It’s been hard to wait. But now, Wycliffe Bible Translators USA is supporting the Saare Bible translation team as they work on the book of Luke.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA)

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday in the United States, and Wycliffe wants to raise $20,000 for the Saare Bible translation.

Click here to support Wycliffe for Giving Tuesday!

If you donate tomorrow, Wycliffe’s Melissa Stillman says, “Your generosity on Giving Tuesday provides workshop training for the Saare translation team members. That equips them to translate God’s Word in a way that is clear, accurate, and natural. It paves the way for Scripture to be translated and then published in print, audio, and digital formats so it can have the greatest reach and impact.”

But your dollars don’t stop there. “With the book of Luke serving as a movie script, your gift will also make it possible to be in a production of the ‘JESUS’ film — something the Saare people eagerly look forward to because their neighbors have had it,” Stillman says.

“For the first time, the Saare will meet Jesus through Scripture in a language that speaks to their hearts. And through the ‘JESUS’ film, they’ll see Him.”

The Saare people are sandwiched between Christians in southern Nigeria and another prominent religious group in the north. About 30 percent of the Saare people are believers, and they often face opposition for their faith.

Emmanuel, a member of the us-Saare Bible translation team in Nigeria. (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA)

Stillman says, “They consider it to be a spiritual battleground so they really want God’s Word to encourage believers and have the ability to share their faith with others. That will also enable their church to grow deeper and wider as they have Scripture.”

The Saare Bible translation team is also personally invested alongside their supporters.

Stillman recently spoke with Emmanuel, one of the translation team members. “He believes in the work they’re doing so much that their translation team actually gives as well to the work. That was so inspiring to me. He actually wanted me to share with people who are participating in Giving Tuesday that he prays they will also be richly blessed by God and never regret giving or praying.”

In addition to giving, please pray for the faithfulness of Saare believers, encouragement for the Bible translation team, and that a Saare Bible translation would lead many more to relationships with Jesus.

Header photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

Like the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Christmas is a time when you hear about Jesus everywhere. When you’re out shopping, there’s a Christmas song about Jesus on the radio. When you turn on the TV, there’s Linus sharing the Christmas story.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says Christmas is the perfect time to naturally bring up the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Sergé via Flickr under Creative Commons: https://goo.gl/Pz7L9u)

“Most of us don’t realize that Christmastime is harvest time…. Have you ever thought about this? The busiest time of the year — which is the Christmas season — also happens to be the very best time for you to talk to somebody you have been praying for, someone you want in heaven with you. [It’s] your very best time to talk to them about Jesus. This is a time when hearts are softer toward Jesus, more natural toward Jesus, and where the subject to bring him up is really not that difficult.”

It can be easy sometimes throughout the year to put sharing the Gospel as secondary to everything else in our day-to-day activities. But fulfilling the Great Commission isn’t just for career missionaries. Hutchcraft encourages it’s a task for every ordinary believer.

“The people who got that Great Commission first were shepherds. You can’t get any more ordinary than shepherds! They weren’t even allowed in the temple in those days. They were thought to be such undesirables but they were the first to carry the message.”

He says, “You’ve got a chance to tell your whole story and what the word ‘savior’ means to you. And literally, it means rescuer…. You can share with them how the Savior that was announced that day has become yours personally. And if you tell it as part of your personal hope story, nobody can argue with how he has changed your life.”

A high-stakes mission

As Hutchcraft points out, the stakes are high in the Great Commission. Every day, more people die without ever having a chance to hear the Gospel.

“On our website, we have an eternity counter running right now…. It is indicating how many people have gone into eternity since Thanksgiving morning. And we know this: that 150,000 of our fellow humans will go into eternity today — heaven or hell. They will be in heaven or hell before the end of today.

“By the time Christmas rolls around, it will be well over five million people who have gone into eternity. So our task as God’s people is to — in some way, with our talents, with our work, with our gifts, whatever — to somehow help put the Gospel within the reach of more people.”

That’s why, over at Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, they are all about sharing the Good News. “We are proclaiming the Gospel by radio…in Mandarin and English and Spanish and Hindi and on our way to the fifth most spoken language in the world as God provides even this Christmas season. And that’s why we’re using every online tool that we possibly can.”

