experiencing a miracle
Last month, I wrote about our God-sized goal to complete the advisor checking for the last eight chapters of Luke during our April/May work session. Read it here. We had a limited amount of time and a lot of work to do.
We began with eight chapters, 393 verses, and 21 work days. Of those 21 days, four were occupied by revision in preparation for consultant checking (a task I had hoped would take one or two days at most), and two days were spent doing consultant checking.
Therefore, we ended up with eight chapters, 393 verses and 15 work days being our true goal.
As I mentioned last month, a good day for our team in the past has been to complete 10-15 verses. With fifteen days, we needed at least 25 verses a day to complete the goal. Over the first five days, we finished 52 verses, about 41% of our daily goals. As a result, we had 10 days left and 341 verses remaining—a daily goal of at least 34 verses!
Feel overwhelmed reading that? I sure did . . . and then came the miracle.
According to Miriam-Webster dictionary, a miracle can be defined as:
With ten work days remaining and the majority of the goal left to be done, I knew we needed more prayer. We were struggling. I was struggling a lot. I was discouraged, frustrated, and losing hope fast. And yet as I prayed and sought the Lord, I felt very deeply that this goal was still possible through God—but we needed more help. I was convicted that I needed to boldly claim a big goal every morning and ask people to pray in faith that God would accomplish that goal. Because He is able and I believed He would accomplish the goal.
I came across some words I wrote a couple of years ago
My alarm would go off and I would cry out to God, "Please don't make me get out of bed and face another long, hard day! I'm not enough!" And every day that conviction would rise up and pull me out of bed because there was work to do and my job was to be obedient.
I began sharing our daily goals on social media, asking others to join with us in prayer for God's possible to break through our impossible.
And God answered in such big ways. Every day would begin almost agonizingly slowly, but as more people read the update and more people prayed, the work sped up for no other discernible reason. Every day, I would post an end of the day update reporting our progress toward the daily goal. And almost every day, I wrote that update in tears knowing God had accomplished a great work; knowing it wasn't by our power, but by His.
Here is a brief summary of what happened:
My last update was this:
I struggle to find words to describe what God did. He took a ginormous, intimidating, humanly impossible goal and made it happen. He overcame obstacles including: sickness, mental and physical fatigue, discouragement, frustration, miscommunication, and more. And in the process He encouraged the team in remarkable ways.
As we were closing our time together, the translators said these things:
This was above and beyond that. I believe we lived and worked inside a miracle for those ten days. I believe that what God accomplished is something only He could have done. I believe that all of those involved, people praying from all around the world, have been changed by this experience. I know I have. Before we finished that last day, I challenged the translators (and myself) to never forget what God has done here. He took the impossible and made it possible. No matter what we face in life, remember God is able. Remember His love is boundless and He hears our prayers.
This verse from 2 Timothy so aptly describes how I feel. God accomplished the goal. Praise His holy name!
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 NIV
We began with eight chapters, 393 verses, and 21 work days. Of those 21 days, four were occupied by revision in preparation for consultant checking (a task I had hoped would take one or two days at most), and two days were spent doing consultant checking.
Therefore, we ended up with eight chapters, 393 verses and 15 work days being our true goal.
As I mentioned last month, a good day for our team in the past has been to complete 10-15 verses. With fifteen days, we needed at least 25 verses a day to complete the goal. Over the first five days, we finished 52 verses, about 41% of our daily goals. As a result, we had 10 days left and 341 verses remaining—a daily goal of at least 34 verses!
Feel overwhelmed reading that? I sure did . . . and then came the miracle.
According to Miriam-Webster dictionary, a miracle can be defined as:
- An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
- An extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment
With ten work days remaining and the majority of the goal left to be done, I knew we needed more prayer. We were struggling. I was struggling a lot. I was discouraged, frustrated, and losing hope fast. And yet as I prayed and sought the Lord, I felt very deeply that this goal was still possible through God—but we needed more help. I was convicted that I needed to boldly claim a big goal every morning and ask people to pray in faith that God would accomplish that goal. Because He is able and I believed He would accomplish the goal.
