A Lifetime in Nigeria

00:01
Chuck Tessaro
I so love the phrase that we have put God’s Word in their hands because then people take it and wrestle with it, come up with new insights. Of course, sometimes they come up with something quite different than we would. But other places, they’ve, as you said, they’ve sharpened our understanding of things. 

00:22
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the Essentially Translatable Podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. I’m Rich Rudowske. 

00:28
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. 

00:29
Rich Rudowske
We just had a great conversation with Reverend Chuck and Karen Tessaro and their many years of service in Nigeria and looking forward to sharing that with all you. But before we do that, I want to be sure that everybody listening knows how they can find Essentially Translatable without too much effort. So Emily, where would they go? What should they do? 

00:46
Emily Wilson
So with your apps on your smartphone, many of you have subscriptions or are just dialed in with your app. Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, we’re there on all of those platforms. So when you look up Essentially Translatable, click on it, subscribe, and you will receive a notification every time we release a new episode. Which is every other week. 

01:11
Rich Rudowske
Every other week. And yeah, there are so many podcast platforms, it is likely whichever one you use, if you search Essentially Translatable, you will find us there and shoot us a message at info@lbt.org and tell us where you found us. That would be awesome to hear. So as I mentioned, we’re talking with Reverend Chuck and Karen Tessaro. They’ve been missionaries in Nigeria since 1985, first working on the Eleme New Testament project, and then when that was complete, moving to a role of consulting and equipping the church from a more central location. And they just had some great stories and perspectives. 

01:41
Emily Wilson
Enjoy this interview with Chuck and Karen. 

01:49
Rich Rudowske
We are here in the studio today with Chuck and Karen Tessaro, missionaries to Nigeria. Great to have you with us today. 

01:53
Emily Wilson
Welcome to the podcast. 

01:55
Karen Tessaro
Thank you. 

01:56
Emily Wilson
So we always like to introduce our listeners to our missionaries or our guests. So can you share a little bit about your background, Chuck and Karen, of what got you involved in ministry? 

02:09
Chuck Tessaro
Yes, I think I grew up in a Christian family and attended a Lutheran school for a couple years, was around faithful pastors and faithful Sunday school teachers and other kind members of the church. Eventually found myself in Concordia, Ann Arbor and met one nice young lady named Karen there. 

02:27
Karen Tessaro
And during that time an LBT presentation was done in one of the churches in Davison, Michigan area. And Chuck went and saw it and then he came home and he said, “Hey Karen, what do you think about going on a mission calling.” So it’s our first call out of the seminary, and at that time, I wasn’t sure, but thank goodness, the pastor’s wife in the church we were vicaring under, she told me, Karen, go because you can always come back home, but go, because if you like it, instead of not going at all. 

03:05
Emily Wilson
That regret and avoiding that regret. That’s amazing. So you really felt like the draw right away. It wasn’t like, okay, I need to wait a little bit, or years would pass or anything. It was pretty much, this is the calling. 

03:20
Chuck Tessaro
Yes, yes. And we were happy to go right out of the seminary. And it’s been a good time. 

03:26
Emily Wilson
That’s awesome. 

03:27
Rich Rudowske
So then right out of the seminary, you were sent to Nigeria at that point. 

03:32
Chuck Tessaro
Right. That was our first call. 

03:33
Rich Rudowske
Okay. And so that was through the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod at that point. So tell us a little bit about your ministry there and your first travels to Nigeria. 

03:42
Chuck Tessaro
Yeah. So we first arrived in 1985. We had two small children. We still have two children -they’re just not small anymore. And so our assignment was to work with Bible translation in the Elementary language of southern Nigeria, right near the Atlantic Ocean. So there was a translation team, and we worked with them for some years and got to learn how life was there. And eventually the New Testament and Psalms came out also. 

04:09
Karen Tessaro
Before we went to link care in California and also to SIL in Dallas. When we were in link care, I really enjoyed that because the idea was, get yourself involved in the community. Don’t say no to food, try everything. Tell them to give you a name so that they can pronounce it, and then ask them for a family and ask them for a friend. And we had a house helper. All of these three things were helping us, but also the eyes of what were doing as a witness to the community. 

