Pray for Them?

Pray for them?

I have three volunteers praying for a mother/daughter group coming to the Beautiful Me retreat the 18^th-19^th of March.  Can you be one of the other 10 women that we need?  Consider doing this most important work of bringing these ladies before the throne of grace as they learn to connect with each other and with God. 

Email me or post a comment if you feel you have the capacity and are called to pray with us!  -Christy 

Only God!

“I can do it in my own strength,” I said to myself this morning, “but if I do it in God’s strength, it will be awesome.”  The facts are, we can do a lot...but there's a lot we can't do too. 

What can I do?  I can plan a dynamic (overpacked) schedule for the marriage seminar we’re doing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this week for our church (Between 20-40 couples).  I can think of creative games and lessons for the Beautiful Me retreat mid-March.  I can develop a great interactive family game and meaningful afternoon activities for our group retreat beginning of March.

What I can’t do? I can’t make couples love each other more than they ever have, desiring to listen and care for each other in new ways.  I can’t make mothers and daughters become friends of each other and God, sharing deeply about the things that bring them joy and pain as the Spirit ministers wholeness. I can’t bring a whole group of people from different cultures together in unity, as every member knows their worth and value to their team and to God. That has GOT TO BE GOD!

Please pray that God will do miracles, shining brightly in our weakness.  Both Zach and I feel overwhelmed by how much we have to do in March.  We desire God’s peace and a renewed faith that God can do the impossible.  I want all of these experiences for the participants to be AWESOME, making God’s name GREAT in their hearts.  We want to burst into April “declaring the praises of him who brought us out of darkness into his glorious light!”

Beautiful Me Retreat!

These are the beautiful women God has placed in the Beautiful Me program this year.
This picture was taken after a program where we talked about "Seeing" and they
had some fun with eye makeup on their mommy/daughter date. 

This morning I unraveled the jumbled mess the children had made out of the rope connecting my hammock between two mango trees so I could sit peacefully and read God’s word for me today before I rushed into a busy day.  I rewrapped it carefully (for my hammock activity is much more calm than theirs), and sat down slowly, as you do when you’ve just tied your hammock.  Good thing, too, because all that swinging had taken a toll on my home made rope, and I found myself dropping onto the sandy ground.  After making sure I wasn’t in pain, I giggled, and sat on my hammock instead of in my hammock to read.  I read in Mark 6, “The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught.  Then Jesus said, 'Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.' ”   That WAS God's word for me today!  I feel a great need to rest a while, but heavy on my mind is the Beautiful Me retreat planned for mid-March. 

Jesus knew that his disciples needed to come away.  Never mind that before they got the chance, a huge crowd had gathered and he had compassion on them and taught them all day. Jesus didn’t get the retreat, but his disciples got to sit and listen to him teach, being reminded of how much they loved their teacher and Lord, before the climatic feeding of 5,000 men (and their families) and then him walking to them on the water in the middle of the night.  In this this story, I see our vision for the mother daughter retreat.  Come away with Jesus.  Along the way, see your own need for His shepherding, sit under his teaching, and experience his feeding and presence in your boat.  Oh, how we long for this to happen!  May we all sense Jesus calling us away to "rest awhile" with him. 

I have two requests for you:

Pray for the leadership as we prepare. For the participants, may God prepare them to come away with Jesus and may they do the exercises of praying together and reading God’s word together.

We are looking for 14 women who will each pray for one of the mother/daughter pairs leading up to the retreat.  Please email me if you are willing, or comment here, and I will contact you. 

Primary and Pharmacy

"It feels just like we are on a survey." Luther and I had just walked into a primary school compound in a village just outside of Jos. Children were already studying in their classrooms as we crossed the empty field where they would play during break.

I remembered the days when Luther and I would enter a school like this to study the differences between dialects. I quoted the things I used to say to explain the work to the headmaster. "Hello, I am Zachariah and I am from America. We would like to play some stories to the children from nearby dialects to see how well they understand them. We are like John the Baptist preparing the way for Bible translation."

Now Luther is the survey team leader but we haven't come today to survey any languages. We are here to meet Mrs. Grace* and invite her to become a ministry partner.

After introducing himself and sharing a bit about what God is teaching him personally in his own life, Luther asks to hear more about Mrs. Grace. As Mrs Grace shares about her family and ministry, I feel a strange closeness to someone who had been a complete stranger a few minutes before. She shares about her church's missionaries and her desire for her children to be close to God. We have in common a passion for God's mission.

Another day, I sit in an appointment with another colleague, Rev. Peter. We have been visiting lecturers in the University College of Pharmacy. Schedules can sometimes be a bit flexible. This was set to be our first appointment, but now it is our third one.

We are meeting with Ngozi*, an Ibgo, just like Peter. She teases him that his Igbo language doesn't sound right. It has too much of an accent from his mother's Yoruba language.

As Peter presents the different aspects of our work she keeps interrupting with intelligent focused questions. "Are there really 500 languages in Nigeria or just dialects? If people can't read how will they be able to use the Bible translated in their language?"

Peter answers her questions with illustrations and stories that are perfect for this context. Finally he explains our need for ministry partners who will pray faithfully and support financially.

She seems interested, but needs me to pray about how much to commit to. She is also ready to share names of others Peter can call. Perhaps this week Peter will be meeting them. These are just two of fifteen appointments that each of my colleagues had last week. Please pray for us this week as we each go for fifteen more. Pray for God to connect us with people who will see the eternal value of Bible translation and Scripture Engagement. Pray that they will be faithful despite the financial challenges in Nigeria.

(This is my first post written from my phone.)
*Not their real names.

