Friday Field Notes

Newsroom

November 1, 2024

Check out the latest updates from our missionaries!

TRIUMPHS – Rev. Dr. Tim and Lisa Beckendorf

In anticipation of visiting with people who have been with us for years and years, I began thinking of what I could possibly share that isn’t already known. Looking back over the 19 years that we’ve been in Botswana seemed to be a good way to look at what has happened and what prayers and financial support have enabled. Honestly, I was quite amazed. We have had the opportunity to see tremendous spiritual growth in the communities. When we arrived there was an overwhelming sense of hopelessness because of many factors. Some of those factors still are pressing on the communities, and there are new ones, but for those who have come to know God’s salvation story, there is hope. “How richly God has blessed us . . .” is a refrain from one of the songs written by ladies in one village. Their economic and living situation hasn’t changed but their perspective has. The Holy Spirit is at work!

As we wait for the printing to actually happen, many of the Khwe are eager to have the Bible — and they want in now. So, before we left for the States, I used app building software that is specifically designed to work with the software that we use for translation to make the Bible available on a smart phone. This has been remarkably well-received and shared in the communities. Choirs are composing songs based on the translation. People are making dramas. The Holy Spirit is working!

beckendorf PRAYER LETTER

BACK TO WORK – Rev. Carl and Kelsey Grulke

One moment stood out as a break-through kind of event. As we were working through Ephesians 2, the translators struggled a bit with following the flow of the chapter. So Carl took time to lay out the structure of the verses and the line of thought that Paul is following. After that, we worked our way through the last half of the chapter, making tweaks and changes along the way to the translation, making sure that all of the pieces and parts make sense in Shiyeyi, which is a big part of our work.

But when we got to the end, Motswasele, one of the translators, sat back and said, “It’s like a new Bible!” What a wonderful testimony to the power of a good Bible translation! We even opened up our national language translation to compare, and the team was shocked at how much clearer our translation was. Praise God for the fruit of good Bible translation!

While we were in the US, the team here was busy with the distribution of the New Testaments across Botswana. They went to many villages where we are connected. The people are so excited to be receiving these Bibles, and we are encouraged to see how the people are already using the printed Bibles and the smartphone app with the audio Bible recording. This process is slow, but we are trusting that God will continue to work through it. The team will also be moving to the Maun office this month to start working with Carl here.

grulke PRAYER LETTER

IN THIS GENERATION – Ruthie Wagner

Our mission in Lutheran Bible Translators is to make God’s Word accessible, but our vision is “Vibrant Christian communities, deeply rooted in God’s Word, engaging fully in God’s mission, in this generation.” How can we do this when Bible Translation takes a decade or two?

Instead of waiting years to publish a booklet, I’ve been encouraging the team to to print and distribute in smaller increments with their office printer. The image on the left is from when they handed out copies of the first half of Genesis to the Kerewe community to see what they think. The response was thrilling as people immediately opened and read these little booklets!

During our training, I compared our changes with Agile to building a house for your wife. Instead of telling her to wait for years, you ask her which room she wants first. You build and finish that room so she can use and enjoy it while you work on the next room she wants. While in Tanzania this summer, I encouraged them to ask the community what small book they wanted to enjoy and use. They said, Jude. The translators used Agile and Scrum to draft and check the book collaboratively. It is now ready to be printed and distributed to the community. What a joy for the translators to immediately deliver something rather than tell the community to wait several years until the Bible is completed. We also hope this will inspire the community to suggest ongoing improvements and revisions to the translation before publication!