What does 7,000 gumballs look like?

The lobby itself looks normal enough—a large spiraling staircase, a window with a view of the lake, a stain glass wall displaying the work of Wycliffe over the years. But behind one large window stands a curious display—a large case holding colorful round objects.  You wonder what they could be. It creates such a strange sight in what seems to be a normal office. As you look closer, you realize inside are chewy round balls of gum. Strange. On top of the case is a flip chart of numbers. Right now, the number is over 7,000. What does it mean?

The gumballs represent the number of people praying for the Bibleless people of the world. Currently, there are over 2,000 languages that fall into this “Bibleless” category. The people speaking these languages do not have a single verse of translated Scripture in their heart language.  So Wycliffe’s prayer ministries department wanted to find an interactive and interesting way to represent prayer for the Bibleless.

In September of 2007, after some creative thinking, colorful gumballs, the gigantic round ones you used to beg your mom to buy from store vending machines, were chosen to represent the prayer teams. Then Prayer ministries had a large container built to hold the gumballs. In the beginning, there were over 5,000 gumballs representing the existing prayer teams.  Each time someone signed up to pray for a Bibleless people group, another gumball was dropped into the container.

In June 2008, the number of gumballs reached over 7,000. As the number of prayer teams increases, the number of language groups needing a translator will decrease. The Prayer ministries department would like to add more gumballs to the container, since there are still over 2,000 languages needing Scripture.

Will you join the 7,000 people praying for the Bibleless who speak these languages?  Will you be a gumball?

Learn more about the Bibleless People Prayer Project or read about other opportunities for prayer.