The Chronicles of Meng

After 5 years filled with countless hours of labor, prayer, and struggles we have reached the end of the Setswana Audio Bible Project! Today, Levy and the team finished recording the final chapters. It seems fitting that it was Levy who brought the recording to the end as it was he and I who first began the recordings so long ago in a small room at the God's Window Farm. I want to first and foremost say thank you Father for sustaining throughout this journey and for bringing it to completion! Thank you also to the team, Levy, Joseph, Kori, and Samuel who narrated so wonderfully. Thank you to Christiaan and Johan our technicians who have labored to record, edit, and now finally master this project. Thank you to the listeners, Mama Agnes, Violet, Jakobeth, Justice, Sophia, Gladys, Kori, and Samuel! Without all of you this project would never have been completed. Lastly thank you to all of you who have prayed and supported this project financially from the beginning. A final run t...

For those who have been following the progress of the ABP, please forgive me for the gap in communications these past couple weeks. Things here have been quite hectic and it haven't had the chance to update the blog. That said the team has been moving along, making excellent progress. So much so that we should reach the end of the recording process by the end of next week! We are down to the final 181 chapters or rather the final 7 books of the Bible. The New Testament was officially completed this past Monday and hopefully this coming Monday Pastor Joseph will finish his portion leaving only Pastor Levy. I think it is fitting that Levy be the one to see this project reach its end as it was Levy and I who began it together 5 years ago in a spare room out on the God's Window Farm. It has been such a truly amazing journey and as I thought about it today I cant help but stand in awe of the Father's grace in seeing us through! It is also cool for me to think about the fact th...

So as another week comes to a close we are nearing 800 chapters recorded. Things have been going very smoothly at the new location and this week saw us finish 100 chapters or roughly 5 books of the Bible. It also brought us to within 20 chapters of having the entire NT completed! The narrators are both pushing hard to reach the finish line and the rest of the team is pushing right along with them. Please continue to pray for protection over everyone involved and grace to finish well!

Total weeks of Recording completed: 12 Books of the Bible completed: 44 Chapters of the Bible completed: 688 Verses completed: 16672 Percentage of OT completed: 52% by Chapter, 54% by Book Percentage of NT completed: 80% by Chapter, 93% by Book Weeks remaining till recording is completed: +-6wks Number of Tswana speaking people living in South Africa and Botswana +-20,000,000. Thanks again to all who are praying, who have given financially, and who have given of your time or resources to see this done!

After three full days in our new recording venue one thing has become very clear...we are almost to the finish line! It has been nearly 5 years now since Levy and I first embarked on this journey to recording the Tswana Bible. Along the way we have both faced many personal challenges that nearly caused us to give up and quit. Now being so close we can both, along with the rest of the team, taste the end fruit of all our labors and oh is it sweet! If Levy and Pastor Joseph can keep their current paces we will be finished with the recording phase of the project by October 18th! From there the technicians will go through the final editing and mastering and God willing by December the Tswana Audio Bible Project will at last come to a close. Please be praying for myself and the team that we will be able to finish strong and that there will be no more delays! Thank you to everyone who has helped with the project throughout the past five years, whether it was financial, in prayer, or thro...

For those who have been praying since my last post, I want to say a huge thanks! What I initially thought might turn into long arduous process actually only took an afternoon to sort out. We visited just two locations and found our new recording space. A local church (Tuine Gemeente for the Rustenburgers following), has generously offered us space in their sanctuary building to use for the rest of our project. What's great is not only will it allow us to get back to Monday-Friday and two sessions per day, but we tested the sound quality this morning and we are getting the same or better quality that what we have had at Lebone these past few months! Praise the Lord! With this move we should be able to finish now by the end of October or early November at the latest whereas if we had to continue with Lebone we would be finishing more likely December or January due to the limited availability of the rooms. It is exciting to think that we could be less than 8 wks from completion now!...

