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Dear Prayer Partner

Every year we make New Year's Resolutions and these often focus on improving our physical or mental health.

In 2020 we encourage you to consider your spiritual health as well. We have many resources to help you to read and study your Bible more. Have a look at our resources page on our website to see what we produce to help you grow in your faith.

This month in Prayer News we are looking at how we can pray for
Peru, Angola and China.

Thank you for joining us in prayer.

Pictured above: Ladies in Angola receive copies of the Bible in their heart language, Ngangela.
Bread of Life - Peru

The "Pan de Vida" or “Bread of Life” programme has been running for over seventeen years, providing children in need with the Bible and a breakfast daily. They provide physical and spiritual help to children through a nutritious breakfast and then listening and learning about Bible stories. This is a project which is well known throughout the regions it operates in and has affected thousands of children in Peru.

This month we have received an update from our colleagues in Peru about a young boy named Zecarlos who has been participating in the project. We wanted to share his testimony and to encourage you pray for those children around the world who are hearing the Gospel.

“My name is Zecarlos. I live in Las Viñas Cerro Camote, Lima, and I'm 12 years old.
Before coming to Pan de Vida, my mom could not prepare nutritious and rich breakfasts as we have now. They serve us bread with jam, tortilla, butter, eggs, flour tortillas, and we drink quinoa, oatmeal with apples, nutritious flour and chocolate milk.

Before attending Pan de Vida, my mother was sick, and it was difficult for her to get up early to prepare breakfast and we had no money. That's why when they invited us in the family group of the church, to have breakfast in Pan de Vida, I was filled with happiness. I like being part of Pan de Vida because it helps me get up early and get ready to go to school and I always arrive early.

I received Jesus in my heart when I was 8 years old and Jesus is everything to me. I have changed a lot since I received it, before I just liked to play. Now as they teach us in the family group the word of God and the materials that I have received as the parables of Jesus I like to read them. I also learn because my mother reads the bible in my house, we talk about what God teaches us and we think with my sisters. What I like most about the bible is the story of Noah's ark.

To the people who pray for Bread of Life I ask you to continue supporting us, I am very grateful you help us. May God bless you and give you strength. I also thank the brothers who teach me the Bible. I want to continue learning more.”

Pray for this project:

  • Pray that the children attending this project would understand the importance of Jesus in their lives and that they would choose to follow Him at a young age.

  • Pray for the parents and families of these children. Ask that God would challenge them through the generosity that is shown to their children and through the Bible stories that the children tell them.

  • Pray for the workers who carry out this project. Ask that they would be encouraged in their work and that they would continue to reach out to those who are in need with the Gospel.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.   For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’"
Matthew 25:34-36
The Ngangela New Testament Translation - Angola

After 10 years of hard work the Ngangela New Testament Translation is available to Ngangela speakers. Over 900,000 people speak Ngangela, yet there was no translation of the Bible for its speakers to read, with many using the Portuguese Bible.

 “The translation took us 10 years of work. It was difficult but I am so glad to see the New Testament printed and being distributed to the community,” says Augusto Mayapa, 63. “Today the Ngangela New Testament has been delivered to the people who were waiting for it!”

Augusto is one of the translators who has been working diligently in south-eastern Angola to produce this translation of the Bible in his mother tongue, Ngangela. The publication of the New Testament is a significant milestone in this project, with the full Bible due for completion in 2023.
 
Despite facing many challenges in their work, Augusto and the rest of the translation team remained determined to keep going.

The joy and hope that this translation brings was visible during the dedication service to welcome the Ngangela New Testament in October 2019, in the city of Menongue. The launch was attended by around 400 people, including local government representatives, church leaders and media, and was broadcast on national television.

 “It was a day of great joy,” comments Dinis Ezequiel, Office Consultant at the Bible Society in Angola, whose spoke at the launch on Luke 2:8-11, with the theme, ‘Let us pass on the Good News’.

