• 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.