As we set out to pursue our passion, God provided for very good spiritual knowledge and growth through individuals, the church, and Bible college. He provided excellent preparation for working with an isolated people through individuals, experience, and through Wycliffe’s Jungle Camp, and so on. He provided excellent linguistic and anthropological tools to reach out to a monolingual people, learn and analyze their language, prepare literacy materials and translate the Bible into their language through the Summer Institute of Linguistics. After a time we could present the basics of the gospel in a cultural and linguistic way; as a result, several became believers. We had the anthropological, linguistic and spiritual tools to present the gospel in a meaningful way.
Then He took us out of that front-line situation to a situation with second generation Christians, educated people. Our task was to use what we now knew and had experience with to prepare people to translate the Bible into their own language. We worked hard to build a program that would prepare them well to do this task. A few years ago the entire Bible was published in two languages, by those nationals we had trained. We came to believe that a desire to walk with God and a heart’s desire to spread the gospel, in addition to good thorough preparation, was the key to an effective ministry. A good grasp of the language and the culture was part of that preparation for effectiveness.
As God brought us further and further back from those front lines in our different travels and assignments, we began to see good preparation was not enough. Very, very important—but not enough. We began to question why there was so little mature fruit among so many of the national believers. We began to study, observe and ask questions and were able to identify several things culturally, spiritually and emotionally that kept them from maturing. We were also seeing there were many expat workers who had all of the things we thought were necessary for effective ministry, but who were miserable, frustrated, unfulfilled and discouraged. Strangely enough, we began to identify some of the same spiritual and emotional obstacles to victorious, effective living in the lives of both these groups.
Now remember, our passion is still for those who have never had opportunity to hear the gospel. Prayer Resolution was born out of a desire to help overcome these spiritual and emotional barriers. While we continued to work with individuals, we presented, at every opportunity, these tools for the workers to use with new believers.
Spiritually and emotionally healthy believers are more effective at building a spiritually and emotionally healthy church. This church then is able to grow spiritually and emotionally healthy believers who can now go out and build spiritually and emotionally healthy new believers. Spiritually and emotionally healthy believers coupled with good preparation in whatever areas are needed, results in effective, satisfying, and fulfilling results in the building of the Kingdom of God.