04:47
Emily Wilson
I think that it was you, Karen, if not, it was one of your mentees over the years that talked about the importance of going to the market and sitting and being still, but looking around and letting people come up and to build relationship and each time just letting it grow. And that it’s a blessing not only to you as you’re learning about who the community has as important people or everyday people, everyday women in the market, but also that they’re able to know who you are and to be able to build that bridge. That’s been a beautiful sort of, whenever I think of you, Karen, I think about that importance of being able to sit and be present with people and build relationships naturally. So your ministry has evolved from women’s ministry to now children’s ministry. 

05:41
Emily Wilson
Karen, can you share a little bit about that and what’s been enriching to you? 

05:46
Karen Tessaro
When were in Onay, I did work with the women. What was one of the things that was so cool was the women didn’t know English, and I was learning the Eleme language and all of that. And then it came to be Easter time, and this is years into the village. It’s not something you do real fast. You spend time. So the women, were doing the Easter story, and it was being told in the Eleme language, and the women were all together. And when it came to the point of the people spitting on Jesus, and the reason this was being told was I was doing a children’s drama, so the children were actually acting it out, plus the story being read. 

06:30
Karen Tessaro
And when the children started to spit at Jesus in the drama, the women got really upset and they jumped up and they were all upset and they said, “No, no, that can’t happen, because spitting on somebody is very degrading.” And they had never realized because they never knew what the word ‘spit’ meant. So them seeing it even in their language, they really didn’t get it because it’s something they just don’t do. So, yeah, that was a real breakthrough for some of them. They even started crying and all of that sort of stuff, and God finds ways for us to share the scripture, even though at that point in time, they didn’t have the New Testament in their hands, but he finds ways for us to even share it at that time. 

07:14
Emily Wilson
And that’s what kind of spurs you along in difficult days of this reaction of this is what our Lord came into. And he knew know it wasn’t a surprise. He knew that he was going to betrayed and beaten and spit upon, and he did it anyway. 

07:32
Karen Tessaro
And so, as you said, now I’m kind of in children’s ministry because after we did the Eleme New Testament and Psalms, then Chuck became, like, a consultant, and were asked to move to Plateau State, Joss. And I’m working there with the children. And the interesting thing is the children, because they’re not taught their language and their English is their secondary language, they really don’t know how to read English. So a child can go all the way up to about maybe 10/11 years old and still doesn’t know how to read. So one thing the Lord just shown me, because they need the English for school. So I took the God’s Word Bible, that is done by the Lutherans, I believe, and we had some of those sent to Nigeria in a container, and we used that for reading book. 

08:24
Karen Tessaro
And I told them, you will learn to read because God won’t let it go by without you learning to read his word. So they are learning to read that, and then, yes, now they’re taking it from what they kind of understand into their vernacular. And so, yeah, working with the children have been good. I’ve been called the deaconess of the children. 

08:45
Emily Wilson
It’s a beautiful thing. 

08:47
Rich Rudowske
So you mentioned then the Eleme New Testament and Psalms were complete. When was that? 

08:53
Chuck Tessaro
They were dedicated in May 2002. 

08:55
Rich Rudowske
Okay. And then, as Karen said, you guys relocated and you began work as a translation consultant. So let’s talk a little bit about what that is. What’s it take to become a translation consultant and a little more about the job and what’s required. 

09:09
Chuck Tessaro
Right. So translation consultants are people who help with translation teams in various ways. Probably the best way to look at it is the translation consultant doesn’t really drive the translation, but is like a spare tire trying to provide what is needed. If people need a little training, a little help with computers, a little help understanding Bible passages, of course, in the end, you go through the translated work verse by verse with the team and approve it for translation. So often what that takes is some significant experience in Bible translation, working with translation teams and communities, studying how the process works, trying to encourage communities to involve and take ownership and that type of a thing. 

09:51
Karen Tessaro
And I think you got into more Bible translation consultant when we joined LBT, is that correct? 

09:58
Chuck Tessaro
Yes. We joined LBT in 2003 and have been working with a variety of translation teams after that. Of course, you work with the translators, check with the translation. After they make a draft, the translation team looks at it. You try to have them ask questions to people from the community to see if they understand what the translation team understood. Eventually you’re checking spelling because there’s no dictionary in that language except what you’re working on and checking terms and parallel passages and all of those things. 