Well after a little over a month of recording alongside the classes here at Lebone I have been asked by Davar Partners Intl.(The overseeing ministry for the Tswana Bible Project) to locate a new venue for the recordings. In large part it is due to the continued interruptions and distractions that we have been enduring with the classes that run in the rooms next door to the studio. Unfortunately the studio was not designed to be totally sound proof and this has caused us to be greatly hindered in our daily production. While the individual narrators have done well in spite of the interruptions, there have been many days where we could have easily finished significantly more chapters. Moreover we might be getting even less time to record as the school has a number of recording projects of their own that they have informed me may start taking sessions away from us. All that said I will be looking into other potential venues this weekend and next week, hopefully we will be able to find an...

So last week ended up being very hectic, but also very good in terms of what we were able to complete. At the end of the week Levy was able to complete 88 chapters between Joshua, Psalms, and Proverbs! This puts us just short of 50% of the Bible! Today it is Pastor Joseph working through the Gospel of Mark. So far it has been a struggle largely because of interruptions. Please pray that we would be able to get on track and that the disruptions would be eliminated.

We have officially started our third month of recording. This week we have Pastor Levy for the entire week by himself. Yesterday he finished off Joshua and today is working his way through Proverbs. If all goes well he should be able to complete Proverbs today and hopefully then move on to finishing Psalms by weeks end. This should also put us over 550 chapters and very close to 50% of the entire Bible! Actually if you look at it from books completed we will be at 40 books of the 66 in the Bible! So close to being done! Please keep praying for myself and the team as we work to finish strong and that our team will not be hindered by distractions. Pray also for protection from illness as one of the techs and a couple proof listeners have fallen ill in the past week with colds. Please pray that the Lord would bring healing to those who are sick and keep the rest of the team in health so that the work can carry on!

Yesterday saw Pastor Samuel finish his portion of the project and pushed us over 400 chapters complete! We have completed roughly 63% of the NT and 35% of the whole Bible! This also means that we now only have two narrators remaining. When you consider that our goal has been to complete the project within 16-22 wks and we have now progressed this far in only 7 and a half wks I am very excited. For those interceding for the project please pray for health for the team. I missed most all of last week due to a cold and one of our techs has had continuous health issues causing him to miss a lot of time over that past few weeks. One of our remaining narrators also lives out of the area and has to travel travel through each week, please pray that he would be able to work out to come through more regularly so that we will not be delayed in finishing up the project!

Unfortunately I am home today with a cold, but the team is continuing on in my absence. This morning Pastor Kori will be finishing his portion of the narrating. It's exciting to think that we are down to three narrators now and hopefully by next week that will be reduced to just two remaining!  Please be praying for the team that they would be able to get much done and wouldn't be hindered by distractions this week. 

Hard to believe we have been recording now for a month and a half already. Based on our current pace we still have about 18 weeks to go or to be more specific we should be finishing up right around the first or second week of December. That of course is dependent on being able to maintain our current pace while minimizing interruptions. This seems to be more and more of a challenge and something that we really could use prayer for. While our narrators have done an excellent job, we simply keep running into one delay after another. Everything from interruptions from classes next door to random hardware issues to illnesses hindering team members, etc. Yesterday, for example, Pastor Kori was looking to finish his reading portion but came up a few chapters short simply because the team had continual interruptions from loud students in the classes going on next door. Several times the team was forced to stop for periods as long as 10-15 minutes waiting for things to quiet down. Also this ...

The scripture in the title is Matthew 6:1 and it is where we started this afternoon with the recordings. Its a rather humbling encouragement to us as we work on this project. When you consider the hundreds of man hours that are going into this project and the fact that at the end of the day there is little to no recognition for those involved it is easy lose heart and give up. Yet if you finish verse one you see there is a veiled promise that being reward from the Lord if you are willing to "practice righteousness" in secret. What excites me is that literally 15-20 years down the road there will be Tswana's out in some village listening to these recordings for the first time, hearing the Word for the first time! Who knows how many people will come to know their Heavenly Father, or how many people will transformed, set free, etc! Pray that we will not grow weary in doing good and that we will press on until the finish line.

