There is a saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” to which the answer is “one bite at a time.” Similarly the answer to: “How do you spell-check in a previously unwritten language?” is simply “one word at a time.” After completing a recent translation revision it was time for a spell-check. Spell-checking is one of the many procedures that we must complete before the translation is ready for printing and distribution. Normally when spell checking you open your word processor and click a button and seconds later the job is done. However that is dependent on having a completed lexicon/dictionary in the language. The Simbari lexicon/dictionary has been a work in progress for many years but it is not complete. Before this current spell check we had about 25,000 words entered. It has been a while since we spell-checked the translation, confirming the spelling of new vocabulary and adding them to the lexicon. So there were 10,000 words with unconfirmed spellings not yet in the lexicon. The only way to check these words is to go through each one comparing it with other similar words to confirm the spellings while basically writing the dictionary for the language as you go. David and his translation helper Raymond have spent the last 3 weeks trudging through 10,000 long, complex words from the Simbari New Testament. It is one of the most tedious parts of the translation process but very necessary. Misspelled words will undermine the credibility of the translation and would make it very difficult for newly literate people to read. Recently a new Simbari literacy class was started and many of the people signed up specifically because they know the translation is nearing completion and want to be able to read it. As tedious as some of the translation work can be at times it is so worth it for the Simbari people to be able to read, study and be transformed by the Word of God in their own heart language.