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!)

Strategic prayer 3--Scripture Engagement Focus Projects

The Scripture Engagement Team--All but three of us

It is hard to believe it has been three months since my last "Strategic Prayer" post.  This series of posts is based on a list of things we felt we needed to pray that God would do so that our ministry would be successful.

In the original list we asked you to pray for "direction and unity in deciding 'anchor projects'--that is communities we will develop relationships with over the next two years"

Earlier this year that prayer was answered as we felt a great deal of unity as we chose to focus our energy as a team on languages near to the town where we live, Jos.  Some of these languages (Mwaghavul, Izere, Rigwe) not only have the New Testament already translated, but the Audio version is freely available! Others (Kuce, Iguta) are still in the early stages of translation--the best time for a community to start engaging with the Bible in their own language.

Since we chose these languages it feels like we have not been able to get "out to the field" and visit these languages much.  Thank God for the first two visits since we chose the languages.  Please pray we can get out and visit the people who speak these languages to help them get thinking about how they can use their languages for more effective sharing the good news and strengthening of the church.

Again, like "the twelve days of Christmas",  you can also continue to pray for the first two prayer items.

• 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. (Click here to for more information on how to pray!)
• Courage to step into opportunities, even if we don't know exactly how it will all work out. (Read about one new opportunity we have been stepping into)

Strategic prayer 2: Courage

Have you ever sung the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," where each verse adds to the verses before it?  Well, perhaps you can pray through our strategic prayer points like that too!  Last week I started a series of blog posts on our "strategic prayer points".  Today's new point is: 

2. Courage to step into opportunities, even if we don't know exactly how it will all work out

Dancing in a traditional way!

One way God answered this prayer since October was the courage he gave us to continue partnering with the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust (NBTT) in planning a major Scripture Arts Festival, to be held in the capital this coming June.  Thank God that as a result, together we put on an EthnoArts workshop where speakers of a few languages learned to understand their own cultural arts and create Scripture songs.  Please continue to pray for boldness as we plan for a Scripture Arts Festival that is a bit bigger than any of us are really ready to pull off.

Here are some of the current opportunities of other things we might step into:

• A closer partnership with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO) a Nigerian-founded missions organization
• Partnering with local bookstores to make print and audio Scriptures more accessible
• Sending some of our staff to a conference in Thailand to learn about how we
• Partnering with OneStory to bring some teams to reach oral communities through retelling Bible stories in a natural way.  (Pray for me as I talk with one of our partners about this Tuesday this week... perhaps right as you are reading this!)

These kinds of opportunities are exciting, but they all require us to step out and try something that may not work.  Pray that God will give us wisdom to know which opportunities to follow, but even more the courage to step into them, even when we don't know if it will work.

By the way, want to hear an example of an oral retelling of Creation from OneStory? Try this:
Creation


Now you can continue praying with the first prayer point:

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. Related to this, pray for each member of our team to have all the ministry partners and the full support level they need. (Here is the blog post with more details) 

Strategic prayer 1: Ministry Partners

Back in October last year (2015), our team of twelve was just coming together again after having been focusing on looking for ministry partners here in Nigeria since May.  I was reminded of the vision I had when we returned to Nigeria to start leading this team:  begin with prayer.  So on the first day I could get our team together, the only thing we discussed was what we needed to commit to pray about if we wanted to accomplish our goals.

We drafted a list of seven strategic prayer points and I posted this on the blog so that you all could join us in prayer.  Perhaps it felt too "boxy", or perhaps we just didn't meet often enough as a team (we only have met once since then) but I feel like we have never really come together in unity to consistently seek God with these prayer points.

With that in mind could you pray that our Scripture Engagement team will become united in prayer?  I believe that God likes this kind of prayer, and as we seek him persistently together with this request, I believe he will answer.

Also, until I have a new "Strategic prayer list" from our team, I am going to keep praying through our original seven items.  To help you pray with us, I want to comment on how God is answering these requests, and give you details so you can understand the requests better.

Today, I start with the first request: 

• 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.

Thank God with us that since I first wrote this request we have seen God guiding us as an organization.  Now each of our smaller teams which are composed of only Nigerians are making their own plans and schedules for when to go out looking for new ministry partners and when to do their exciting primary ministries (for example, recording and editing the New Testament).  Thank God that many of our Nigerian Missionary colleagues have started seeing even more encouraging responses, especially in the month of December.

We still seek his guidance as the road is still so rough.  Some staff on our team are in financially tough places, and really would like to see more partners get on board and start giving financially--as soon as possible!  Please pray that today and every day God will continue to provide for each of the members of the Scripture Engagement team.  If you want to pray by name we are: Peter, Janet, John, Iliya, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Luka, Rachel, Rachel (yes two Rachels), Frank, Zach, and Christy.

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!