Experience Scripture

00:01
Peter Prochnow
I can recall hearing scripture differently. Like, I don’t remember those words in pretty common verses here, and I felt like I was experiencing it differently. 

00:19
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. I’m Richardowski. 

00:24
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. 

00:26
Rich Rudowske
Emily, have you ever tried to do something that’s never been done before? 

00:29
Emily Wilson
Only at Lutheran Bible translator. 

00:33
Rich Rudowske
It’s difficult. And today’s episode, we’re going to talk about a concept called Living Water. And it’s an attempt to do something that’s maybe been done in part, but never been done before in full. And that’s the recording of the whole New Testament, every verse, every chapter of the whole New Testament in the english language, using the english standard Version Bible, recording it and setting it to music. And it’s an interesting thing because we’ve had the opportunity when we’re out meeting with people to talk with them about this concept and what happens inevitably. 

01:09
Emily Wilson
I think that one of my favorite reactions was like, scripture set to Yankee Doodle Dandy. It was like, well, what does this actually mean? What we visualize with music is it has to rhyme. It has to be a stanza versus a chorus hook and a frame. Right? Yeah. And the idea of having scripture to music, this is something new. And so it’s a little bit of this unknown, uncomfortable. I think one of my, like, aside from the Yankee Doodle reaction was kind of sounds dumb. 

01:48
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I was thinking of that one, too, when were at one of the seminaries with a group of students. And after we talked about it, and then we played a sample, then one of the guys raises hand, says, okay, when you were talking about it, sound really stupid to me, but it’s really good. 

02:02
Emily Wilson
Yes. Okay, so that might be like, okay, well, guys, maybe you need to reevaluate your verbiage, which we have been. How can we actually convey how powerful this is? And most of the time, it’s like, no, just let it speak for itself and read it together. 

02:21
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. 

02:22
Rich Rudowske
That’s why we’ve kind of landed on the marketing verbiage for it is living water experience scripture. And that’s born out of our own experience and trying to describe what this is and say, what’s this? And it touches your soul and all these other things, but ultimately, we’re like, just experience. And so in today’s episode, I sat down with Peter Proc, now, who is serving as producer for the Living Water project, and with Mike Rotelwald, our executive director, and we talked about where this idea came from, and some of the behind the scenes aspects of the Living Water project, and William will play later on a sample of it as well. So we’re assuming you’re going to have some of the same experience that we’ve had. 

03:03
Rich Rudowske
And so we’re asking you to give it a listen, but also to wait to experience that small piece yourself. And then after you’ve experienced it, we’ll tell you how to find more. So again, Peter Procnow serves in music ministry at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Ovido, Florida, and he and Dr. Mike and I had a great conversation. We’re looking forward to sharing with you. 

03:27
Rich Rudowske
We are here today with LBT executive director Dr. Mike Rotewald and Peter Procnaw, who is working with us as a producer on the Living Water project. So we’re going to talk a little bit about that today. And welcome, gentlemen, both of you, to the podcast. 

03:42
Speaker 5
Thank you, Rich. 

03:43
Rich Rudowske
Peter, let’s have our audience get to know you a little bit. Your story, your background, what you’re interested in, how you got involved in church work. 

03:50
Peter Prochnow
Yeah, I grew up in the church. My parents, Ron Procnow, Gene Procnow were both teachers. My dad was a church musician for both of them over 40 years. My grandfather Ernst Procnow as well in Trinity, Bloomington, LCMS Trinity, Bloomington in Bloomington, Illinois. My sister’s a lutheran school teacher as well. So we’ve been at it for a while, grew up and started wondering why things kind of sound and looked the same at worship and especially living in Orlando. And we would go to church and then in the afternoon we’d go to another event or maybe even Disney world, and the messengers seemed different and why couldn’t we use those in worship, why that’s in our community. And then kind want my graduate, third generation graduate at Concordia University, Nebraska Bachelor of Arts. 