I came across some words I wrote a couple of years ago
My mind gets stuck in the what ifs.Every day became an exercise of faith.
God wants daily obedience.
My mind sees the obstacles.
God sees a clear path.
My mind says it's impossible.
God makes all things possible.
My alarm would go off and I would cry out to God, "Please don't make me get out of bed and face another long, hard day! I'm not enough!" And every day that conviction would rise up and pull me out of bed because there was work to do and my job was to be obedient.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
I began sharing our daily goals on social media, asking others to join with us in prayer for God's possible to break through our impossible.
And God answered in such big ways. Every day would begin almost agonizingly slowly, but as more people read the update and more people prayed, the work sped up for no other discernible reason. Every day, I would post an end of the day update reporting our progress toward the daily goal. And almost every day, I wrote that update in tears knowing God had accomplished a great work; knowing it wasn't by our power, but by His.
May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 20:5, 7 NIV
Here is a brief summary of what happened:
My last update was this:
End of the day update: We finished!!! It wasn't by 3, but it was before 4pm.
Our God-sized goal has been accomplished. Hallelujah and praise the Lord!
To all who have prayed, our entire team sends an enthusiastic (and rather teary) thank you! 😊❤
God is able! Amen.
I struggle to find words to describe what God did. He took a ginormous, intimidating, humanly impossible goal and made it happen. He overcame obstacles including: sickness, mental and physical fatigue, discouragement, frustration, miscommunication, and more. And in the process He encouraged the team in remarkable ways.
As we were closing our time together, the translators said these things:
These weeks have shown how much God wants our people to know Him and have His Word.
People are going to read and hear God's words and not have any idea how much work it took, how much of a struggle these three years have been and all of the challenges we've faced in the process, but it is worth it for them to have Luke in our language.
We cannot say thank you enough to all of those who have prayed for us during these weeks and helped us feel strong in the work. We ask God to give that strength and blessing back to each of them because they have stood beside us in our mission. We look forward to meeting them in heaven and thanking them in person.I've talked before about what an incredible honor and privilege it is to be a part of Bible translation and to have moments when God's inspiration is visible and tangible—moments when you know the only way the problem of crossing time and culture gaps was solved was because God whispered a solution to one of the team and they listened and obeyed. I've been in awe, I've been humbled, and I've been changed by seeing God inspire the translation of His Word.
This was above and beyond that. I believe we lived and worked inside a miracle for those ten days. I believe that what God accomplished is something only He could have done. I believe that all of those involved, people praying from all around the world, have been changed by this experience. I know I have. Before we finished that last day, I challenged the translators (and myself) to never forget what God has done here. He took the impossible and made it possible. No matter what we face in life, remember God is able. Remember His love is boundless and He hears our prayers.
The LORD's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.I've had people ask me if prayer works. It almost makes me giddy when they do because then I get to tell them all of the amazing things I've seen God do. I challenged the translators (and myself) to not keep quiet. We have witnessed something special during these weeks and just as in Luke 24 when Jesus told the disciples that they are the witnesses of what He had done and ought to share it with the world, so we too are witnesses and it is our responsibility to share the news.
Psalm 32:10b NIV
This verse from 2 Timothy so aptly describes how I feel. God accomplished the goal. Praise His holy name!
But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength.
2 Timothy 4:17a NIV
Susie,
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing testimony to God's faithfulness. I am humbled by your persistence, faith, commitment, and focus. I can't say I prayed every day, but I did pray from time to time through the month. Thank you for this reminder that God's plans are bigger than our abilities but He makes the impossible, possible.
Hallelujah! God is faithful, and your testimony of His power and grace encouraged and blessed me so much. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSusie, we have never met but I receive updates from Michelle Foster and her last one mentioned you and gave a link to your blog. I was most interested to read it as I too served in PNG from 1978 until 2004. I was a literacy specialist and worked in the Siane language group in the Highlands. I would love to receive your updates and stand in prayer with you...blessings, Joy
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