Today I am in Nxamacere doing community checking with the Bakgalagari here. We are going through the Gospel of Mark and it is fascinating to hear the discussion going on among the people. We took 15 minutes to talk about how to translate “convulsing” when used in relation to demonic possession, complete with several people doing short impressions of different kinds of “convulsing” for reference! We’ve also discussed what it means to translate directly from the original language, without comparing or stopping in English or Setswana first. An important part of accurate translation!

The Shekgalagari language in this part of the country has been influenced heavily by the surrounding languages, so the dialect is a challenge, but there is enough common ground here to have everyone on the same page. Continue to pray for the translation work happening here in Botswana and for the hearts of the people who are waiting for God’s Word in their own language!