But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. - 1 Thessalonians 3:6
In the year 1834, missionaries planted the seed of the gospel in a small village in Southeast Asia. For the next 182 years, the Christian villagers never had God’s Word in their heart language. They suffered persecution. They struggled to teach their children and youth about Jesus using the Scriptures in foreign languages.
One woman recalled a Christmas from her childhood when she happened to pass one of the very few Christian churches in the village and saw a Christmas tree aglow with lights. She knew nothing of Jesus, but in that moment as a child she sensed that Christianity was special.
When grown, she married a Christian man from a neighboring tribe and came to Christ herself. She said, “I just couldn’t resist the pull” toward faith in Christ. Now she is ecstatic to be serving as a mother-tongue translator to launch a New Testament translation in her own language! Just a few years ago, at a two-week MAST workshop, eighteen books of the New Testament were translated for the first time.
Even without the Bible, these believers had remained steadfast in faith and love. Can you imagine? After 182 years? What celebration, what tears of joy, to read and to listen to
God’s precious words of love and salvation in the language of their hearts!
Let’s follow their example and live in faith and love. Remember this woman’s testimony of Christ capturing her attention when she was a child. Let’s teach the children in our communities to follow Jesus. Read the Bible together with them and be His followers in faith.
Join us in prayer:
Ask the Lord today to show you how to live in faith and love.