04:38
Peter Prochnow
So we’ve been through those experiences and education, but started wondering why some of those styles and music and visual things, why can’t they be involved in ministry where I’m at? And eventually got asked by David Vorpegel, a member at our church, to go to a task meeting to form a jazz reggae latin service and be a part of that, which was, yeah, I was very reluctant at first and just didn’t think that I wanted to be a part of that. But God had a better plan and we ended up starting that in 1992. And it was very successful, mainly because downtown Orlando, Florida, we had a lot of those sounds, we had those jazz clubs and all that kind of music. So I was born in the lcms. 

05:22
Peter Prochnow
I guess you could say, and kind of grew up in that and always have been in that setting, but that’s kind of how I started into church work. 

05:30
Rich Rudowske
Okay. What are you doing right now besides producing this project? 

05:34
Peter Prochnow
Yeah, I direct worship and music and media at St. Luke’s LCMS in Ovido, Florida. It’s a suburb of northeast Orlando, Florida, and been with St. Luke’s for coming up on six years. Before that, I was a professor at Concordia University, Nebraska, the worship arts department in the music department. 

05:56
Rich Rudowske
Very good. So how did you first hear about Lutheran Bible translators? 

06:01
Peter Prochnow
When I was 1112 years old, we sponsored missionary ink millies. 

06:06
Rich Rudowske
Okay. 

06:07
Peter Prochnow
And that’s kind of how I remember hearing about that. We got a picture, actually, I remember just showing that to him recently because he’s a lot younger then, and that’s how I heard about then. You know, at church, we have Lutheran Bible translator Sundays and those kinds of things. 

06:22
Rich Rudowske
Very good. Let’s talk a little bit, Mike and Peter, about this idea that we now call living water. How did this get started and how did we get here? 

06:30
Dr. Mike Rodewald
Yeah, I can jump in there just a little bit. This is something that Lutheran Bible translators does overseas. Lutheran Bible translators, we serve in remote language communities all over the world, bringing God’s word in to people through languages that they can understand. Part of that is what forms can carry the word to people. And so we have what’s called ethnomusicology. It’s one of the fields in Bible translation. We have an ethnomusicologist, ethnodoxologist rob vite that is involved in this. And he does take scripture, puts it to local music, and then people listen to that. It’s a great way for local music to be spread, especially in non literate communities. So I was sitting next to Peter, did not know Peter, and I was telling him about this, did not know he was a musician of his caliber. 

07:22
Dr. Mike Rodewald
And Peter just really found this quite fascinating. And we talked and we kept talking, and Peter said, why hasn’t anybody done this before in English? And it’s like, I don’t know why we haven’t done this before in English. And Peter, go ahead. 

07:38
Peter Prochnow
Yeah, it seemed like a great idea, kind of a film score with God’s word. I can tell you in my own personal life, I listen to music a lot when I’m reading scripture, especially if it’s in the morning, early, or late at night. And it just seemed like a good idea. And then I always wondered why it’s hard to get God’s word to other cultures and kind of assumed it was because of electricity. Maybe cultures don’t remember talking with you about that. And that’s really not an issue. It’s just getting the style and that community up with the language. And then I started studying more after we talked and realized people can’t read their own language. And we have that issue in North America, too, with quite a few. 

08:20
Peter Prochnow
I taught an alternative ed for seven, eight years and had a lot of 1819, 2021 year olds that couldn’t read well or hardly at all. So it just sparked a lot of excitement and in a new way to experience scripture, experience God’s word and the rest is kind of history as we developed can. 

08:41
Rich Rudowske
So just for our listeners, the way things work around here, sometimes Mike comes back here with big ideas. That’s what happens all the time. And then he talks to me and. 

08:49
Rich Rudowske
Asks me to figure out how it. 

08:51
Rich Rudowske
Can actually be done in a way and is there a way to pay for. But, so I can remember having a meeting with the three of us then in Orlando talking about this idea and just feeling really inspired that I think at that point we’d done a couple of test chapters, is that right, for the proof of concept. And it was just kind of an. 

