Streams of Prayer for 15 April 2024
The Streams of Prayer for 15 April 2024, is a circular from Wycliffe Global Alliance. Wycliffe Caribbean makes this available.
April 14, 2024 – April 20, 2024
People
The current theme for Streams of Prayer is People.
It is our privilege to be involved with God’s mission, both individually and corporately. Alliance organisations committed to the People Participation Stream recruit and/or send people to serve in Bible translation movements, working either in their own countries or elsewhere. They can serve with their sending organisation, other Alliance organisations or partner organisations.
We pray for the Alliance organisations to provide excellent supportive care to all staff members. And we will pray that organisations collaborate well across different human resources practices when personnel from one sending organisation are assigned to serve under another.
Through the Global People Conversations held last year, Alliance organisations have been able to think through how to respond to changing contexts and situations in order to strategically utilise their people and care for them well. Praise God that he gives us deeper understanding. As you pray for the specific items below, pray also that each Alliance organisation in the People stream will continue to respond boldly to what God shows them in this area.
Sending and receiving workers for God’s harvest field: Ethiopia
Wycliffe Ethiopia has been privileged to send staff to serve in other organisations. Thank God for Dr Alemayehu Hailu who has been seconded to Faith Comes by Hearing as General Director for the eastern and southern parts of Africa. Wycliffe Ethiopia has also received staff to work in Ethiopia from partner organisations. Thank God for a consultant sent by Wycliffe Germany, a linguist sent by Contact Mission, and a Bible translation consultant serving in remote areas of Ethiopia sent by Wycliffe Switzerland. Praise God for the sending organisations of these cross-cultural workers, and for these brethren who accepted to go to serve him in Ethiopia. The harvest is plentiful (Luke 10:2). Pray that many more local and international workers will be added to God’s harvest field in Ethiopia.
Team building and strategic organisational review: Wycliffe Caribbean
Wycliffe Caribbean recently conducted a successful team-building session with support staff, translators and internship candidates. The head office staff have also commenced a strategic organisational review. Staff and board members have completed a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis and will engage in a review of the vision, mission and core values. Pray for:
- The Wycliffe Caribbean board, including four new members, as they provide direction and support for the head office and the national teams;
- That God would provide persons to fill key vacancies on the office team;
- The translation teams in the region – Belize, Jamaica and San Andres – as well as for teams being recruited in Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago and St. Vincent & the Grenadines; and
- God’s wisdom, guidance and direction for the team doing the strategic review.
Equipping leaders, pastors and indigenous believers in translation and Scripture use: Colombia
A translation project with the Yukpa group of Serranía del Perijá is focused on equipping leaders, pastors and indigenous believers to teach from translated Scripture. The Yukpa project is carried out in partnership with Fundación para los Pueblos Marginados (FDPM). Praise God for unity among national and indigenous churches involved in Bible translation. More Yukpa leaders and pastors have been trained in the use of the Scriptures and evangelism, leading to more believers in the churches, reconciled people and the reopening of an indigenous congregation that had been closed for more than a year. FDPM thanks God for the indigenous church that desires to continue with the translation and teaching of the books of Genesis, Exodus, John, and Acts, as well as production of primers based on John, Genesis, Ruth and Jonah and the video of Genesis that was made a few months ago. All these materials have helped believers share the gospel with people in their language.
Welcoming the new area director: Asia-Pacific
Praise the Lord for leading Nicky Chong from Singapore to become the new Asia-Pacific Area director for the Wycliffe Global Alliance. Nicky began his role on 1 March and started working closely with the area team he leads. A top priority for him is to build friendships with the leaders of the 31 Alliance organisations in the area, and to listen and learn about what God is doing in and through them. To that end, Nicky has started to meet individually with these leaders online. He has held two online ‘Coffee Chats’, one on 7 March for the non-Indonesian organisations, and one on 2 April for the Indonesian organisations. Pray for Nicky as he settles into his role. May God bless all the effort of the area leadership team to support the region.
Passing the baton: Papua New Guinea
In January, Mumure Ttopoqogo, veteran translator for the Guhu Samane language, died peacefully in his village at age 81. Prior to that he had passed the leadership baton for the project to his son Steven in the presence of the translation team, community members and clan leaders. Mumure, a second-generation translator, served for 56 years, assisting with the translation of the Guhu Samane New Testament (launched in 1975) and also the Guhu Old Testament. The project faced many challenges, which sometimes stalled work for long periods of time. Praise the Lord for Mumure’s life and commitment and that he worked with great determination to help provide his people with the Scriptures. Pray for Steven, a senior translator, as he takes up the leadership of this project. The entire Old Testament is in the first draft and 40 per cent has been consultant checked.
Answers and progress: Netherlands
Last year Alliance staff prayed for vacant office positions for Wycliffe Netherlands. Praise God for new staff recruited as a result of those prayers. Wycliffe Netherlands staff have also prayed for the process of updating vision, strategy and policy around sending and placing field staff. Praise God for updated policies around this. Pray for wisdom in the onboarding process. The administrative team of Wycliffe Netherlands is also considering a change in the way they finance field staff. Ask God to guide clearly as they consider the options.
Continuing in difficult contexts: Chad
Pray for the Association Tchadienne d’Alphabetisation, de Linguistique et de Traduction de la Bible (ATALTRAB), which works amid socio-economic and political imbalance that makes it challenging for local churches and organisations to send cross-cultural workers. Pray that this situation will change so they will be less dependent on external financial help. Pray that the church in Chad can have a greater involvement in sending people. Thank God for all the people recruited by ATALTRAB and for those sent by their communities. Thank God for an agreement that ATALTRAB’s Board of Governors signed for a state agent to coordinate literacy, basic education and language programmes. Pray for the New Testament translation coordinator who serves the Tunia community, and for the cross-cultural worker who serves unreached communities in Tandjilé province. Thank God for support from four committed churches and some of ATALTRAB’s partner organisations.
Streams of Prayer is the prayer bulletin of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.
Valrie McCarthy
Language Development Officer
Wycliffe Caribbean
7A South Avenue
Kingston 5
JAMAICA, W. I.
876 754 9334, 908 2970, 582 6592
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