Pray for Sekadau Bible Translation Project
Paul and Bella Gervasi minister among the Sekadau people of Asia Pacific. “We have been asking you to pray for our translation check. The translation checker came, and we began the check the next day. [It] was scheduled to last 12 days. After seven days of checking, we [were] finished. There are reasons why this translation seems to check quickly. [The] language is not really complicated, and we have very good native language helpers. We have had two different translation checkers help us through the years. This time the man who helped us came from the island of New Guinea. Aside from checking our translation, he is a real blessing to both Bella and me and to the believers here. He taught the church on Easter Sunday. He even used the Sekadau translation in his PowerPoints.
“So, what is next for us now? Well, to start with, we are not finished working on the translation. I have to finish writing the book introductions. We have to decide what pictures and maps we want to include. And we will be asking the believers here to do multiple read throughs of the Bible in order to catch any misspelled words or typos. Once the read throughs are done, we need to send the translation to someone who will set it up to be printed. We understand that will take about three months. Then we will have to send it to a printer. We are planning on using a printer here in Asia Pacific. We have been told that the printer will take about six months to finish printing the Bibles.
“During the time that the Bible is being set up and then printed, I will be revising all the Bible messages and lessons I have made through the years. That will be a huge job. We plan to print the lessons out and then have them put in books. We will also leave digital copies for them. The digital age is slowly reaching even here, in the middle of the jungles. In fact, many of our folks have the current edition of the Sekadau Bible on their phones. Please pray for the read throughs, set up and printing of the Sekadau Bible and for the believers here to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord.” Pray for this long process of getting the Bibles printed.