Prayer Watch: Pray for the Starving--Food for Today and Ongoing

Summer is upon us, and for me it brings memories of my childhood. My favorite place to spend summer days was my Great Grandparents’ farm. They were subsistent farmers—their entire livelihood depended on their garden, a couple milk cows, chickens, pigs, and their old plow horse. There was so much to do and see! I loved following grandpa around the farm—collecting eggs, milking the cows in the barn, feeding the pigs, and riding the gentle old plow horse when his work was done. I know that I romanticize those days. But, my grandpa was a hard worker who depended on his farm to feed his family and what they could sell would provide other necessities.

My last Prayer Watch was about the need for clean water. Well, right along with water there is a huge need in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East for food. Families are watching their children die of hunger. When families are impoverished, they often have a small garden and chickens for eggs and maybe even a milk cow. Lately hundreds of thousands of families don’t have anything to keep their farm animals from starving—and that includes national Bible translators and their families. There have been droughts, floods, terrorist attacks burning down homes, churches, and families are losing everything.

In many cases, national Bible translators and their families are having to escape such horrendous events and they find themselves with no way to feed their families, let alone work on Bible translation.

Something for us to remember—every national Bible translator is a volunteer. Wycliffe Associates does provide everything needed for Bible translation. So, while the Bible is being translated into the heart language of their people, the wives and children head for the garden and the animals that need tending.

The national translators and millions of very poor people have been hit with monster floods. Others are facing extreme drought. There is not enough water for parents and children—so there is no water for garden plants and farm animals!

Oh, Lord, these are such big, relentless, and extreme disasters across these continents. What can we do? We can get a water well dug or a bore hole drilled. I know we are going to need prayer—a lot of prayer. This is huge, but you know what? Our God is bigger than any weather event. We have a wonderful God who loves each person and truly wants to make sure their needs are met.

Friends, let’s pray for the national Bible translators and their families whose need for farm animals is a long-term matter. Would you please pray with me that Wycliffe Associates will raise the funds necessary to provide an animal or two or three for translators who desperately need them? A flock of chickens, a goat, or a pig will make all the difference to a national Bible translator because he needs to eat, too! It may be that this is the one thing that’s keeping him from working on his translation!

I’m glad for this time we’ve had together to pray and ponder how we can help people who hunger and thirst yet their greatest desire to see the Bible translated into their mother tongue. We ask the Lord to hear our prayers for Christians and national Bible translators to have food for their families and even plenty so they can share their bounty.

As we close our time together, let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 5:1-12—be blessed as you read. I so appreciate every one of you. Thank you and feel free to find a friend to pray with you when the Prayer Watch email arrives in your inbox. They just might want to have it arrive in their inbox.