At long last, the brothers were able to get together to write the “letter of request” required by The Seed Company in order for them to receive backing for the Old Testament translation in Huichol. I’ve never seen them struggle so much with something so simple. They were trying to think in Spanish then translate into Huichol. I told them to just think and write in Huichol, which would be best for Joe Grimes anyway as he will be relaying the petition to the proper channels! I hope it communicates what they communicated to me.

They told me that in their letter they identified themselves as a group of Huichol Christians who are grateful to God that He has provided them with the New Testament in their language. They have read, studied and applied God’s Word; however, in their studies, they see that Jesus often referred to the Scriptures, and they realize that His references are to the Old Testament, which they still don’t have in their language. Then the bite…they said that they need the complete Word of God. They are willing to work and sacrifice, and they asked for help in getting the Old Testament translated into their language.

The 4 names listed are only to prove that there are 4 who are willing to commit to the work, but there are many more, and they all agreed that some might be better than others. Emilio insisted on signing his Huichol name; he said Joe would know who he was better by that handle than “Emilio.” He will be working in Colorado until late August, and asked me to ask you if the orientation course offered in Oaxaca could be after that. Manuel, decided to go by “Manuel” because he and Emilio are Huichol “tocayos” (namesakes), and he didn’t want any confusion. Though Primitivo wasn’t there for the letter writing exercise, he had already offered his service. If this letter-writing activity is any indication of the seriousness of the translation job, we had better set aside the next 25 years for the task!