Call to Prayer September-October 2013

Call to

Always truly thank Our Great Chief. Even if you are suffering, still thank him. God wants you to do this. Because Christ Jesus is in your innermost, keep giving thanks. Even in sickness still keep being happy.

Prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:18 in Kaiwá, Brazil

September – October 2013 ■ Tue 3 Two of the students, Siza and Pardinho, feel God’s call to be evangelists to their own people. They live nearly three hours away from the institute so it has been a big sacrifice to leave their crops, chickens and pigs in someone else’s hands. Pray for them as they study over the next two years.

long awaited and finally here ■ Sun 1 Sep The Kaiwá people of Brazil celebrated the launch of the complete Kaiwá Bible yesterday! It’s been 27 years since the New Testament was completed. But it’s still not the end. Pray that the Kaiwá people wouldn’t just celebrate the Bible today, but would continue to be transformed in their ‘innermost’ by the word.

■ Wed 4 Dorival, one of the Kaiwá translators and pastor, knows the Bible in and out and is committed to prayer. The villages where he’s been assigned have struggling churches and big problems, especially alcoholism and the fear of witchcraft. Thank God that he has used Dorival to help these communities, and pray for energy to face the heavy workload and fierce spiritual battle.

■ Mon 2 After past difficulties, training at the Kaiwá Bible Institute is now running again with a new director. Although he’s not a Kaiwá speaker, he’s convinced that the Kaiwá people need to use the Scriptures in their own language, not Portuguese, which many don’t really understand. 12 of the 15 students this year are Kaiwá – significant! © Elyse Patten

■ Thu 5 Please also pray for Dry Flour Church, a Kaiwá congregation. The current leaders aren’t Kaiwá speakers and New Testaments placed in the church were recently stolen, so many Kaiwá have stopped attending because they don’t understand the service. Pray that God will raise up a Kaiwá leader and use the excitement of the Bible launch to grow the church.

■ Fri 6 When translator Audrey Taylor visited Dry Flour Church last year, they read passages together from the Kaiwá New Testament. A visiting teenager, Ivanildo, was so inspired that he asked, ‘Where can I get one of those?’ Audrey said she’d find one for him. ‘Make it two,’ he said, planning to study with a friend. When he finishes school, Ivanildo wants to go to the Bible Institute and serve the Kaiwá.

■ Sat 7 Many of the local pastors are very excited about the new Bible: pray it would re-inspire them personally with the amazing news God’s 1

remembered 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the verse at the top of Call to Prayer. Pray for Inocêncio and his wife – they work in a difficult area.

word brings and that they’d be ready to teach it to others. The churches are poor and feel they cannot support the pastors themselves; pray the churches would feel responsible for providing for leaders.

■ Mon 9 Audrey has been translating devotions into Kaiwá in partnership with RBC Ministries (rbc.org.uk). Now she’s working on a booklet of football World Cup-themed devotions: lots of the Kaiwá men and boys are mad about football, and this could be a wonderful opportunity to get them mad about the Bible too. Pray for the final weeks of work.

■ Sun 8 On the way home one night, Bible Institute student Inocêncio was beaten severely and his bike was stolen. Without another way to get home, he crawled four miles. Afterwards, he and his wife determined to be thankful that it was his bike and not his life that was taken! They

translation and challenges in Kenya ■ Tue 10 Weera* translation project, Kenya: When Michael, the team leader, and his wife Alice arrived back from their much-needed year’s break, many Weera people came to greet them. Thank God for the good relationships Michael and Alice have in the community and with their fellow workers Mark*, Stephen and Koroso.

■ Wed 11 Students from the adult literacy class have learnt so much that they thought questions in the latest exam were easy!

Weera literacy is new as the language has only recently been

■ Fri 13 Mark’s computer has been in Nairobi for repair for months. Sometimes he has to wait in the office for Michael to finish some administration so they can work together on Michael’s ■ Thu 12 Michael and Mark computer. Computers make the have completed their own process much faster – praise God! translation checks of Luke, their – but computer problems really first book. Now they need to take hinder the team. it to villages to test it among the community – people who haven’t ■ Sat 14 The team’s vehicle was seen or heard it yet will be able to badly damaged in an accident. tell them if they’ve chosen words Praise God for working through and phrases that make sense and supporters in the UK who topped up the funding so that they could sound natural. Pray that people from the community will want to get back on track. Pray that the right new vehicle will be found and help in the check. that the team will travel safely on difficult roads. written. Thank God for teachers and learners, and pray that, as portions of translated Scriptures become available, they’ll use their reading ability to read the word.

