Streams of Prayer for 4 January 2022
The Streams of Prayer for 4 January 2022, is a circular from Wycliffe Global Alliance. This is made available through Wycliffe Caribbean.
Celebration
Psalm 126:3 says: “The Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!”
This has been the experience of many in the Alliance even through some of the darkest days and the greatest challenges we have faced during the last two years. At times God has acted despite the pandemic and other challenging situations, and at times he has accomplished his purposes because of pandemic restrictions. Celebration is the current theme for Streams of Prayer. Join us as we look back over the year and celebrate what God has done in and through the Bible translation movement. As we praise and thank him, let us allow the joy of the Lord to be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
Dear Prayer Partners,
A Happy New Year to you! I wish you Good Health, Prosperity, Peace, Favour from God and Man. Please see the latest Prayer Bulletin below.
Ilchamus New Testament: Kenya
Great news recently reached Bible translation and literacy offices in Nairobi. The printing of the Ilchamus New Testament is underway. The time when the Ilchamus community receives the New Testament in their language is very near. Pray for a successful printing process and pray for the planning of the celebration. Ask God to touch hearts and lives through this New Testament.
Milestones in projects: Norway
Celebrate with Wycliffe Norway for achieving several milestones among projects where their personnel participate. The *Raja language now has both Luke and Acts published as mobile apps with audio and text. Groups of Christ-followers access God’s word and practice reading their language using the app. In the *K-project in South East Asia, all New Testament (NT) books have now been consultant approved. The next step is to check all the NT texts and revise as needed before publishing the complete NT. As well, some Old Testament texts have been translated. The complete *Umit Bible is at the publisher in preparation for printing. Soon the Umit people of Central Asia will have access to the whole Bible!
*pseudonym
Partnering together: Papua New Guinea, Australia
Praise the Lord for the development of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Papua New Guinea Bible Translation Association (PNGBTA) and Wycliffe Australia (WBTA). PNGBTA has identified key strategic areas to focus on in the next five years, identifying Prayer and Partnership as one focus. Thank the Lord for the personnel appointed from WBTA to serve as advocates in this specific function on behalf of PNGBTA. This partnership will strengthen relationships between both organizations through the mutual goal of serving language communities in Papua New Guinea. Pray for the leaders of both organizations as they handle the development and implementation of this MOU.
Rejoice on the start of the Standard Romani Bible Translation: Romania
Wycliffe Romania reports that portions of the Bible have been translated in a couple of Romani dialects, though without significant engagement from local communities. About four years ago, project committee members decided to translate the Bible into the standard Romani language, taught in schools for the Roma children, but not all the partners agreed. Since then, many negotiations and preparations have taken place for the work to begin. Give thanks to God that on 1 October 2021, the project finally officially started. Thank God also for encouraging patience and perseverance in the partners. Please pray for constructive collaboration, for wisdom for the translators, and for effective engagement with the communities.
Fruitful year: South Asia
Praise God for a fruitful year of online training conducted by an Alliance organization in South Asia. Rejoice and glorify God that most of the 2021 goals were met, despite COVID-19 challenges. Pray that God will guide translation project leaders to the communities to work alongside local translators. Ask for God’s blessing of wisdom and unity for these projects: (a) Kassin* church engagement, New Testament celebration, and New Testament recording; (b) preparations for the Warka* New Testament celebration to be held at the earliest possible date; (c) help for the Walangi* team in the final stages of preparing the New Testament for recording and publication.
*pseudonym
Completion of project: Malaysia
Praise God for Wycliffe Malaysia’s completed translation of the gospel of Mark for the *Sem people group. The book is now in print. Thank the Lord for the important help in the audio recording by Faith Comes by Hearing. Praise God that the team completed the project in a short time. Bible translation training for the mother-tongue translators, the actual translation and the consultant checks were all done via Zoom. Give thanks for this testimony of God’s goodness.
Defying travel barriers: Caribbean
The Translation Coordination team of the Western Caribbean Creole (Jamaican) Old Testament Project scheduled a five-day workshop during 1-5 November. This would be the first face-to-face workshop since the COVID-19 pandemic, where translators, consultants, reviewers and other personnel would meet together. Plans and preparations were in place when a translator from San Andres faced possible denial of entry into Jamaica due to COVID-19 restrictions. Praise the Lord that the protocols changed a few days before the event and the translator travelled to the workshop after much prayer.
The weekend before the workshop began an airline cancelled hundreds of flights out of the United States. These included the flights of the consultant leading the workshop and the translators from Belize and San Andres. They faced great difficulty in rescheduling their flights. Praise God that all participants from other countries attended the workshop face-to-face and the workshop was a great success despite the delays.
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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