Over the weekend we hit 25% of the Bible completed! This morning Pastor Kori is working his way through Hebrew and later today Pastor Samuel will be working to knock out 2 Corinthians. That will put us at 35% of the NT. Please pray for grace that we would continue strong to the finish!

As we near the end of our 5th week of recording we are closing in on 300 chapters completed. So far we have done roughly 23% of the OT and 25% of the NT. Hopefully within the next two weeks we will have at least one and possibly two of the four narrators finished with their assigned portions of scripture. That includes the minor prophets, all the epistles in the NT and Revelation! Something else that is exciting to think about is how God is working to redeem the Tswana people through this project. I found out just this week that the mountain behind where we are doing the recordings is the same mountain where for centuries the Tswana's practice animal sacrifice in honor of their ancestors. Isn't it amazing to think that in the very place where they practiced false worship, God has chosen to proclaim His truth! Oh that His light(The Word) would shine brightly in this place! Please be lifting up the team in prayer that we would be able to persevere and wouldn't be h...

Today we are working through the Gospel("Good News") of Matthew. Pastor Joseph, who is also narrating the Torah(first 5 books of the Bible), has been given the task of narrating the Gospels and Acts. It has been such a privilege working with these men and women over the past several weeks, seeing their dedication and commitment to excellence in these recordings. Already the four narrators and their proof listening teams have put in nearly 150 hrs in the recording studio and the techs have put at least that much time in editing and cleaning up the tracks afterwards. So roughly 300 man hrs so far in this project has gotten us to just shy of one quarter of the Bible completed. Please pray that they would be able to persevere to the end and would not be bogged down in the process. Also be praying that our interruptions and distractions from the school would be kept to a minimum.

So this week marks the beginning of the new school term in South Africa. For our Tswana Bible Project that means we have a more limited recording schedule during the week, 3 days instead of 5. It also means that we now have added challenges of background noise from students and activities going on around the music department where we are recording. Please be praying that we would have grace and that the interruptions would be limited so we can stay on track!

So yesterday marked one month of recording on the Tswana Audio Bible Project. Despite the ups and downs of the month we managed to complete nearly 250 chapters or roughly 21% of the Bible! It is a great start and I am hopeful that this is a sign we will be able to complete the project on schedule and finish by December. For those who have been praying for the project and following along, thanks and please keep it up we really need your prayers!

Today we crossed the 200 chapter mark! So far the team has completed roughly 18% of the OT and 12% of the NT for a combined 16% of the entire Bible. I am expecting us to have passed the 20% mark for the entire Bible by the end of the week! All this despite the many challenges and attacks from the enemy. Praise the Lord for His grace that is sufficient for the task! Please keep up the prayer for the team as well as the ministries overseeing the project(Davar Partners International, YWAM, and the SA Bible Society) just the day before yesterday the project director for Davar(the person I am directly submitted to for the Tswana Bible Project) was carjacked and had his phone, laptop, car, and all his project data stolen from him. Also one of the techs working on the project has also been struggling with an issue with he ear that has caused him a great deal of pain and discomfort and has made his work very difficult. He has been to several different doctors both here in Rustenburg as w...

For those who have been following along with the Tswana Audio Bible Project you know that we have been experiencing our fair share of resistance and spiritual warfare in undertaking this task of recording the Tswana Bible.  In my role as field coordinator for the project I largely am a behind the scenes observer. The narrators, proof-listeners, and technicians are the ones who are directly responsible for carrying out the work. My job is to make sure it all runs smoothly and stays on schedule. Mostly this has involved sitting in on all the sessions observing, offering advice where necessary, praying and interceding throughout the day, and managing the schedules of the various narrating teams. Also due to the fact that many of the narrators and listeners don't have cars of their own I have also undertaken to transport many of them daily to and from the recording sessions as there are no taxis that run to the school.  During the recording sessions though I have had a l...

