An unexpectedly fun stop on the way

Storytime with Zach

Princeton was supposed to share about Scripture Engagement in a seminary on the way to Abuja for some planning meetings we had there.  They were observing an International Day by celebrating their own ethnos (nations) within Nigeria and the nations around the world.  I briefly sat in the chapel sanctuary and watched Princeton’s presentation, and some of the songs and dance that followed.  I even got to taste a special traditional bean dish with black sesame seeds.  Delicious!

But I quickly slipped outside to our display at the entrance.  Several people were looking at our banner with all the languages that have some portion of Scripture translated already.  I wanted to engage them in discussion so they could learn more about the importance of Bible translation.

I asked one man, “Do you see your language?”  We found his language, Tyap, quickly on the banner.  “Did you know there are audio Scripture available in your language?”  I asked.  He didn’t.  “Do you have a phone that plays songs?  Shall it put it on there for you?”  He was quite thrilled to accept.

Sadly, he didn’t have space on his memory card, but I soon found myself putting audio Scriptures on many others’ phones in their languages.  It “just happened” that we had a stack of papers along with us with questions for leading an audio Bible study on them.  I had more than enough to give one to each person who collected the Scriptures. 

Two or three hours passed so quickly I hardly noticed.  For this one, I sent Scriptures through an app on my phone.  For that one, I explained that Bible translation is just starting and they should try hard to find out who is doing it and encourage them.   For the next one, I demonstrated how to use a solar-powered audio Bible device.  For the yet another one, I made a call to find out the price of a Bible we had brought for display, but decided to sell instead. I felt surprised.  I had just come to watch a short presentation, but here I was surrounded by a crowd of people, helping them all to access Bibles in their own languages.

Zach is in Ogoja?

Zach and Princeton board the bus in Ogoja

I am in Ogoja?  I find it hard to believe.  Although I had been talking with our team for about a month about the work we need to do here, I had thought until Saturday that someone else was going.

On Monday, I not only confirmed that I was the one to go, but also found out the trip needed to be on Tuesday.  That was a quick change in plans.

Please thank God for the safe journey to Ogoja, and pray for our conversations with the speakers of the Bokyi language.  A couple of years ago our partners did some Scripture Listening and Reading Group (SRLG) training with some Bokyi speakers.  Our colleague Linus even did a follow-up training.  Now we want to see how the small groups from this training are doing, and consider training some of the leaders for further follow-up training.  Please pray for us to have wisdom and listening ears on Wednesday as we want to plan well together with the local people.  Also pray for Princeton, one of our new colleagues, to quickly pick up the skills in this kind of planning.

Thank God for the dedication of the Jesus Film and Audio recordings of Luke that will be launched on Friday and Saturday in four languages: Mbe, Obe, Nkim-Nkum, and Ekperi.  Please pray for the few words we may speak at each of these dedications, for God to spark more engagement with his Word.

New Leaders!

Luka and Iliya (facing the camera) as Iliya leads a meeting

Thank God with us for new leaders in Scripture Engagement!

While we were in the US, Iliya became the new Vernacular Media Services team leader.  Iliya has many years of experience as part of the team and is a natural leader.  When I (Zach) asked Iliya to lead a meeting recently, he planned and led it much better than I would have done it.  Thank God for Iliya's experience, intuition in working together, his willingness to talk about what matters most, and his willingness to help lead our team!

Also, thank God for Rachel, she was the first person to be asked to be a "Scripture Engagement" staff.  I asked her if she could lead one of the three sub-teams of our Scripture Engagement team and she agreed!  Thank God with us for her organization, energy, pioneer mindset, and willingness to  help lead our team!

By the way, you can thank God for Peter who has been leading our EthnoArts team and will continue to lead it!

I, Zach, am still the leading these leaders to ensure that we all work together well.  You can thank God for the weight off my shoulders with this capable help!

Helen and the prison ladies

We have a new colleague.  Her name is Helen.  She is ready to serve God wherever he leads.  But what of the hundreds of opportunities is God really calling her to?  We leave in four weeks to go on furlough, so Helen and I are exploring opportunities she might have while we are gone to do Scripture Listening and Reading Group training . We would like to run an informal one before I leave. Our most recent exploration found us at the prison, where Helen observed a discipleship class with about 14 prison ladies led by another local ministry. 

Please pray for Helen as she discovers what area she is to focus on in her ministry here, and praise God with us for this very willing colleague who will partner with faithful Nigerians as they grow in the knowledge of God’s word and equipping others to do the same.   

John 3 in their hearts

They stood, they began in Rigwe.  They said the whole chapter of John 3 in their language.  Wow. 

The leader had been in a training that I had done a few months ago on listening Bible studies.  He hadn’t played the audio Scriptures, sat in a circle, or asked the questions and given time for responses.  He wasn’t using the method I had taught, except that the students knew the six Bible study questions in their language.  It was a moment to say, “You give what you have, and you leave it in God’s hands!”

