Prayer as the Strategy

00:00
Emily Wilson
Wow. How powerful is it when everyone is coming together and saying the exact same thing that Lord, we desire this for Your glory. We desire that every language by 2033 has access to at least some of Your Word. 

00:23
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the Essentially Translatable podcast cast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Yranslators. I’m Rich Rudowske. 

00:28
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson

00:29
Rich Rudowske
And we are going to talk today about prayer, extreme prayer, and prayer is the strategy and had a great conversation with you Emily, about prayer. Thankful for your service as our prayer working group point person in the organization and your love for and modeling of prayer. And so I’m going to invite everyone listening to, as we focus this year on Giving Tuesday, for wanting to raise up prayers for Bible translation. You’ll hear us talk about that a little bit, that you enjoyed this interview and this conversation between Emily and myself about prayer. We are here in the studio today and by we I mean myself and co-host, turned guest, Emily Wilson. And we’re going to talk today about a topic called, “Prayer Is The Strategy”, which is one of our Missiological Imperatives here at Lutheran Bible Translators. 

01:23
Rich Rudowske
And Emily is here as the guest to talk about it with me because Emily is our prayer working group point person for Lutheran Bible Translators and for the Every Tribe Every Nation alliance as well for our organization. So welcome to the podcast, Emily. 

01:39
Emily Wilson
Thank you. This is a different sort of thing. Last time I was interviewed for the podcast it was during the COVID era. 

01:47
Rich Rudowske
It was remote, we were locked down. 

01:49
Emily Wilson
And I didn’t know what I was doing. 

01:52
Rich Rudowske
As the listeners know, we like to let our listeners get to know our guests. Give us a little bit of a recap about your journey with Lutheran Bible Translators and ministry. 

02:02
Emily Wilson
Absolutely. So I’ve been with the organization nine years now and my role has shifted all over. Started out in an internship and that was just supposed to be a month long and it turned into a summer long and turned into the rest of the year. And then the move to Concordia, Missouri happened and it’s been home ever since. So eight years down here I’ve served in communications, what is now field programs, served in mission mobilization, which was just absolutely a godsend to be able to talk with young people and not so young people about how they can be involved in God’s mission and where God might be calling them to serve internationally. And so in that position I was able to visit our field contexts and meet some of our partners. And that was absolutely transformative and shifted my thinking. 

03:02
Emily Wilson
And so when Covid hit and everything slowed down, my role shifted to pr and held that for a bit. And now I’m development officer for the organization, and I have the pleasure of meeting with people and hearing their stories and how the Lord might be calling them into his mission in a different way. Not necessarily serving overseas, but sending and equipping people overseas. So it’s just been kind of full circle. And I love most every minute of it. Some days it’s like, wow, this is a different lifestyle. I reflected on it. I was in four or five different states in the past month, each different week. So you wake up and you’re like, where am I? But ultimately, just such an incredible gift to be able to sit down with people and let them know how they can be part of this journey. 

04:04
Rich Rudowske
We have journeyed together as an organization through a season that we call the More Than Words campaign, which we launched in 2019 with great hopes and dreams and aspirations and not any idea that pandemics were still things that could happen. But the purpose of the more than words campaign was focused on, or is still focused on equipping ministry entrepreneurs, visionary, mission minded folks, because equipping them exponentially increases the impact that can be had in mission and in Bible translation and scripture engagement. And as we’ve walked through that season in a campaign in the organization, we’ve also sort of broken all the rules. As an organization, we had several key staff reach retirement age, including the executive director of the organization, had a transition there, and still the campaign moves on. Launched the new executive director and the campaign all on the same day. 

05:01
Rich Rudowske
The public phase, and the Lord’s blessed it at the time of recording, it’s about 82% funded. As we formed that campaign. Well, just talk a little bit about some of the specific goals in terms of what the organization’s leadership was looking at the time of the campaign and kind of how we get to prayer as the strategy. 

