It is great to be exhausted. What is it about working from sun-up to sun-down and eagerly waiting for dinner, with a hunger deep in your belly, that is so satisfying?

Betty, one of the young women we met several years ago in Accra, is on her 1 year of national service here in Gbintiri. She has volunteered to cook for us. It’s 8:00pm, and I can smell the onions and and chicken simmering in my titanium backpacking pans. I’m a bit light-headed from the heat today, but feel great. I’m enjoying a Starbucks instant coffee in room-temp water to help motive my blogging… it seems to be working :-)

Beth is busy marking up the passages we will record tomorrow. She has been orchestrating all the readers, running auditions, and coordinating. Naturally, everything is running smoothly in a wonderfully unique chaotic style that is part Swiss watch and part African party.

Kevin and Nathan were plunged head first into active, difficult recording sessions and emerged with smiles. They are in the other room, backing up their data files, and organizing their clips. Kevin led a team recording the “narrator” portion of the Gospel of Mark. They worked using a “prompting method”. Oscar read a part of verse in the newly translated Komba, and then James would say it clearly into the microphone. They worked their way verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Pastor Emmanuel carefully listened for mistakes. Once they fell into a rhythm, they worked quickly and efficiently, making it through almost 4 chapters of The Gospel of Mark in several hours.

Nathan and Ray recorded several people from the local church telling their story, then set up outside, where it was a bit cooler, and recorded all the woman’s parts from Mark. Whoowhoo.

So, to wind the clock back a bit and give people a picture of things from yesterday morning….

After flying from Accra to Tamale, we drove about 5 hours north and into the bush. The broken pavement gave way to the fine red dusty paths we use for a road, and now covers our packs and clothes. In Zamashegu we switched drivers and I took my turn navigating the muddy pools and avoiding rocks. It was dark by the time we reached Gushegu, and we drove another hour in the darkness before reaching Gbintiri. Finding the Lutheran offices was struggle — the electrical power was out and every dirt path looked the same. We eventually found a line of trees that looked familiar (yes, I know that sounds impossible) and drove into the compound, unpacked, and plopped into our rooms.

Accommodations are great for Gbintiri – our rooms have screens on the windows, so we have not had to rig our mosquito netting. We have a barrel of water that we use for bathing and cooking, and filtered water for drinking.

We took our chairs out under the stars and watched at least 4 shooting stars zip across the clear sky as we talked, relaxed, and prayed.

In the morning we attended Pastor Joseph’s church – a wonderful and colorful African celebration. Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to experience an African church service… Naturally, we all had a chance to dance. The little kids laughed at my most awesome and graceful dance moves. Kevin shot some video, but I’m betting he accidently deletes it before we get home.

In the afternoon we started the recordings.

And that brings us to now… whew. I know, more details, but it is 12:00am, and time to drive toward a hill, and try and get a cell signal, then prep for tomorrow…

So… there you have it. We will try and upload photos, but our connection is spotty at best. For the nerds out there, I’m getting 56% packet loss, and about the speed of an old 14.4K modem (probably slower).

Good day, but no internet. More later

It is clear our visit here will be over in an instant. This was our first full day of recording and it seems like we were just waking up moments ago. We started at about 9:00 and continued into the dark. We have made incredible progress recording the Gospel of Mark. At one point, we had three different rooms recording audio. We recorded 11 local church members, explaining how God has changed their lives.

Tomorrow morning we will be recording church choirs and drums. We are really looking forward to the music. The solo recordings are done in small rooms, with the fans off and the window facing the road closed. We take a break every hour or so and cool off and hydrate. The team has been working very well together, partnering with the local Ghanaians that have walked and cycled from the surrounding countryside for their chance to serve.

The local Lutheran Bible Translators have arranged for all of the voice actors who are reading. They have been wonderfully patient with the processes, as it has evolved.

Our Internet is pretty bad, so it may be a couple days before I can upload pictures. I did connect my normal cell phone last night and got a text from Naperville School System that the cold weather cancelled school. Thanks John for checking in on Paul, not that he needs any help… but as I have noticed with my parents, parents will always be parents, no matter how responsible you become. :-)

This evening, while sitting outside on our plastic chairs, we enjoyed the most spectacular shooting star any of us has ever seen. A sparkling, golden glittering streak had us gasping and shouting in Joy — a wonderfully perfect end to the day.

We go to bed tonight dreaming of the joyful sounds of Komba voices raised in unison we will record in the morning.

But before bed, I’m driving up to the hill, and hoping for a bit of 2G signal :-) Gotta love GPRS….

((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 ?

I seem to have better Internet, and can upload some photos, here is the first set.