Acts 16 happens to be my favorite story from the South American Spanish story set I worked on. It’s the story of the slave girl who has a spirit of divination and she follows Paul and Silas around Philippi. Paul gets fed up and casts the spirit out of her; her owners become angry; Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown in prison; earthquake; Jailer tries to kill himself; Jailer and family saved…..Lots of action which makes for a great dramatization while telling it.

It just so happened that this was the story the Uganda team was going over with their consultant-in-training, so it was easy for me to follow along. Especially since they’d sometimes turn and ask me a question!

The questions came, and came, and came from their consultant…..Who is Lydia, what does she sell, where does the story take place….And also the hard questions: what does a “spirit of divination” mean? That was one the team wrestled with for a while as they hunted for a clear and accurate meaning. Several versions of Scripture were pulled out (and my tablet was borrowed several times during this process as I had quick access to a plethora of English versions)

Section by section the team went over their draft of the story to make sure the setting, the people, the happenings, etc…were accurate. Question by question they wrestled out a clear and accurate meaning. After sitting with them all morning, they hadn’t finished the story by the time lunch rolled around. Translation is a detailed and tedious task to make sure that Scripture remains true.

As you remember the teams, please keep them lifted in prayer as they wrestle each day with how to translate. Also pray for their Spiritual protection as distractions, family problems, struggles, etc…are amplified or come up as there is an Enemy that does not want the Deaf to hear!