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Vol. 20 No. 2 - Summer, 2006 | ||||
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Dear Friends, Summer has arrived, hopefully with some enjoyable times for all of you. It is always a delight to correspond with you—thanks so much for being part of my Wycliffe ministry with your friendship, support, and prayers. A Praise Report The Reflection and Prayer Training that I facilitated at the Lutheridge Retreat Center went well. We had 14 participants (the total we could accept), and they were very responsive. They came from Canada, Nepal, South America, and Thailand, as well as from several locations in the U.S. There were five staff, helping with worship, prayer, teaching, evening activities, etc. Three additional presenters came for a few days: Rev. Tim and Rae Fangmeier, and Mary Morgan. Tim, my former pastor at Ascension Lutheran, is a staff associate with Wheat Ridge Ministries. Rae, women’s retreat leader, and Mary, just home from consultant work in Nepal, attended the first R & P Training that I did (May, 2003). Most of the pictures on the Web Site this month are from this Reflection and Prayer. My Summer Schedule I will be continuing to prepare additional courses for the distance learning site, and also will be speaking at a number of churches and groups both in the Charlotte area and in other locations as well. I am also looking forward to some family time, and some needed ‘rest and relaxation’ time! A Special True Story Do you sometimes get tired of praying for the same difficult thing over and over again? Do you ever wonder if anything is too difficult for God, or if the small things you do make a difference in another person’s life? Bob Creson, president of Wycliffe USA, shares a true story from Marti Giger, a Wycliffe literacy consultant in Cameroon, Africa. Here are Marti’s words: During my days in the Daba village, children would often look in the windows, and I would sometimes feel like chasing them away. Kadri, a 9-year-old boy, was one of these children. He was always hanging around our house after school, and he and his friend often stayed on into the evening. My colleague, Ruth, and I never felt the freedom to send them away. Sometimes we gave them toys to play with, or I told them a Bible story. I cannot remember how long this went on, but suddenly Kadri stopped coming to see us.Likely his parents, who were of another predominant religion, told him not to visit us anymore. Years passed. I moved to the city of Maroua, and surprisingly one day I met Kadri in town. He was a taxi driver, and I was very pleased to see him. He was affiliated with the religion of his parents and married to a woman of that same religion. One day Kadri accompanied me on a trip to the village because his father had died. Later, on the way back to Maroua, I said to him, ‘Kadri, you are grown up, and your father has died. Don't you want to believe in Jesus now? You are free to do it.’ Kadri said, ‘I will come back to this,’ and went home. To my delight, one day Kadri did put his faith in Christ, or as his people say, he ‘put his head on Jesus.’ He was very eager to learn all about Jesus Christ, so we started weekly Bible studies using the Daba New Testament (which we had now translated). Each time we met we prayed for his wife, Fadimatou, that she, too, would ‘put her head on Jesus.’ |
Kadri was baptized and renamed Moise. He faced a lot of family pressure. Fadimatou and his brothers tried everything they could to get him to give up his new faith. They offered him money, a television, even a car. Fadimatou cut his Daba New Testament with a razor blade. She poured kerosene on his clothes, intending to burn them. She left him several times and went to live with her family, but Moise stood firm. He took her back each time, and we both continued to pray for her. I'm sorry to say that I doubted that Fadimatou would ever turn to Christ, but I, along with my friends, continued to pray. We prayed for 10 years! In January 2006, it happened! Fadimatou accepted Christ, and it completely transformed her! She is now involved in church activities and uses her many gifts in the context of the church. She is also eager to learn to read the Scriptures. She and Moise have two children, and they are a very happy family. Looking back, I am sure that God had already started his work in Moise's heart when hewas hanging around our house, watching us, and listening to me read him Bible stories. God had a plan, and I was part of it, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time. We all have people like Moise in our lives -- people who need our continued attention, love, and prayer. Galatians 6:9 (NLT) says: ‘Don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.’ The final chapter hasn't yet been written. You may not be able to see it, but God is using you—particularly for the benefit of those not yet included in the Kingdom—so don't give up. Wycliffe’s Work The Scriptural principle in the previous section has direct application for all of us, but especially, I believe, to the work that Wycliffe does. We often spend many years in prayer and service in a particular project before reaping the harvest of blessing, and we need to remember not to give up. But what does that mean? What does ‘not giving up’ mean when a language community has some translated Scripture but isn't using it? Or when a language community needs a translation project but the situation is too sensitive to begin one? What does it mean to not give up when we look at the big picture—2500 translation projects yet to begin and another 1300 to complete? We do indeed need the prayers and support of all our partners in order to keep going! In Joy I Serve Him,
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