09:09
Rich Rudowske
Amazing experience to listen. 

09:10
Peter Prochnow
Do you remember that? 

09:11
Rich Rudowske
And talk a little bit about that first go at things? 

09:14
Peter Prochnow
Yeah, the first session, I remember we started with Greg, one of our vocalists, and we started with Matthew chapter one and said, whoa, maybe not. There’s a lot of names in that one. And let’s look at that one later. Which, by the way, turned out wonderful. Hopefully you’ll hear that. Everybody will hear that soon with two vocalists. But yeah, we tried it and it went really well. So we start with Matthew chapter two and it pretty much almost on the first take and it just felt natural. And I’ll be in fair, I worked with Greg since 1993, I believe. And so I know in and out, not every single year, kind of know some of his improvisation abilities and all. 

09:48
Speaker 5
Those kinds of things and his vocal. 

09:50
Peter Prochnow
Range, and we’re used to doing some of that. So it was exciting more than I thought. And I can recall hearing scripture differently. I don’t remember those words in pretty common verses here. And I felt like I was experiencing it differently, almost like a text message from God in a way. I don’t know. It was really unique. 

10:11
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, Mike, talk a little bit about when you heard it the first time, kind of how it landed and how it felt for you. 

10:16
Dr. Mike Rodewald
The same way that Peter just said all of a sudden, you’re experiencing scripture in a different way. You’re hearing the verses in a way that is different than when somebody’s just talking or just reading or someplace along the line. And I realized it may not be for everybody, but for those people that listen to it and concentrate on it and everything else, it’s a whole new way of understanding what God’s message in scripture is for us. 

10:40
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I can remember, too, the thing I had never thought about, but with singing is that you have the opportunity to add a range of feeling and emotion that you don’t necessarily get in the reading or spoken version. And so that Matthew two has herod, and he’s furious when he realizes the wise men have tricked him. And the way that the vocalist sang, that was just so then, you know, he sends people in to kill all these of. It’s not one of the best chapters, but it’s how it is. And the deep emotion of the loss of those children, too, just really stunningly captured by the vocalist. And it’s like, okay, I’ve heard this story a lot of times. 

11:17
Rich Rudowske
This is a familiar story for Christmas epiphany type season, but just hearing it that way for the first time, and that’s really kind of one of the goals of the projects, is experiencing scripture a different way and in a way, hearing things for the first time. So let’s talk a little bit about the project. What’s the scope? What are we trying to do here with the living water project? The scope, the goals, the hopes, and who’s working on this thing? 

11:38
Peter Prochnow
Currently, we’re recording the New Testament. We’re just about finished with the gospels, and we hope we can do the whole Bible. And actually, a big vision would be multiple styles done differently. Also have an idea on the table, maybe with the lectionary series, and make these recordings available for churches. But not just this style. The style we’re playing now is more of a film score, which you would hear in almost any style of film. If you watch films a lot, you’ll notice there’s almost every film has a string instrument. So we’re trying to use what we’re leaving are more universal timbres and sounds and to lift up the message in a different way. Experiencing in a different way. Some of it is subjective. We’re making decisions as we play. 

12:23
Peter Prochnow
There’s quite a bit of prep with each of these, but there are times we go in a different direction and what we’re hearing and feeling and the music is carrying that differently. But big picture is right now we’re working on the. 

12:37
Rich Rudowske
Know this on the LBT administrative side, it’s a bigger project, too, behind the scenes than maybe we’re used to working with. Talking about some of the folks who are involved. Mike, we had to talk to folks that manage the english standard version. So the english standard version is the text for this project, and talk maybe just a little bit about that process. Mike. Yeah. 