05:21
Emily Wilson
A little bit, yeah. So the comprehensive campaign, my role during the launch of that was still mission mobilization, but being in awe of really, these are our goals. This seems pretty extreme. This seems, like heftier than we could imagine, and basically doubling. So starting out in 2019 in 72 language communities as an involvement and saying, by the end of this campaign, we want to be in 144 language communities. That’s massive. Looking at basically our budget focused on multiplying our funding streams towards equipping capacity for our partners. The traditional funding focused in on sending a missionary family and supporting that missionary family all along the way, and one family for one language community. That’s still beautiful, wonderful work, but we want God’s Word in this generation. So what does it look like to equip our local partners? 

06:31
Emily Wilson
And so with the comprehensive campaign, thinking about building projects that are going to build a sustainable ministry for income generation and people who are going to be trained up to be trainers, and that they will be teaching the next generation of Bible translation advisors and literacy coordinators, and they are the ones who are driving the projects forward. And this was all uncharted territory for us. And right now we’re at 132 language communities that we’ve partnered with and more to come in 2024 and how the Lord has been faithful. But at the center of all of it, this big goal was we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest. He has said, it is too light of a thing that I would send you to my people, Israel. You are to be a light to the nations. And we’ve shifted too, to this Ephesians 3 passage. God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. We have this best meeting of the day, as one of my favorite podcasters says, like, prayer is the best meeting of the day, and we’re called to lay it all at his feet, including all of these strategies that we form, because it’s ultimately His will and His way, and He’s invited us into that. So we are on track. There’s been a lot of things that have gone not according to plan, but it was no surprise to the Lord. 

08:13
Rich Rudowske
So let’s talk a little bit about prayer in your life, I guess, and your interest in it and why it’s important to you and kind of track with how that gets to what we’re doing for the organization. 

08:25
Emily Wilson
Yeah. So my prayer journey started off really simple. When I was a little girl and having grown up in the church, that was something that was very embedded in my life. But my first witness to prayer was actually me out fishing with my family, with my father and my sister, and just the family dynamics there. It was a hot day. We were supposed to fry up the fish that we caught for the day. So that was all of the expectation of like, okay, when we go home, we’re going to have fish for my mom to be able to fry up and I’ll be able to help her. And weren’t catching anything. And it was frustrating. And I could see tensions rising, and my little peacemaker self was like, Lord, I don’t know what to do. Please, Lord, please, can we just start catching fish? 

09:26
Emily Wilson
Please, Lord. And I started to catch fish. I was the party of us, the three of us. I was the one catching. 

09:35
Rich Rudowske
Wow. 

09:36
Emily Wilson
And I fessed up. And I think my father was like, okay, little innocent one praying. But it was, to me, my young self, an indication that the Lord hears. Why is it that this seemingly…was it really an important prayer? Why did He answer that? It was to feed my faith, that he is a provider, that He does see me. He sees my little anxious self and wanting to provide for my family, wanting to keep the peace, and He blessed that. And so, over 20 years later, I still think about little Emily on the bank of that pond and just trusting that the Lord could do it. So over the course of my life, submitting to the Lord has been a journey. I fail at it big time. 

10:39
Emily Wilson
A lot of days and a lot of times crying out to the Lord, do you see me? Do you hear me? Do you see me? But in this particular season, as I pray, it is, lord, you are faithful. Even when this feels really uncertain, you are faithful. You will provide for my every need. So as I’m in the middle of that journey, in the highs and lows and the roller coaster of emotions that prayer is, I know that he loves every word that I speak to him because he’s called me to himself. He’s called all of us to himself. And it is a delight. It is a sweet aroma before the Lord for His children to come to him. And I think that it is daunting for a lot of people to pray. It feels like they need to be eloquent. 

11:38
Emily Wilson
They need to have it together. But the kinds of people that Jesus ministered to in the middle of his time, incarnate here on earth, people didn’t have it all together at all. And they showed up broken, and he poured out his love and his compassion and his restoration upon them. So how much does he desire that from us as we come to him in prayer? 

