As we reflect on waiting in the Advent season, Ed Weaver with Spoken Worldwide says a posture of faithful waiting before the Lord is a good thing, even if it’s hard.

(Photo courtesy of Milada Vigerova via Unsplash)

“This is the posture the Lord wants us to have anyway on a daily basis. And the good that’s coming out of the pandemic is just feeling like we’re in a crucible [and] that there is a purpose in mind by God Almighty to teach us things that we should have been doing all along and that is being helpless before Him, but being hopeful in how He’s going to deliver.”

Spoken Worldwide provides Scripture access to oral learners around the world. Restricted travel because of COVID-19 means Spoken Worldwide has had to change plans many times.

Weaver says, “We’re trying to launch 20 new language projects in the next two and a half years from this point. We’re struggling at some level to say, ‘How in the world are we going to launch 20 new oral Bible translation projects in two and a half years when we’re not sure which countries we can get into? How to develop the right skill sets amongst translators?’ It just seems to be overwhelming.”

But because they work mostly with indigenous partners in other countries, God is opening doors.

(Photo courtesy of Spoken Worldwide)

Weaver says, “We’ve been able to launch some of our programs virtually. We can actually do training from here in the United States to wherever they are and allow them then to go forth into their particularly more rural regions and do work with oral learners. We don’t always have to be present.”

So how do we “wait well” during Advent? Whether it’s waiting for open ministry doors, waiting for family to safely gather, waiting to travel somewhere, or waiting for God to move?

“Particularly, as we think about the Advent season, it’s all based on hope,” says Weaver. “So I think one of the things that all of us that believe and have confidence in is that there is a future hope, which also means that there’s a present hope. Which means that we truly can pray and say, ‘Lord, whatever ways I’m exhibiting unbelief right now, help my unbelief. Give us wisdom and insight how to navigate in a place that we don’t even know how to do this.'”

Pray for God’s peace in waiting this Advent season.

Click here to learn more about Spoken Worldwide!

Header photo courtesy of Max Beck via Unsplash.

John Pudaite of Bibles for the World says the virus has killed many Christians in the country, including many leaders. “We have lost a very senior leader, Pastor Robert Karthak, who came to Nepal as a missionary in the 1950s. He planted one of the first churches there in 1957.”

Later, Robert Karthak’s son died as well. He too had been heavily involved in the church leadership. Pudaite says, “There’s going to be serious gaps in leadership, not only in that specific church, but across the country. We’re hearing reports of the loss of a Christian human rights lawyer who has been very active, even as Nepal has passed the anti-conversion law across the country.”

How to pray

New COVID-19 variants continue to infect more people and drive more suffering. Ask God to protect Nepalese Christians as they risk their own safety to reach out to their neighbors.

Bibles for the World will be sending a team to Nepal this autumn to encourage and strengthen the Church there. Pudaite says, “There will be a gap in leadership in the coming years. And this is going to affect that part of the world for 10 to 15 years at least.”

The header photo shows Nepalese Christians. (Photo courtesy of Iankgibson, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)