October 8, 2015 – YWAM Launches The Invitation . . . join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you . . .

October 8, 2015 – Global Prayer Topic: Ending Bible Poverty Now!

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 NIV)

Video to watch:

The opportunity for oral translations: https://vimeo.com/87866960

Points for prayer:

• Translation – Pray that God would raise up workers for the remaining languages as a result of YWAM praying and hearing God’s voice. Pray for current translation efforts to complete successfully. According to endbiblepovertynow.com there are 1,800 languages with no portion of scripture translated (almost half of these in Africa). It is estimated that over 2,000 languages have translation efforts underway. Leaders in this field have a goal of having oral translations for every language by 2020 and written translations by 2033.
• Production – Pray that God would provide the resources for production into media that is best for each people group, whether that be print, audio, video, online, etc.
• Distribution – Pray for those God has called to be the people on the ground and that everyone would have a Bible in their home, in their native language.
• Education – Pray for people, as they read the Word of God in their native language, to become educated about God’s truth.
• Engagement – Pray for those that are receiving and reading the Bible for the first time to become engaged with the Word of God and to take action accordingly. Pray that lives and communities would be changed for the good as a result.

Tell YWAMers what you sensed in prayer:

Go to http://facebook.com/youthwithamission, find the post for October 8, and add a comment about how you prayed.

Ideas for your location:

• Conduct a training session regarding ending Bible poverty and encourage participants to sign the covenant at http://endbiblepovertynow.com/ to pray to end Bible poverty. Here is a video showing how others are doing this
  within YWAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BstMWbt1LYc
• Spend regular time in prayer regarding how God is desiring to engage your location in ending Bible poverty. Take action accordingly.
• Do something locally today to help someone engage in the Word of God.
• Watch this video (only 3:26 minutes) to understand how Bible translation works and how someone like you can get involved without even knowing another language! https://vimeo.com/87866960
• Watch this video and take the action of providing information about ending Bible poverty to at least three local people, then three people outside of your local reach, then three people in other countries . . . asking them all to do the same . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PLIT6XNTlo

For More Information:

• Watch this video: https://youtu.be/8-DHaGPBymM
• Read The Book That Transforms Nations by Loren Cunningham.
• Read more:
  http://usrenewal.squarespace.com/home/loren-cunningham-wants-to-end-bible-poverty-lets-help-him.html
  
• Review work that other YWAM locations have taken/are taking and then pray for God to reveal how it would look for your location:
• Kona (Africa) –
  http://www.uofnkona.edu/seminars/end-bible-poverty-in-africa-july-2015/ and http://faith4africa.com/end-bible-poverty-in-africa/
• Norway – Listen to podcast (start at 15:10)
  http://ywampodcast.com/the-importance-of-the-church-fifa-outreach-prayer-for-the-muslim-world-bible-distribution/
  
• Costa Rica – https://youtu.be/GpIt1YHdWTI

From Darlene Cunningham . . .

Most of you have probably read the letter I circulated a few months ago, inviting you all to engage with this vision to End Bible Poverty Now. But in case that letter didn’t make it to some of you, I’ll recap the vision here:

Since 1960, Loren has carried a burden to get the Bible to every person on earth who does not have access. Many have heard him tell the story of the “woman in the faded red dress” in Mexico who asked him for a Bible, because she had no access to the Word. God used that one woman to pierce his heart (he still chokes up today when He recalls her hunger and desire for the Bible) – and from the retelling of that one initial encounter, God has launched many Bible initiatives throughout YWAM to get the Word of God to whole communities and nations.

The vision of End Bible Poverty Now (EBPN), is to make the Bible accessible to every home (as well as to nomads and homeless) in their mother tongue by 2033. Of course, individuals have the God-given right to refuse the Bible, but it will be available to them. Professional linguists like Wycliffe and others are hard at work translating Scripture for 2,195 language groups that do not have God’s Word. But there are an additional 1,869 languages that have no portion of the Bible – and no one is working on those languages!

There is much that we ordinary people can do to speed the process, doing oral translations, which can then be given to the professionals to edit. (For a simple, three-minute explanation of how to do an oral translation of the Bible, go to https://vimeo.com/87866960. The video moves really fast, but watch it a few times, and you will get the simplicity of the plan – and the speed is a major point of the video. This type of oral translation can be done QUICKLY and SIMPLY by ordinary people!)

In recent months, Loren has met with hundreds of influential leaders in evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal denominations about EBPN. And you’ve probably heard that in November of 2014, Loren and I plus a few other YWAM leaders met with the leaders of the three main streams of Christendom – Pope Francis of the Catholic Church, Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church (the oldest orthodox tradition) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby of the Anglican Church, to engage them in this cause. Everyone he has met with has given overwhelming blessing and support for EBPN.

This vision to End Bible Poverty Now must include a broad foundation of prayer. As you meet together on this first YWAM Global Prayer day of 2015, please pray and ask God to give you His heart for getting His Word to His world. Then as individuals, families, teams and ministries, God may give some specific steps for how you can be involved.

The job is gigantic and it will take all parts of the body of Christ to accomplish. But YWAM has people on the ground all over the world, putting us in position to make an enormous contribution. And there has never been unity and partnership between mission organizations and the Church worldwide like there is today!

Here’s the whole point: God has said that His Word will not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). History has clearly shown that, wherever the Bible goes, the Spirit of God brings transformation!

Loren’s personal goal is to get at least an oral translation of Scripture available to the 1,869 totally Bible-less languages by 2020. He is actively recruiting more prayer supporters and oral translators. And YWAM is partnering with professional translation ministries like Wycliffe and many others to get Bible translations into digital, Internet, audio and written formats as quickly as possible.

WILL YOU PARTNER WITH US?

During this, Loren’s 80th birthday year, he is asking for his birthday gift that EVERYONE go to www.endbiblepovertynow.org and make a commitment by SIGNING the EBPN Covenant and getting others to sign.  There are also ideas and resources shared on that site (more to be added) to help End Bible Poverty Now.

Will you, our faithful co-workers pray and make this covenant with us? You have shared in the vision of the waves of young people, taking the Gospel to all the continents. Now the Lord is asking all of us to commit to this vision to End Bible Poverty worldwide.

Love and blessings,

Darlene

P.S. Another thing Loren has added to his birthday wish list is this: he would like to see his book Is That Really You, God? translated into a total of at least 200 languages by June of 2016 (his next birthday is June 30th). Currently it has been translated into 130 languages. As you know, it is a simple book that helps people discover how to hear God’s voice. So if you know of a language it’s NOT translated into and can help get it translated, that too will be an answer to Loren’s prayers!

 

Base director & pioneer, Kel Steiner at @YwamMyrtleBeach is committed to ending Bible poverty now!

 

Upcoming topics for The Invitation:

October 8, 2015 (second Thursday of the month)
First Global Topic: Ending Bible Poverty Now

Followed by . . .

November 12, 2015 – Praying for Local Concerns (Location and Community)

December 10, 2015 – Praying for Areas, and Where YWAM Is Not

And then repeat . . .

January 14, 2016 – Global Topic: A Picture of a Breakthrough in the Muslim World

February 11, 2016 – Praying for Local Concerns (Location and Community)

March 10, 2016 – Praying for Areas, and Where YWAM Is Not

The second Thursday is just a suggestion. Feel free to pray close to that date at a time that works well for your location’s schedule.

Don’t miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook post on the second Thursday at
  facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.