The Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study dates back to 1892 and has the longest history of any denominational mission and prayer book in the United States.

Today’s PC(USA) Minute for Mission from the Mission Yearbook…

Many thousands of Muslims have become followers of Jesus in a movement in Southeast Asia the last few years. Among other things, they are multiplying their loaves in an intriguing way with respect to Bible translation.

This group of new disciples has not had a Bible translation that reflects their language and culture, so they have been creating their own with consultants from the United Bible Societies. As portions of Scripture are translated, they are used by leaders of the movement to teach and disciple regional leaders. Whenever people have problems understanding the text, that information is given to the translators so they can rethink the translation. The result is that the translation process is also the discipling process!

Last year Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship received some undesignated funds for frontier mission work. We contacted our liaison to this movement to see if there was a need that we could help meet. We received the following response:

“This is an answer to prayer!’ Our director was with the movement’s leader in that area of the world when he got the message; they had just prayed because of a need in the translation department that had not yet been met. He was so excited to hear this for many reasons. One, of course, because of the provision for the need. The other—and maybe the more important one in the director’s eyes—because it was a direct answer from out of the blue to the prayer they had just prayed! This boosted the faith of our fellow believers in Jesus in that area!”

—Rev. Bill Young, executive director, Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship