Now that consultant checking for Luke has ended for this year, Art is back to putting a lot more effort into Acts. People don’t often realize all that goes into translation of Scripture. Since we are now in the States, we are having the Dadjo team in Chad work on the first draft of the chapters of Acts on their own. Then they send us their copy and Art spends many hours and days going through the passage and putting notes down of questions or corrections that need to be made to make it more accurate. Unfortunately, there are many times and many chapters that we receive from the team where Art is having to put down hundreds of notes for one chapter. This is very draining and frustrating, but must be done to ensure an accurate Scripture rendering. Then the team responds to those notes and replies with a 2nd draft of a chapter, to which Art writes back with more questions. This goes back and forth for between 3 to 5 drafts before Art feels that it’s ready for testing with other local Dadjo speakers.

Then if the locals have some confusion or suggestions, another draft is made to improve the clarity and understanding further. Then this last draft is ready for consultant checking, the last stage before publication/distribution. For large books like Genesis, Luke and Acts, this process is about 2 years per book. sigh

It is hot in Chad.  Temperatures were creeping into the 100’s when Art was there in Feb, and there’s not been much relief since. Tomorrow’s high is 106 F in the capital and a bit warmer still in the Guera where the Dadjo live.  Those living at the foot of the “mountain” (like we used to and our colleagues still do) have it especially hot.

In the past few years, we’ve had several expatriate friends finishing up their work in Chad and leaving back to their respective countries.  We missed seeing them go when we were still living in the country, and after we left, still more friends were leaving.  This month, another family we are great friends with have returned “home”.  Our children often say that they really miss Chad and want to return some day, but when the people they knew are no longer there, Chad becomes a very different country for them.  They still want to go back to at least visit.

 

Today was the last day for checking on book of Luke.  We were hoping it would be finished after these three weeks, but in the end, it is just half way done.  With the couple of setbacks and hard passages, this book is taking longer than anticipated, but God knows, and it’s all in His timing anyway.  We are thankful that half IS done, and now wait to find out when the second half of the book can be scheduled.  I think we were already told that it will be early 2015 at the earliest.  So  now we press on with the first several drafts of the book of Acts.

This is the last week for checking on Luke.  It will not get done this year, so we hope that another checking session can be scheduled for next year.  Yesterday, as the work was going on, word came that the new translator had to be called away to attend a funeral of a family member.  This was a more distant family member, so he was only called away for part of the day, but all the same, it makes one wonder about what we are up against in trying to bring God’s word to these people.  In the meantime on the homefront, Art is making more progress on the next book, Acts.

Yesterday in Chad there was a memorial service for Ruth, a dearly loved colleague who spent more than 30 years bringing the Word of God to the people of Africa.  She spent most of her time initially in Cameroon, but after completing her work there, continued on to help us in Chad.  She retired only a couple years ago, and even then, spent time visiting and encouraging her friends back in these countries.  We remember fondly the times we spent together over a meal at her house, her prayers for us before each trip back to our village, her encouraging words and the translation work she helped us with.     We love her and will miss her.

Last week consultant checking on Luke had to stop because of a death in the family of one of the team members.  A replacement was found, but in his first day of work, it was found that he would not work out.  So once again, Luke is at a stand still.  Another man is coming in on Thursday to fill the empty spot.  He has done this kind of work before, so he should work out to some degree, but still not as good as the first man who had to leave.  We’ll see how it goes.  We’re told that, because of the delays, Luke will not get finished with checking this year.  We still hope and pray and wait to see what will happen.

Today we got some news that is sad but also throws a bit of a loop in the progress of finishing up the book of Luke.  One of the key people in the checking of this book just found out today that his father passed away.  He left the capital as soon as possible to make his way the 7-8 hours back to his village to be with his family.  So this is sad news for him and a bit of a shock as well.

On another note, this also means that no work was done today and a replacement needed to be found.  Thankfully there is a man coming to fill his place on Monday, but the replacement is not near the caliber as the other, so the work on Luke will be progressing much slower at this point forward.  There was already set aside 3 weeks to finish the checking of Luke.  With what happened today, it is doubtful that it can be finished without adding a couple more weeks to the plan.

Checking started for the gospel of Luke this week.  We got word for the consultant in Chad that it is going well so far.  Because of how big of a book Luke is, checking will take at least a few weeks to complete.

A trip was recently made to the Dadjo people.  It was good to visit with them and get more work done.  At this point, by next month Luke will be done and Acts half done.  We are very pleased that progress is still being made in bringing God’s word to these people even though we are no longer on site.