“Pray that nobody complains.”
Years ago, Seed Company Founder Bernie May held a conference to encourage national translators in Africa and surrounding areas. Over the course of the conference, Bernie had gotten to know a young man from Pakistan working on a translation in his language.
They sat down together, and the young man asked how he could pray for Bernie. And Bernie told him about his family, etc. Then Bernie asked, “How can I pray for you?”
The young man replied, “Pray that nobody complains.”
“What do you mean?” Bernie asked.
The Pakistani translator explained, “I live in a village where it’s against the law to translate the Bible. And if you translate the Bible, you go to prison for life, or to be executed.”
He continued to share his silent sacrifice through his simple prayer request: “A few weeks ago the chief of police, a man I went all through school with, came to me and said, ‘I know what you’re doing. And you know what I have to do if I catch you doing this.’”
The young man sadly said, “We’ve been friends all our lives. And he said to me, ‘I’m not going to arrest you unless somebody complains. But if somebody complains, we’ll have to do that.’”
He looked at Bernie and repeated, “Pray that nobody complains.”
Bernie thought, Wow, I don’t know how many of us would be doing what God tells us to do if we put our lives on the line if somebody complains.
The young man went back home and continued the work he believed God called him to do.
The Word of God is so important to many translators, and so precious, that they give their lives for it.
So how can we support them?
Our part is to pray, to encourage, to support, and to cheer them on.
Our part is to do whatever we can do to be part of what God is doing around the world.