Returning to Kuce

Walking down the streets, the melding of diesel fuel, dust, ripe tomatoes, freshly fried foods, and second hand clothes that have traveled over seas to find themselves in this familiar town, I felt a sense of belonging that made my heart glad.

If that wasn't enough--and I DON'T underestimate the precious sense of being home--I walked into a room full of men who warmly greeting me and my colleague, Rachel.  With sleeping Mariama strapped to my front, I stepped around the room, greeting each man with my right hand and a curtsy.

It was right to be there with them. Since I returned to the USA to study almost three years ago, new people have joined the team, and some that were trained in literacy have gained positions that will allow them to make greater change. I was privileged to encourage them in this new development and to lead discussions that allowed them to express their vision for the Bible translation and its use in the church.

To show the church activities and
which of the three languages are
 used for each activity. 

Four days later, we returned to climb motorcycles (This time with Mariama strapped on my back) and we headed to a church in Kiceland to meet a group of pastors.  Two and a half hours after the scheduled starting time, we began with a meeting considerably smaller than the one we had anticipated, but it was so powerful.  Each individual present participated in the discussion about language use, and one man who works for the public education system answered our question, "So, what do you want to change, now that we've discussed?" with "We want to move all of these activities (Bible studies, prayer meetings, weddings, etc) that are being done in Hausa," he declared in a booming, confident voice that echoed in the cavity of the sanctuary, "and move them here!" he exclaimed, indicating with a sweeping, definite gesture that hovered over the Kuce circle where only traditional cultural activities had been placed.  Everyone smiled and laughed at his enthusiastic ambitious desire before seriously discussing what it would take to make that happen.

Please pray for the Bace people who speak the Kuce language in the land of Kice.  I am so thankful to be working with them again in a new capacity, but the work is so great! To make God's words as close and native as their traditional practices will be a miraculous grace-filled achievement!  It will only happen as we move prayerfully forward, depending on God for guidance and strength. Pray for more laborers in the field, and for more Bace to be mobilized and see the need for themselves.

[Bace, Kuce, and Kice are pronounced something like Ba-CHAY, Ku-CHAY, and Kee-CHAY]

Loved and Pleased

John the Baptist baptized the creator of the seas in a dinky sea with lots of stinky, wet, repentant people around.
I know I heard a speaker talk about the baptism of Jesus once, but I was distracted and have been confused about why he did it ever since.  However, in our home, we do a listening Bible study, and today we listened to the few verses about Jesus' baptism in Luke followed by a million names I get annoyed reading every time.  Today I got excited.  It was like the first time I'd heard the passage.  That's why I love listening Bible study.  If you've never tried it, these are the steps and what I learned.

My dear friend Aunty Victoria listening to Scripture in her language

1. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you through the passage.
2. Listen to the passage.
3. Ask yourself (or your family): What happened?
    We went around the room so each  person could tell part of what he/she remembered. Jesus was baptized when there were a bunch of other people there listening to John say all sorts of offensive things. The Holy Spirit came in bodily form, looking like a dove, and the heavens opened.  God said, "This is my son.  I love him. I am am pleased with him." Then there was a long list of names that ended with..."the son of Adam...the Son of God."
4. Ask yourself (or your family):  What was interesting or what touched you?
    I heard lots of names I knew and I got more and more excited, like a growing weight, amazed that all those people had been remembered and recorded, and it all came back to...God.  Connecting Jesus with God. Really awesome.  It touched me that the Father affirmed his son, and told him he loved him, and that he was pleased with him.  I was touched with imagining Jesus, a few years later, carrying his cross, repeating to himself those words he heard from his father..."He loves me, he loves me, he loves me."  And then as his father turned away from him on the cross repeating in his heart... "He's pleased with me, he's pleased with me, he's pleased with me."  God knew that his precious Son would have to hear those words before he could accomplish the terrible and wonderful mission he had sent him on.
5. Listen to the passage again.
6. Ask yourself (or your family): What do we learn about God (the Father), Jesus, and/or, the Holy Spirit?
    This is only passage I can remember that all three persons of the trinity are represented and ministering. Jesus is fully human and fully God, present and walking through a baptism of repentance though he had no need to repent.  He was identifying with his people, being among them.  The spirit was covering, clothing, to me, he was bringing peace like a dove as Jesus identified with people's sin.  The Father was affirming and loving.  He delights in his children.  What a beautiful picture of these three faces (persons) of our one God.  That's a lot to learn...had I learned it before?  Maybe in a different way, but it went deeper, like a well.  My heart is the ground, and the deeper the well, the deeper the understanding goes, the more pure the message (the water) arriving at my heart will be because it's gone through the layers of learning I've head over the years.
7. Ask yourself (or your family): What are we going to do now that we have heard?
    I'm going to ask God to help me know his love and affirmation because if I know, I mean REALLY KNOW, that the Father loves and is pleased with me, it will change my ministry, and I can pass through any trial with that firm foundation.

Then this evening, as I was discussing with my husband about my day, I used this phrase, "Today when I walked down the streets of Jebbu Bassa (the town where I worked for my first year here in Nigeria with the Kuce language), I felt like I was in the right place, doing the right thing."  I smiled to myself, that God had answered my prayer through a memory. I did have a special feeling when I was there, an "at home" feeling, but I couldn't identify it until after I asked God to show me his affirmation.

I did not grow up doing family devotions (though my family lived, discussed, and treasured the Words of Jesus in other ways), but this has been one of the richest disciplines we have developed as a family.  If you want to do listening Bible studies, you can download the NIV Audio New Testament at www.bible.is .  If you don't know where to start, we like listening to the Gospels and you may hear them in a new way!  May you know that you are loved today, and sense the affirmation of the Father.

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!)