12:07
Rich Rudowske
That’s so beautiful. I love the story of little Emily. We hear Jesus talk about the faith of a child, and so there’s that just, okay, we can’t, like, none of us can say, well, God answered it because of this, right? I mean, you said to feed your family. Sure, yes, of course. But there’s no, like, if you do it this way or this way, then you’re sure God’s going to answer. Right. But you’ve got to at least think it’s possible that just…the Lord longs to hear these unfiltered prayers that are just, like, completely trusting, without barrier. And, yeah, I’m going to invest in that. And like you said, the faith-building aspect of it in that even seemingly very specific in the cosmos, minor detail of things. But it was a big deal for you at that point, right? 

12:52
Emily Wilson
The idea that the Lord hears and sees me and no request is too small for him, that He desires even the humble prayers. And it did not become a genie in a bottle, because as I really processed it with my mother, who has especially been my spiritual nurturer over the years, she was very much like, this is beautiful, this is wonderful. But being aware that when we take things to the Lord, he can say yes, he can say no, and he can say not now. And so being able to process through that lens as well, so even, it’s not like little Emily got cocky thinking, like, I’m just going to pray for fish all the time. 

13:41
Rich Rudowske
So let’s talk about that a little bit then. The Lord doesn’t always answer our prayers. Why keep praying then? 

13:51
Emily Wilson
Yeah, that is definitely something that I think millions, billions of Christians have suffered through, because even Christ, in his passion, his prayer went and was answered with a, “No”. And the idea of feeling forsaken by the Lord is very real, but it doesn’t mean that feeling is true. Like, it’s a feeling, but it does not mean it is a reality. And the lack of a response that we desire is not any means for stopping of going to the Lord. So being able to go to him in the same way that He has called us, like, call me your heavenly Father, because that is who I am. And we have this beautiful opportunity to lay our burdens, our fears, our joys before Him. And as a father that He can say, no, I want something else for you. I want this for you. 

15:08
Emily Wilson
And that limitation in our understanding, our humanity feels very discouraging. Like, have you rejected me, Lord? And no, that sweet aroma of He still desires us to come to him and that relationship. So when our parents have told us, no, I don’t want this for you, do we cut off our parents, our relationship when they are seeking our good and our best? No, that would be a folly, right? We still need our families, our relationships, we need to grow. So even when there is that no or the not now, he continually feeds us and directs our steps. It is discouraging. Just straight up, it is discouraging. But the Lord can handle our why he can handle the, “This is really awful right now, Lord,” because he has already endured the awful. 

16:14
Rich Rudowske
One of the ways that we’ve been trying to find words and categories to think about and express prayer because it’s such a personal thing, right? To try to find words and categories to express the importance and to, I don’t know, lay out different options or possibilities for what prayer is. One of the things we’ve done as an organization is, or I guess we’re currently doing it with more of the organization, is read the book, “Extreme Prayer” by Greg Pruitt. So I mentioned that in a prior episode of the podcast, but here’s how we got sort of started on this. I was actually with Greg and other CEOs when I was still CEO-elect at the end of last year. 

16:51
Rich Rudowske
And so at the end of this meeting, Greg, who I’ve met a couple times before, sort of comes up to me and he’s a really know, just a nice guy. And he hands me this little book and says, I don’t usually carry copies of my own book around, but I felt like I was supposed to bring one and I’d figure out something to do with it. So he handed it to me and on the inside it says ‘Rich’ and then in parentheses, “Dr. Rudowske”, which is kind of, that’s what they all call me. I’m like the youngest one anyways. But “I wrote this book when I was facing the challenge of starting my role as CEO. It’s probably the only truly great idea I’ve ever had. It might help you, Greg.” 

17:31
Rich Rudowske
And P.S., if you need to ask someone outside your network about any CEO challenge you face, feel free to call. I’ll be praying for you. Put his number in there. So I was like, well, that’s really sweet and that’s cool. And yeah, prayer. 

17:43
Rich Rudowske
And then I came back from that meeting again towards the end of November, and I opened up a notebook that was on the table in my office at the time of notes and processing I’d done over the summer during the transition period, the overlap I had with my predecessor and saw the very first note I had written and I hadn’t even remembered, but the very first thing I’d written down in one of these sessions where I’d just kind of gone to a coffee shop by myself and was thinking about stuff, was, I feel like the organization needs to be more prayerful. And then the next thing I wrote was, why do I think that? 

