According to Psalm 2:8, the Father said to the Son, "Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession." God's ultimate desires for mankind are linked to an invitation to prayer.
In the upper-room gathering with His disciples, Jesus included this in His prayer: "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…" (John 17:20) Our Lord prayed for those who would come to faith through the message being entrusted to His disciples. Our Lord prayed for you and for me before we believed.
We are partners with our Lord in praying for those who have yet to hear the message and believe in Him. This is an invitation to you to get involved in very specific and consistent ways.
1) Praying for a language group where no Bible translation is yet in progress.
About 22 years ago a believer in Italy discovered a copy of the Ethnologue (SIL's catalogue of the world's languages with information about Bible translation needs). He was staggered by the great number of languages of the world—and how few of them have God's Word. He decided that the best response would be to recruit God's people to pray for all these Bibleless peoples! He advertised in a Christian magazine: "Write to me and I will assign you a Bibleless people to adopt as your permanent prayer project." The concept was significant. The responses were encouraging.
Wycliffe USA Prayer Ministries adopted this concept and in 1982 established the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project. God's people were invited to adopt by prayer one of these hundreds of language groups without the Word. Now 28,000 prayer partners have joined the BPPP and are each praying for one of the hundreds of Bibleless people groups.
Wycliffe invites you to adopt your own people group and to make a serious commitment to “pre-prayer” the way for them to have God's truth in their own language…to pray that God will be preparing hearts to respond to His truth and love…to pray for access to the people…to pray for first contacts to establish relationships and strategy…to pray for God to call and send laborers, both mother-tongue translators and other-tongue facilitators.
Write to Wycliffe BPPP, Box 628200, Orlando FL 32862-8200 or sign up for your Bibleless People on the Web.
2) Praying for a language group where Bible translation is in progress.
Bible translation is a difficult process from start to finish. It is a spiritual ministry and an academic task. Prayer support is needed for access and acceptance, for provision and protection, for rapport and relationships, for insights and inspiration, for patience and perseverance. You can be a member of a translation team by prayer.
The Seed Company, a ministry of Wycliffe US, specializes in sponsoring national translators. Some are translating into their own language; some are translating for another language in their country. The Seed Co. invites you to adopt one of its projects as your special focus in praying for those who will believe. A national translator might not have a "sending-praying church" as missionary translators have. The Seed Co. will send you a profile of your people group and regular updates on progress and needs. Write to The Seed Co., Suite 440, 3000 W. MacArthur Blvd., Santa Ana CA 92704 or sign up on their Web site.
No doubt you already have some special missionary interests of your own. Extend your prayer arms beyond your missionaries and, with Jesus, pray also for those who will believe through their message.
By Earl Adams, a retired Wycliffe member, now volunteering with Wycliffe International as Prayer Focus Facilitator. Earl and his late wife Betty served with Wycliffe from 1947 to 1997 in Mexico, Guatemala, International Administration, Europe, and Eurasia.
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