Streams of Prayer for 13 September 2021
The Streams of Prayer for 13 September 2021, is a circular from Wycliffe Global Alliance. This is made available through Wycliffe Caribbean.
Missions belong to God and the agent of missions is the Church. Please join with us as we pray for Alliance organisations engaged in the Church Participation Stream. We pray also for the Church as it participates in the Bible translation movement.
The items in this issue focus on prayers for the Global Connect meetings taking place this week, 13-17 September 2021. Please pray for Alliance leaders as they gather virtually around the globe. Thanks to Phil Prior, Alliance Director for Communication, for providing these daily prayer guides.
Sunday: Global Connect
Global Connect is the Wycliffe Global Alliance virtual conference taking place this week. Personnel from more than 100 organisations, along with friends and partners who are interested in the Bible translation movement, have been invited to watch the sessions that have been made available through the Alliance website. Some will be gathering in person to watch as a group, others will join in virtually.
Please pray for everyone joining in for this event, that they would be excited, challenged and encouraged by what they hear. Pray that the technology would work well to enable clear communication. Above all pray that God would be glorified and that the Holy Spirit would prompt and spur on all those involved in the Bible translation movement.
Monday: Celebrate!
Today is the Global Connect opening celebration and executive director address. The opening celebration gives leaders, staff and friends of the Alliance the opportunity to join together in worship and to acknowledge all that God is doing through this movement. The celebration will be streamed at three different times to enable participants in different regions the opportunity to join together.
The opening celebration will be followed by Alliance Executive Director Stephen Coertze’s address. He will give an overview of how the Alliance has responded to the challenges of COVID-19 in the past year and how God has led us forward. He will remind us of the Alliance vision and then focus on three areas of strategic priority—Bible translation, influences on the Bible translation movement, and collaboration—which will be looked at in more depth over the coming days.
Pray for a real sense of celebration and thankfulness for what God is doing through his mission and the Bible translation movement. Also, pray that Stephen’s message is well received and an encouragement to organisations worldwide.
Tuesday: Multifaceted Bible translation
The focus of Global Connect today is Bible translation. We will look at the journey of the Alliance to date and some key decisions and their outcomes, a number of organisations will share stories of what God has been teaching them and there will be specific contributions looking at oral Bible translation, sign language translation and care for Bible translation consultants.
We hope that the content that is shared today will give a broad perspective of what is taking place around the world and perhaps some fresh insights into the ways in which organisations are contributing to this movement.
The limiting factor of a virtual conference is the difficulty of building relationships. Please pray for good discussions on the subject matter from the day, especially for those who are connecting virtually.
Wednesday: How we are influenced
On Wednesday and Thursday, our discussions will draw from material that was originally produced for the Rebuilders podcast series looking at the networked world. Praise God for the willingness of Mark Sayers and the team at Red Church in Melbourne, Australia, for being willing to share this material with us.
Today we will be looking at external influences on the Bible translation movement, especially how the world has shifted from an industrialised, more hierarchical nature, to a flatter, more networked world. So please pray for understanding and good critical thinking around these concepts. Pray that audiences will understand the information that is shared and then be able to relate these concepts to their own situations.
Thursday: Growing collaboration
Today we look more at collaboration and some of the challenges to collaboration in a networked world—especially the ideas of instability around networks and the drive toward individualism. Please continue to pray for critical thinking around these concepts and the application to the Alliance and those that we work with.
As we proceed towards the end of the week, pray that participants would be able to reflect on all the information that has been shared and draw out highlights and concepts that will help them and the Alliance move forward.
Friday: Meeting with the Executive Director
There are two key aspects to Friday’s sessions. Alliance Executive Director Stephen Coertze will be meeting with groups of directors on Zoom throughout the day. Please pray for these conversations. Pray that they will draw the Alliance closer together and bring a greater understanding of what it means to play a part in this movement. Pray too for Stephen’s stamina as he is involved in these four meetings spaced throughout his day.
Others within the organisations will have the opportunity to further reflect on the past week’s sessions and bring their reflections together. Our ambition is that the notes and feedback drawn from this week will be collated and shared around the Alliance over the coming months. So, pray that these final discussions are insightful and that the Holy Spirit will draw out those things that are important for us all to hear.
Saturday: Give thanks
So give thanks for this week and everything that has taken place. Thank God for all those who played a part in bringing the event together. Rachel (illustrator), Robin (video editor), Jo (worship coordinator), Cathy (translation coordinator), Jim (editor), Susan (production assistant), Phil (producer), as well as all those that recorded videos for the conference and played a part in other ways. We can especially praise God for his care of the Bible translation movement during this turbulent year. The Alliance is a movement of more than 100 organisations involved in over 2,000 Bible translation projects worldwide.
Pray that the events of this week will inspire us to keep moving forward together with Him.
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