Alice (10 September)

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■ Sun 15 Electricity from the national grid has just reached the town where the translation team is based, ready for the construction of a new port. What a luxury!

Pray that office wiring and the electricity from the national grid will soon be connected. Pray, too, that Weera people will soon be connected with God’s word!

You prayed: The Nawila* team, who are also translating the New Testament in Kenya, was involved in building a new school for the community.

■ Mon 16 Two classrooms are finished and lessons at the new school have started. Pray that the school would see many children growing up happier in their education and language because they had the chance to learn in their own language first. *Weera, Nawila and Mark are pseudonyms we use to keep those working in this sensitive situation safe.

■ Fri 20 Thank God for the opportunity to work in 16 primary schools in two languages over the past five years. Local people, nationals It’s Yana’s very first day of school. It should from elsewhere in the country and expats have cooperated to produce local language materials for be the start of an exciting journey and a wealth of opportunities but from even today schools.

Yana, like eight out of every ten children ■ Sat 21 Next month, teachers will meet in her country, will have all her lessons in a together at a workshop, working on a teacher’s language she doesn’t know. guide for the material for grade 6. Pray for unity and good communication between team ■ Tue 17 Wycliffe partners are working together members, especially those who are working at a in Yana’s country so that more children can have distance. Many are working on multiple projects: the chance to learn in their own language first, pray that they will have wisdom in knowing before learning other languages. Studies show that how to juggle different responsibilities. Pray for this is the most effective way for children to be the logistics of the workshop too – for travel, educated. Pray for partners in one province of the country where they are developing a new preschool materials and health. curriculum in the mother tongue.

■ Wed 18 Pray for the children who get the chance to go to preschools based around this mother-tongue curriculum, and ask God to use the education to make them critical thinkers. Pray that the teachers will be enthusiastic about teaching the children.

■ Thu 19 The preschool education programme doesn’t just prepare pupils for subsequent years of education, but is intended to prepare them for making important life choices, such as what they will believe. The Bible is being translated into this local language; pray that this preschool curriculum will prepare the children to read it and to apply it to their own lives.

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© Ari Vitikainen

back to school in Asia

■ Mon 23 With the end of implementation, there’s been some talk of a final evaluation by representatives of the national government. Pray that God would open doors for this evaluation, and that as a result the government would look more favourably on future plans for work in the country by Wycliffe’s partners.

■ Sun 22 The implementation of this 16-school programme ends in July 2014. The team needs inspiration to make the project sustainable. This includes negotiations with the local department of education, so that they would fund reprinting of materials and teacher training workshops; pray that they would be eager and able to do this.

previously in Call to Prayer

group could have God’s words of Over the past year, we’ve asked for prayer hope. for workers in a variety of places around ■ Fri 27 Since the world. Many of these still need prayer: 24 September January, funding You prayed: Chad needs literacy workers, not just resources to serve communities directly, but to allow the work and prayer have come in – God has provided there to continue. generously. Please keep praying for personnel ■ Tue 24 Beat Kunz, Chad: ‘Thanks for all your for the team: people to tutor team members in the language are still needed. prayers. So far, they have not been answered.

We greatly rejoice in God having recruited two ■ Sat 28 A couple who were consulting on new translators and we have several people the script of a Scripture-based film called God’s interested in working in Chad but all want to Story were in a major car accident in June. work in translation and nobody yet for literacy.

Thankfully, their recovery has been better than Keep praying!’ expected, but please keep praying for them.

You prayed: A team working around the ■ Sun 29 Another couple who are able to live Mediterranean were looking for people to in the capital of the people group’s homeland serve in administration and support roles after are getting some amazing opportunities to share a big restructure. their faith. Because of recent troubles, people in the community take it in turns on guard each ■ Wed 25 The same needs for staff are still night. The husband has sat up discussing with current. Two roles have been identified as them what he and they believe, and there has urgently needed. Please ask God to prompt been quite a lot of openness. God is certainly the two people he has chosen to do this work, bringing good out of evil. and quickly!

You prayed: The Wycliffe office in Nigeria needed more administrative staff.

■ Thu 26 In the wider area, a new need – again urgent – has come up. The Communications and Prayer coordinator is leaving at the end of 2013 to spend time working in her home country. It’s an important role for getting news and prayer information out to people about the work in this difficult area. Pray that God would guide the right person to join the team.

