Streams of Prayer for 22 May 2023
The Streams of Prayer for 22 May 2023, is a circular from Wycliffe Global Alliance. Wycliffe Caribbean makes this available.
May 21-27, 2023
Generosity, Funding and Specialty Services
Community is at the heart of the existence of the Wycliffe Global Alliance. Serving together in community, we love, respect and honour each other. Our interdependence and interconnectedness create an environment where all Alliance organisations generously give and graciously receive. Sometimes Alliance organisations give financially. We also give in other ways including providing time, expertise and staff. We affirm each other for who we are and not for what we contribute or for the quantity of the contribution. Our primary goal is to glorify God together in Bible translation.
Alliance organisations engaged in the Funding and Specialty Services Participation Streams demonstrate community and encourage generosity through raising funds for operations and Bible translation projects and by sharing other practical skills within the Bible translation movement. Therefore, our theme encompasses these three interconnected areas: Generosity, Funding and Specialty Services.
Donations beyond Bible translation: Ghana
For some time, the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) has been at the forefront of significant changes in the country. Not only is GILLBT actively involved in Bible translation in Ghanaian languages, but GILLBT also assists local communities in planning language development activities, including mother-tongue literacy programmes. Thank God that the long-term impact of this triple heritage continues to influence the infrastructure that will shape the future of Ghana. In the East Gonja district of the Savannah region, GILLBT staff visiting the Hanga and Vagla translation projects noticed that three newly-built primary schools lacked desks. Students had to sit on the floor, which made teaching and learning difficult. Praise God that with generous support from partners, GILLBT was able to donate 40 dual desks in July 2021 to those three schools. Pray that God will transform the lives of those students as well as others in the community, through education and translated Scriptures.
Consulting: Spain
Staff at PROEL are involved in the speciality service of consulting. They have two SIL-trained consultants in Bible translation and others who specialise in linguistics, anthropology, and sociolinguistics*. Pray for all of these consultants. Pray especially for health and strength for R**, who is training to become a sign language consultant. Ask for God’s help to develop all the skills needed to attain full consultant status.
*Sociolinguistics involves analysing the social and linguistic variables in a language community in order to develop effective strategies for planning, managing, and partnering in translation projects and related language activities, such as translation needs assessment, writing system design and development of literacy efforts.
**name withheld for security reasons
Serving thousands over 30 years: Australia
Give thanks for Tree Tops Lodge in Cairns, Australia, a unique retreat centre of Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia. For over 30 years, this lodge has provided much-needed respite for thousands of cross-cultural workers and others. At the end of this year, a new full-time manager will be needed to serve on a long-term basis. Please pray that God will provide the person(s) he has called to serve in this capacity. Pray also for people to come and work for four to seven weeks to give the permanent staff a break.
New translation quality tool: Global
Praise God for Augmented Quality Assessment (AQuA), a tool designed by a team at SIL to aid translation teams and consultants during quality checks of Scripture drafts. AQuA does this by pointing out differences between two texts (for example, a local language draft and a reference translation) in the areas of accuracy, naturalness and clarity. The intent of this tool is to give translation teams a better idea of where in a draft they should focus on revision. The developers hope that in the future AQuA can be included in existing software such as Scripture Forge and Paratext. Pray that God will use this tool to help translators and consultants to produce clear, accurate and natural Bible translations. Pray for the right distribution channels to make it available to all who need it.
Exhibiting different Bible translations: Mexico
Exhibitions of the Mana Museum of the Holy Scriptures in Mexico display historically important translations of the Scriptures such as copies of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, and a copy of the “Biblia del Oso” printing of Casiodoro de Reina’s translation of the Bible into Spanish. The history of such translations shows that the goal has always been to make the Scriptures accessible to people in the language they understand best. Mana Museum and the Temple and Convent of St. Francis of Assisi in Oaxaca, Mexico co-hosted an exhibition of The Bible for All the Peoples of the World. Towards 500 Years of the Gospel in Mexico, which showed the history and importance of bringing to all language groups the universal message of love, comfort and ethics that shaped Mexico’s culture during the last five centuries. The exhibition concluded with a section on translations into indigenous languages of Mexico. Praise God for the service Mana provides in spreading knowledge of the Bible as the foundation of culture in all the languages into which it has been translated, through preservation, teaching, research and exhibition.
Generous literacy work as a gateway: Burkina Faso
The literacy work of Association Nationale pour la Traduction de la Bible et l’Alphabétisation (ANTBA) involves literacy efforts in 11 languages spoken in more than 15 provinces in Burkina Faso. Praise God that more than 20,000 people have become literate so far. The ultimate goal is to see hearts changed and lives transformed through being able to read God’s Word. Literacy efforts in churches allow learners to read the translated portions of the Bible while listening to the audio transcript. Praise God that ANTBA’s generosity benefits not only the church but also the formal education system. Because of local language literacy involvement, ANTBA has helped children aged 9 to 12 who are not in school or who left school early to reintegrate into the formal education system. Pray that this strategy for accelerated schooling will continue and that it will open doors to more people being transformed by Scripture in their languages.
Sharing and learning Rev79: Papua New Guinea
On 27 and 28 February, the project team from Papua New Guinea Bible Translation Association (PNGBTA) partnered with SIL to conduct a successful training on Rev79, a project management software tool. The two-day workshop for language programme leaders in the Papuan Mainland Region was facilitated by personnel from SIL. Rev79 is a language programme database system initially developed and used in India. It facilitates language project planning, implementation and tracking of goals either within an organisation or across a collaborative network. PNGBTA has customised the system for their local situation and use. Praise God for the development of this database system to assist in programme management. Pray that the system will help leaders to more effectively manage the language programmes they lead.
Streams of Prayer is the prayer bulletin of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.
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