Dear Prayer Partners,

Grace and PEACE to you. Recently a situation in a town nearby regarding a chieftancy issue came to a full boil and erupted. Houses were burned and people had to flee in the night.
While we are geographically close to the town where these problems took place, we feel safe as the situation involves clans other than the one related to our town of Nasuan. Our Ghanaian friends have been keeping us updated, and we have taken safety precautions, particularly in our travel since the town lies between us and Gbintiri where Nathan works.

Church leaders met together to actively pursue and help those involved pursue peace in this matter.

We are asking that you pray for these churches as they take on this courageous role—that they will have wisdom, good communication and discernment, and be able to act on their call to be peacemakers. The people here do not see this act of violence as a mere physical event that took place, but they are very aware of the spiritual implications that this type of thing has in their lives. Even though most are not Christians, they would be able to tell you that this struggle is not merely against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. Please commit this situation to faithful prayer.

May God’s peace and forgiveness abound,
The Esalas

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

As we leave 2009 and enter into 2010, we thought we might offer you a little summary of what has happened in the past year in regards to the Komba Bible Translation, Literacy and Scripture Engagement effort.  For most of our 6 plus years in Ghana we have not been able to show measurable progress.  But this year the project is beginning to show signs of accomplishing what many have intended for it.  Our prayer continues to be that all these activities will be used by the Holy Spirit to further His work and our Father’s will and reigning kingdom among us.

Highlights from 2009:

• 30% of the New Testament (NT) translation is completed
• 30 community based Komba literacy classes and 900 learners
• Printed the Gospel of Luke and are in processing of distributing copies
• Our leading churches are already using it each week as we follow the Year C lectionary readings!
• A Memo of Understanding signed with Bible Society of Ghana with plans to complete the NT by 2012
• Another successful year of local community support raising towards literacy classes (around 200 communities gave tangible support towards the project and also some gifts from the Ghanaian local government structures)

Some Future plans for 2010

• We plan to finish another 30% of the NT.
• We hope to open another 40 community based literacy classes (1200 new learners).
• We plan to do some developing and recording of Scripture Songs in Komba.

Grace and mercy to you all through our Present Lord Jesus Christ,

On Nov 28th KOLIBITRAP (Komba Literacy and Bible Translation Project) invited all Komba chiefs for the 2009 fundraising and Komba literacy promotion day. This year over 200 communities were represented and most of them made contributions to help KOLIBITRAP. The meeting was honored by the Deputy Northern Regional Minister of Ghana who came and led the way by giving a gift from the regional government towards Komba literacy. Two other local governments (districts) gave gifts also.

What all goes into organizing a Literacy Day in Northern Ghana? Read the rest of this entry »

The Boston Globe recently published this article citing research which indicates ‘microloans’ (less than $100 loans to individuals in the developing world) though good are not all they are cracked up to be (such as the key to end global poverty!)

I recently found a website called www.gotell.org.  I used it to help me take our last two Sunday gospel reading from Mark 10:17-31 and perform it orally for a sermon.  You click on Lections and it lists the various readings for the common lectionary. Most other lectionary including the LCMS series are fairly similar.  The great thing I found was the gospel broken down and formatted in oral episodes. There is a commentary on how to perform the text orally including voice intonations and things like that.  It is done by an excellent New Testament scholar Dr. Tom Boomershine.  You can also listen to audio performances.

• Praise God that Sarah finally recovered from a tough case of malaria, followed by a bout with an abominable abdominal condition.
• Praise that the books of Mark and Luke are ready to be reviewed by the consultant.
• Praise God for Chrstina’s time with our family and for her willingness to help the Federwitz family.
• Pray for us as we being to make more formalized plans for furlough in 2010.
• Pray for Greg Meier, the new LBT intern in Ghana, who will be working in the Komba area. Pray that he will adjust to village life and find good language learning partners, major goals of these early months.

Christina Riddle has moved down the road 45 minutes to David and Valerie Federwitz’s home. She will be lending a hand to that busy household, making our transition without her a little easier since we still see her occasionally. Pray that this situation will go well for her that God will continue to guide her paths as she considers what He has in store for her after Ghana.

Recently the LBT scholarship fund approved a partial scholarship in pursuit of a Master’s Degree to one of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana’s pastors, Rev. William Boateng. He has an interest in bringing theology home to the people of Ghana. He recently told me, “You have to bring the doctrine down to the people’s level. Using their language makes it understandable so God can speak to them.” LBT has made it a high priority for our African colleagues to receive high level training in translation, theology, and missiology so they can engage people with the Word of God in their heart languages. Please donate to the LBT scholarship fund to help more of our African colleagues like Rev. Boateng to receive scholarships to further the work of Bible Translation in Africa.

Recently when translating Mark 9:14-29 where Jesus confronts a demon that possessed a boy, Samson, one of the translators, was struck by the intensity of this conflict and Christ’s responses. In the NIV we find words like “arguing,” “overwhelmed,” “people…ran.” The situation is “hot” as Christ enters this scene. The evil spirit is ruthless, robbing the boy of speech, throwing him into convulsions, even trying to throw the boy into water or fire to try to kill him. Why couldn’t the disciples help? The father pleads, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus response is apropos — “If I can?! All things are possible for the person who believes.” And then the beautiful response, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!”

When Jesus confronts the spirit in Mark 9:25, he says, “You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you to come of out of this child and never enter him again!” Pastor Samson commented at this point, “If we never translated into Likonl (Komba), we wouldn’t understand the intensity of the kinds of conflict that Jesus got into.”

Komba has one word, tukpaabig ‘deaf-dumb’, which is a confrontational insult to the spirit but is also true of the spirit since it causes deafness and muteness. Samson never pictured Jesus as issuing insults, even to evil spirits. Reading in English makes it easier to gloss over the intensity of the conflict, and makes the story not nearly so poignant for most Komba readers. (Do I dare say even we first language English speakers miss some of the intensity of Jesus and the conflict in this passage? Lord help our unbelief!)

The demon responds again by throwing the boy into a convulsion that was so bad the people murmured, “Fine, now he’s dead.” This shows the people’s real fear that these demons should not be messed with, doing so only makes them more angry. But Jesus simply takes the boy by the hand and raises him to his feet. He tells his disciples, “This kind of demon can only be cast out by prayer.” Ah, what a great passage, and our prayer is that it will grip Komba people the same way it is gripping the translation team! Lord we believe, help our unbelief.

Summer seems to be sailing by. With fields of growing crops surrounding us, more moderate temperatures, and a break from school, it’s a happy time at the Esala home. Our two weeks of meetings in early June with LBT colleagues and Ghanian partners went very well. Thank you for your prayers. We came away with a deep appreciation for the wonderful people we get to work with here in Ghana.

Since we’ve been back at home in Nasuan, we’ve undergone transitions. Here are a few of the major ones.

• Nathan is now making fewer trips to Gbintiri each week since the translators now come to our place a couple times a week to work. This has reduced his travel fatigue considerably, and he’s able to attend to things at home and in town more easily.
• Sarah has been busy organzing the home front (the kids now have official chore charts) and preparing for school that she has started with Karissa and Annaka beginning in August.
• At this point, it looks like we will only be taking one major trip between now and our return trip for furlough next spring. After a couple years of intense travel schedules, this is very welcome and we pray will renew us for our time in the U.S. when lots of travel is inevitable.

Thank you for your on-going partnership that allows us to serve here in Ghana. May God minister to you and meet your needs as you carry out his purposes in your life.