Completing a Commentary (Galatians)

I felt a sense of satisfaction when I went to my printers to print two copies of my manuscript as I reached the completion of my commentary on Galatians in Malay. I started by thinking I could write about 100 pages, then 120 pages but it is now over 150 pages and with the conclusion, it may reach 160 pages in all. I told my wife last night that it was a good book as I re-read the hard copy in my hands, and the other copy sent to my proofreader in a faraway village. If the proofreader could understand, then the intended audience of the Malay-speaking church should be able to appreciate this commentary on Galatians.

It has been about 8 months of non-stop writing except the occasions that I had to prepare for sermons or travelled outstation on a couple of occasions. Writing is a skill, a gift from God. I could read fast and write fast for God's glory. Although Malay is not my first language, it is almost as good as I could get after spending 35 years of using Malay/Indonesian Bibles and serving full-time among the indigenous people for the past 28 years minus 6 years in Singapore. I can say Malay is a beautiful language, though its vocabulary is not as rich as English or Greek, I find no impediment to my explanation of difficult concepts in theology, though on occasions I had to include short English phrases to make myself absolutely clear. 

So now what is left in the next 30 days is for me to include a few more references and footnotes. Then, I will re-check the manuscript which I hope by mid-November my proofreader would have done her job and I will do the corrections accordingly. Finally, I will leave the manuscript for a few days so that my mind if clear once more, perhaps for a week before I read it for the last time and then submit the final manuscript to the printers. I still plan for a Christmas publication, though it may be optimistic, but with God nothing is impossible.