18:17
Rich Rudowske
And I had not really dwelled on or thought about it again up to that point, but then got this book, started reading through it, and really just thought, it’s such an accessible book, by the way, so we’ll just shamelessly plug it. You can find the book, “Extreme Prayer” on Amazon and pick that. And I know I didn’t necessarily prep you to be able to recite out of the book. But he talks about prayer, and he had a couple acronyms. 

18:45
Emily Wilson
Do you know the acronyms? 

18:45
Rich Rudowske

So there’s ACTS, which is something that we like. I got taught when I was in high school, youth group, like Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Right? And he said, okay, how about ACTIVE? He added some other things. Can you kind of walk through the ACTIVE part a little bit? 

19:00
Emily Wilson
So Adoration, beginning with this idea of awe of who the Lord is and how much we cannot fathom. Whenever I’m starting with adoration, all I have to do is look at my surroundings, me, and recognizing all of these cells and atoms, that the Lord is a beautiful artist. So this adoration, see that Confession, I think that’s something that a lot of us reserve for Sunday morning, especially in corporate prayer. But the Lord has called for us to acknowledge our brokenness. It’s hard to build a relationship when we’re not honest. And confession requires honesty. I don’t have it all together, lord, I’m broken. And here are the ways that I’m broken. And obviously in corporate prayer, there’s a space. 

20:02
Emily Wilson
But being able to acknowledge that and have that humility, because sometimes we jump right into, these are the things that I need, or these are the things that my family or friends need. But being able to humble ourselves for Thanksgiving, we praise you and acknowledge you, Lord, and thank you for all of the gifts that you’ve given. And so a lot of times feeling like adoration and thanksgiving are almost kind of combined. And it’s not like it has to happen in this order. But there is a lot to say that confession happens early on in our prayer walk because you can tack it on at the end, but it’s almost like having confession at the end of your worship service feels maybe a little disjointed. 

20:49
Emily Wilson
We very often see it right at the beginning, right after the invocation, so that people know that freedom that they have. 

20:56
Rich Rudowske

Yeah, it’s just sort of like, natural. I’m about to come into the presence of a holy God, or I’m about to have a conversation with the untrue God. So let me just. 

21:05
Emily Wilson
Do you have a conversation? 

21:07
Rich Rudowske
Understand who I am and who you are? 

21:10
Emily Wilson
Do you have a conversation with friends or family and you have just really screwed up and you save the. I’m sorry for the last thing. Usually, not usually, we want to reconcile as soon as possible. And so being able to say, I know there’s nothing I can do to reconcile with you, Lord, you have done all of the hard work. You have redeemed me. There’s nothing that I can do here except say, lord, help me to change. Help me to be a new creature. So adoration, confession, thanksgiving. And then he has the eye of Intercession or supplication, being able to say, Lord, these are the things that are heavy on my heart, or the joyful things, too. He wants to hear those. He celebrates with us. 

22:02
Emily Wilson
And we have that beautiful imagery of that in Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep and returning, and like, oh, all of heaven rejoices with us, too, for those beautiful moments. And so being able to come to him with everything and anything, he wants to hear it all, he already knows. But like a good father, there’s something about being able to vocalize it. He knows that’s what we need. He knows that we need to process that the V is for Vanquishing Satan. So we all acknowledge. Ephesians 6 says it, we have spiritual warfare all around us. It is undeniable. The more you open your eyes to it, the more you say, oh, my goodness. Satan is just picking, picking, especially at the people of the Lord. 

23:05
Emily Wilson
And so being able to say, Lord, let your will be done and let evil just be conquered in this space and let the warfare, let it be in your court, because I know that I cannot do this on my own. And then the E is the Extreme prayer. And being persistent in our prayer walk, being almost dogged as reading the Extreme Prayer book, thinking about the widow and the unjust judge and the widow who is seeking that justice. And I remember before I actually read Extreme Prayer, we’re walking through the chapters, and I’m like, what was the phrase? Was it ‘persistent’ that I struggled over? Because I’m like, that sounds like it’s so negative. And you’re like, just trust it. Just keep reading. And it is that, Lord, I’m not seeing fruit. I am not seeing fruit. 

