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Column > Praying To Overcome Obstacles Prayer: Warriors on Their Knees By Sandra Lee "We have advanced on our knees...There's been a lot of action as a result of our prayers, but it's been prayer that has solved the problems...It's been through prayer that God has raised up recruits and supplies and equipment when it seemed hopeless. And all we could do as it were, was to march around Jericho on our knees-just around Jericho. And then finally, the walls fell and we marched in." (Cameron Townsend, Peru 1962). Mountain-moving begins not with shovels but with prayer. At least that's what Jesus told us: "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt...you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done" (Mt 21:21-2). Reaching more than 3,000 language groups with the Scriptures in their own tongue is certainly a mountain to move. It's more than merely gathering workers together and dividing up the job over a period of time. It is real spiritual battle against demons and principalities that want to see people continue in the bondage of darkness, in ignorance of salvation in Jesus Christ. What can human strength do against the mountains of government opposition, violence, and cultural barriers? How can we fix the broken tools of discouragement, sickness, and death? There is no way we can see this task through without the mighty arm of prayer. Prayer is, therefore, the foundation of Bible translation. "Wycliffe has been built on prayer," said founder Cameron Townsend. Yet often prayer is the hardest part of the task: the invisible behind-the-scenes work behind the visible activity. It requires faith and dedication: the confidence of a child to a father, the persistence of a pushy widow. Thousands of prayer warriors lifting up the task of Bible translation daily are needed to get the job done. being equipped: the call to prayer Prayer begins in our need for Him. "Prayer is a statement that we are to depend upon God...that we aren't working on our own, and that we can't do it on our own...Prayerlessness is also an eloquent statement that we are doing it on our own, and that we don't need Him, 'thank you!' We can do this ourselves," said George Cowan, Wycliffe USA President Emeritus. Prayer also begins in our faith in the One to whom we pray: belief that He is able, and also that He is willing. Jesus told us, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer" (Mt 21:21-2). With this promise as our call to prayer, we can confidently enter into prayer and expect God to do His will at our bidding. "The greatest prayer motivator," wrote Bill Hybels in Too Busy Not to Pray, "is answered prayer." The following are accounts of answered prayer, gleaned from past Wycliffe publications, books, and testimonies, retold here as encouragement for us to recognize our needs, believe in God's ability, and be moved to pray. battle cry: praying for hungry ears "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44). EUROPE - Each summer throngs of travelers wait restlessly in the heat. Most are returning from jobs in Europe to their home countries in the 10/40 Window. Through the cooperative efforts of a number of organizations, these travelers are offered Scripture tapes and New Testaments. It was a slow morning in one of the European ports one summer. No one was taking the Scripture materials. Concerned over the lack of interest, one of the woman volunteers prayed for about an hour. Suddenly she was surrounded; it seemed as if everyone wanted the materials she had to offer. A coworker commented, "Something changed in the heavenlies." Time after time the power of prayer is revealed in these port cities. Christians worldwide are involved in "Praying Through the 10/40 Window," praying for specific people groups. As these groups are upheld in prayer, there's a visible difference in their response when they come through the port cities. They receive the Scripture materials with greater openness. When a specific day is targeted by a prayer group, the distributors witness increased interest and receptivity. There's a direct connection between prayer and the people receiving Scripture materials, because there's a direct connection between you and God. Pray for the people who don't yet have the Bible in their language. Pray that God will prepare them spiritually to respond to His Word and to the coming of translation workers. raising up an army: call on the Lord of the harvest When He [Jesus] saw the crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matt 9:36-8) From the founding of Wycliffe, the need for workers has been on the top of the list of prayer priorities. Cameron Townsend saw answers to prayers for a doubling of the original 47 workers; today we echo his prayers and ask for even more. Several years ago Wycliffe representatives in Latin America received a letter from Maria Sol, a 12-year-old girl who wrote, "You might say that I am very young, but my age does not take away from my strong desire to move ahead in missions. Please answer my letter!" They did, affirming her desire and encouraging her to begin a mission prayer group. Maria Sol shared the mission materials they sent her with her friends and family. After her parents showed their church one of the videos about Bibleless people, the congregation said they couldn't believe they weren't doing anything in light of such need. The church is now looking for ways to get involved-and all because Maria Sol couldn't wait to get involved. Where does a young girl like Maria Sol get such inspiration for missions? From God. The Lord of the harvest calls her and many others to join in His work. Jesus specifically commands us to ask God to send out workers to reap His harvest. The fields are ripe, but there are few workers. We need to call on God to raise up workers, equip them with prayer and support partners, and send them out into the field. This past year, Maria Sol took a vocational test at school and received high marks in foreign language aptitude. Now 16 years old, she promotes missions in a weekly radio program for young people, is studying Greek and continues to prepare for mission service. "Maria is enthusiastic and delightful-and she is the future," a Wycliffe representative wrote. She is the answer to prayer.