The things we give to people are often morphed into something else and in this case, it is God’s word being memorized and answers to the Bible study questions being taught rather than discussed.  This man runs six different Bible studies--three in his village, and three in a different village three miles away.  He goes there by foot, over the beautiful hills and now lush green landscape.  What a love for Jesus and his word he must have to walk, teach, give what he has to those God has put in his realm of influence.

The fact is, with my method, those youth wouldn’t have memorized John 3.  Please pray for discernment as I go around and visit different groups.  What does God want me to bring to the group, to the leader?  In this case, I took a picture of these remarkable youth, meeting three times a week, and memorizing John 3 in two weeks, and told them I’d tell their story.  They smiled, nodding in agreement, dark brown eyes shining. 

Here they are.  Please pray for them, that as they grow, the words they have memorized with go deeply into their heart.  Pray for their leader that he would make use of the audio Scriptures he has available to him.  Pray for the Rigwe community, that we would partner well with them and the unchained gospel would impact lives for Christ.

Strategic prayer 4--More people to join us!

We are thankful for our team

Our fourth "strategic prayer request" was for God to send more people to join us in this work.  Although we may be one of the largest Scripture engagement teams in the world, we also have a very large Scripture engagement task here in Nigeria.

We have learned from experience that God calls staff on to new roles and opportunities from time to time, so we need to be mentoring new missionaries in this work.  It has been four years since someone new has joined in the area of Scripture engagement!


Thank God with us that he has been answering this prayer.  We are expecting Helen Fisher, from the UK, to be joining us in February.  (You can find more about Helen Fisher on p. 24-25 of Wycliffe UK's Winter 2015 Words For Life).

Also thank God for a couple of great opportunities to share about our work at Nigerian missions conferences.  Although I (Zach) didn't get to go, it was exciting to help my colleagues prepare materials, such as existing Scriptures--including audio Scriptures--to show the work we do.  Please pray for God to bring Nigerians to join us in the work!  We plan to interview whomever God sends in February, and begin orientation in March.

Please pray for God to send more people from outside Nigeria.  Might God be calling you someone you know to join in the work over here? (You are already part of the work wherever you are reading this and praying!)

We are half way through the seven strategic prayer items!  Here are the ones from previous posts:

3) Thank God that we have identified "Focus Projects" around Jos. Pray for us to take the initiative to start developing relationships with the people from these projects.

2) Courage to step into new opportunities (right now, bringing on new staff is a great one to pray for!)

1) Clarity and direction for us as an organization as our Nigerian Missionaries look for new Ministry Partners to pray for and support them financially. (Pray for me for wisdom and "good hearing" as I have been given a special accountability role of meeting with three of my colleagues to reflect on how this process is going.)
Related to this, pray for each member of our team to have all the ministry partners and the full support level they need. (Click here to for more information on how to pray!)

A New Experience

There's the water, here I go...

I have always loved getting new experience.  I feel a bit like Mariama on this one, though...

Oh, boy, that's a lot of water.

 Tomorrow, Monday, I will be meeting with facilitators to prepare a training event for some members of the Irigwe community.  The participants will be learning how to do audio Bible studies.  I have given a lot of audio Scriptures away in this language...to market women and friends, and now I get to help prepare those Scriptures to be used effectively.

However, with Daso's return today (Sunday), school starting tomorrow for her, a few extra mouths to feed for visiting participants in a different workshop, Daso's mommy being here who I really want to take time with, Mariama changing and growing all the time (becoming more mobile), and Zach in a two week training, I feel like the water is rising and maybe I'm just not up to the task of riding the waves.

I know the facts: my God is as omnipotent as ever, he equips us for what he sends us to do, and he WILL accomplish his WILL for the Irigwe community.  So, please pray that I will have faith in my big God, and that I will help the facilitators to work well together that God's Word might go forth in power.

Do you have...

 We didn't know what to expect when we joined our colleague at his church two Sundays ago.  He was sharing about his work with SIL Nigeria, and we were there to support him and share audio Scriptures.  Zach had gotten up early to load the lightstream (a cool device for sharing media quickly) with audio Scriptures and a sampler of 15 languages to give to people on their cell phones.

 After the service we filed out of the auditorium that contained at least 600 congregants, and I imagined that we would be too late to get set up and share Scriptures with anyone.  We shuffled to the side of the main exit, and settled ourselves down with the lightstream ready to go!  Our colleague started shouting in the middle of the crowd, "Free Audio Scriptures over here!" and before you knew it, we had about 15 people gathered around.  We started asking them, "What language would you like your audio New Testament in?" The most exciting moments for me were when someone would say hopefully, "Do you have the Bible in..." and we could say, "Yes!"  After giving out about 30 NTs in over 5 languages we were splendidly tired.
Mariama was part of it all too, of course, and Daso watched what was happening though it wasn't until later she understood what we had been doing!  She was so excited that we taught her how to use the lightstream so yesterday, she shared the Scriptures at the church we visited, and I attended to Mariama and fielded other questions.

We have already gotten positive feedback of people listening to God's Word on their phones.  Praise God!  Please pray for more opportunities to share, for strength on the weekends, and for fruit to be produced in people's lives. 

