In Their Hands

00:00
David Federwitz
This is Emmanuel, God with us. The word of God coming into the midst of the comba. People. 

00:17
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the centrally translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. I’m Richardowski. 

00:22
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. 

00:24
Rich Rudowske
And happy thanksgiving giving, everyone. 

00:25
Emily Wilson
Happy thanksgiving. 

00:26
Rich Rudowske
In that spirit of gratitude, we are so excited to be celebrating giving Tuesday. It is coming up Tuesday, November 29, and really excited to be highlighting some scripture and distribution project stuff this year. 

00:39
Emily Wilson
Yeah, so Bible printing and distribution is our area of focus specifically for the Shikalahari New Testament, the Quaidam panoramic Bible and the comba full Bible. 

00:51
Rich Rudowske
Right. And where are those places? 

00:52
Emily Wilson
Oh, yes. So Shikalahari and Kwaidam are in Botswana, southern Africa, and comba is in Ghana, West Africa. But we are actually featuring some stories from around the world for this Bible printing and distribution. Just capturing some of the excitement because as people are getting involved in giving Tuesday this year, getting a glimpse of what is their work actually doing and being able to catch a glimpse of that even from stories of the past. 

01:23
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, and there’s nothing more exciting in the Bible translation world than a Bible translation dedication. So some of these dedications where there are events that sort of accelerate people getting a hold of the scriptures and starting to use them, and so that, of course, fits right in with Bible printing and distribution. 

01:41
Emily Wilson
Yeah. So our first guest is Jonathan Federowitz. He was a missionary pilot for over 20 years in Papua New guinea and experienced a number of dedications. And so he sat down with us and had the opportunity to share about his reflections on Bible printing and distribution in Papua New guinea. 

02:04
Jonathan Federwitz
All right, I’m Jonathan Federwitz and would just like to share from my experience in Papua New guinea. I’ve been in Papua New guinea for 23 years, and I was serving in Papua New guinea as a missionary pilot. And so I had the privilege to go to many New Testament dedications over the years because in Papua New guinea, we work in several hundred language groups around the country with Wycliffe Bible translators there, partner organization. And there’s no roads in Papua New guinea, or at least a lot of Papua New guinea doesn’t have roads, very remote, rugged, mountainous terrain. And so airplanes are very vital to getting missionaries in and out of remote locations in Papua New guinea. 

02:48
Jonathan Federwitz
And of course, important when it’s time to dedicate these New Testaments, dedicate the scriptures that are translated there, to be able to go in to bring guests in, take the missionaries in to have a special celebration for the dedication. And so, as a pilot, it’s been my privilege not only to support these language groups, but also to be there when the New Testament dedication happens, to be able to bring the guests in that come for dedication. So over the years, 23 years that I worked in Papua New Guinea, I kind of lost count of how many dedications that I’ve gone to, but I know it was over a dozen different dedications that I’ve gone to, and this was always a special privilege. 

03:29
Jonathan Federwitz
Know, of course, we’re there to translate God’s word, and so when you see the culmination of that in a New Testament dedication, it’s just so special to be able to be there, to be able to see the local people in Papua New guinea have God’s word in their own language for the first time. I’d like to share, particularly about experience that I had here just a year and a half or so ago, when I was able to go to the Gizra New Testament dedication in December of 2020. So it was right on the heels of COVID In fact, in the midst of COVID I would say there was kind of a lull in Covid in Papua New guinea at the time. 

04:07
Jonathan Federwitz
And so were able to have this celebration, which actually was scheduled for a month or two earlier, but was delayed till December because of COVID And so it was a time when there wasn’t much Covid in Papua New guinea, and so we’re able to freely travel, and I was able to take an airplane load of guests to the dedication. And so to get to the Gizra area, which is in southwestern Papua New guinea, we flew on a Kodiak aircraft from our mission headquarters in Ukarampa, Papua New guinea. Flew for about an hour and a half to Daru, which is a town in southwestern Papua New guinea. At Daru, then we transferred from the airplane to dinghies. 

