The Prices Write, December 2019, part 1
The crackle of the logs in the woodstove heating our small room, the dogs barking excitedly at the horse passing by pulling the wagon, the neighbors blaring pop music through open windows so the whole neighborhood can know that they have just had a grandchild, the door to the one-room office opening in the middle of recording … this was the atmosphere as we recorded, for the first time for us, a series of 50 stories from the Bible, and chapters 1 and 2 from the Gospel of Luke, in the Gurbet language.
My colleague, an audio engineer, traveled from Michigan to southern, Serbia, to be with us for a week, to train Goran and team to make audio recordings. The process of making audio recordings of the Bible is much more complicated than I had previously thought. In addition to needing to build a make-shift studio by hanging blankets on a metal rack to muffle the sounds, there were myriads of details to which we needed to attend. We went through three microphones until we found the best set up, ran into software glitches and setbacks when trying to upgrade the hardware so the computers could run the software to make the recordings. There was also the painstaking process of re-recording when the inevitable mistake is made in reading and the process of editing the recording and indicating where verses start and stop, cleaning up background noise or static, standardizing the audio tracks, so the volume does not jump up and down between chapters, etc., etc.
In the end, though, everyone worked hard for the week and the Lord was gracious in allowing us to record 20 Old Testament stories as well as Luke 1 and 2. To listen to these, go to www.rombib.com or YouTube.
We have been working on these translations for three years, and although we have put written drafts of the translated text online, we have always known that most people will be helped by listening to these stories and Scriptures before they will be comfortable enough to read them in their (up-until-now-only-oral) languages. So it was with extreme joy that we posted them to our web site and YouTube so we can freely share them with other Gurbet-speaking Roma. Now they can click a button and hear God’s Word in their mother tongue!
Kirsten will be home with us in Croatia, back from Black Forest Academy in Germany (pictured above trimming the tree at her dorm), for Christmas break. We look forward to having her home and being able to Skype with Timothy, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Stephen and Matthew back in the States who will be celebrating Christmas together.
Rejoice with us in these steps forward in bringing God’s Word to the Roma. Thank you for your part of praying and giving!
Todd, Pamala, Kirsten, Daniel & Ariela Price