24:19
Emily Wilson
This is just not changing my situation feels like it is not what I was hoping for. Keep asking, keep asking, keep hoping, keep leaning into what God can do to our hearts, to other people’s hearts, to a situation that seems hopeless, that he will be glorified. Even in what feels like an unanswered prayer. He is always working, thinking about the parable, the analogy of the farmer who goes out and sows and his field, and he doesn’t cause the sun to rise. He doesn’t cause the rain to fall. He doesn’t see or make the seed grow. 

25:09
Rich Rudowske
He doesn’t even know how. 

25:10
Emily Wilson
He doesn’t even know how, but he waits on the Lord, and the Lord gives the growth. And in a season where it feels like nothing is happening, and we might never see that fruit, right. That is a hard thing. But it is the story of so many missionaries around the world, whether near or far right, missionaries in your community or missionaries around the world, that we may never see this side of heaven, the fruit that the Lord has cultivated. And that’s a hard thing, but we are called to be persistent in it anyway. Hard stuff, but it’s active, it’s living. The Lord has called us to be in relationship. 

26:01
Rich Rudowske
And that word persistent found its way early in our conversations as a leadership group here at Lutheran Bible Translators. In the missiological imperative of Prayer Is The Strategy, and then saying, we commit to persistent, unifying, specific faith building prayer. So kind of unpack that. And if anybody’s reading along, and I probably had those out of order, but specific, persistent, faith building, unifying. 

26:26
Emily Wilson
Yeah. So this idea of specific prayer feels bold. It almost feels challenging. Like, what is it that we are asking for? We’re asking for the Lord to be glorified. So you can say, Lord, please bring about attendees to this event. Amen. And that is a prayer. But Greg Pruitt would make the analogy of know, talking to your spouse, and they’re asking, well, what do you want to eat for tonight? Food. Well, what kind things with nutritional value? 

27:09
Rich Rudowske
I don’t know. Just bless me. 

27:11
Emily Wilson
Yeah, just bless me. And it’s frustrating to a point. And, yes, the Lord is much more patient, and the Lord will bless us as he will. But how amazing is it when people say, I pray that there will be every seat filled in this space as we gather together in prayer, like, every seat, that is bold. And it’s not that the Lord isn’t working if not every seat is filled. But how much more do we say when every seed is filled, it’s only because of his goodness and his provision. And he wants us to be bold. He doesn’t want us to be wishy-washy. He says, ask, and it will be given to you. And so being able to come to him and unified, it’s hard to be unified in this world. It is. Even in prayer? Even in prayer. 

28:17
Emily Wilson
But how powerful is it when everyone is coming together and saying the exact same thing? That, Lord, we desire this in your name for your glory. We desire that every language by 2033 has access to at least some of Your Word. And when we are all coming together with that unified prayer, don’t you think that is a beautiful offering to the Lord that we are lifting up. What is it that we’re lifting up? We’re lifting up our hearts. Our hearts are being transformed as we are unifying. 

28:54
Rich Rudowske
Right. 

28:55
Emily Wilson
And. Yeah, that persistent thing. 

28:58
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, just keep asking. I think of the different prayer things we’ve prayed for this year that were specific and persistent and just didn’t get answered the way and some did. Right. I don’t know. You want to unpack that a little bit? 

29:15
Emily Wilson
The more than words gathering, we prayed for 100 seats to be filled at this event in Washington, DC, at the museum of the Bible. Almost every devotion or prayer time that was on our lips and in our hearts over and over, and we cast the net far and wide and praying to the Lord, you can do this. Your will, not our will, but we pray, Lord, for 100 seats to be filled with people who are passionate about your word. The Lord said, no. The Lord said, I’m going to give you 43 and I’m going to give you 40 households that you would be welcomed in to be able to talk about what I am doing through the more than words comprehensive campaign. And for those of you who are like those 40 households, a number of them are married couples. 

