Bible Translation in Nigeria

Hello!  Today I met a man named Basuna Magaji.  He shared with us about his life in Nigeria and his work as a national Bible Translator for the last 14 years.  He is from Agwara, Nigeria and his mother tongue is Cishingini (ca-sheen-ga-nee), which just so happens to be the language of the Bible he is translating.  There are over 500 languages in Nigeria.

Basuna saw that people around him had Bibles in their own language and that they could read and write in their own language.  He wanted that for himself and his people.  He was invited to help with the translation in 1998 and accepted.  First they translated the book of Luke, and then the Jesus Film was made in Cishingini.  When the Cishingini people saw it many accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.....many of these people were Muslim.  Soon people wanted to learn to write in their own language, so some of the Muslims went into the villages and started helping people learn to write.  Through learning to write, even more have accepted Jesus because they are getting God's word through  education.

Basuna  and his translation partner have been in Dallas working with another translator since February and will be here until May (God willing - they hope to be done at the end of April).  Basuna's wife and 3 young children are still in Nigeria.  His translation partner returned to Nigeria last week as he didn't like being separated from his family.  Please pray for Basuna as he is separated from his family for many months, living in another culture, and for the PROTECTION of his family in Nigeria where there has been unrest, suicide bombers, and fighting near his family.  Please pray for the completion of this translation, editing, publishing, printing, distribution, and the hearts of those that will receive it.

Click this link for further specifics on praying for the completion of the translation.  It goes to the Wycliffe Associates website.

Please just take a moment to pray, now.  Thank you!

Hurry!!

While I was on vacation in a little cabin in the woods in Arkansas last week, I picked up a DVD series called "Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People" by John and Nancy Ortberg.  Each day I would watch one or two segments.  In one of the segments John said, "you must ruthlessly erase 'hurry' from your life."  We usually talk about how busy we are and how we need to remove 'busy' from our lives, but Jesus was often busy. He was busy healing people, teaching, traveling, out by himself talking to the Father, etc...  Basically he was loving and serving others.  You can't hurry love and you can't hurry when you are really serving someone.  He didn't hurry or let people hurry him.  When Lazarus died, the disciples were all concerned because Jesus wanted to stay where they were and finish what they were doing instead of going to Lazarus's side.  Jesus waited a few DAYS before starting the journey to see Lazarus and his family.  He wasn't in a hurry...  He was doing what needed to be done and then going to the next thing. 

This statement hit me like a ton of bricks.  Probably the biggest reason I needed that vacation was that I had been hurrying through life to get it all done, now.  I was getting/allowing myself to be pulled in too many directions at once and not getting very much done well.  The other lesson from both the "Spiritual Disciplines" DVD and the story about Jesus and Lazarus is that I need to set boundaries.  If you are anything like me, that means boundaries on myself and boundaries on others.  I am currently reading a book called "Boundaries" by Cloud & Townsend.  I am only a few chapters in, but so far it is a great book that I highly recommend.  

I am not "fixed" yet :-), but I'm trying to be mindful of the words "hurry" and "boundaries."  Just thought I would share!  Hope you have a great "non-hurried" week!