Desperation Church, a multi-campus area church which has a Jasper congregation, is trying to raise $55,000 by next year so that more than 2 million Asians can have have the New Testament of the Bible in their language for the first time.
"Jesus says, 'You're the light of the world. You're the salt," said Adam Hicks, the Jasper Campus pastor for Desperation. "So this is an opportunity for people to live beyond themselves."
Cody Miller, who grew up in Curry and is now the Cullman-based executive pastor, said, "What caught out attention is there are 7,000 languages spoken across the world. Of those 7,000 languages, only 700 have the entire Old and New Testaments completed in their language." Some have only portions of the Bible completed.
"There are about 2,000 that don't have a single verse of scripture," he said, representing 170 million people with no access to the Bible at all. "So here we are 2,000 years beyond Jesus telling us to make disciples of all nations but we have 2,000 plus languages that can't make disciples because they have no scriptures."
Miller said in thinking how scripture has impacted his life, "I can't imagine my life without scripture or the promises found in God's word - like going through the loss of a family member and not knowing Psalm 34:18, that God was close to the broken-hearted, or going through some form of job less or chaos and not knowing a peace that surpasses all understanding is available, or trying to figure out the purpose or direction of my life and not knowing the salvation that Jesus has."
Hicks said Desperation has been partnering for about three years with the non-profit Seed Company of Arlington, Texas.
"At Seed Company we are passionate about accelerating the translation of God’s Word in every heart language that needs it by 2025," the company said on its website, seedcompany.com. "Working with over 1,400 global partners, we serve the local church by providing training, consulting, funding, and project management that leads to a meaningful, accurate translation in the local mother tongue." Desperation is considered one of those partners.
Hicks said the translation fundraising effort is part of the church's missions projects that one can give to above tithes. A substantial amount of money has been raised, with only $55,000 left needed to complete translation of the New Testament and a goal to complete funding by 2022. A later phase will complete the work for the Old Testament as a long-term goal.
"Someone from right here in Jasper, Alabama, can bring individual, societal and even generational change to somebody on the other side of the world. It is really cool that the Jasper Civic Center (the Jasper Campus' home) is the launching pad for the nations," Miller said.
At the the end of 2019, the book of Luke was presented to those people, Miller said.
"Part of Senior Pastor Andy Heis' vision is called 'Change Your World,' Hicks said. He said local service projects are being done by the church to change the local area, "but we're not just talking about our world of Jasper and Walker County. We're literally wanting to change the world. We have the ability to do that. Like Cody said, the scripture can come alive where they have something to go to, something to apply."
Miller said Desperation adopted through Seed Company one specific cluster of five languages in Southeast Asia, representing 2.4 million people. Hicks is amazed that so many in this area have different translations of the Bible at home, but this group has never tangibly held a Bible nor ever read a scripture.
The project is not identifying the cluster publicly out of concern for religious persecution. "The work on the ground takes place in unsafe areas," Miller said. For that reason, the language is given the pseudonym, "the Talapapra Cluster."
"There will be people in the Talapapra Cluster who will be standing in eternity with us, with Jesus, and it is all because they were introduced to Him through this," Hicks said. "This is a very powerful project. We are very passionate about the word of God."
"We're working with Seed to provide the funding so that people on the ground can live with, learn the language, write the language, translate the language, go through language checks - this entire process that scripture translation goes through the bring God's word to this specific group of people in Southeast Asia," Miller said.
The men said the church members have also been excited about the work and give regularly. Hicks said when the Book of Luke was completed and announced a couple of years ago at Desperation, "the roof went off the place."
Miller said Desperation is supportive of the local churches, and any church is welcome to partner with Seed Company for this or any other language group. Individuals are also welcome to give at https://ift.tt/3whf282 by going to the Giving page, and pulling down "Legacy" for the fund, and then in the subgroup to pull down "Missions Lane." On a later page, under "Gift Details," one can write in a memo section that the donation is intended is for "Scripture Translation."
One can also make a similar notation on a check, if one wishes to send it by regular mail to Desperation Church, 510 5th Street SW, Cullman, AL 35055.
Anyone wanting more information may email to info@desperationchurch.tv or go to https://ift.tt/3hCTheW.
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