Domingas, 17, was excited to attend the launch of the New Testament in her language.
“It’s the first time I’ve held any Scriptures in Ngangela in my hands!” she said. “To me, this New Testament means salvation. It will guide and instruct me.”
Please pray for the Ngangela New Testament Translation:

  • Pray for those Christians that receive this translation, that they would be blessed by being able to read the Scriptures in their own language. Pray that they would grow in their faiths as they read their Bibles.

  • Pray that this translation would bring more people to Christ as Christians use it to evangelise and teach those they know about the Gospel.

  • Pray for the ongoing translation of the Old Testament, due to be completed in 2023. Ask God to encourage the translators in their work and that He would give them wisdom as they work.
Bibles for China's Millions - China

Our Winter appeal this year enabled us to provide the paper required to print Bibles in China. We wanted to share with you some of the stories and testimonies of people who have received Bibles through this project appeal. Please join us in rejoicing with these people over their new Bibles and continue to pray that those who need Bibles will receive them!
Hou, 19, found Christ through his mother who is a Christian. He has been a believer for 2 years. This is his first Bible!
He told us, “The Bible is the only way to know God. You have given me the book which I love most.”
Yao, 77, has been a believer for 13 years. She hopes to read this Bible with her husband and that it will help her to talk to him about Christ.
She said, “In my heart, the Bible is the means which Christians hear the Father speaking to them. You have given me what we most want. Thank you.”
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Yang, 49, is a farmer from Gaotai County, Gansu province.
He says, “I believed in the Lord for 20 years. Because I read the Bible daily, my Bible has become worn out and spoilt. I am very happy to get a new Bible today. I will read the Bible more in future and will share the gospel and the Bible ‘s truth to my friends and relatives.”
Li, 70, said that when she didn’t have a bible, life was a mess with no direction. She received her first Bible recently and she was so happy and excited that she cried.
She said, “The Bible is my goal in life and life is no longer gloomy and at a lost but with direction and hope… It inspires me to love God and love people. It leads me to obey God’s commandments and to live each day for God and glorify Him.”
These people are just 4 of the thousands who will receive a Bible through this project!

Pray for this project:

  • Please pray for those mentioned above. Ask that God will strengthen them in their faiths and that they will be blessed by the Bibles they have received.

  • Pray for those that do not have access to their own Bible. Pray that god would provide the with a copy of their own.

  • Pray for the church as a whole in China. While the Bible is no longer a banned book it is still hard to practice Christianity, many face persecution and discrimination.

  • Pray for "The Message of God's Hands" project, which is translating the Bible into Sign Language in Guatemala. Praise God for the progress being made in this translation.

  • Pray for the "Scriptures for Schools" project in Ghana, which distributes Bibles and Scripture portions to pupils in schools.

  • Pray for the "Family Scripture Engagement Packs" project in Malawi as they seek to help whole families read God's Word together.
Pray for the team

  • Pray for BIBLE 2020, our app that launched in January. Pray that it would help people to engage with their Bibles and to read God's Word daily.

  • Remember the team as they start a new year. Ask God to give them strength and encouragement as they continue to work for Bible Society NI.
Speaking Engagements
  • 20th January - Andrew will be speaking at a Youth Leader training event held in Ballymilan Presbyterian at 7pm.
  • 26th January - Andrew will be speaking at Shankhill Parish Youth Group at 6.30pm.
  • 29th January - Andrew will be speaking at Killicomaine Baptist at 7.30pm.
  • 9th February - Andrew is speaking at Dungannon Methodist Church at 11.30am.
  • 11th February - Catherine will be speaking at 1st Donegore PW at 7.45pm.

Other Events
  • 13th - 18th January - Catherine and Tommy, one of our board members, are in Istanbul this week at the Europe and Middle East Bible Society's Affinity Group.
  • 30th January - Catherine will be attending the Team UK Bible Society meeting in Swindon.
  • 1st February - Andrew will be attending the Scripture Union NI schools conference in Stranmillis College.
BIBLE SOCIETY NI
www.biblesocietyni.co.uk
Charity Registration Number NIC102557