04:54
Jonathan Federwitz
Our trip wasn’t half over, even though were more than 90% of the way there, but in time wise, we still had a ways to go, because on the dinghies, went down the coastline and then up a river to the village where the dedication was happening among the Gizra people. And that boat ride took about 2 hours. So an hour and a half by air, then 2 hours by boat ride, and then we arrived there. And as is typical at most dedications I’ve gone to, there was a welcome party. They had singing and dancing, what in Papua New guinea, they call a sing, which is the Papua New guinea name for singing and dancing in their traditional way. 

05:31
Jonathan Federwitz
And they always dress up what they call beelos in Papua New guinea, but dressing know with headdresses and with grass skirts and different decorations on their arms and legs, and so they sing and dance, and with all the visitors come, they put flower lays over our heads to welcome us. And so we arrived on Friday and then spent the night. And then on Saturday was the dedication of the Gizra New Testament. The translation had taken 27 years to complete. Nico and Ellie von Bodegrobin, missionaries from the Netherlands, were the ones who had been working on the translation for those 27 years. So a long time to get God’s word into the Gizra language. And so it was really neat to have a special celebration. 

06:24
Jonathan Federwitz
People came from almost all the Gizra villages, so on that Saturday, then we had the dedication, there was speeches, know the vips that were there, and there was more singing and dancing. There was, of course, the prayer of dedication from the bishop of the United church, blessing and dedicating the bibles. And then after the dedication was over, then they sold new Testaments to the Gizra people and they also sold Audi Bibles, which are audio recordings of the New Testament. And so people were able to line up and buy those. And that was neat. And it was really neat to see people just cherish God’s word in their language. 

07:11
Jonathan Federwitz
This is a language that never had a written form before, didn’t have books in it of any kind before, and so it really gave the people value, first of all, that somebody would come and put their language in written form. It gave the people value for their language, that they now had a book in their language. And this wasn’t just any book, but this is God’s word, this is the New Testament. And so you could see people who had been christians for a number of years, but just didn’t have God’s word, and you could see just the excitement and the joy and the treasure. And then there was people who maybe weren’t christians, didn’t know anything about it. But hey, this is exciting, I’m going to get God’s word too. They would come and buy it. It was neat to see the excitement. 

07:58
Jonathan Federwitz
And one of the things that showed me what a very special celebration this was is that they continued singing and dancing for the rest of the afternoon through the evening and right through the night till 630 the next morning, which is something special that they do whenever there’s a huge thing to celebrate. And this was a huge thing, like, they don’t celebrate like this often. It has to be something really special. And so in a sense that showed how special getting God’s word was to the Gizra people, because this was a celebration, unlike a celebration they’d had for years and years, and just to see how excited people were and just how much energy they had, just how they wanted to express their happiness and joy, just having a great time, just having a big party. 

08:54
Rich Rudowske
The thing I love about Jonathan’s story here, of course, he’s a pilot in all these remote language areas on this tiny island in the Pacific, Papua New guinea. And the only way you’re going to get around is by flying. And just the difficulty then of getting to the language communities for the dedication. Yes, but then for the work in the first place, too. And that commitment and dedication and service there and all the logistics to put together to make this launch happen. 

09:19
Emily Wilson
Yeah. And getting that reflection of that. This is a party through the night, right? That it’s hard to come together. It’s hard for having all the people in the single space. And that it’s just like, while we’re here, we are celebrating because we have God’s word and how long they waited for, you know, of all the things that we can celebrate in life, God’s word is so important to celebrate. And that picture of how Jonathan was talking about, there’s very few things that would warrant that kind of celebration. And I don’t know that imagery very often of how we see people holding the Bible to them after receiving it at a dedication or joy or sometimes tears. The dancing is just so beautiful. 

10:20
Emily Wilson
And I think that we can really be blessed in other parts of the world that we have had scripture for such a long time that what God’s word does and how we can cherish it. 

