[Editor’s Note: My friend who wrote this following article works with Pioneer Bible Translators in a sensitive area in Southeast Asia.  We need to uphold him and other Christians in prayer as they seek to get God’s Word out to the people in their mother-tongue languages.]

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One of the greatest things about working in a new field is that you get to see God open doors and solve problems firsthand. Sometimes we get a glimpse into the intricate ways that He “makes your ways straight” long before we even knew we would need His help.

For the past couple of years, we have been trying to start a translation project with a tribe that my parents and grandparents worked among in the last century. Let’s call them the Bimble tribe for now. They live in the North-eastern part of South Asia and have no translation in their own language, but they are very eager to have one.

Last time I visited, we were able to convince the churches in the area to listen to us and consider giving us permission to do translation work in the Bimble language. So now I left to go see all the Bodies in the area and collect their decision to allow us to work or not. When I arrived and contacted the Church of God (Anderson) elders, they were delighted that I had returned to their area and came to visit me the same day with papers granting me permission and promising help in anyway possible from their Body. It seems they had been waiting for me return for quite a while.

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I was travelling with a friend of my father and bolstered by this wonderful news, we went to meet the head of the CNI Body in town. It was a good thing we did. He was leaving town for a meeting and would not be back till the end of the week. He regretted that he would not be able to type up the permission letter but told me to make one and he would sign it. At which point, I went from being worried to being delighted.

It is always nice to be able to make people say exactly what you want them to but I made sure he saw my draft before I left that night. He also asked me to redo his letterhead while I was at it and promised to sign it as soon as he got back.  The only scary part was that he planned to return the night before I had to fly out and any delay would ruin this plan.

And sure enough, the Adversary was up to his tricks and the next morning there was a bandh. This is a forced political closure of all roads and businesses, like a strike of everything, and was started by the opposition parties and some rebel groups. Needless to say, I was a little worried. The bandh lasted right up until my last full day in town so there was very little I could do except pray that the people I needed to see would be able to return to town and would have time for me to see them.

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On that last day, we rushed to see the head of the Presbyterian Body since they are the largest in the area and we had to have their acceptance in order to succeed. We did this putting our faith in God because due to the bandh we had not been able to make an appointment or anything like that.

When we arrived, there was no one around. The leaders were all in a meeting of the council that runs the Presbyterian Body. We decided to wait anyway, praying that God would give us an opportunity to meet the leaders. After a long time, we became a bit discouraged and decided to see if there was anyone else there at all.

We walked into the only other office with people and met the vice-head of the Body. He listened to what we had to say and was sceptical at first but soon his attitude changed. He became enthusiastic about our plans to translate the Word into Bimble. He became so interested that he decided that he would take us to the Head of the Body and make sure we got an appointment with both him and the chairman of the Council.

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When they arrived, we went in and were introduced to the chairman and to the Head of the Presbyterian Body. However things started to do downhill from there. The Head changed his mind and objected. He told us that there is no need to do a translation in Bimble and that they could not give us permission. But, as seems to be the case whenever things get out of hand, the Tetragrammaton (LORD God) intervened.

The Chairman remembered that my father’s friend had performed his sister’s wedding (full blown weddings are a bit rare and are very grand, so doing one is considered an honour) and he started listening very carefully. Eventually, when we explained our idea of doing an oral translation he decided that it might be a good idea. And within seconds, the Head of the Presbyterian Body followed suit. We got our permission verbally and they even promised to support us if any of their people had questions.

That same night the Head of the CNI was able to sneak into town on the last bus and we were able to get to his house even though there was a lockdown on the streets to stop people from rioting. It helps that we were driving an ambulance. 🙂 He signed the paper and offered his personal support. It just goes to show that no matter what happens — strikes, bandhs, riots, or lockdowns— The Tetragrammaton is really the one in charge of everything.