30:24
Emily Wilson
So the Lord said, not 100 seats in that room, but more than 100 people who are hearing about this amazing work that I am doing and being able to say, okay, that wasn’t what we imagined. But you called us to ask, and are we sad that there weren’t 100 people in that room with us? 

30:51
Rich Rudowske
Right. Well, kind of, because it was amazing. 

30:55
Emily Wilson
But the joy that was in that room was the equivalent of 100 people. And the intimate conversations that we were able to have, we wouldn’t have been able to have. If there had been 100 people, we wouldn’t have been able to all do the tour together and have that unified. Oh, my word, have you seen this? Have you looked at this? Wow. This is just so powerful. We were able to grow together. The Lord still produced a good harvest in the middle of that. 

31:26
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. And I think back on the whole, the several months of prayer, and in addition to being persistent about asking for the 100 seats, we also said, lord, teach us what else to pray for. What else is it that you’re looking for us to pray for? And this kind of, we want to pray according to your will. And according to your will means we want to bend our will to yours. And through the process of prayer and reflection, figure out what that may be. Well, a past version of me thinking about prayer would have been like, well, if you pray for something too specific and then you don’t get it. Then what is this? 

32:04
Emily Wilson
Is this a test of my faith? 

32:05
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. Or am I testing God? But I think that where I’m at today is to say, we asked the Lord and we asked him persistently, and in the process, we came to see that he did something else, and we invited other people into that space. And I think if we would go through the original roster of folks that were invited and we look at the names of who was in that space, there’s not much overlap between those two. 

32:30
Emily Wilson
That’s true. 

32:32
Rich Rudowske
And we don’t know what the Lord’s going to do with what’s planted. He said, these are the people I want in the room. 

32:38
Emily
Yes. And I think that ties in really with my mission mobilization background. When I first started out in the recruiting atmosphere, it was, oh, no, I need to get this many people into the room and recruited. And you called me, you challenged me to trust that who the Lord would provide is the right fit, that trusting in the Lord’s timing, in the Lord’s provision. And unlike maybe other seasons in my life, I’ve seen the fruit of that. The people who became Lutheran Bible Translators, missionaries that I recruited, it was more towards the end of my time as mission mobilization coordinator, because those relationships took time, and it’s been a blessing. It has been a joy. I am so proud and privileged to be part of that. 

33:44
Emily Wilson
And I recognize that the Lord has blessed me to be able to see the fruit of the labor of the many miles, many miles on the road, traveling to different places and spaces and proclaiming opportunities to serve him. 

34:03
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, it’s so beautiful. And again, just to. I think one of the great benefits of prayer is then the opportunity to look back and see, oh, my goodness, how the Lord has been working all this time and through all these things. And I would have never put that together. I want to talk about our organization’s emphasis on prayer then, in terms of saying prayer is the strategy. We saw some great, embodied examples of that at the gathering recently, and I loved Jeremy, who mc’d that event. Our former board chair said, hey, if prayer is a strategy, then it’s time to get to work. And we’d introduce times of prayer that way. And that was really, I loved it. Meaningful. Yeah. 

34:47
Rich Rudowkse
So let’s talk some about what Lutheran Bible Translators is doing, what their prayer working group is doing, especially on the front facing parts of our ministry, to say, okay, if Prayer Is The Strategy, then here’s how we’re inviting further involvement and here’s how we’re trying to really lean into that, right? 

35:05
Emily Wilson
So the next best thing with praying is encouraging others to pray and being able to say, I don’t have this all figured out, but I know that the Lord is faithful, and this is how you can be part of this best meeting of the day. And so our prayer working group consists of members from different spaces and places, different backgrounds. So Jim Laesch and Ali Federwitz and Erin Schulte and Jill Inman have all joined together in this prayer working group and saying, how can we encourage our missionaries and our staff members and our partners to be praying unified, persistent prayer to be growing and transformed by their prayer walk? But also, how can we encourage people outside of the organization, our financial supporters, our advocates around the country, around the world, to be walking alongside us in prayer? 