"There are three stages in the work of God: Impossible; Difficult; Done." (James Hudson Taylor, founder of China Inland Mission) George Cowan tells the story of linguist Ken Pike, who ran into a problem while working with the San Miguel el Grande Mixteco language in Mexico. "Pike was so frustrated," wrote Cowan, "he was ready to quit! He'd get a whole bunch of words written down and the next day he'd come back to review them only to find he heard the tones with which the words were said quite differently and the same word seemed to change tones in different contexts and combinations with other words. He didn't know whether his writing of them had been wrong, or his hearing was playing tricks on him from one day to the next, or the speakers varied unpredictably in how they would pronounce them. "In desperation he took a day off for prayer, went up the top of the mountain to a quiet place and asked the Lord to give him a solution to his problem. He dared to ask that the solution would not only meet his problem, but also similar problems the other linguists of his group were encountering elsewhere in Mexico. "And God reminded him of a statement he had heard Dr. Sapir made some time before. It was just the thing he needed. Sapir had suggested getting a sentence with certain spots in it, called 'slots', where many different words could be substituted for each other without making a senseless sentence. For instance, the sentence 'I saw a _____ yesterday' has a slot in which many different nouns can appear, and the words 'I saw a' and 'yesterday' provide a constant 'frame' within which those nouns may be compared and contrasted. This proved to be the idea that helped Pike solve the tone problem of Mixteco and determine the conditions under which the tones on some words actually did change. This became a basic element in Pike's later development of methods for analyzing and describing tone languages. It not only helped his fellow members in Mexico but ultimately others working with tone languages in other parts of the world. "But God gave it in answer to prayer."
"In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:4-6) Praise God for the overwhelming answers to prayer: 30 million people speaking 500 languages who have received Scriptures in their language through Wycliffe's work and assistance, as well as for the 1,095 language projects currently in progress! Hear the fruit of God's labor from those who have received the New Testament: "Now I have great joy so big it's like I'm drunk with joy to see God's Word coming in our language," said a Suba speaker in Kenya. "I feel now God is with me. I hold Christ in my hands. It's for this reason that the Bible translated into Adioukrou is a good thing," said Simon Pierre Papa Agnero, of the Côte d'Ivoire. "My greatest joy is that the Word of God, which I now read in Kasem, opened the way to heaven," an African man said..."I would never have thought that I would get the Word of God in my own language and would be able to read it; that is why I thank God with all of my heart." "Now we sit well; now we live in peace," said a Yawu speaker in Papua New Guinea. How we long for this joy and peace to touch the 3,000 remaining language groups without the Scriptures! This great task is still not finished, but we rejoice in God, who is able to finish it before the day of Jesus Christ. Our continuing part in His work is to stay on our knees and pray diligently for His will to be done. Let us pray! How Can You Join In? Contact a missionary you know. Be sure to stay in touch and pray consistently for them. You can also pray for the prayer points listed throughout this article and pray through the requests found at the end of The Sower. Wycliffe has many opportunities for you to become involved through the strategic and powerful act of prayer. Here are some other avenues for prayer involvement:
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Praying
To Overcome Obstacles