12:57
Dr. Mike Rodewald
When you start a project that’s never been done before, which is. That’s what this is, you don’t know the barriers that are standing in the way. You think, how hard can this be? And then you find out it actually is a little bit harder than you thought. So one of the first things to do was to go to ESB copyright, that’s pathway crossways publishers and give it to them and say, do you think that this is okay? And we shared the files that Greg is talking about, and they came back and they said, yes, they think it can be done, and they gave us permission. We are not charging for it. It’s going to be for free distribution, and everything has to be approved by the ESP people because that’s the text that we’re using for this. 

13:39
Dr. Mike Rodewald
So these barriers have been reduced piece by piece, and we continue on with the project. I do want to say that for those listening, the caliber of musician required to do this, because it’s like a performance and also putting the music together at the same time. So the caliber of musician that it takes to do this is not what everybody can do. And the music is just high quality. Plus the recording studios are very high quality. Down in Orlando, as I understand, some of those engineers are the same ones that do Disney soundtracks, so it’s really top notch stuff. And thanks for Peter. Just the connections we made. It’s a God thing because this was not going to happen anyway. Except all these pieces are coming together like this. 

14:28
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. And so this is a sung version of the scripture that’s not based on the scripture. This is actually singing the english standard Version text of the Bible. Talk a little bit about. Yeah. And functionally, too. Then somebody can just open your Bible and read along. That’s another one of the benefits that I really love. The first time I listened to it again, was hearing some of the things I’m like, wow, does it actually say that? Is that actually in there, or was there artistic license? But there’s not. Whatever you’re going to hear sung is what’s in the text of the Bible, which is pretty powerful. So, Peter, as you’re working through the scriptures. And what are you discovering in the whole process of doing this thing? 

15:07
Rich Rudowske
And maybe do talk a little bit about what does it take to get a chapter ready to go and what’s that look like? 

15:13
Speaker 5
Sure, the music is kind of prepared in blocks. I don’t prepare from beginning to end a song. I’m not doing that. It’s like a score. So think of chord progressions and different textures, timbres, and then some leeway to change that as the vocalist is singing. So there’s some melodic ideas that are introduced, and sometimes the vocalist sings and develops those or might go in a different direction. So it’s kind of an organized spontaneity that would probably be the best way to say it. There is some improv. The singers have to be very comfortable making mistakes, and we just move through it, and the overdub come back and change that if a chord went in a different direction. So musically, there’s a lot of prep with that. 

15:58
Speaker 5
Reading the text a few times, obviously, is very important in what’s the context here, what happens at the beginning of this chapter in the end, because we don’t want to cover up the words, but we use a lot of film scoring techniques. There’s basically ten different ones we apply. Probably not to go into now, but you hear them in films and to lift out what’s being said or sung. 

16:23
Rich Rudowske
Okay, that’s really great. 

16:24
Rich Rudowske
So I think what we’re going to do here is we’re going to go ahead and play one of the chapters. It feels like we’re going to have to give people a taste of what we’re talking about. 

16:35
Speaker 7
After this. Jesus knowing that all was now finished to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hiss, a branch, and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 

17:55
Rich Rudowske
Hearing scripture for the first time. When you hear it in this medium, it just hits you a different way. And so amazing, the vocals and the music that go into the text there. Peter, do you have any stories from yourself or others that you’ve worked with during this process of what this has meant? And what happens when you’re wrestling with scripture this way and really digging in deep to be able to produce something like this? 

18:16
Peter Prochnow
I know just with my own family. 

18:18
Speaker 5
We talk about scripture together more or listen to it together. And I noticed my daughter comments quite a bit about it and actually points out chapters just by listening to them, which I know that means her teacher is doing a really good job in the religion class. But we just had more conversation even on the way home, and I was telling Mike about that a month or two ago, and that didn’t happen with us. Not that were trying not to read scripture together, and it doesn’t happen every day, but as we’re listening to what we just put in the studio and checking things out, it just gets conversation going. So that’s been a really neat experience. 

18:56
Peter Prochnow
Some of this. 