Strategic Prayer for Scripture Enagagement

Finally!  Our Scripture Engagement team gathered together yesterday for the first time since April.  (Read some of the previous posts on the Scripture Engagement team to see why.)  We did a SWOT analysis—that is we identified our strengths and weaknesses, and also opportunities, and threats as we consider our strategy as a team. Then we developed a list of things we want to pray for so that our part of God’s mission will go forward—things we can’t do on our own.

Will you join us in praying for these things which we can't control, but we hope God will do?

• Clarity and direction for us as an organization as our Nigerian Missionaries look for new Ministry Partners to pray for and support them financially.
  Related to this, pray for each member of our team to have all the ministry partners and the full support level they need.
• Courage to step into opportunities, even if we don't know exactly how it will all work out
• Direction and unity in deciding anchor projects--that is communities we will develop relationships with over the next two years.  (More on that as it unfolds.)
• More people to join us in the work--In Scripture Engagement, Arts, and Vernacular Media services. (Maybe sometime next year?)
• Good health for us and our families (a number of us have been sick lately)
• Unity in vision
• Opportunities for training for our staff

 Thanks for praying.  Let's see what God will do!

Scripture Engagement Team--Still on hold

Upon our arrival in Nigeria we met our group in a time of transition.  Most notably, the team we were coming to lead includes seven Nigerians.  In May all the Nigerians began an intensive time of Ministry Partner Development.  I also have been involved as a mentor in the process.  We were hopeful that by this month we would be seeing most of these Nigerians reaching 100% of their needed support and coming back to focus on our work as a Scripture Engagement team.  However, it looks like there still is a long way to go for all of us.

This raises a number of prayer items that we would appreciate continued prayer:

• That we will have wisdom to know what to invest our energy into in this time of transition
• As we grow tired, that we will also grow in love and unity... not a natural progression!
• That God will continue to bring new Nigerian Ministry Partners to join us in this work

Also there are a few items of thanksgiving and praise:

• Perhaps more than a thousand people around Nigeria (mostly in Jos) have heard about Bible Translation, many for the first time
• Some Nigerians have eagerly seized the opportunity to become Ministry Partners.
• John Azomo and I were able to share Izere and Hausa audio Scriptures on Sunday, and people eagerly took them
• The Mwaghavul language project has continued to plan and host Scripture Listening and Reading Group training events--almost completely independent of our help

Praying for Us

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• Zach as he finishes this intensive month of helping with the Partnership Development training for our Nigerian colleagues.
• Christy, that she stays healthy (no malaria), and learns to rest a bit more.
• Baby, that she will grow strong inside of Christy, and that we have peace about a doctor and where to birth the baby. 
• For the Scripture engagement team as we prepare to jumpstart new strategies in September when our colleagues have reached their financial need quota.
• For our Nigerian Missionary Staff (NMS) that they will learn of God’s faithfulness in the next few months to provide their every need, and will be bold in sharing the vision and inviting others to join them financial and prayerfully in mission.
• That we will have wisdom in our anchor project in our community (read below).

The Dream (ing) Team

Let us dream together of all that can be

Dream of what God can do with "we"

With our gifts and passions, hopes, ideas, 

As we've walked this road with boldness and fears. 

It's all new, working with you, 

It must be God joining us too, 

But as we dream, we see threads of similarity, 

How we can weave our paths, God brings clarity. 

We'll write them for now, discuss as we go, 

That the height and depth of God's love they'll know

As they connect with his words in new ways, 

As they see he's present in their days, 

As they explore how he speaks, 

As his living water to thirsty places seeps, 

Oh, let us dream.

The meeting went well.  The picture above was our brainstorm of ideas!  Now it has dots all over it with immediate, later, and much later indicating where to begin.  What fun joining God and his body to reach our world! Thank you for your prayers! 

Postponed for Prayer!

It was 1:50pm, and I had the room all set up for our Scripture engagement DREAMING MEETING at 2pm.  This was the first time ALL 11 of us in-country were going to discuss our ideas and where we felt God was leading our team.  It was a monster to find a time when all of us could be there.  I love planning meetings, and we had all sorts of exciting activities to bring unity and clarity to our work.

At that moment, someone in another meeting, which commenced at 10am) came in looking ragged.  She said, “Oh, we’re taking a break. Wow, this is draining!”  “A break?!?” I said in surprise and maybe a little bit of annoyance as I realized that our meeting just wasn’t going to happen.

However, that means we can now write you and say, “PLEASE PRAY!”  We so want God to lead our team, to bind us together in unity so that “the world may know that God sent Jesus (Jn. 17).”  How can you pray?

• That we will listen well
• That all the directions our different departments are going in will find a common vision
• That we will learn each other’s strengths and focus on them.
• That we will not become distracted by the thousands of opportunities and needs, but identify what God’s BEST is for our team now!
• That everyone will feel heard
• That we will remember and encourage each other in the fact that this is God’s work and he can do even the most “impossible” tasks, and therefore we would be both humble, sensitive, and bold in our asking and seeking and knocking!