10:27
Emily Wilson
And I believe that you have shared multiple times at the Bible translation conference that happens every other year. I haven’t had the privilege yet of going. I always want to go, but what is it that you have learned in your research and your studies that you have shared at these Bible translation conferences? 

10:46
Chuck Tessaro
So years ago, people did a lot of work on the New Testament, which is really good, and you’ll explain to people that Jesus died for your sins, and they’ll say, and so what? I didn’t really sin worse than anybody else? So why should he have died for me? So the Old Testament provides a nice background for that. So as a result, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time working on Old Testament projects and that type of a thing. So at the conference I’ve presented a couple things, mainly helps for Old Testament translators. One is that the Bible societies are preparing a new edition of the Hebrew Old Testament. That is, the text is the same, but comments are a little bit different. 

11:26
Chuck Tessaro
They’re in English this time with a little more explanation than one or two latin words, and the volume is much more respectful of the traditional masoretic text. So I really appreciate that. Yeah. The other thing that I’ve presented on is that the traditional, or Lutheran, understanding of the Old Testament, the importance of the Old Testament, and the work of the Trinity throughout the Bible, those things are believed commonly in Africa. Some scholars have argued against that, and I don’t see any reason why our translators in Africa should be upset by that. So I’m trying to provide a way that they can feel more comfortable both translating God’s Word and feeling comfortable that they’re doing the right thing. 

12:08
Rich Rudowske
And so in addition to some of this research and scholarly writing and presentation, you’ve gotten to mentor some folks in Bible translation, talk about that process, who you’re working with. 

12:18
Chuck Tessaro
Yes, very fortunately, we have two pastors that the Lutheran Church of Nigeria has graciously allowed us to work with, Reverend Kierian Ayuga and Reverend Linus Otroni, both very sharp individuals, both very hardworking. Reverend Kierian is working hard at theological College of Northern Nigeria in the Linguistics and Bible Translation department there, teaching people from numerous languages, various skills on phonetics, phonology, how language works, how to manage projects, that type of a thing. Reverend Linus Otroni lives in the northern part of Cross River State, Nigeria, and works hard with a variety of organizations and translation teams, providing technical help, providing logistic helping to encourage on the way forward, and doing a lot of things there. It’s been a pleasure to work with the two of them. Both of them are doing very well. 

13:09
Emily Wilson
Can you share a little bit about some of the translation teams that you’ve worked alongside as a consultant? 

13:15
Chuck Tessaro
Yeah, so we’ve worked with the Yala team. That is Reverend Linus Otroni’s native language. The Yala New Testament was dedicated around 1979, so we’ve worked with that team. They have more than 80% of the Old Testament as consultant checked, which is they’ve really done well. The Old Testament is about three times as long as the New Testament. So they’ve worked hard and long on that. We’ve worked a bit with the Kukele translation team. That New Testament was also dedicated around 1979 and they’ve got a good start. We’ve been working with the Gokana translation team. Their New Testament was dedicated in 1987 and they also have a good start on the Old Testament. All of those languages have been worked on by Lutheran Church of Nigeria translation teams through over the years. More recently, we’ve been working with Mogavol and Tarak translation teams. 

14:04
Chuck Tessaro
They are both from the middle belt of Nigeria, areas where the Lutheran Church of Nigeria hasn’t had a whole lot of presence, although they’re working hard. And it’s been a pleasure for the Lutheran church to expand their influence into these language areas. 

14:18
Rich Rudowske
Now, with some of the Old Testament work that’s been done, is it reached enough into the communities yet where you can see what difference it’s made that Old Testament text is available alongside to and leading to the New Testament and the message of the Gospel? 

14:33
Chuck Tessaro
Yes, of course. In Eleme and Gokana, thePsalms are both available. People love Psalms. They read it all the time, and in fact, the Yala New Testament was recently reprinted with Psalms involved too. So that has also been very helpful. People love to sing the songs, Psalms, read the Psalms. We’re still working to get more available to the people sooner. 

14:55
Emily Wilson
That’s wonderful, and actually, that’s really close to my heart. We’ve been working on the book of Psalms for two years now with our weekly Bible study, and so seeing the importance and how that weaves throughout the whole of scripture, being able to reference back to the miracles and the promises in the Old Testament, and then also that foreshadowing of what Christ came to do and to save us from our sin and to conquer death and give us hope of life. So having the Old Testament, having psalms specifically working on that, have you noticed unique differences between some of the languages that you’ve worked with or unique challenges? 