36:12
Emily Wilson
And so we have internally started reading extreme prayer together and discussing that together. We’ve also encouraged people to explore how they might be praying throughout the week in the same prayer request. So we have, it’s beautiful, this prayer time chat in the organization where staff members, missionaries post their prayer needs for one another. And it can be about a visa issue. It can be the celebration of new life. It ranges. But we are all coming together and cultivating that and being able to check in with one another and saying, how are you feeling? How are you doing? And celebrating together, too. So that’s within the organization, but outside of the organization, encouraging participation in our prayer calendar. We send that out monthly, and it is a different prayer request for each day of the month for a different missionary staff member program partner. 

37:22
Emily Wilson
It really ranges, and it’s been powerful for people to be able to follow the ministry through the years we’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years. When I took over the prayer calendar as an administrative assistant, that was back in 2015. And I know we had been doing it for a number of years before that. People want their prayer calendars, and they want to share it with their churches and their small groups. So we are trying to continue that within the prayer working group, but also our marketing team to be able to distribute that out so that people know this is a tool to equip them in their participation in the Bible translation movement. God hears their prayers. They’re persistent, unified prayers, these extreme specific prayers. God hears them. And that we have. What is it? 

38:24
Emily Wilson
It’s over 1300 prayer partners right now, and we would want to double that again. That feels like, oh, my goodness, Lord, what are you doing? We want to have 2 million prayers for 365, 366 days of the year. The Lord hears those prayers and it’s a fragrant offering before him that it’s not about us, it’s about praying for one another, and we sharpen one another through that. And it’s beautiful. When I go to conferences and I’m telling people about the opportunity and I’ve seen where people are like, oh, I receive it. And then they go and reach in their purse and pull out the prayer calendar, comes on the road with them. It comes on the road with them and it’s beautiful. And they’re able to say, now, how is this person? How is this situation? 

39:21
Emily Wilson
Because they’ve read about it in the prayer calendar and they want to follow up because they want to know how to pray further. We have prayer gatherings monthly. We actually have one tonight. 

39:34
Rich Rudowske
Not to hear a little bit to do that. 

39:36
Emily Wilson
Right. And it’s an opportunity to learn more about how the Lord is working in programs, language programs, and how we can more specifically pray for our brothers and sisters who are laboring so faithfully in these language programs. So that has blossomed into something of a community for people to say, I can be intentionally praying. I can be with and alongside Lutheran Bible Translators. And it’s been a beautiful new opportunity. 

40:11
Rich Rudowske
It’s fun. On a monthly basis, there’s a group of folks, and it varies and grows and contracts, but there’s a core group that’s like, I’m so excited to be with these folks again this month and to hear what’s new and to lift this up in prayer. And it’s a great opportunity that we’re really looking forward to welcoming more folks into that space. 

40:29
Emily Wilson
Absolutely. 

40:30
Rich Rudowske
And this episode, if you’re listening to it, when it originally drops, it’s going to drop right near. Giving Tuesday 2023. So giving Tuesday, as our listeners, I’m sure will know, is utilized by a lot of generally nonprofit ministries, organizations and so forth as a tool on their social media to raise funds for particular campaign emphasis, et cetera. We’ve done that before, but this year we are looking not to raise funds but to raise prayers. Tell us a little bit about that. 

41:00
Emily Wilson
Yeah, so as you’re talking about that, I was thinking about that fragrant offering before the Lord. It’s our hearts. We can give so many things, our time, our talent, our treasure. But the Lord most wants our hearts. And prayer is that vulnerable part of a culmination off of all of those things that being able to raise up prayer, support people joining us, that’s going to be transformational right. So it seems like maybe a leap of faith of like, well, aren’t you missing out on an opportunity for people to give to your ministry on Giving Tuesday this time where people are so focused in on generosity, people want to participate in something that is meaningful. And if the Lord calls our prayer partners to give someday, that’ll be a beautiful thing. But if people become invested, if people are saying, you know what? 

