Author Archives

    Ibu H

    Posted on

    Supporting Vision 2025 Through Prayer

    There is an African proverb that says, “one arm cannot surround a baobab tree.” Just as it takes a number of people to surround one of these gigantic trees, it will take the prayers of many to reach the last languages with the Word of God.

    Wycliffe Bible Translators and its partners around the world are committed to Vision 2025—a desire to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by the year 2025. Humanly speaking, this vision seems impossible. But the impossibility of it drives us closer to God, seeking His face, and in prayer, lifting up all aspects of this mission.

    In 2002, the executive director of Wycliffe Global Alliance underscored the importance of prayer in the Bible translation task when he stated that “prayer is our greatest strategic response and our greatest resource.” In agreement with his declaration, all Wycliffe organizations renewed their resolve to model and prioritize prayer.

    • Ask God to call great numbers of prayer partners to faithfully support the Bible translation movement.
    • Pray for wisdom and creativity for Wycliffe USA’s Prayer Ministries team as they seek to promote and grow prayer programs, all while keeping costs low. Pray for resilience for staff conducting research to glean current information and prayer needs from around the world.

    Below is a list of ways that you can join hands with us in prayer.

    Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project

    Commit to pray for a Bibleless people group. Today there are more than 2,000 languages still waiting for access to God’s Word in their own language. Through Wycliffe USA’s Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project you can sign up to prayerfully lay the foundation for a translation program to begin in one of these specific people groups.

    Intercessor

    Learn more about and pray for the worldwide work of Bible translation through the Intercessor, a bimonthly prayer letter produced by Wycliffe USA. It features specific prayer requests that will inform and direct your prayers for major strategic needs facing Wycliffe and its partners. Read it online, download the PDF, or sign up to receive it by mail or email; explore the options here.

    The Finish Line

    The Finish Line, an annual publication (also available online) lists Bible translation projects around the world that are nearing completion—those that are within three years or less of finishing. This is often when translation teams are faced with significant challenges and sometimes setbacks leading up to the completion of a Bible translation. We know that Satan will do everything he can to stop the spread of God’s Word, but we also know that we are called to rally on the battlefield of prayer. Click here to access the 2011 edition of The Finish Line.

    Vision 2025 Prayer 24×7

    Consider being part of a global community praying around the clock for Bible translation. Can you imagine an unbroken conversation with God about the work He has given us to do, and keeping that conversation going until Vision 2025 is fulfilled? Vision 2025 Prayer 24×7, a program of Wycliffe Global Alliance, invites churches, prayer groups, and individuals to join together and support Bible translation in prayer, every minute of every day. Sign up for a weekly time slot to pray at https://pray24x7.vision2025.net/.

    Pray Today

    And of course, invite your friends to this blog to read daily, current prayer requests related to the work of Bible translation! Together, with our prayers encircling the ministry of Bible translation, we know that God will do great things!

    Resource: Wycliffe Pray Today Blog

    Posted on

    Preserving Cultures

    Please take a moment to watch this short video about the preservation of cultures as an effect of Bible translation.

    Cultural identity is strengthened and preserved through Bible translation

    Translated Scripture is not the only benefit from a Bible translation program. Language assessment and development, literacy work, and the production of print and audio/visual materials in the local language—all parts of the Bible translation process—provide a number of community benefits.

    One benefit is cultural preservation. When an alphabet is created for a minority people group, and their language is developed, speakers of the language have the tools for survival—a way to preserve their culture. Their history can be written and therefore documented. A dictionary and other books can be produced. Their ethnic identity can grow as they gain more confidence interacting with other people groups. And their written language can be recognized by their country’s government and speakers of majority languages.

    Posted on

    Where Is The Bible Translation Needed?

    Locating the areas of greatest Bible translation need.

    It’s one of the first questions that must be answered, and its answer must be constantly reviewed and updated: just where in the world is Bible translation even needed? 

    Current estimates by the Wycliffe Global Alliance* suggest that around 340 million peoplespeaking 2,078 languages may have a need for Bible translation to begin. Many of these language groups are small minorities living in areas dominated by different, more prevalent or official languages. Others may in fact be very large people groups but live in areas that are difficult to access.

    In particular, Wycliffe has identified three areas of the world that contain the greatest numbers of translation needs. They are Central Africa and Nigeria; Mainland and Southeast Asia; and Indonesia and the Pacific islands.