18:57
Speaker 5
My daughter likes Hamilton, and I know some of this sounds like that for her, and she can actually sing parts of that. I mean, she knows pretty good memory, will sing along on some of the takes as we listen to them over and over again. I think that’s neat. There might be something useful that we could do for that age down the road. I know the singers seem very similar. Perhaps we’re not reading scripture all daily or weekly, and now, of course, they’re doing that. They’re both more involved in our church. They sing almost once a week with one of our vocalists, and maybe once a month they’re out in the community here singing and helping families in need. And a lot of that’s come out of this project. It’s working together. So that’s been a blessing, too. 

19:44
Rich Rudowske
What are some challenges that you’ve had in the project or things that you’ve learned along the way? 

19:48
Speaker 5
Just working with finding the singers that are comfortable doing this. There are great singers. We’ve worked with amazing singers, but it’s a very special, unique skill set. I was worried about the studio and the engineer, but God put the best right in front of us, including the piano you’ve heard on the recording. All the tools, resources we need just arrived and timely, right when we needed those people and studio and everything. 

20:20
Rich Rudowske
So, as the project continues forward in production, looking towards a launch date, what are some of the things that you’re excited about? 

20:26
Speaker 5
Well, I’m excited for people to hear experience scripture in a new way. We’re excited. The team that we have, including a singer in the group, take six, the most Grammy winning acapella group in history, even more than Manhattan transfer, Pentatonix, and all the groups like that. The singer, Christian Dentley, as you’ll hear on some of the chapters, it’s just been really wonderful working with him. Amazing singer. And we’re excited about all the singers we have. We also have a singer, Maggie Gifford, who sings with the voices of Liberty at Epcot center and doing all kinds of amazing projects. Like I said, sings in church. Everybody sings in church pretty regularly. And Greg Ema is a full time musician in town. If you come down here on vacation, you’ll probably hear him playing at hotels and stuff like that, but all involved in our art. 

21:14
Peter Prochnow
So I’m excited about that. 

21:16
Speaker 5
I’m excited. What other styles can know, put with God’s word and what’s going to happen with different cultures, communities all around the world, it’s going to be different with different styles of music. Might not sound too pleasing to us, but I’m sure that’s vice versa on some things. Sure, I’m very excited about where God is going to lead this, where we’re all going together, and then getting other people with these talents to do this as well. Not just me and other singers, but there are other wonderful musicians and other styles that know. Maybe there’s a bluegrass version of this, maybe there’s a jazz version, maybe there’s a hip hop or electronic dance music version of that. I think all those things are really possible. 

22:00
Rich Rudowske
So, Mike, I want to talk a little bit about why Lutheran Bible translators is doing this. This is not the type of ministry that our folks are used to us engaging in. So why is LBT working on a project like this? 

22:13
Dr. Mike Rodewald
That’s a great question. It doesn’t fit the paradigm of what Lutheran Bible translators has historically done. As I said before, previously, we serve in language communities that are very remote. Many don’t have writing systems and helping language communities to get the writing systems, to get the orthography together and the translation together so that people can understand God’s message to them. But as part of that, we also do what’s called scripture engagement. In the United States. There is, I have to say, less and less people engage with scripture. It seems all the time. I was a missionary for many years. Coming back to the United States, we’re not seeing people engage with scripture. People tend to know a lot about scripture or what they think they know about scripture, but they don’t actually engage with scripture itself. And so we can see a problem. 

23:02
Dr. Mike Rodewald
When a society does not engage with scripture, it’s going to change, and there will be problems that are not present. We saw an opportunity with this besides God’s hand moving every one of these little steps along the way, as Peter has said, because I have to admit, none of us are smart enough to do this all by ourselves. It’s been a cumulative effort all the way along the line. And just when you think you hit a barrier, that one’s removed. And you go on to the next step, and next step, and the next step. And here we are here today. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into common German in 1522. That’s 500 years ago. When he translated that New Testament into common German, it changed the world for the german people because they had not been able to access scripture. 

