Wow, it's hard to believe that 3 days from now I will leave my home for the past 3 months. The last couple of weeks have been incredibly full with many meetings, projects, and planning, including the XEE development.
Maryse gave me the materials back at church on Sunday, and we agreed to meet Tuesday afternoon before the meeting I had with EEI. I used much of Monday evening to skim over her corrections in the 76-page handbook and read through the 29-page DVD script. I'm so incredibly thankful for Maryse's help who volunteered her time completely to do this time-consuming work. I thanked her with some European chocolates and a "Thank You" card. When she followed suit and thanked me, I was wondering why; but I realised that she is truly appreciative to have someone who is working on bringing this evangelistic tool to France and the French people. Moments that touch like that on a heart level make what I do worth all of the challenges that come along with it.
That afternoon's meeting I was able to ask for the English script as I wanted to compare the two. As I began comparing the next day, I learned the hard truth: the French translation I received is missing 29 pages (half of its content)! What a setback! 😢 Yet, God is still on the throne and saw this as no surprise. That said, this poses several dilemmas. I'll spare you the details, but would you please pray for wisdom and strategy as how to best proceed?
The more I compared the two translations, the more I realised there is more work to do in the revision process. What started as me asking a few questions turned into over two hours with French friends Sara and Clara hashing out the nit-picky nuances and cliches to improve some of the translation. I'm well-acquainted with the tedious, even taxing mental exercises translating requires and am super blessed that these two would give their time at the end of a long day to help the dialogue sound more suitable for French youth who will be using the materials.
I was tempted to be discouraged that it gives even more work ahead since we only covered a portion of it, but I'm mostly thankful to have had a couple of hours with the closest thing to a team on the XEE project I've had so far.
Please thank the Lord with me for all of these French women who have helped advance the XEE project. Please continue to pray for guidance, provision, and protection over the process. It might be a while before you hear from me again via the blog. :)
