((From Beth))

Fantastic! My heart soared as I listened to the Pion Komba Choir sing this morning in Gbintiri. I have no idea what they were saying, but they were singing songs of praise with their beautiful, strong voices (Elijah is helping to translate the songs for us). The choir members arrived in their matching outfits with colorful scarves, and they are accompanied by a gentle rhythm of cadence made with their feet as they dance in unison while they sing. The smallest one of the group leads with a call of praise followed by the response of the group. Wonderful…music fills my soul, no matter what the language!

Once we finished recording the choirs, we returned to our make-shift recording studio, and continued our work on the Gospel of Mark. Kevin worked with the team recording the narrator parts while Nathan continued recording the part of Jesus. In conjunction with the local Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT) and KOLIBTRAP translation office, we decided to use the “prompting method” of recording. In this setup, each recording team has four people: one reads a phrase, the “voice actor” then repeats the phrase, another person provides quality control of the spoken part, and the audio technician records the session. This method should provide a more naturally spoken result as compared to just reading the text. Once we finished the longest scripts (the narrator and Jesus), we lined up the remaining “voices” to be recorded, and completed the whole Gospel of Mark recording at 4:20pm on Tuesday afternoon, a day ahead of schedule. Thank you for praying! This wildly exceeded my expectations.

We are enjoying our nightly gatherings under the stars to share, pray and reflect on the activities of the day. After another incredible day, I reflected on what can be accomplished when God’s people work together on a focused goal (in this case, an audio recording of the Gospel of Mark). LBT and the KOLIBTRAP translation office successfully provided “voice actors,” accommodations, and relatively quiet recording rooms (guinea fowl, laughing children and motorbikes are just accepted as unavoidable background noise); Ray and the pastors pre-arranged the choirs, testimonies and prayers as well as meals for the team and volunteers (no small task given the number of people involved, the lack of good cellphone connectivity and people arriving from long distances on foot or bicycle); and Pete, Kevin and Nathan are the tech geniuses, recording by day and editing by night, as well as team photographers and bloggers. We are so thankful to each and every one who came from near and far to patiently and willingly give of their time and talents to achieve this important milestone for the Komba people. Much has been learned, and still much audio editing to come…go Nathan and Kevin!

Please continue to pray for the team! We have been running full speed, and depend on good health and strength to endure the heat (in the hundreds here while you all are freezing at home) and fairly primitive conditions (yay bucket showers!). We are heading to Zamashegu in the morning, and are hoping for a better internet connection in Gushegu where we will be staying…so many more stories and pictures to share ?