10:31
Rich Rudowske
I think so. It’s a really beautiful picture of faith as well, because in many cases, those folks have had very little exposure to what’s actually going to be inside that book. Right. They’ve probably heard some snippets, maybe they’ve heard some reviews or some allowed readings, but they have tasted a little bit, and they believe that what’s going to be in there is good for them. And it’s just, like I said, a beautiful picture of faith and hope in what God’s word will bring. Right. Next up, we have Jonathan’s little brother, David, our West Africa regional director, who has some great stories from several facets of his life in Bible translation ministry. 

11:05
Emily Wilson
So we hope you enjoy some of David’s reflections over the years. 

11:14
David Federwitz
There’s probably two dedications that are most prominent in my memory. One, when I was probably in 8th grade. It was the Kuwait dedication, the Kuwait New Testament dedication. And the Kuwait new Testament is the scripture that my parents were working on for most of my childhood. And that was, I think, maybe the most impactful because it was the first one I had attended. And of course, I knew all the translators that were involved in the process, the reviewers of that scripture. The thing that really caught my attention was the pomp and circumstance of it all as a kid. That was just amazing, just to be in the Kuwait area and see how they would do a program and the festivity of the program. Cutting palm branches and then weaving flowers into the palm branches. 

12:09
David Federwitz
And you have these archways that are made of palm branches woven together, kind of like braided hair. And then you’ve got the palm branches that are kind of fanned out, but then you’ve got all these colorful flowers attached to it and everything. So there was that kind of festival atmosphere, excitement. But then there were all the important personalities, people that, you know, are important, like the district commissioner. And actually, were just looking at old pictures here in the office not long ago and came across some of those pictures of the quad dedication. And I see the district commissioner who I just thought was just. He was a personality, right? And looking at him, and I realized at this point in my life, I’m older than he was at the time, but he just had that kind of an authority. 

13:03
David Federwitz
So you have this district commissioner sitting at a table at the dedication. And he’s sort of one of the things that was part of his, I guess, a symbol of his position is he always carried an elephant tail. And so he had this elephant tail laying on the table. And that kind of signified his office and the weight of the importance of his office. And there he is, seated right up front in a prominent location. I don’t know if he was a Christian or not, but he was there at this dedication event. And basically, as far as the government of Liberia, he was giving this dedication, the presence, the officialness that came with his office as district Commissioner for that area. And of course, then you have Kuwait chiefs and the elders in the Kuwait system. 

14:04
David Federwitz
Village chiefs were not like the greatest end all, okay? The chief elders. So his body of advisors were. And so at this dedication event, you had elders from different villages, different communities that came together for that event. So it really signified that just all the officialness from the district commissioner who represented the government of Liberia all the way down to kind of like the local authority structures of the Kuwait elders, just giving this event, all of the weight and impact of their presence, that was huge. And then there was a Kuwait Lutheran pastor who, he was a very prominent lutheran pastor at the time. He was the only lutheran pastor. But I remember him being in the Kuwa area for that Kuah New Testament dedication. 

15:04
David Federwitz
And I remember him reading the Kuwait scripture and people hearing it at the dedication and the excitement of that was really impactful. So I think something else that was really impactful to me as a kid was to see even how the Kua people recognized the work that my parents had done, specifically my dad. But to see my dad being recognized in Liberia, when somebody is recognized, just really appreciated and really esteemed, they would gown you. They would put on sort of the traditional liberian gown. So I remember my dad being gowned at the dedication event, the Kuah New Testament dedication event. And as a kid, looking at that and realizing that this is my dad has had an impact on these people to the point where they are recognizing him for his service. He’s just my dad. 

16:06
David Federwitz
Most of the time, I’m getting in trouble. Right. So he’s the one who’s the disciplinarian. But then to see that people respect him to that level and recognize what he did, that was incredibly impactful to me as a kid. 

16:22
Jonathan Federwitz
Yeah. 

