Ninety Minutes, Then Ninety More

The workshop’s ethnoarts specialists had been interpreting for everyone else, so they had never gone through the song translation process themselves. So one of the teachers added a session for them on the spot.

He Could Not Get Through It

The musician had the melody, and he had the words in his own language. When the room was ready, he stood up to sing Psalm 1 for the first time in public. He almost could not get through it.

The Village Was on WhatsApp

The musicians and translators were a long way from home. Traditionally, having their communities check their drafts would be a months-long process that required going home. Instead, the drafts went out over WhatsApp.

We Don’t Need Speeches

At a Bible translation workshop in Benin, a translation consultant observed, “We want people to be impacted through the translation of the Bible… So we don’t need speeches.” What did he mean by that?

Words for the Ones Who Have None

In counseling the grieving, Donna noted, “A lot of times, the widows don’t have words.” So when she sits with one of them, she brings a psalm and lets it do the speaking.

The Man Who Came for the Rhythm

At Pastor Abou Assifa’s church, they were playing the tam-tam. A man arrived who had not come for the service. He had come for the sound.

What We Don’t Sing

One Sunday, as Psalm 13 was being taught, two things struck Jon: the psalmist’s vow to sing in the midst of lament, and the observation that singing Psalm 13 today would feel foreign in modern churches. So he went home that night and started writing.

In a Few Days, What Normally Takes Months

One of the musicians at the Yaoundé workshop came away with a finished song. Under normal circumstances, he said, a piece like this would take him months to create.

A Verse for the Whole Year

The church that hosted the Bantè workshop had made a decision at the start of 2026: every service, every gathering, every week of the year would return to Psalm 3:5.

They Asked for This

The Bantè workshop didn’t start with Scriptura knocking on a door. It started with a community knocking on Scriptura’s.