■ Mon 30 Praise God for sending a new office manager, Riaan, to serve in a Bible translation office in Nigeria! This office is a busy place, serving Bible translation work going on throughout the country. As a place for meetings, consultations, and trainings, there are many different people and needs to oversee and attend to.

You prayed: A very sensitive anonymous project was starting so that a severely persecuted people 4

© Rivi/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

october

■ Thu 3 The checker has left notes on changes the team needs to make, and after that there are still introductions to Bible books to be written, explanatory footnotes to be finalised and a glossary of key terms and a topical index to be added. Pray that everyone involved encouraged as they work through these elements and draw closer to completion.

the word on the way ■ Tue 1 Oct Easter Island, the home of the Rapa Nui people, is famed for its dramatic statues, but now something more monumental is coming to the island: the New Testament in the Rapa Nui language is reaching the final stages of the translation process. Pray that God would be opening hearts there to love him and his word.

■ Fri 4 There are now only two Rapa Nui reviewers, María Eugenia and Apina, working with the team, instead of the four or five they had during past years. The reviewers can only come three mornings a week. Pray that, despite reduced workers, progress won’t falter.

■ Wed 2 The translation reached an important milestone recently, when an exegetical checker from Wycliffe’s partner organisation SIL checked the entire New Testament. The exegetical checker is familiar with biblical languages and with other Polynesian languages and was looking to make sure that the translation communicates the message of the Bible clearly and accurately. It’s been given initial approval.

■ Sat 5 During the final stages it is not uncommon for teams to have to face all sorts of damaging attacks from the enemy who hates to see God’s word shared. Pray for health and good attendance at work. Pray for the other projects the team is involved in that have been waiting for far too long: these need both wisdom and time.

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putting languages on the map ■ Sun 6 When information about where a language is spoken becomes available, the mapping team makes it visual by developing and maintaining maps of all the languages of the world.

There’s a lot of detail involved.

Pray for the coordination of efforts between language surveyors, other researchers and the mapping team.

■ Mon 7 Each member of the team concentrates on a particular part of the world.

At the moment the maps of Europe are being reviewed.

This is one area where new sources and researchers are needed. Pray for these to become available.

■ Tue 8 The language maps have many uses. One intriguing one is that they are attractive to governments: even countries where the idea of Bible translation isn’t appealing, the offer to map people groups and languages can make it easier

for Wycliffe and partners to work in the country. Thank God for the way he opens doors.

■ Wed 9 As well as being used by Bible translators, information about language areas can be helpful to other missions. If a radio mission like FEBC wants to share the gospel through mother-tongue radio programmes, they need to know where to direct their transmissions; in Vietnam, the work of cartographers was able to help FEBC to get broadcasting! (febc.org) ■ Thu 10 All the maps need to be clear and easy to read.

But there’s so much linguistic and geographic information to fit in that it can be a challenge.

Pray that they would be able to design maps that communicate well with non-cartographers.

■ Fri 11 At the recent publication of language maps of Nepal, one visitor said, ‘These

Nepal maps (11 October)

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maps just reek of quality work and fine-detailed precision,’ and another that ‘the team’s work has been of immense service to the country’. Pray that the team would be encouraged about the value of their work.

■ Sat 12 Many of the team’s maps are used in the Ethnologue, a publication that has information about language families, the state of endangered languages and where languages are spoken. For the latest edition, the team developed 235 different maps. Until now an edition of this book has been published every few years, but from now on it will be primarily online and updated every year.

Pray for the team as they deal with the added workload.

Pray especially for Stephen, who is the sole map checker. (ethnologue.com) ■ Sun 13 The team needs prayer. Workers work remotely, which makes it more challenging and can mean a lot of travel.

They struggle with the workload and with health issues. Pray especially for Irene, the team leader, as she needs wisdom to deal with changes to the work, as well as working on her own map specialities.

■ Mon 14 Eva is another member of the team needing prayer at the moment. She and her husband Martin are hoping to go out to Chiang Mai next year to continue working in Thailand. Pray that God will provide them with everything that they need.

sometimes surprising, always transforming ■ Tue 15 ‘The Word became human and made his home among us.’ (John 1:14) Every language is sophisticated and complex, but often it’s not until Bible translation happens that it’s written down.

Then people see both the Word and words in their own language for the first time.

■ Wed 16 ‘He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.’ (Matthew 8:17) In communities where the Bible is being translated, the child mortality rate tends to drop. God works through literacy programmes to enable mothers to care for their children by reading health materials and medicine instructions.