16:22
David Federwitz
So I’ve been to a number of dedications I’ll probably highlight. The first dedication I went to as a missionary in Ghana was a dedication of a full bible in the neighboring language, the Bmoba language. So were working among the Comba people and the neighboring language, they were Bmobas. And the Lutheran Church in Ghana has a long, rich history in the Bimoba area. And so even as we began work in the Comba area, the Lutherans in the Comba area would often look to the bemobas as kind of like the older brother. They had probably been Lutheran 25, 30 years longer than the Comba Lutherans. And so there was just that kind of that just love and appreciation for them as being sort of older, mature, more mature in the faith. 

17:21
David Federwitz
And so I remember when the Bmoba full Bible came out, the Bmoba Lutheran invited us to go and be a part of that celebration. And so we represented just a small fraction of all the people that showed up for that dedication. And I remember that dedication. It was at the school. And they kind of used sort of the porch of the school or kind of the walkway of the school in Ghana. They say the veranda of the school, sort of as the stage area because it was probably up, I don’t know, maybe a foot higher than the ground. But then the rest, it was a very shaded area. A lot of the schools in northern Ghana have these shade trees, just grove of trees, because it’s so hot. And so know during the school day it’s hot. 

18:18
David Federwitz
And so between classes and at recess or lunch or whatever, kids go out under the tree and it’s cool. And so this whole area was shaded with trees and they just had just chairs and benches, just all throughout these trees. This dedication lasted hours and hours. And so were very thankful for the shade of the trees. But that was just nice to experience. And so it was nice for the combat translation team to sort of see the excitement that comes at the culmination of years and years of work and to see how people responded to that. At the B Mobid Bible dedication, there were numerous pastors and church leaders from different denominations all coming together. And it just was a reminder that, yes, we are Lutheran Bible translators, but the Bible is not just for Lutherans. It’s not a Lutheran Bible. 

19:25
David Federwitz
The Bible is for all Christians. And actually, quite frankly, the Bible is for non Christians. 

19:31
Jonathan Federwitz
Right. 

19:31
David Federwitz
I mean, that’s the wonderfulness of it. And so at that bemobile dedication, the thing that also stood out to me, I think, was the Bible sales, I guess. So you have this big program and you have people who come up and pray, different pastors who come up and pray. And you have songs, so many songs, festive songs. And you have different church choirs that come and sing, and you have speakers who speak and you get government personalities, like the assistant minister of something who comes. So you have all these speeches and personalities and everybody. But then you get to usually about maybe four fifths through the program. And that’s when the Bible is revealed. 

20:28
David Federwitz
And it’s such a climactic experience because you have all these prayers and speakers and songs and pomp and circumstance and prominent guests, people who come into the occasion, they’re not going to say anything, but their presence speaks. And so you have all this happening, but it’s all because you’re getting ready for the climax of the dedication event, where the Bible is uncovered or revealed or whatever. And I remember being at the bemobid dedication and just being so impacted by all that pomp and ceremony. But then as soon as the benediction of the dedication happens, then all of a sudden the announcement is, go and buy your Bible. And then it’s like all at once everybody’s attention changes from sort of the main stage, the event to where can I get my Bible? 

21:36
David Federwitz
At that dedication, they had these different sales spots so that you didn’t have to really wait in line too long. I mean, there’s still lines, but there were probably four or five different locations around the perimeter grounds where you could go and buy your Bible and you could get your brand new Bmoba Bible and carry it home with you. And that was a wonderful thing. I’m going to just maybe, just take a step back and maybe speak a little bit about things that are common to all the dedications that I’ve been a part of. English speakers have access to you. I give you that attestation. I attest that this is, you know, that was really a powerful message for him to do that. The consultant is somebody that is well recognized in Ghana in the. So for him to do that was really powerful. 

22:33
David Federwitz
There were a couple other things related to the Comba New Testament dedication that really caught my attention, and that is every dedication I’ve been to always has important personalities, always. But the Comba New Testament dedication had literally over a hundred Comba chiefs with their entourages. So in northern Ghana, when a chief goes on official business out of their community to somewhere else, they go with a number of people with a whole entourage. And of course, there’s different levels of chiefs. There’s some chiefs that are more important than other chiefs and that kind of thing. And so the higher the level of chief, the bigger the entourage. 

