Many of the Christian Kogi Indians that were forced out of their farms and homes are now resettled on their own farm. The dry season is ending and they are just in time to plant their crops of platanos, yuca, bananas, malanga, and arracatcha. They lack tools, and a great many kogis are jammed into a small farmhouse. They need funds to buy an adjacent piece of land that has palm trees growing on it to build thatched roofs for their homes. The best part is that they are all living together in harmony as Christians should. One young educated Kogi just finished reading our book, "High Adventure in Colombia", in Spanish. He said tears came into his eyes as he realized all that we went through over 30 years ago to plant the Gospel in the Kogi tribe. He thanked us profusely and said that undoubtedly Chad was the only person who could of done it. Thank God that he was willing to be used by God for that purpose. Chad just had a cancer scare as my PSA indicator for prostate cancer was rising rapidly. After much prayer, it has gone back down which is not supposed to happen. It made me realize how short this life is and encouraged me to make every minute count. Russell is convinced we are in a great final spiritual battle, and he has been staying up working until 3:00 a.m. every night doing the final revision of our Spanish Bible.
Praise the Lord, he just called to tell me that it is in the print shop, and the first copies of a 5,000 copy printing are just now coming off the press. Russell says: "I would l like to point out that these are not just any Bibles. We have spent over seven years carefully revising this Bible. First, we checked the oldest and most reliable Spanish manuscripts that were translated in the heat of the Reformation, back in 1569 and 1602. Then we carefully revised this material against the English King James and the earlier Bible of William Tyndale of 1534. At the end of this process, each key Greek or Hebrew term was checked and tracked and accounted for through the entire Bible to make sure that the same thing is always translated the same way, and therefore the terminology is consistent from beginning to end. (Therefore for instance, if you wand to study and define a key term, such as righteousness, all you have to do is study the verses where this term occurs, and the use and context will properly define the term because it is not mixed up with other words or synonyms that may have slightly different meanings.) Finally, the grammar, spelling, and punctuation were brought up to modern standards with great care so that none of the depth and content of the original would be lost. This has resulted in an exceptionally clear and easy to read text." I said, "Russell, where did you get all that money ($20,000) to print the Bible?" He indicated he was following my long example of doing things on faith. He said, "We don't have to pay it for a month, and surely God will put it on somebody's heart to help us." This would be seed money since the Bibles will be sold at $4.80 each and enable us to continue reprinting them. |