15:38
Chuck Tessaro
Yes, most of the languages we’ve worked with are called Benyue, Congo languages, so they’re a little bit similar. Eleme is one of them, and so that’s been good. Mogavol is a chattic language. They say things in different orders and different expressions. So, yeah, it’s taken quite a while to get used to that. And of course, we rely heavily on the translators to say, please, can you tell me what that means one more time? And they have a lot of unique expressions, like somebody who’s honest has five fingers. 

16:06
Rich Rudowske
Okay. 

16:07
Chuck Tessaro
Because if they don’t have five fingers, something’s wrong is what they would say. All right. They have a lot of colorful expressions like that. 

16:16
Emily Wilson
Has there been something that has been uniquely challenging regarding the Old Testament translation? I know a lot of times we had talked previously about maybe some of the challenges of having the epistles and the Greek rhetoric happening with Paul, but the Old Testament narratives or the Gospel narratives, have you noticed any unique blessings or challenges in that? 

16:39
Chuck Tessaro
One challenge is that the Old Testament is basically less well known. So some of the historical facts, it’s easy to get confused. There’s a lot of names. It’s easy to get confused by that. A blessing, though, is that there are a lot of similarities between culture and the areas in which we live. And some of the Old Testament cultural things, the way people behave, the way people use their right hands, the way people wash, the way people have traditionally done sacrifices. So there are a lot of points of contact there that people understand real quickly the influence of the spiritual world. Sometimes those things may be a little confusing for people like us, but people there pick up on that very quickly. 

17:19
Emily Wilson
That’s amazing. We can all sharpen each other from that. I love how the church grows through Bible translation. 

17:26
Chuck Tessaro
Yes. In fact, people have pointed out things that we’ve never seen in the Bible, like spiritual implications or the situation with, remember Naomi came back from Moab without her two sons, and people would say, are you sure that she wasn’t a wicked know, did she use evil powers? Is that why your husband and sons were know? I wouldn’t have noticed that before. 

17:47
Rich Rudowske
Right. So as examples, then, how do you deal with that? There’s only so much that you can do in translation. Right. So is there ways that you attend to that in translation and otherwise? How does the church handle questions like that? 

18:00
Chuck Tessaro
I so love the phrase that we have put God’s word in their hands because then people take it and wrestle with it, come up with new insights. Of course, sometimes they come up with something quite different than we would, in which case we discuss and hopefully land someplace in the middle. But other places, as you said, they’ve sharpened our understanding of things. 

18:21
Emily Wilson
That’s awesome. One of the things that we have migrated to within the organization, I mean, it’s always been there, but we have this new emphasis that prayer is the strategy. We can make all kinds of plans, but ultimately taking it to the Lord and trusting in his will. But he welcomed us to pray persistently. That image of the widow seeking justice, that parable and that has been something that you have always been passionate about, Karen, that has been central to your ministry. 

18:53
Rich Rudowske
Actually thinking about that when were putting these questions together, how when I was new in my administrative role in Lutheran Bible Translators, you folks came to the old office fairly soon after that and Karen made a point of coming to my office and saying, I feel like we could do a little more praying around here. And that was a challenge for me and it was a good thing to bring to mind because as a new administrator, you’re thinking about all kinds of things. You’re looking at all these problems and things that you don’t know and thinking about how you’re going to fix them or what needs to happen. And it was a great reminder to say, you know what, prayer is important and a lot of what we carry around with us we could set down and you still got to work hard. 

19:34
Rich Rudowske
But things can also be resolved and more clear because you’ve put it before the Lord in prayer. So I really appreciate that talk about the importance of prayer for you and why that’s so central to the way you think and approach things. 

19:44
Karen Tessaro
Yeah, prayer, because I feel when I pray, I’m giving it to God. I always say, God, you’re in control. I’m just giving it over to you and then I can let it go. I seem to be able to let it go when I’m telling myself God’s in control. Like right now in Nigeria, we have had crisis issues hitting Nigeria big time. And that’s one of the big things is talking about the only way we can fight the crisis is in prayer. So when our members can come together and we know, okay, there’s a crisis in this area over here, we just pray. It’s praying and praying. And anytime there’s frustration being the deaconess and in the children’s program and I have teachers and the teachers are telling me this and this is what’s going on. Then I say, well, maybe we need to pray. 