23:32
David Federwitz
And part of the entourage not only is like your elders, the advisors to the chief, but you have the drummers who drum for the chief, who let people know the chief is coming and that kind of thing. And so you have all these people. I mean, there were thousands of people at the comba dedication, probably. I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say it’s the largest dedication I’ve been to was that Comba New Testament dedication. And so you have over a hundred Comba chiefs. You have thousands of people, you have important government officials, you have important church leaders. The president of the Lutheran Church of Ghana is there to dedicate the. And so you just have all of this happening and it was wonderful. 

24:25
David Federwitz
At some dedications, the scriptures are already on a table and they’re kind of covered with a cloth or something, and there’s sort of like this revealing. Well, the table at the combat dedication was empty. All right? And so there’s nothing there. And this was an aspect of the dedication that I wasn’t actually a part of or I wasn’t involved in the planning. And so I was, like, a little bit concerned, like, well, where’s the Bible? Where are the bibles? Because sometimes there’s one Bible, sometimes there’s a whole stack of bibles. Sometimes there’s just boxes of bibles all stacked up, and there was nothing. It was just empty. I’m like, what in the world is going on? And we’re getting closer and closer. 

25:14
David Federwitz
I mean, I’m looking at kind of the agenda, and I see, look, we’re getting at the dedication of the Bible, and I’m not seeing anybody sort of bring in the Bible. And then the drumming starts, and all of a sudden, everybody’s attention turns away from the stage, and it turns towards the main part of town. And here’s this drumming. And here’s the thing about the drumming, is that it wasn’t just any old drumming. It was drumming that belongs, like, drumming that happens when an important chief comes, right? And there’s a special. Like, a chief has a particular drummer and a particular drum and a particular style. And what the dedication committee had done is they had gone to one of the most prominent comba chiefs and had asked permission to use his set of drums. 

26:14
David Federwitz
And they had brought those drums into the middle of the event space. They brought those drums there, and the chief’s drummers were drumming. But the chief himself was already sitting down. He was already there. And instead, here comes this procession. And this procession is coming. And at the forefront of this procession is the comba New Testament in this gourd being carried by this young lady. But she’s just the carrier of the scripture, and she’s surrounded by all these other people in procession, bringing the scripture into the midst of all those comba people. And it was what just kind of in that moment, what really just sort of impacted me or what I thought about is this is Emmanuel, God with us. God coming, the word of God, all right, coming into the midst of the Comba people. 

27:30
David Federwitz
And you have all these chiefs, you have all these people, and they’re all seeing this, and it’s all being done with this chiefly music playing. And that was just huge and amazing, and I will never forget it. It was such a wonderful experience. 

27:56
Emily Wilson
So I had the opportunity to sit down with David to capture these stories. And I love these are different phases of his life. The Kua, like talking about this is when he was a child, and just experiencing the sights and sounds of Liberia and growing up in that and also the interaction of seeing his father and in the community was just really encouraging and then moving on to the bemobile of know this is as he’s a newer missionary and a neighboring language community’s celebration of having scripture and seeing this culmination of the dedication, it was just really incredible. And you could see almost David was transported back to these places and spaces and yeah, it was so encouraging to be able to hear of what God’s word in their own language meant to them. 

28:54
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I just love the multiple Ways that in different cultures they show this is important. In one, putting a gown on the missionary that helped bring the translation into their language, almost as an embodiment of this incarnational act was required for the word to come into our language. And this PErson became incarnate and is indeed one of us, which is. And then you get the image of the word made flesh. And then with the B Moba, the different celebrations and things there, and then with the comba, they really struck me that as a kid, he got to see his dad be part of a scripture celebration. And then the full circle one that helped work on too. 

29:39
Rich Rudowske
And just those celebrations that attestation from someone from the outside saying, you’ve heard of these Bibles in neighboring languages, but this one is also the word of God. I just love the way that the word of God is shown to be important and how that finds a different expression in each place. 