Hutchcraft says they are witnessing a great harvest for the Kingdom of God! “Four out of 10 people who watch one of our Gospel videos from across the country and around the world are indicating they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ through their phone, through their computer. It’s amazing.”

In addition to radio and online evangelism, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries supports indigenous Native American outreach through On Eagles’ Wings.

This Advent season, you can donate to Ron Hutchcraft Ministries and your gift will be doubled by a matching donor. Click here to give a matched gift!

“Every single dollar that will be given to that matching gift will be used to accelerate the spread of the Gospel. It won’t be used to turn on the lights here. It will be used to get the Gospel within the reach of more people, either through radio, internet, or Native Americans reaching Native Americans as only they can. Up to an up to a total of $125,000, your gift will be matched, doubled. There’s no better time.”

A Christmas gift for Jesus

So, this Christmas as you tick off your list of gifts for family, friends, and loved ones, Hutchcraft encourages Christians to be thinking about the gift Jesus would want this Christmas.

“I can tell you, I’ve got Christmas lists from all my grandkids. If I had a Christmas list from Jesus, I know what he would say. He would say, ‘Bring somebody home to me that I died for. This is why I came.’ Let’s think about a gift to him. And the only gifts he wants are the lives he gave his life for. You know some of those [people]. If you’re ever going to share Jesus, do it this time of the year when he came and when he very well might come into the life of someone that you know and love.”

“It would be easy to be really busy and for it to be all about buying gifts and getting to the mall and running through the internet to try to find what you want to get for somebody and all about parties and church activities — and miss the best moment of the year to tell about your Jesus.

As you prepare to share and prepare to give, the best way to prepare is through prayer.

“Start praying right now that God will open doors, natural opportunities for you to bring up Jesus this Christmas season. There should be more of them than usual. Number two, pray that God will open their heart. And number three, pray that you will open your mouth and that God will give you the words and the tone and the timing and the approach to effectively share what he’s done for you and what he could do for them because of what he did on that cross.

“It’s Christmas time. It’s time to tell about Jesus.”

Check back next week as we talk with Ron Hutchcraft about how specifically to share Christ with your own family members this Christmas.

"A name just represents your character and who you are, and most importantly, it really represents the gods' blessings on you," says Lindsay Ackerman with Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India.

"Or in many cases, a curse."

Ackerman explains that girls carry no value in Indian culture. They're often given names that reflect worthlessness or names that imply an unworthy character. Take, for example, a Banjara woman named "Nagalakshmi:" it's also the name of a Hindu god, and roughly translated it means "wealthy snake."

But names can also bear testimony for Jesus. Nagalakshmi became a Christian through Mission India's adult literacy classes and changed her name to reflect her new faith.

It changed her family, too.

"Her husband's name was Krishna, which is another Hindu god, so they both were carrying names that had a strong meaning in their culture," says Ackerman. "But a few months ago, they were both baptized. [The] name that she chose is Lydia, and her husband chose the name Emmanuel."

Because their society believes girls don't have any worth, many families in India don't bother sending their girls to school. Most hold to a common belief: Why pay for an education when they're just going to get married and join another family?

Emmanuel and Lydia are holding fast to their faith and breaking cultural bonds. They have a 4-year-old daughter named Aishwarya, and Lydia says she wants her little girl to have the opportunities she never got to experience. Aishwarya will surely be among the nervous new students headed to school for the first time next year–a privilege most girls in India can only dream of.

Illiteracy is an epidemic in India. Ackerman says over half of the women cannot read or write, not even their own name. About 35% of school-aged kids are not getting an education, and 456 million people live on less than $1.25 a day. Education is key to breaking these societal cycles of poverty.

Mission India's adult literacy classes are bringing hope of a brighter future to India's poor. They meet every night for two hours and provide a fifth-grade education in reading, writing and math, as well as entrepreneurial skills to increase a family's income. Students also learn about their basic rights, including fair wages and citizen responsibilities. Local believers serve as volunteer teachers in their communities, empowering the illiterate with life-changing skills.