23:46
Dr. Mike Rodewald
They had not been able to understand what God’s word had for them. And all of a sudden, they could understand, they could hear, they could experience. They knew exactly what God had to say to them, and it changed their world. And so we saw an opportunity for this new way of experiencing scripture. It’s never been done before, and when something’s never been done before, that’s a great challenge because that has the ability to have an impact. And scripture has never been done this way in English. As far as we can determine before, just scripture. Just scripture. Nothing else but just scripture sung so that you can experience God’s word in a different way. How could we engage our own people in our context so that people can experience scripture in a different way? It all seemed to just start coming together. 

24:30
Dr. Mike Rodewald
The reasons the people, the funding is still in progress for this, and we just trust that the Lord’s going to provide the funding, that this is all going to get done. And then we plan to release this during the 500th anniversary of the New Testament. Add a chapter a day so that people can experience each day what God has to say to them in his word. 

24:50
Rich Rudowske
We made. But we do really do feel it’s important for folks to really get a handle on the opportunity to get involved in God’s work around the world. In Bible translation, it becomes much more of a felt need. I think when you start to engage with scripture this way, and I think that’s also a hoped for outcome. What do we think this means for the church, potentially, with scripture available in this way? Just in the western church and their engagement with scripture, I could see it. 

25:16
Speaker 5
Being helpful in their communities and introducing God’s word. You can get a Bible at a motel room. Maybe there’s a way you can download this when you’re on the road or in your community, something to pass on that’s more relevant style wise, or. I’m not sure that might be something that happens. 

25:37
Peter Prochnow
Same with worship. 

25:38
Speaker 5
I mean, you could take snippets of this and play this like you would anthem, or depending on what style worship you’re in, I could see that being helpful. Maybe not the whole chapter, but even in the lectionary series or whatever sermon series you’re working on. So it could be a lot of. 

25:55
Dr. Mike Rodewald
Other uses I’m going to equate with what happens overseas when people hear God’s word for the first time in a language they fully understand. And many times, people groups, they may have heard scripture through a language which maybe they learned in school or even English. And so, technically, they have this technical understanding of what scripture is, and then they hear God’s word through their own language, the one that they really get that has no barriers. And the joy, I’ve personally experienced that joy on people’s faces when they really understood that God had a message for them. And I feel the possibility is the same here in the United States. Our reviewers, we have quality review, so we make sure we’re not making any mistakes in the text and everything. Our reviewers have just been given all kinds of kudos to. 

26:45
Dr. Mike Rodewald
It is said, we follow along in the ESV. The text comes at us very slow. We can listen to it. We can concentrate it on 100%. We fully experience what it is. And I think that’s the same thing that happens overseas, is when we hear scripture in a whole new way, we experience it in a different way. And that’s what we want to give an opportunity to God’s people here in the United States, and even people that haven’t experienced scripture at all for themselves, that they can listen to this and they know what God’s message is for them. This is really serving, like a pilot project if it’s never been done before. The concept is being proved in this first time, as people are experiencing scripture for the first time in a different way. 

27:27
Dr. Mike Rodewald
If this is a thing, which I fully think it is, Peter has proved that along the way. That means other people will pick this up, and they will do this in different ways, and people will engage with scripture in a different way. One of the exciting things is, this is not just my understanding of scripture. This is just scripture. This is just the scripture that’s there, and it’s just coming to you. I’m not telling you what it means to you. It’s just scripture speaking straight to you and straight to your heart, right? 

27:55
Rich Rudowske
Absolutely. And that’s quite a privilege to be involved in and really at the heart of what LBT does and our gift, really, to the church. Again, not because it’s about us or this type of ministry, but just we hope it will be a powerful way to give an inside look into the way that we’ve been blessed by God, to be able to participate in communities all over the world, helping people to have access to the scripture and have it speak to them in a new way for the first time. We want all of you to experience. 

28:24
Rich Rudowske
That in some way, too. 