29:55
Emily Wilson
Our next guest on the podcast is SaRAh Esla, who is now a regional director. But she was reflecting on her experience with the comba New Testament dedication in 2014, and just the sights and sounds and experience for the church as they had God’s word for the first time in their own language. 

30:18
Sarah Esala
So my family was involved with the Comba Bible and the translation process. We spent about ten years living among the comba in Ghana and assisting in the Bible translation work, and it really shaped our lives. And what impressed me at the dedication of the New Testament was that it just had the flavor of being comba that the culture that we had lived in so many years, we saw just that impression of it. It wasn’t somebody else’s celebration, it was very much theirs. And you could see that of course, in the music and the dancing and the formalities, there were lots of speeches given, which is typical of most things, at least in West Africa, and it just seemed to be true to context for them. And people were so happy. It was an enormous event. 

31:11
Sarah Esala
I think I’d gone through events throughout the years and I think this was by far like the biggest celebration around our project, and maybe a highlight for me occurred at the very beginning of the event, the New Testament, was ceremonially carried into the gathering by young women, and it was in large calabashes. A calabash is like a gourd that has been scooped out and dried, and it’s used for a lot of daily life there. I had eaten out of one and drank out of one many times. We used them regularly in our house, and here we had God’s word in this calabash. And I think it struck me for two reasons. Number one was that it was such an ordinary object and it was used ceremonially. 

31:58
Sarah Esala
I’d seen it used in many different ceremonies, like in the funerals, but it just seemed like God’s connection to something every day, something you use every day, seemed really great then. I loved it that it was young women that ushered in this scripture. 

32:15
Sarah Esala
A lot of the women just didn’t. 

32:16
Sarah Esala
Have the opportunities for education. And there’s a lot of pressure points on women in general in these cultures. And so to have them as part of this, it kind of sent to me the symbol that God’s word is for everyone in this culture. And this translation could be used by every single person. And that meant a lot to me. I wanted to see it happen, and I felt like I was seeing it unfold in front of me. 

32:47
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I love hearing Sarah’s story of the dedication. You know, my own personal story in Lutheran Bible translators is connected with the SLS being in the comba project. And so that was very meaningful for me from a distance as well. And I love, again, just that emphasis on how do we show this is important in our culture, and then that additional aspect of the women are the ones that carried it in, symbolizing that this is for everyone and how important that was for Sarah. And that is important that every time God’s word is translated and finds its home in a new language, and especially in the local language communities that are now waiting for God’s word. That’s an important message, that this is for you, too. 

33:28
Emily Wilson
Yeah. The everyday of it, know this is a huge yet, you know, thinking about Jesus, talking about that he is life, he is light, but he’s know daily bread, and that it is this sustenance, know, tied in with every facet of our, you know, with Christmas right around the corner. Thinking about that the angels appeared to the shepherds, who are everyday people, and that God’s word incarnate is for the everyday, for everyday people in their places and spaces, in humble dwellings and in mighty palaces, that God’s word goes forth and that we are all equal in his sight. 

34:15
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, and that’s such a great point that the everyday nature of things, after a big mountaintop dedication type experience that, hey, this word is God is going to find a place in your everyday life, is just part of the common christian experience as well. Next up, we’re going to hear from Botswana, down in southern Africa. Carl and Kelsey Groulke had a unique experience launching not a full Bible, not a New Testament, but just one of the books of the Bible, and we’ll hear from them the excitement of that and why that’s also important. 

34:46
Sarah Esala
One of the interesting launch events we got to be a part of was the launch of the Book of Mark in the language of Xie, and it’s called the Yai Bible Translation Project. And Mark was the first full book published in the Shie language, and it was the book of Mark, and it was right during COVID So March 2021 was time to launch, and Botswana kept very strict COVID protocols for a very long time. So there was rules like, you can’t have a meeting that goes over 2 hours, you can’t serve lunch. You can’t have more than 50 people at one meeting. Fortunately, meetings are often held outside, almost always held outside. So that was already taken care of. 

