Translation prayer letter

We are currently working on the book of Romans, which is very challenging.
I am learning all kinds of details that I never thought to ask about before.
Like what does it mean that the law is spiritual?  Does it mean that it was
given by the Holy Spirit? or that it is for the spirits of people?  Kabiye
doesn't have a word for spiritual, so you have to decide what it means.  We
ended up with suggesting:  The law comes from God.  That seemed to be what
most of the commentators thought it meant.  Another question that comes up
over and over is whenever you have to translate the word "through".  In
Kabiye 'through' is a verb.  In order to say 'through', someone has to pass
through something.  For example, 'God passed through the Spirit and gave the
law.'  Sometimes it's not clear who is doing the passing through.  For
example, Romans 5:11 says, 'More than that, we also rejoice in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.'
The first 'through' is easy:  We pass through our Lord Jesus Christ and (we)
rejoice in God.  But the 2nd 'through' is unclear.  Does God pass through
Jesus Christ and give us reconciliation?  Or do we pass through Jesus Christ
and receive reconciliation?  Is it possible for Jesus Christ to pass through
himself and give us reconciliation?  (I don't think this last one is
possible.)  Our translation says:  God passed through him (Jesus) and
allowed us to be reconciled.


While working in the gospels, we went through an average of 2 chapters a
day.  Now that we are in Romans, we do about 10 verses a day.  Sometimes
there are 4 changes to make in one verse.  Please pray for strength and
wisdom as we continue to check Romans.  We are almost finished with chapter
8, so we are almost half way!
August 18-22 we will be taking a break from our normal work schedule to go
to Tsiko (where the hospital and most of the ABWE missionaries are) for Togo
Team meetings.  Because of abundant rain, the road is more difficult to
travel than it was when we came up to Kara.  Please pray for us to travel
safely.  On August 21, I have a dentist appoitment in Lome, which is about
an hour and a half further south of Tsiko.  We plan to drive down to Tsiko
on the 18th and come back to Kara on the 22nd.
Please pray also for our household helper, who is having some medical
problems.  She's been in Lome and Tsiko all this week trying to find out
what the problem is. (We've been surviving without her, but we miss her a
lot!)