Empowered to Translate

Eliyah is a wonderful young man who has been on an incredible journey for the last 9 years along with the rest of his tribe. He is from the Kopkaka Weng tribe in a very remote area of West Papua, Indonesia. His tribe only came into contact with the outside world in 2015, when another tribe from the area found them and began to share the Gospel with them.

Eliyah was one of the students in the Oral Bible Translation (OBT) school that was running in Salatiga, Indonesia. During the fourth week of the course we began working on translating the book of Ruth into Eliyah's language along with two other Bible-less language groups. One morning when we met with Eliyah and his small group for breakfast he broke down in tears as he shared about an encounter he had with God the previous night.

He shared that the weight of doing Bible translation for his people began to overwhelm him and he felt completely inadequate. He broke down before the Lord and cried out that he was too young and didn't have the skills needed to do this work. The Lord led him to the book of Jeremiah, where he read in chapter 1:4-10 that the Lord has appointed him, and that Eliyah is not too young, and that He will put the words in Eilyah's mouth.

Through this encounter Eliyah was convinced that God has called him for this work and that He will equip him for this huge and awesome task. He realized how privileged he is to work on such a priceless gift for his people, and that this would be a gift that is of eternal value!

This is just one of many testimonies from YWAM Bible translation projects, and schools where the mother tongue translators get empowered by the Holy Spirit to truly take ownership, and the perseverance to do so. While many have become overwhelmed and there is a very real spiritual attack over those who say "yes" to translating the Bible. Here is where we need prayer from you, and many others to interceed for the projects, those that are involved and for God to continue to be the true source within everything! Will you pray with us today? Here are just a few simple ways you can interceed for Bible translation across the world:

• Protection & health over every person and their families as they are translating

• Truth and transformation over everyone involved in the projects, and that it would overflow into the communities around them.

• Holy Spirit guidance, and leadership over the projects, giving wisdom to the mentors, facilitators, translators, technicians, financial supporters, language communities.

Below is a photo of Eliyah with one of the staff of the OBT school, and him encountering the Father's heart for him.