35:35
Sarah Esala
But for a launch, it would usually be an all day event with lunch with hundreds of people, and that wasn’t an option during COVID So what we did, we started with a dedication in Mawoon at a big church and had just kind of a few people, and then also had Zoom available for those who wanted to watch via Zoom. And that was kind of the blessing of the book. Same thing. They brought the book up in a basket of wheat or millet to show that God’s word is our bread, our daily bread, and we need it. And then from there, a couple of weeks later, a small team of us went out on a mini launch tour. So instead of having one big event, went to ten different villages and had meetings at each kotla. 

36:26
Sarah Esala
Kotla is the community meeting place, and that’s where the chief holds court or solves disputes, does all the things that chiefs need to do. And we would have these meetings at all the different kotlas in these different villages, and we could keep it under 2 hours, we could keep it under 50 people, and were able to have somebody say a few words. One of the cool things was that people that would not have been able to travel for a big launch event could easily make it since were coming to their village. So these mini launches that weren’t big day long events really worked well. It also gave me the opportunity. My job is more in the scripture engagement, end of things. 

37:08
Sarah Esala
And audio scriptures are very important to this people group because although most people can read in school, they’re taught to read in Satswana, the national language, and in English, they’re not taught to read their mother tongue. They’re not taught to read Shie. So it’s not like they have to learn to read from scratch, but it is a whole new set of skills. We call it transfer literacy. So they have to get this whole new set of skills, including in Shie, there are clicks, so you have to learn. Okay, the c makes this click, the x makes this click, and it takes a while to learn those skills. So we used Scripture app builder to create an app using the audio recording, which the team and I did. 

37:51
Sarah Esala
And then we could dump the audio files in, dump the text files in, and then it highlights along together so that people who are just learning to read their language can both read and listen. And that was a huge hit. And another benefit of having these small launches was that I could help different people install the app or just the audio files on their phones, because everyone’s phone is different and everyone’s going to have different problems with the SD card or with the Bluetooth transfer or however we’re getting it to their phone. But it was nice to have the mp3 files and the app so that it could play on a smartphone. Then you could actually see it highlighting along the text, or anybody with any phone basically could play audio files through a micro SD card. 

38:40
Sarah Esala
I mean, even the very oldest people here have at least a very simple cell phone that can play MP3 s. So were able to kind of let lots of different people listen as well as read their new booklet. And that was really exciting. And from those events, we’ve received so much feedback that people are now reading their language just from having this one book available, from having mark available in audio and in print. The team, when they go out on events, to go do community checking so that they can check the New Testament translation before it’s published. When they go to these community checking events, it used to be that they would read it to the group and then the group would answer the questions about it. 

39:24
Sarah Esala
But now almost every village they visit, they have readers that are reading it to them just from this one book and this opportunity to do mini launches instead of our traditional big launch event. And now that even Covid restrictions are gone, we’re kind of keeping the idea of these mini launches, because they’re so effective and so many more people are able to really engage with the Bible, and it’s awesome to celebrate it for a day with lights and cameras and everything exciting, but it’s even better to get people involved and using the scripture. We even listened to small portions of it during the event, and everybody was so excited to hear their language being played through a speaker to find out the ye are fishermen by trade. Traditionally, they fish along the Okavango river. 

40:14
Sarah Esala
And they were just so excited to really hear how important Jesus thought fishing was, that his disciples were all fishermen. I asked them, we would listen to a beginning part of Mark when he’s calling the disciples, and Jesus said, come follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men. And I said, well, what’s the most important thing you heard? And everybody said, they’re fishermen. They’re fishing. Everyone’s fishing. And these people, they are called Watsara is something. They call themselves the water people. And so water and fish and all those things are so important to the Bahai, and being able to hear about that was so important and so exciting to hear about in all the different villages. 