20:33
Karen Tessaro
Maybe we need to pray before we come to Sunday school. Maybe we need to pray before we even look at this lesson. We use the word maybe because we want them to make the decision to say yes, that would be good. Let’s pray. So we always use the word maybe and they always again say, yes, let’s pray. And in Nigeria, one thing I learned is I don’t wait to pray. So if somebody’s sick, pray right then and there, somebody comes to me and says, oh, this, and this is happening. I say, okay, let’s pray now. Because again, it’s God’s ministry, God’s in control, and we’re just the tools and order for the tool to not get broken. We kind of have to just say, lord, take care of know. 

21:21
Rich Rudowske
So any examples that you’d want to share about how you’ve seen that work? You prayed for something and you saw the Lord work in the way that you asked or a way that you. 

21:31
Karen Tessaro
Didn’t expect a big life changer…I got involved in Nigeria in Chuck and I both did in foster care. And we had two little babies that came to us, and were able to give one of them to another family. Okay. But then our third baby came, and that was because I prayed for him. I prayed for John David. We were in the empty nest again and everything, and there was no babies. Just coming to hold them for a few months and then hand to the adoptive parents. So then I asked God, please, Lord, give me another child. So there was a crisis, and so this family became orphans. So five of the children were put in the orphanage. And then John David was four days old, and the person who run the orphanage said that they couldn’t take an infant. 

22:27
Karen Tessaro
And she knew I had this baby bed and the baby stuff all set up. And she said, Karen, will you take this little baby? And I said, “Yes!” So when John David’s family came to the house, first of all, they did not speak any English. They are coming from the village, no English. And the aunt was carrying little John David, and the aunt was carrying him because the father and the father’s brother were killed in the crisis. And John David’s mother died in giving childbirth. So the sister of the father, knowing that the males have been killed, she decided to pick up John David. Normally in the Nigerian situation where the mother has died and the father’s not there, they would have left the little baby there. 

23:17
Karen Tessaro
So she picked him up, brought him to the church, and the church then brought him into where we live at. And then he came to the house with the aunt speaking no English, but she handed him over to me with tears coming down her eyes as I took him. And then the thing was, we told them that we would not adopt him. He’s not adopted. He’s a gift from God to us because he does have his biological brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. So he’s now ten years old, and there’s been a lot of prayer with John David because we homeschooled him from the beginning, and he’s just developed very well presently. Right now, we just started him in school. He seems to like school, which we’re happy about that because I thought maybe the homeschooling was… 

24:10
Karen Tessaro
He would have liked homeschooling, but he informed me he prefers school now because I think it’s not as hard as homeschooling is. The prayers really worked there and the family, the brothers and sisters, they do see each other off and on and now and all of that. So yeah, prayer during that time was a big one for the church. Like I said, when the crises are going, we’re praying over those. For the Lutheran church where we’re at, the prayer has been that members come to know the Lord Jesus because Prosperity has come into Nigeria. Prosperity ministry has come into Nigeria and the Prosperity ministry doesn’t believe in suffering, but always getting blessings. So when you get blessings you really don’t feel you need Jesus. 

25:02
Karen Tessaro
So now to be talking to them, bringing them back to see what the real gospel is, that having a car or big job or whatever doesn’t bring them to eternal life, that they now need Jesus. So we’re trying to bring Jesus back into the church setting instead of prosperity. 

25:23
Emily Wilson
And prayer being central to that, of that relationship that they have with God. 

25:29
Rich Rudowske
Now after many decades in Nigeria, I’m sure it’s very much home to you. What do you think people back here in the United States might learn from some of the folks that you spend your time with in terms of faith and how they approach the world? That would be useful, yes. 

