Dear Prayer Partner

The photo above shows the reality of life for people in Syria right now. Yet the Bible Society is still there, working with churches, sharing a message of hope. They are demonstrating that God has not left Syria!

Join us in praying for Bible Society staff, Boards, volunteers and partners as they work with churches in Syria, Chile and Togo.
Syria
Trauma Healing in Syria
 
Continue to pray for Christians in Syria. For 8 long years the war has been driving people out of their homes and those who have remained have faced untold hardship. Christians living in Syria today continue to live under fear and persecution.

The Bible Society team have remained to minister to Christians around them, often at personal risk. One of the projects that the Bible Society in Syria is able to offer is Trauma Healing.

Almost every Christian living in Syria has experienced trauma of some kind. Some have been displaced internally, some have lost family, friends, property, income. Others are experiencing hopelessness, depression and despair. As you can see from the image above, some are even faced with war-damaged churches.

By working with local churches, the Bible Society offers their Trauma Healing programme. They train facilitators who are able to run groups reaching people in particular need. These groups offer support to people who are living with trauma. They help people find the spiritual strength they need to survive the things they have lived through and suffered. There is a huge need for this in Syria. People are desperate for some hope in the midst of unspeakable horror.

Pray for Syria
  • Please pray for the Trauma Healing ministry. Pray for the facilitators who are all volunteers from churches. Ask God to enable them as they help others navigate trauma.
  • Ask for God’s healing hand upon those who need His touch and pray that He will use Trauma Healing to strengthen His Church in this time of persecution.
  • Please pray for God’s protection on the Bible Society staff, volunteers and all Christians who stand in the face of danger day to day. Pray that nothing would hinder God’s people as they gather to worship Him and encourage each other.
Togo FCBH 2019
Hearing God's Word in Togo

The Bible Society in Togo trains local churches to use a programme called Faith Comes by Hearing. This is a Bible listening programme, run in partnership with local churches. It helps communities engage with the Bible in their own language. It is powerful in rural communities where a are a lot of people are either illiterate or struggle to read. When you can't read the Bible, having the opportinity to listen to it with others can be life-changing.

Groups normally meet once a week, where it is not unusual for people to hear about Jesus for the first time. A lady called Adjo shared how Faith Comes by Hearing changed her life…

Adjo (pictured) shared her story. She told of how her first husband died, leaving her with two children to raise alone. When she married again, she helped her second husband start a small business and had her third child. Soon she fell gravely ill and was taken to hospital close to death. That was when her husband left her, with three children and little hope.

When Adjo was well enough to leave hospital, a woman told her about Faith Comes by Hearing and a film they were showing about Jesus, in Ewe, her own language. ‘I wondered how Jesus could speak our native language’, she said. ‘I marvelled seeing the miracles Jesus performed in the Film and wept when they were crucifying Him on the cross.’

The first time Adjo heard the Word of God spoken in Ewe, she began to hear God speak into her life. ‘I was living a sinful life. I understood that, He wants me to come back to Him and hand Him my life so that His Spirit would help me to live as He wants me to live… I got healed from my anxieties and sorrows. I had pains in my heart from the hard experience of life I went through. Though I still have financial problems, I am always filled of joy. I now have hope that God will bless me spiritually and financially. I am now a new person, a new creature hoping for a good future.’

Pray for Togo
  • Praise God for the many people like Adjo who are hearing God speak in their language for the first time!
  • Pray that the Faith Comes by Hearing programme will continue to reach people, especially those in more remote areas.
  • Pray that many more people will come to faith in Jesus this year, through discovering that God speaks their language.

Read more about the Faith Comes by Hearing programme in Togo and find out how to help here .
Chile 2019
Chile - Light at Sunset

One of the projects we have been supporting for a few years is ‘Light at Sunset’ in Chile. This is a simple but effective project to reach out to older people who often find themselves isolated and lonely.

In Ovalle city, two ‘Light at Sunset’ Bible study groups began meeting in March 2018. Here 16 people, in their 70s and 80s, meet weekly and share in Bible study and prayer. Through this simple action of inclusiveness, several families have joined the Church. The main thing that makes the difference for the people attending the group is that each person receives a Bible in large print. This is such a simple thing, yet so often people do not realise that it is available, so they stop reading the Bible. This simple study is helping older adults feel a sense of belonging in the church.
 
Each week the group members prepare for the study, some needing family members to help them. In this way, the study is having a wider impact. One lady has difficulty seeing, so her daughter began reading the Bible to her, then she began accompanying her every week to the study and now they go to church together. Another lady who came to a study was brought by her husband. He ended up joining in and now he attends church too.

The leader of the group shared this, ‘We are very happy and thank the Lord for the Biblical study with elderly, we have seen concrete results and very fast. We have seen people reached and lives transformed at the service of the Church. We also thank the people who contribute with this project from other places.’

Pray for Light at Sunset
  • Thank God that we have been blessed to support this project and that through it, older people have come to know Jesus and are sharing their faith with their families.
  • Ask God to continue to work through this simple but effective outreach. Praise Him for His compassion and love for the lonely and for drawing them close through these study groups.
  • Pray for continued funding and partnerships that make these groups possible.
  • Pray for Mr Georgij Melnikov, the new Executive Director of the Bible Society in Belarus. He says he is ‘not afraid of challenges’, and is ‘eager to start’. Pray that he will know God’s leading in all things.
  • We have been asked to pray for the Bible Societies of Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. Millions of people have fled Venezuela to surrounding countries leading to very difficult social and economic situations. Pray for wisdom in the government and for strong leadership from the Church.
  • Praise God that Easter Island's Rapa Nui people have just welcomed their first New Testament. Pray that it will draw many to faith in Jesus.
Thank you for praying for us in the process of recruiting a new team member for the post of Community Partnerships Manager. We were so encouraged by the high level of interest and are excited to make an appointment. Please continue to pray about this - pray that the new role will have a great impact and that that the team will be strengthened. We look forward to sharing more information with you soon!

Pray for the whole team, especially Catherine as she has a lot of speaking engagements in the coming weeks.
Speaking Engagements
Sun 17 Feb, 10.30am – Catherine is speaking at Queen’s Parade Methodist Church, Bangor
Mon 18 Feb, 8pm – Catherine is speaking at Castlereagh Baptist Women
Tues 19 Feb, 8pm – Catherine is speaking at First Magherafelt Presbyterian Women
Mon 4 Mar, 7.45pm – Catherine is speaking at Aghadowey Presbyterian Women
Sat 9 Mar, 8.15am – Catherine is speaking at Carnalea Methodist Men’s Breakfast
Sun 10 Mar, 11am – Catherine is speaking at Second Saintfield Presbyterian Church
Sun 10 Mar, 6.30pm – Catherine is speaking at New Row Presbyterian Church, Coleraine.
Tue 12 Mar, 7.45pm – Catherine is speaking at Drumglass Bible Study Group, Dungannon


Bible Society NI Meetings
Pray for the Bible Society NI Finance Committee that will meet in the next few weeks
The Board will be meeting on Monday 11 March.
BIBLE SOCIETY NI
www.biblesocietyni.co.uk
Charity Registration Number NIC102557