And so we have begun another week of recording. Each week seems to come with its own challenges. This week the challenge is to find three new proof listeners by weeks end as three people have had to step aside due to work. Please continue to pray for the narrators and listeners that they would be able to work well and get much done. Pray also for grace for the technicians as they work hard to ensure good quality recordings and as they are going through the editing process which is very intensive.

For those who were praying yesterday I want to say thank you so much! Please continue! Despite all the struggles with computers crashing, speakers not working, people getting sick, we still managed to get 17 chapters done yesterday. My hope is that today without all those distractions that we will get even more done. We have started well this morning and after our time of intercession you can tangibly feel a lighter spirit in the room. Please continue to pray for grace for the team and protection from all the schemes of the enemy! Also for those who are checking out the blog, please feel free to leave comments and encouragements for the team and I will pass them along. Lastly if you want to specifically be a part of the intercession team for the project please email me at matt@ywamrustenburg.org and I will send you direct email updates and prayer requests throughout the project.

Please be praying hard for the team and the project! The enemy is fighting hard to keep us from progressing today. This morning started with one of our listeners not showing up. When I called her to find out what was going on I discovered she had fallen ill in the night and had to go to the doctor this morning. We were able to get another listener sorted for the morning session and were doing quite well actually getting quite a bit done and then suddenly the hardware issues started. First the computer started hanging, then it crashed altogether! Initially we thought we had lost 3 chapters of recording, but we eventually figured out that the audio files were still there. Unfortunately the project file(the file that organizes all the audio clips and contained all the edits we had made during proof listening) was lost which means that Christiaan(one of the techs) will have to spend the rest of the day rebuilding that before we can continue on in the morning. And now as we start the second...

Please be praying for the ABP and the whole team involved. As we are entering our third week of recording, we have been really struggling to find a rhythm. We currently are off pace to finish by our original goal of November and now it is looking more like December or even January. To all those of you who are intercessors, please be praying daily for the project. Pray for the narrators that they would have grace and the anointing of the Holy Spirit as they read. That they would be able to read well with few mistakes. Pray for the proof listeners that they would have ears to hear. Pray for the techs and really all of us that we will not grow weary in doing the good work laid out before us. Please pray for me that I would have wisdom in the scheduling and that I would be able to help bring the best out of everyone involved. Last please pray protection over all involved including our families. There seems to be a lot of sickness and other health issues going around within the team and w...

This morning we are working our way through Amos and the minor prophets. The team has shown real dedication so far, showing up at 7am each morning and usually only leaving at 6pm in the evening. It has been great to see how focused they all are at making sure we present the best possible recordings to the Tswana people!

We start every session with prayer, knowing that nothing worth while can be accomplished without prayer. So far we have completed nearly 50 chapters or about 5% of the Bible. Please be praying for grace for the narrators as it is an intense process. Pray also that The Lord would enable us to keep on schedule without sacrificing quality in what we are doing. 

Starting week two of the recording phase. This morning it is Levy reading through Joshua. So far we have made it through chapter 11 including the proof listening. This afternoon will be Pastor Joseph continuing through Genesis. 

For those who read our most recent newsletter you know that the Audio Bible Project has been reborn under the direction of Davar Partners International. Davar specializes in bringing the Bible to the oral cultures of the world in their own heart languages in audio format. You may remember that I was previously partnering with Davar in order to facilitate the distribution of the Tswana Audio Bible. Unfortunately, for various reasons, we are unable to utilize the recordings that Levy and I previously completed and thus with the financial backing and direction of Davar are beginning the recording process again. This time around we have been able to find 3 additional narrators as well as 8 proof listeners involved in the recording process. Personally I am thanking the Father for the two recording technicians from Davar who are handling the actual recordings. My role in all this is to make sure that everyone stays on track and to organize the schedules of all involved. As of Tuesday we of...