41:00
Emily Wilson
So this is a totally new kind of adaptation to have mini launches. And were really excited. They just launched with the Shia language program, the Book of Matthew as well, just this week. And so just how amazing it is that we’ve not only pivoted, but also the impact of people having all of these resources together, that something that everyone can agree on was just devastating of, like, okay, we can’t meet all together and celebrate together as a big group, but being able to make the most of it, of people are not only having God’s word, then this book published in their own language, but then also learning skills and being able to use that as the Bible translation goes on. 

41:50
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. This idea of being sure to accelerate the publication of text, even when it’s not a full New Testament. So the Gospel of Mark is what Kelsey talked about. Gospel of Matthew was just launched. It’s shown to be very effective in raising community engagement, and, as you said, to give those skills, as Kelsey talked about how the literacy works and people start to use the tools and to publicize and to remind folks something’s going on. When a program takes as long as these do, ten years, sometimes 15 years, we heard about 127 years. That little infusion of hope and showing progress and giving the opportunity, most importantly, to already engage with God’s word. Now, that book of Mark is God’s word. And those 16 chapters, God has something to say to people. And I love the incarnational nature of going to the villages. 

42:42
Rich Rudowske
And what I really liked about the mini events is that while there was a celebration, there was also the chance to just one one sit with people and their phones, to get them set up with the app and get that technology running. And being able to be close, ironically, because of COVID is really a beautiful thing. 

43:03
Emily Wilson
So I know that for the mini launches, that is something new, but the distribution of smaller chapters is not necessarily brand new. In your Shikalahari Bible translation program involvement, you guys actually did that, right? 

43:20
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, in Botswana, the group of us that were there at the time of the Shikalahari Luke launch, which was about five or six years ago, we had come up with a concept that we called just in time distribution, basically meaning as soon as something has been consultant checked and is approved for publication, it should be published, printed, recorded and distributed as an objective that were going for. And so not only our project, other projects also did similar things. But, yeah. So the Shikalahari, the first full book they worked on was the Gospel of Luke. And the really exciting thing is the Shikalahari language community is about to launch their New Testament in that final stage now of typesetting and getting ready to publish. And it’s really exciting that’ll be coming out next year. 

44:02
Emily Wilson
Yeah. And it’s awesome to see the excitement that it builds up in the community as people become more and more familiar of not only that this is scripture, but it is a means for them to be able to grasp it in the language that they know best and to be excited and to share that with their community. And that’s actually what we’re focused on doing with giving Tuesday. So this giving Tuesday in 2022, our goal is to put God’s word in the hands of 1500 people. So 500 New Testaments in the Shakala Hari language community, 500 Quidam panoramic Bibles, and then 500 of the complete Tacomba Bible. So these dedications are set to happen, Lord willing, in 2023. We ask for your prayers because supply chain issues, all the feelings from COVID just praying for those barriers to be broken down. 

45:02
Emily Wilson
1500 of these scriptures is $20,000. And so we just ask that as you are prayerfully considering how God might be calling you to participate in his mission, in what he is doing, to consider giving this giving Tuesday. So pretty small measure of kind of sizable unit of $10 or $20 for a New Testament or a complete Bible, if you want to get involved in that. 

45:33
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, and it’s so exciting that these programs are coming to these milestones. The Shakalahari Luke. It’s been a little while since something’s come out there and they are really excited for their New Testament there and again. Likewise with the Quaidam and the comba and our prayers for the work to reach that milestone and the excitement to build and dedications just like the ones you’ve heard described on this episode forthcoming, where again, God’s word in the hands of people, entering a new space, entering a new language, adding to the full expression of the christian church as we all wrestle with God’s word and in our languages to discover what God’s saying to us. It’s really a beautiful thing and a great way for you to be involved again in givingtuesday this year@lbt.org. 

46:21
Rich Rudowske
Givingtuesday you can take a look at all the great stuff that’s happening, and we encourage you to pray about and give to put God’s word in their hands 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 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 produced and edited by Andrew Olson. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was designed by Caleb Rodowald and Sarah Rodowski. Music written and performed by Rob Weit I’m Rich Radowski. So long for now.