42:13
Emily Wilson
I can dedicate five minutes of my day for praying for the ministry of Lutheran Bible translators. I’ve met with financial supporters who say, I’ve got Lutheran Bible Translators on my morning prayers. I’ve got it on my evening prayers. I’ve seen people who have a list of our missionaries printed out and under their pillow, and they pray over those every night. That is beautiful. It is humbling. 

42:42
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. I think the opportunity for generosity really is still there. That being generous with your time and prayer. I was just reading an article about communication in today’s world, and there’s so much information and so much out there that you literally are paying attention. I mean, we’re asking you to pay attention to what God’s doing in the Bible translation ministry. Every day, five minutes a day, 365 days. That would be a beautiful gift to give on Giving Tuesday or whenever you are hearing this broadcast. 

43:13
Emily Wilson
Even just a minute. Sure, we’ll take 60 seconds. Because even if it is 60 seconds before the Lord saying, I don’t know how these people are going to do by 2033, Lord, but you give them what they need to be able to make your word known. 

43:33
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. Give them power, give them wisdom, give them a new goal, whatever it is, lifting that up before the Lord. We know he is able, and he is Lord, and it’s his mission. I’m going to read one quote from extreme prayer near the end, one that was especially impactful to me, but just kind of your take what comes to mind here. Okay, so it’s a question that Greg asked at the end of the book. Will we seek God’s power to break our addictions, aspire to greater holiness, transform whole cities, stop wars, revolutionize cultures, and even bring God’s kingdom to every people group on earth? 

44:07
Emily Wilson
He is able to do immeasurably more. The idea that we wouldn’t want to come to him and pray these things, it seems absolutely impossible, and it is without him. But he has said, come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest. He is the peacemaker. He is the bringer of justice. He is the one restoring and binding up the broken hearted. We get to be these things as his ambassadors as well. And when we pray, it seems impossible. But when we pray, it’s for the transformation of hearts and minds to all turn to Jesus. 

45:03
Rich Rudowske
The same God that can revolutionize cultures, has power to break our addictions, and the same God that can stop wars and transform whole cities can also move us to aspire to greater holiness. The scope of the very intimate and personal nature of who God is and his power and at work in our lives and calling upon it and then the global nature, this is the same God who invites us to call upon it. 

45:28
Emily Wilson
Prayer is submission. There’s a lot of things as I’m reading through Genesis right now and thinking about Jacob wrestling with the Lord, and in some ways prayer is wrestling, and in other ways it is submitting and saying, lord, I am broken. Please transform my heart to your way and your will. And the moments when I am faint and I stumble, which are many, continue to work in me. Continue to refine me. It’s going to be painful. Continue to refine my neighbor. Continue to drive me to love my neighbor as you love my neighbor. And it is an ongoing but prayer is the strategy, right? 

46:22
Rich Rudowske
Prayer is the strategy. We’re going to keep saying it because we know and believe that God wants to act, how he will act and how he’ll choose to act. He will definitely transform us in the process when we keep him in mind in prayer. So the invitation is also for all of you listening to engage in prayer for yourself, to take the opportunity that the Lord lays before you and the open invitation to grow in faith. And we would love your prayers for the Bible translation movement and for Lutheran Bible Translators as well. One of the best ways to get connected is to go to our website lbt.org and scroll down towards the bottom. You’ll find a place to sign up. It says, “I want to pray.” Sign up for that and get connected. 

47:09
Rich Rudowske
I think that the opportunity is there to grow in faith as we see God work, where we put our hearts and minds and say we want to be interested in what is your will, that all humanity would be saved. We’re going to grow in faith as we see God work in ways that we didn’t expect. 

Thank you for listening to the Essentially Translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. You can find past episodes of the podcast at lbt.org/podcast or subscribe on Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible Translators’ social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s Word in their hands. The Essentially Translatable podcast is edited and produced by Audrey Seider. Executive producer is Emily Wilson. 

47:59
Rich Rudowske
Artwork designed by Caleb Rodewald and Sarah Rudowske music written and performed by Rob Veith. I’m Rich Rudowske. So long for now.