"We have literacy classes literally in every corner of India," says Ackerman. She adds that 80% of enrolled students graduate, emerging with self-sustaining skills. These classes are also opening doors in communities which are resistant to the Gospel.

Ackerman says, "We're finding that over 40% of our graduates come to faith in Christ. Many of our students are women, and you can imagine the impact as a woman comes to Christ. [She] comes home and is nurturing her family in a new way, is pouring into her family the love of Christ."

Pray for women who are enrolled in these classes, that they would come to know Jesus and that their families would be saved as well.

"Be praying for Lydia," Ackerman adds. "Be rejoicing with her as she and her family celebrate their first Christmas this year."

Pray for their protection, too.

"They are new believers in a community where there aren't going to be many other Christians," she explains. "So they're probably going to be facing some challenges…just be praying for strength and that their faith in God would continue to grow day-by-day."

For $30, you can send a woman "back to school" for an entire year. Click here to transform a community.

Pastor Rashid Emmanuel and his brother, Sajid Emmanuel, were leaders of United Ministries Pakistan. Earlier this month, were accused of blasphemy–a crime potentially punishable by death.

Sources say that the complainant in the case, Khurram Shehzad, claimed that one of his employees had been handed a pamphlet which contained disrespectful comments about the Prophet Muhammad. The pamphlet had the addresses and phone numbers of the Emmanuel brothers listed on it and was also apparently signed by the two.

After the two brothers were taken into custody, violence broke out against Christians in the Waris Pura slum–a mostly Christian area. According to the BBC, several hundred demonstrators stormed the village, demanding that the brothers be killed.

The brothers were kept safe, however, until July 19 when they had a court appearance for the case. According to Compass Direct News, handwriting specialists confirmed in court that the brothers had not signed the pamphlets. Spokesman for the Pakistan Minorities Democratic Foundation Atif Jameel just appealed to common sense. "No one in his right mind would issue a derogatory pamphlet against the Prophet and put his name and address on it," Jameel told BBC.

Despite proof that the men had been framed, when the court adjourned, an unidentified man opened gun fire. Shots hit both brothers and a policeman escorting them. The two brothers were killed, and the police officer remains in critical condition.

Several sources confirm that rioting broke out after the shots, beginning with outraged Christians throwing rocks at Muslim shops and hurling insults at extremists. Many Muslims retaliated, causing violence that lasted for hours and destroyed the shops and homes of many Christians.

This is not the first time that men have been killed by extremists after being accused of blasphemy. The blasphemy laws are reported to have been used to settle personal matters frequently in the past. But as a result of ongoing violence, many Christians and organizations are calling for the laws to be repealed. Minorities Concern of Pakistan as well as Human Rights Focus Pakistan are among the groups advocating for the laws' repeal.

Christians may still be in danger in the aftermath of this terrible incident. Pray that believers would be kept safe and that they would not hesitate to reach out to non-believers, despite recent events. Pray also for blasphemy laws to be repealed so that Christians may not be victims to such atrocities in the future.

Tippit brought 21 Romanian students from the largest evangelical university in Europe. The students who went on the two and a half week trip were all Christians involved in various fields of study.

The trip focused on discipleship training as well as outreach. Tippit says outreach is a
natural response for believers. "Once He begins to develop a work in a person's life, its going to be natural to look outward and to see where we can make a difference in this world. So, to me they go hand in hand with being a following of Christ (discipleship and evangelism). You can't separate the two."

The group visited an orphanage where they gave out toys and did agape runs. An agape run involves distributing food to needy villages. They also traveled to the south where they had soccer matches for youth and presented the Gospel at half time. 

Tippit said the most exciting thing they did was to take water to a village of 300 people who had been suffering from a drought. They also sang and shared the Gospel; several people came to Christ.

With many young people leaving Romania after it joined the European Union, these students have a heart for their own country. "Several of the students had never been to this region of their country–the southern region where it was hard," said Tippit.

Tippit said the students were motivated and excited. "People were fighting to be able to serve and to make a difference, and they wanted to share the Gospel with as many
people as possible. And they prayed–they had fervent prayers for their people. So I was extremely encouraged by this groups of students."