Typesetting Matthew

Well, it wasn't really on my radar of possibilities to be printing a book of the Bible during my first term on the field.

Just so you know, this doesn't usually happen...

Really, Matthew has been in the works for 6 years now, and I just so happened to step in at the 11th hour to give it a solid push over the finish line.

But now we're in town and before I've ever done a draft or adviser check or any other checks normal people do first, we're typesetting. 

This has resulted in confusion at times where people think that because I'm typesetting, I should be intimately familiar with every thing translated and every decision that's been made on this project. 

My catch phrase is, "Hi, I'm new here." 

But it's been a fairly smooth ride and a fun process that is ALMOST OVER!

At first it was fairly work intensive as we finished up spell checks and making sure they and key terms were consistent throughout the book. There were final read-thrus of everything we sent to typesetting and then we were just waiting. 

It was actually very convenient and the sort of office days I can get behind! We would set up our head translator on the computer to edit and revise Acts until we had something Matthew related and I would run around collecting cargo and working on dehydrating food and all the other sorts of tasks I have to get ready to go back to the bush for 2 months. 

I just needed my cell phone in hand. When I got an email, everything was dropped so that I could give our typesetter a response as soon as possible. Many I moment, I stood typing on my cell phone in a parking lot with my toddler hanging out of the car as he tried to shimmy himself in the car since Mommy clearly wasn't helping. 

Sometimes, we'd drive across town back to the office to get something printed and run up to the head translator to approve. 

But Friday we signed the paperwork we have affectionately dubbed: no.more.changes. 

Matthew will not be receiving anymore changes. We're not messing with it anymore. Typesetting is free to do the meticulous formatting without us changing a letter and throwing all the work after that into chaos. 

I have been told that this is a very big deal, but as far as I can tell I'm sending more emails back and forth now than before!

In fact, Saturday I was up at 3am (Friday 10am PST) answering emails and going back forth with our typesetter trying to dot all our i's and cross all our t's. 

She's thinking that we might be able to send this off to the printer's on this up coming Friday (PST)!

So we're nearly done with the Matthew text, but there's still a lot to do. The study guides need to be translated. The audio version needs to be finished (not everyone can read! and Jesus didn't just come for the literate!). The audio and text will be synced to "play" together via Scripture App Builder. And the Matthew dedication needs to be planned. 

Our date is marked as July 25th 2018!

Meanwhile, the translators will be getting Acts underway! 

Now that they have an adviser who's only work is this work, they should no longer be taking 6 years to finish a book, but the New Testament should be hustling right along!