Streams of Prayer for 20 February 2023

The Streams of Prayer for 20 February 2023, is a circular from Wycliffe Global Alliance. Wycliffe Caribbean makes this available.

Training

Many people with different areas of expertise are needed in order to translate the Bible in a way that is clear, accurate, and natural. The skills are so important that many Alliance organizations regularly offer courses in topics relevant to Bible translation programmes, sometimes in cooperation with other organizations. Training in Bible translation roles is therefore one of the seven Participation Streams.

The current theme for Streams of Prayer is Training. We will pray for those who are teaching, the students, and the organizations and institutions that host these training programmes. We will ask God to provide instructors, administrative staff, finances, and equipment for the programmes and workshops. We will pray that through this provision the people who staff translation programmes will be equipped in the many disciplines required to finish Bible translations well.

Embedding Bible translation instruction in training centres and seminaries: Latin America

Over 30 mission leaders representing 16 organisations and/or denominations participated in an event held at the Baptist Seminary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 10-13, 2022, to discuss the theme of language and translation in the mission of God. Several participants commented about the event:

• “It was a game changer in doing missions.”
• “It was a defining moment in my life and ministry.”
• “Receiving the available content and interacting with brothers and sisters of such capacity for the fulfilment of God’s mission deeply impacted my life.”
• “As an indigenous person I felt valued and challenged by the themes presented, and I saw the appreciation of those involved to make things easier for us. It was precious and very positive for me as an indigenous missionary.” 

Cintia, a Deaf translator who participated in the event, plans to share the material presented with Deaf colleagues in the Brazilian Sign Language translation project. Pray that God will help all participants to incorporate what they have learned into their own contexts. Pray for wisdom as mission leaders meet in the coming days to define the next steps and ways to collaborate to include Bible translation as part of the study plans in the training centres and seminaries in Latin America.

Partnership that helps equip students:  South Africa

Wycliffe South Africa has many interns that are pursuing their studies, thanks to the funding they receive from Seed Company. Thank God for this partnership. Pray for good insight for these students and that they will have success in their studies and their mentoring relationships. Pray that as they learn, they will grow in their knowledge and ability and thus their participation and contribution in the various aspects of Bible translation. Wycliffe South Africa also has a number of Oral Bible Translation projects. A “train-the-trainer” course supported by Faith Comes by Hearing is planned for March. This training is aimed at building the capacity of the participants in this area. Please pray that all planning for and roll out of the training will go well. Pray that the participants will have an open mind to understand all the technical aspects of the lessons that will be given to them.

Psalms translation course: The Netherlands, Chad

Wycliffe Netherlands partners with SIL Chad to offer workshops for Chadian partners and local language associations in various topics related to linguistics and translation. Praise God that in 2022, 172 Chadians representing 41 different language communities took part in these trainings! In mid-January 2023 a two-week training workshop was held to help translators understand Hebrew poetry, especially for translating the Psalms. They studied: 

• Songs in local Chadian languages to see what literary techniques they use to make the songs poetic
• Literary techniques used by the Hebrew poets in the Psalms such as parallelism, rhyme, alliteration and word pairs
• The different words used in the Psalms to refer to praise and worship, the characteristics of God, and God’s law so they could find equivalent words in their languages.

Participants also translated six Psalms into their own languages and each composed a song based on the Psalms they translated. Praise God that workshops such as this can be held because of the partnership between Wycliffe Netherlands and SIL Chad. Pray that everyone who was involved will be inspired by the beauty of the poetry in the book of Psalms and be able to translate them into their languages in an equally beautiful way!

JESUS Film trainings: Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore

Wycliffe Malaysia, in partnership with the JESUS Film project, trained translation facilitators from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to translate the JESUS Film into their languages. After the training, four new JESUS Film projects were launched in the Kenyah, Semelai, Jakun, and Tekun* languages. This group learning experience was a reminder of the unity and diversity of the body of believers as expressed in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” The participants and trainers give glory to God for the opportunity to participate in this training together in order to begin work on translating the JESUS Film. Pray for more opportunities like this for collaboration in training among partner organisations. Ask the Lord to keep this same excitement and momentum going for many other translation projects in the region, to make God’s Word accessible in the heart languages of more people groups.
*pseudonym

Capacity building to increase impact: South Asia

Praise God with an Alliance organisation in South Asia for the opportunity to serve and grow alongside the church and language communities as they partner together in Bible translation. Last year, some staff members were trained as trainers under the “Capacity Building” programme. Pray for God’s guidance and provision for the staff members who underwent the “Final Phase Translation Advisor’s Training” in November and December 2022. Pray that this training will benefit and encourage the team as they serve and mentor language communities that are translating God’s Word in South Asia.

Training Scripture use interns: Papua New Guinea

Pray for the Papua New Guinea Bible Translation Association (BTA) Scripture use intern trainees, Wendy Dowi and Fajiaki Kubo. The two women began their two-year training under the Scripture Use Department of SILPNG in July 2022. Praise the Lord for the skills and knowledge they have gained so far. From October to November, Wendy and Fajiaki had the opportunity to participate in workshops as part of their practicum with two language communities in the country. Pray for another good year of learning. Ask the Lord for good health and strength to persevere and thrive in this year’s commitments. Praise the Lord for the partnership among BTA, SILPNG and Wycliffe Australia to make this training possible.

Effective training strategies: UK, Global

MissionAssist has around 650 volunteers, spread out across the UK and many other countries, and because of geographical separation, training has always been a challenge. Please pray for MissionAssist staff as they look to develop new training and learning strategies over the next few years. MissionAssist primarily exists to serve other mission organisations around the world. However, as is now widely recognised, global mission continues to change rapidly. This rapid change requires assessing new needs and developing training interventions that help workers adjust to new approaches and ways of doing things so that MissionAssist can adapt more swiftly as the needs of mission organisations change. Please pray for MissionAssist staff as they look at how best to retrain volunteers not only in skills and knowledge but also in attitudes and approaches over the coming years. Pray that training across all Alliance organisations is well planned and delivered so that everyone finds it helpful.

Streams of Prayer is the prayer bulletin of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

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Valrie McCarthy
Proclaimer Officer
Wycliffe Caribbean
7A South Avenue
Kingston 5
JAMAICA, W. I.
876 754 9334, 908 2970, 582 6592

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