A letter from Tim Carriker serving in Brazil
January 2015 - Portuguese Mission Study Bible
She literally grabbed me by the arm in the hallway and exclaimed: “You don’t know me, but I want you to know that I read your book on God’s mission several years ago and today my husband and I are missionaries among the Mansonka people of Guiné-Bissau in West Africa.” Then Beleniece called her husband, Ivanildo, and told Marta and me how they had translated the Gospel according to Luke and a number of Bible stories into the local language in their efforts to plant a church among these tribal peoples. We were deeply moved and encouraged by their faith and ministry.
And if that wasn’t enough, no sooner had we said goodbye to our new friends than just a few minutes later another couple pulled us aside to say how pleased they were to meet us. Puzzled, we asked who they were. And so they shared how each of their fathers had been my students years ago as they prepared for ministry and now this young couple was also preparing for ministry overseas and using some of the material we had produced.
That may seem like a lot of coincidence in just a few minutes, but Marta and I were attending the 7th Brazilian Mission Congress (the first was held in 1983) with some 1,500 Brazilian missionaries and mission leaders from all over the country. And as it turned out, we actually had a connection directly or indirectly with many of them as they were already in or were now preparing for mission service. When we began to give missionary training over 30 years ago there were probably just a few hundred Brazilian missionaries, at best, around the world. Now there are 34,000!
I suppose all this sounds a little grandiose. But I share this with you to highlight the importance of supporting your church and mission into the world over the long haul. It is really important to continue support over long periods of time because often the effect of that support is only seen, if ever, many years later. After 37 years of mission service in Brazil, 31 dedicated to missionary training of Brazilians, we are deeply moved to see the effect. And the effect sometimes overwhelms us. Again, this is only possible, because many of you have faithfully supported us and the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) over the long haul. Thank you, thank you and thank you.
We were attending this congress also for the launching of the Bíblia Missionária de Estudo in Portuguese. It was a seven-year project. I was the General Editor and Marta did much of the revision … some 7,500 notes to follow Biblical passages at the bottom of the page, around 100 short missiological thematic reflections strategically place through the Bible, 32 colored pages of the latest maps and statistics, and another nearly 100 Biblical maps reconceived from the perspective of mission. Over 50 writers were involved in the project. It was complex and hard work. Well-known missiologists around the world also made contributions: Samuel Escobar, one of the top missiologists in Latin America, and Chris Wright, the chief architect of the Capetown Commitment of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Nothing quite like the Bíblia Missionária de Estudo exists anywhere in the world although there are two Study Bibles in English with mission titles but these do not bring their missiological reflections to the Biblical text.
Anyway, the success of the project is outstanding, and there will be launchings of Bíblia Missionária de Estudo in major cities throughout Brazil as well as Mozambique, Angola, Great Britain and the U.S.A over the next year. So we are excited as that project has come to conclusion and we begin its translation and adaptation into Spanish, then English and possibly Chinese.
Our hope and prayer is that this Study Bible will serve as a useful tool to further the proclamation of the gospel around the world and bring about effective transformation. Those 30 years of missionary training have now been extended through the publication of this Bible and, once again, so has your ministry as our partners in mission. Without your support we could not have done this. In a real sense our ministry is yours as well as you support us in prayer and finances.
Tim
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 49
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