Today we were in Xhauga, another village in the northwest region of Botswana. When we first arrived there, only 4 people had gathered for the community checking. After yesterday’s 25 people, I will admit to being a bit disappointed. The kgosi (chief) had only managed to start reminding people of the meeting yesterday, so I was planning to be thankful that we had anyone. But then God provided.
Not even 20 minutes later, there were 54 people gathered at the kgotla (traditional village meeting place) for this community review workshop. Men and women, children running around underfoot, all gathered there to hear their language spoken, gathered in support of the project to bring God’s Word to life in Shekgalagari.

A major point of discussion today came around Mark 7:16, a verse that does not appear in the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel. Explaining the manuscript process and how an error like this one may have been introduced was challenging and took quite a long time, especially trying to communicate through a translator! I still don’t know if everyone there understood it, but we tried our best as a team.

There are so many little pieces of the Bible that come out in these projects that can be daunting on their own. I give thanks to God that the Word has been given to us and that God continues to preserve it through translation!