    Make no mistake, though much of the world has already benefitted from Bible translation, it is still needed on a grand scale!

    • The exciting news is that we’re experiencing the greatest acceleration of the global Bible translation movement that the world has ever witnessed! The number of languages still waiting for Scripture is dropping. Pray that this momentum will not slow down and ask God to continue to grow the resources needed to accomplish this work.
    • For Central Africa and Nigeria, pray for unity across organizational partnerships as many local and international groups must work together to accomplish the work of Bible translation. French-speaking personnel are also needed to work in the Francophone region; ask God to send more workers to this area.
    • For Mainland and Southeast Asia, pray for the protection and encouragement of translation personnel who often work in sensitive areas and sometimes in isolation. Prayfor creativity in the distribution of finished Scripture.
    • For Indonesia and the Pacific islands, pray for safety in travel as many translation teams must navigate throughout this large rugged and remote region. Pray for efficiency in gathering language data and wisdom in planning translation programs.

    *Wycliffe Global Alliance, partners in Bible translation

    Resource: Wycliffe Pray Today Blog

    Posted on

    An Introduction To Indonesian Language and Culture

    In your getting to know and preparation to go overseas (short term or long term), one thing among the others things on your preparation list is learning basic language and culture of the country. So here I would like to suggest you books that you can use to prepare your self and get some taste of Indonesian.

    First book is Basic Indonesian, An Introduction Coursebook. You can try to order online from Barnes and Noble bookstore where we got it for my husband to learn Indonesian. This book comes with a Audio CD which will be helpful for you to listen and practice the pronunciation.

    There are some other books if you need to get it started with your language and culture that you can find them on Amazon (you can get pretty much anything there, right? :D). My husband also has this one:

    Here’s the link to this book: Bahasa Indonesia Book 1: Introduction to Indonesian Language and Culture (Paperback).

    Other sources you can get from iTunes Store, if you have an iPod. It’s audio and you hear the pronunciations and practice 🙂 Some of the Apps are free and some are not.

    I hope these will help you in getting ready to go to Indonesia!

     

    ~Helen~

    Posted on

    Prayer Resource: Joshua Project

    “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” (Ephesians 6:18, NLT)

    Pray is one of the armors that God wants us to put on every day, every moment in our life. Prayer is the fuel that we need to keep the flame of mission and ministry to keep on going and burning. Prayer is the way to come to God and stand in the gap between God and the world, the unreached people groups – whom cannot stand in His presence because of sins.

    Joshua Project is one of the medias that you can use for your prayer resources. This website provides details about the unreached people group, tools, resources and lots of information that you need for your personal and church prayer time. Here’s some things about Joshua Project.

    Joshua Project: Purpose and Mission

    Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ. Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Jesus directly links His return to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. While no one knows the date or time of His return, we do know that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached to all the nations first. Revelation 5:9 and 7:9-10 show that there will be some from every tribe, tongue, nation and people before the Throne.

    Joshua Project seeks to answer the questions that result from the Great Commission’s call to make disciples among every nation or people group:

    • Who are the ethnic people groups of the world?
    • Which people groups still need an initial church-planting movement in their midst?
    • What ministry resources are available to help outreach among the least-reached?

    Joshua Project: Distinctives and Uniqueness

    • Strategic – We help mission strategists who ask, “Where is the greatest need?” Our desire is to help focus the Church on the most spiritually needy ethnic people groups.
    • Effective – We seek to maximize the effectiveness of Kingdom resources by helping identify and reduce duplication of effort between ministries through data sharing.
    • Comprehensive – Our emphasis is on comprehensiveness, to see that the Church is initially established in all the world’s ethnic peoples. Our method has been “when in doubt include a people group on the list” to insure that no groups are overlooked.
    • Neutral – We are a neutral, low-profile ministry, serving the global missions community.
    • Grassroots – We support grass-roots initiatives and seek input from those actually doing onsite work. Priority is given to updates made by local and national researchers.
    • Openhanded – We provide all data and services at no charge, we desire individuals and agencies in all parts of the world to have access to unreached peoples data.

    The link to Joshua Project video click here: Joshua Project

    Start searching any people group in the world, including in Indonesia, and start praying for them today!