are hoping on taking this competition national wide," explained Mhango.