28:25
Rich Rudowske
And that’s what the living water project has the potential to do. So thank you both, gentlemen. First of all, just for the great idea and for actually pursuing it and seeing where it would go. I mean, that’s sometimes one of the biggest parts of the battle is just to say, wow, that’s never been done before. And it’s really easy to say, well, there must be a reason why it hasn’t been done before, or I’m really busy on other stuff. But to pursue it, certainly the pandemic last year gave us, and we didn’t want it, but it gave us the window to start it. And so God’s always making small blessings out of things that you don’t expect. And it’s been a real privilege to see how this has gone. 

29:05
Rich Rudowske
So thank you both for and for being with us today, and we will look forward to that launch and seeing people experience scripture in a new way. 

29:17
Rich Rudowske
I have to say, as I think about the conversation we had, the one thing that stuck out the most, and Peter had shared this experience with me before the interview, was that he’s riding in his car and he’s got his teenage daughter in there, and she’s hearing the scripture and she’s remembering it and singing it. And I’m thinking, like, of all the things I could be doing in the world right now, if I could put God’s word so deeply into the hearts of my own children and that they were singing it and then reflecting on it, that itself is a great gift. 

29:46
Emily Wilson
Right? That complexity, too, of the emotion that is evoked. We’re hearing about the crucifixion of Jesus in that sample, and I’ve heard that so many times, but it’s in a different way. And being able to kind of pinpoint, as we’re listening to a song, just like any song, a lot of times, like worship songs, depending on the day, there are certain words that will hit us differently based on the season in our life, what’s happening around us, and so much so with scripture, right. And being able to hear that and like, oh, I never heard that before. I’ve read it so many times, or I’ve heard it read so many times, but being able to zero in a little bit more of like, oh, is that what that actually. Oh, yeah, that’s what it says. 

30:38
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. 

30:39
Rich Rudowske
I found myself a few times just opening my bible again. To say, wow, is that making sure they sang those words right? Because that was powerful. And music just seems to be. I’m not an expert in this area at all, but it’s God’s gift to engage more of the senses, and it makes the words and the ideas go deeper. 

30:55
Emily Wilson
So we’re wanting to really help you to dig in deeper, to experience scripture. In 2022, we’re hoping to do a daily release of a chapter a day for you to be able to hear God’s word, to experience scripture and grow. We want you to be able to share that with your family, your friends, people at your congregation. Really. God’s word is meant to be in our hands, in our hearts and our ears, everything. And to be able to grow together. And what is it that you notice? What is it they notice and be able to talk about it and just sharpen one another. 

31:36
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. 

31:36
Rich Rudowske
And thanks to some generous donors, the Living Water project got a great start to being funded to engage the musicians and the production costs associated with it. But there is an opportunity for you listening to be involved in a Kickstarter project for living water. If you go to lbt.org Livingwater, you can take a look at where we are with the project and what books are funded and what is yet to be funded, and you can be part of making something that’s never been done before happen. 

32:07
Emily Wilson
If you are feeling God leading you to fund this project in some way, or to pray for this project or to get involved, we really encourage you to visit lbt.org Livingwater to be able to see what’s happening in the project, be able to listen to other samples. We only played you a small portion. There are other tracks on there for you to be able to hear different voices. These musicians are incredibly gifted. But being able to have a fuller sample, to be able to engage and really see what is it that the Holy Spirit is leading you to do, to be engaged in his word. So I want to encourage you all. Stop at slash living water. 

32:49
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. 

32:49
Rich Rudowske
And again, we believe, as has happened throughout the history of the world, with God’s word, when you experience scripture, it’s going to lead you to want to give that gift to others as well. 

32:59
Emily Wilson
Yeah. 

33:00
Rich Rudowske
Thank you for listening to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. You can find past episodes of the podcast@lbt.org Slash podcast or subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible translators social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s word in their hands. This episode of essentially translatable was produced and edited by Andrew Olson. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork designed by Caleb Rotelwald Music written and performed by Rob Weit I’m rich Rudowski. So long for now.