■ Fri 18 ‘He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.’ (Isaiah 42:3) Bibleless people are often the lowest of the low: no written language, no mothertongue education, no respect from others, no Scriptures of hope.

Bible translation preserves languages and cultures and shows new ways to worship God that are culturally and linguistically meaningful.

■ Thu 17 ‘Forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.’ (Mark 11:25) Wycliffe works in some traumatic situations, with people who have experienced local violence, civil war or who are living with HIV/Aids. In even the harshest of human circumstances, God can still bring peace and forgiveness through the Bible.

■ Sat 19 ‘I have seen your salvation.’ (Luke 2:30, all NLT) The most vital impact of Bible translation is that, as people see Jesus in the translated word, they would know him and love him. It might be hearing in church, or reading a translated portion, or seeing The JESUS Film in their language, but God powerfully speaks to people in his word. Father, in your mercy please continue to turn lives to you!

stories: the sequel In Words for Life magazine this summer, we saw how Bible storytelling is touching the Pouye community in Papua New Guinea.

Here’s the latest from the storytellers and colleagues.

■ Sun 20 The Pouye Bible storytellers are still sharing Bible stories in their heart language with the region’s churches, schools and family clans. Daniel, Wexon, Frank and Jack meet each month to review and practice the Bible stories. Praise

God for the opportunities God people from this group struggled is giving these four men to share with New Testament translation the Bible with so many people. for 20 years before giving up due to lack of community support – why ■ Mon 21 What is their real motivation? Initially, many churches should this community get a second chance when many haven’t had their and pastors were sceptical first? It is clear that God had another about allowing storytellers to plan: these trainees are sharing Bible tell Bible stories. But minds stories most Sunday mornings and have been changed as they see the churches are responding eagerly Bible stories in their mother tongues spreading. Long may the to the word! enthusiasm continue!

■ Wed 23 Pray that the coordinator, ■ Tue 22 Storying workshops involve participants from seven languages. The final language group chosen to join the training was a last-minute addition. The coordinator was initially reluctant; 7

Gary Abbas, and the team will have wisdom about who to invite to the workshops, especially as neighbouring language communities are hearing about them and want stories in their language too!

■ Thu 24 ‘The Bible storytelling project has become much more than just training 28 individuals to effectively tell stories,’ says coordinator Gary. ‘Even after the first workshop, we can see that some are incredibly gifted to become future trainers and teachers of people from other language groups.’ Pray for plans each team is making for sharing

stories in their areas and for ways for the programme to grow.

would lead many to seek relationship with him.

■ Fri 25 Pray that God would use the storytellers to create an interest in reading the Bible where there is some translation. Where there isn’t any, pray that these stories would be a first step in that direction. Ask God – and keep on asking – that the stories

■ Sat 26 For the managers and mentors, pray that they will know how to communicate effectively with the teams, monitor their progress and encourage them in their efforts.

Ask God to protect the project, as Satan attacks to undo the good start that’s been made.

assisting mission ■ Sun 27 Wycliffe partners MissionAssist have seen big changes: they’ve changed name (from Wycliffe Associates) and welcomed a new CEO and new directors of services, personnel and communications. Pray for the new leaders and thank God for the continued vision of the organisation to support mission work from the UK.

Past and present leaders of MissionAssist

the team with a new vehicle. The Marakwet team has set big goals.

■ Wed 30 Another role MissionAssist fills is audio typing, producing a manuscript from audio and video material. Their team had been looking low on work, but one small prayer in the evening led to work pouring in the next morning! Pray for more volunteers so that the work won’t overwhelm.

■ Mon 28 MissionAssist provides practical support for mission. This includes logistics like airport transport: a team of 14 drivers help to take workers to and from flights. It’s busy, and the team faces challenges of small volunteer numbers and high demand: providing lifts on Sundays proves particularly difficult. Last year, one driver alone did 22 trips! Pray for more helpers.

■ Thu 31 The worldbibles.org website, run by MissionAssist, links people to Scripture in nearly 4,000 languages. Links take people to print formats as well as websites, video, audio recordings and apps for mobile phones. Give thanks for partnerships with organisations like The JESUS Film, Faith Comes By Hearing and Global Recordings. Pray for plans to begin working with new partners.

■ Tue 29 MissionAssist supports the Marakwet Bible translation project in Kenya. The team is now translating the Old Testament. Praise God that MissionAssist have been able to commit to funding the project this year, and have provided

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