One of the most fulfilling events of my career was the arrival of the published Aari New Testament in March 1998. Here I am with translators Duba Gersi and Fikadu Babikats, looking at New Testaments from the first shipment.

It was rainy season, and the roads were too wet for vehicles, so the church leaders on either side of Duba took our mules to Jinka (18 miles away) to bring the New Testaments from there.

Now we are working on the Aari Old Testament. Here Duba and Fikadu work on revision of some of our Old Testament translation. So far we’ve completed Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Esther and Psalms.

Ermias Mamo, the first Aari church leader to study in the USA, has been reading through our translations and offering suggestions for improvement. I was privileged in June, 2003, to attend his graduation from Fuller Seminary with a Master’s Degree in Intercultural Studies.

After the graduation ceremony, Ermias and his wife Amarech invited us to their apartment for a lovely meal.

And graduation cake. (Ermias' wife Amarech and oldest son Ephrem traveled from Addis Ababa to the USA with me in April, 2001. God blessed them with a daughter in September, 2002, and another son early in 2004.)

EdOwen, with Wycliffe Bible Translators' "Seed Company", has worked hard to make a software version we can use to get good camera copy for publishing Aari books.

In August, 2004, Duba and Fikadu came and helped with the last Banna tutor training and then joined me in Alduba for a week. Duba worked on Aari Judges.

It was fun to have the 2 teams (Aari & Banna) together for morning devotions. Left to right are Donna Clawson, Fikadu, Getu, Duba and Ayke. We read and prayed in Amharic (the national language) since that was the only language we could all speak.