25:48
Chuck Tessaro
People have seen a lot of suffering there. They’ve lived through difficult times. They’ve seen the Biafran war where they ran away from home on foot and basically stayed away for two or three years in the southern part of Nigeria and ate whatever they saw. So people are very grateful for what they see. It’s difficult to eat food without giving thanks to God for that food. It’s difficult to wake up in the morning without having morning devotions and thank God for helping us through another night. It’s difficult to go on a car trip without asking God to protect you on the trip. And it’s difficult to arrive without thanking God for a safe arrival because people have lived through difficult things. Unemployment rate is extremely high, yet people smile a lot and they’re happy because they’re alive. 

26:30
Chuck Tessaro
God is still taking care of them in spite of challenges, they’re alive. Those are things I think we could. 

26:35
Emily Wilson
Learn a lot that’s beautiful and so important for us to remember of that relationship and that mindfulness that the Lord is always present and he sees you and he knows you and he will lift you up. How can we be lifting you up in prayer before the Lord? 

26:55
Karen Tessaro
Well, we really do appreciate the prayers that people here have been praying for us. People have been giving words of encouragement because now we have Internet and they can give us words of encouragement, letters still, we receive personal letters from people that when we open them up, we’re encouraged to read from them. So those are really important. The pastors allow me to go in their Bible studies online. So I appreciate that because I’m like, okay, I would really love a Bible study and they allow me to enter the class and all that online. So appreciate that. Also appreciate just that people are always willing to help us know, supporting us, giving us prayers for our health, prayers for peace where we are at. Thank God. We have not had malaria for some years, so we praise God for that and that too. 

27:54
Karen Tessaro
In Nigeria, people really pray for good. When they have good health, they really thank God for that. So praying for, as we are getting older, the ability to continue doing the work with them. We like the prayers that the people there have taken us as like one of them all these years. It’s been 38 years; without people’s prayer and support here, we know we wouldn’t be there. So we just praise and thank them so much for their prayers and support for us. 

28:25
Chuck Tessaro
Then we also greatly would appreciate prayers for Reverend Kierian, Reverend Linus and the various translation teams working hard to see that God’s Word gets into the hands of people. 

28:36
Rich Rudowske
All right, well, thank you so much for spending time with us today and for your long standing service in Nigeria, too. Praise God that he has brought you this far and for all the different relationships and connections that you’ve been able to make. So it was great talking with you today. Thanks for being on the podcast. 

28:50
Chuck Tessaro
Thanks for having us. 

28:51
Karen Tessaro
Amen. 

28:57
Emily Wilson
So, with Reverend Chuck and Karen Tessaro, I just really appreciated the interview because as they’re talking about these places and spaces and the people that they walk alongside, I was envisioning the time that I was able to spend with Reverend Chuck Tessaro and Reverend Linus Otroni in 2018 in Nigeria. And just the impact in seeing people’s faces of when they were hearing God’s Word or when they were wrestling with translating a passage, but everyone having that common goal, that God’s Word would be in their hands. It just captured my imagination, hearing about it and just reflecting back on that experience and the power of prayer in the middle of the translation process, in the middle of life in general. But this is God’s Word and it is so important for people to be able to hear it and know it and understand it. 

29:54
Emily Wilson
And for Chuck and Karen and for their colleagues in Nigeria, and for the people that they walk alongside in congregations and in their communities, how important it is to come together in prayer that they would know God’s Word in the over 500 languages in Nigeria. There’s still so much work to be done. 

30:14
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. And Chuck talking about the importance of the Old Testament and bringing in and especially the Psalms, I can just picture the people love to sing and love to sing those Psalms and how that will just plant that Word deep in their hearts. And as Chuck said, you work with the church, you work through a lot of things, but ultimately you put God’s Word in their hands and let them wrestle with it and see where it lands. We learn new things. They learn new things. And together the church is built up and edified. 

30:40
Emily Wilson
And I mentioned in the podcast interview that prayer is the strategy. And we need you guys. We need you partnering alongside us in prayer. So if you are not yet an official Prayer Partner with us, we want to encourage you to sign up to receive our prayer calendar. You can visit lbt.org and at the bottom of the page you can sign up to become a Prayer Partner by email, but we would also be happy to send that by snail mail. 

31:10
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/podcast or subscribe on Audible, 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.

The Essentially Translatable Podcast is edited and produced by Audrey Seider. Executive producer is Emily Wilson. Artwork designed by Caleb Rodewald and Sarah Rudowske music written and performed by Rob Veith. I’m Rich Rudowske. So long for now