Streams of Prayer for 11 April 2023
The Streams of Prayer for 11 April 2023, is a circular from Wycliffe Global Alliance. Wycliffe Caribbean makes this available.
People
Our current theme for Streams of Prayer is People. It is our privilege to be involved with God’s mission both individually and corporately in a variety of ways. Alliance organisations committed to the People Participation Stream recruit and/or send people to serve in Bible translation movements, working either in their own country or elsewhere. They can serve with their sending organisation, other Alliance organisations or partner organisations.
We pray for the Alliance organisations involved in this Participation Stream to provide excellent supportive care to staff members whether they are serving in their country of origin or a different location. And we will pray that organisations collaborate well together across different human resources practices when personnel from one sending organisation are assigned to serve under another.
This year, as an Alliance we are undergoing a consultative process, to listen to God and to each other and discern changes needed in how we send, place and manage people in an ever-changing, complex mission context. We seek God’s wisdom together for how to adjust our paradigms and ways of working to best make use of our people both within and across organisations. We thank God for the first Global People Conversation held in Europe in January and pray for consultations that will take place in other areas of the world this year.
People Conversation: Global
The past decades have seen profound changes in how the global church thinks about its participation in God’s Mission. This warrants deep reflection on how people can best participate in the Bible translation movement in the future and what the future role of Alliance organisations should be. The Global People Conversation allows Alliance organisations to grapple with these questions through a series of regional events. The Europe event took place in January, an Americas gathering will take place in April, followed by Asia-Pacific in July, and Africa in August. In November representatives from all regions will process the work of the regional conversations. Pray for wisdom and imagination from God to collectively discern the way forward with the People Participation Stream. Pray for each participating organisation as they consider how best to implement changes they feel prompted to make as a result of what they have learned from God and others.
Seed Company Internship Programme: Americas
Seed Company offers internship programmes for staff of various organisations in the Bible translation movement to build their skills through training, study and practice. Interns prepare to serve as biblical consultants, linguists, certified exegetes, oral translation facilitators, or in the areas of communications and video production. Some also plan to serve in financial reporting and accountability or in program management. In the Americas region, there are currently 53 people in this programme who hope to complete their internships while continuing to strengthen their skills. Pray for the health and well-being of each intern so that they can complete their internships without any setbacks. Thank God that Seed Company serves in this way to strengthen Alliance organisations and other partners in the region. If you would like to pray specifically for one or more interns, please write to Jim_Schmidt@tsco.org for details.
Accountant training: Papua New Guinea
Pray for Emmanuel Bogino, Director for Finance and Administration for Papua New Guinea Bible Translation Association (PNGBTA). In order to qualify to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Emmanuel needs to pass eight modules in professional and ethical standards, business management, audit and assurance, taxation, corporate governance and finance reporting. Praise God that Emmanuel has successfully completed four modules since beginning his studies in 2019. He plans to do two modules in May and two in October this year to complete the study programme and be certified as a CPA. Ask the Lord to help Emmanuel to manage his time well and to be able to concentrate on his studies while maintaining his work responsibilities and family commitments. Praise God for providing the needed fees for the first four modules. Ask the Lord for his provision to pay for the remaining modules this year.
Pray for volunteers: Singapore
The Wycliffe Singapore website says that people of all ages and backgrounds are welcome to serve together in Bible translation work. To help fulfil the mission of the Alliance to “contribute to the holistic transformation of language communities worldwide,” Wycliffe Singapore is praying for volunteers with the following capacities: social media management (handling social media, website content, e-newsletter), design (helping with digital and graphic design, web design projects), and ad hoc projects (working on a project-basis). Ask the Lord to lead the people he has prepared to fill these much-needed volunteer jobs for Wycliffe Singapore.
Recognition for external contributions: Burkina Faso
Association Nationale pour la Traduction de la Bible et l’Alphabétisation (ANTBA) is grateful to God for the considerable input of staff from partner organisations. Having these additional people helps ANTBA to contribute alongside the church in seeking the holistic transformation of communities through the translation of the Word of God. Staff also participate in related efforts such as education, research, Scripture promotion and income-generating activities. The Executive Director expresses his deep appreciation to these staff and partners for their multifaceted collaboration in the promotion of the Scriptures, their support in the digital promotion of Scripture and documents in local languages, and also for their assistance in the checking of translated texts together with ANTBA teams. May God continue to bless and make this collaboration fruitful.
Needs and new staff: South Africa
Wycliffe South Africa is thankful that some key roles were filled in the last quarter. A new staff person has recently joined the team to lead the Personnel service. Pray that the Lord will give her good insight and a capacity to listen well and understand personnel issues. Ask God to provide her with a sensitive heart for this role so she can help provide an environment for staff that will help them to flourish in their service on behalf of Bible Translation, as well as in their personal lives. Pray also for the provision of another person who can fill the dual role of administrative assistant to the Psalms that Sing project as well as project facilitator intern. Another need is for a person who can work in the finance department. Pray that God will bring the right people for these roles to Wycliffe South Africa.
New staff and strategy: Netherlands
Praise God for providing several new members of the office staff for Wycliffe Netherlands. One or two positions are still vacant. Please pray that God would guide those he wants to serve in these capacities to apply. Ask God to help all new staff to settle into their new roles well. The team is rethinking the most appropriate way to send out cross-cultural workers in the current context. They are reformulating their vision, strategy and policy around sending out and placing workers. Pray for wisdom throughout this process. Ask God for creative ways to identify new cross-cultural workers who are excited to serve with Wycliffe Netherlands.
Streams of Prayer is the prayer bulletin of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.
Copyright © 2023 Wycliffe Global Alliance. All rights reserved.
Valrie McCarthy
Proclaimer Officer
Wycliffe Caribbean
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