September 2006 - Elder's Corner - Events & News - Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach

Elder’s Corner September 2006

In April 2001, our church adopted a people group in Central Asia. For security reasons, we have called them the “YOU”. The YOU reside primarily in 2 countries, approximately 10 million in the country to the east and 300,000 in the country to the west.

In June 2001, 12 from our church went to the country to the west for a short-term outreach. At that time there were approximately 600 YOU Christians, perhaps only 50 in the large population country to the east. Much has happened since then.

The YOU now have their own New Testament. The YOU were perhaps the largest remaining unreached group without the New Testament in their language. At the annual North American YOU consultation held this spring, some of the first available copies of the scriptures were presented to the Wycliffe translation consultant who labored 15 years on the task. One YOU believer traveling in the US was promised a copy of the New Testament. She said, “To think I’ll be the first of my people to hold this New Testament”. Now pray that the Old Testament can be completed in half the time it took for the New Testament. (Improved computer technology can make this a reality, as translation teams are now able to work simultaneously in different continents looking at the same screen while communicating verbally.

Now we pray for the scripture distribution and reception by millions of YOU most of whom are Muslim.

One worker family working in West Youland whom EFCHB helps to support is involved in producing YOU material in CD, VCD and DVD formats. They have been able to meet with other workers from East Youland in a neutral country and provide them with copies of these. These East Youland workers are permitted to bring these materials in country for their own use. These are being used to help share the gospel and reach YOU in East Youland.

One young YOU lady shared that she personally knows of several YOU believers in her city who have come to know Jesus in the past year. This is the fruit of much plowing, sowing and watering over the years. We trust you are praying this happens all over Youland.

A large percentage of YOU in rural areas are illiterate. With the explosion of technology in East Youland, short wave radio, MP3 players, VCD and DVD players are easily accessible and affordable. Therefore, it makes sense to develop audio and video resources and to broadcast in YOU language radio programs. We at EFCHB are involved in the latter through our mission’s budget. There is much freedom to produce these resources in West Youland. Through a DVD/CD duplicator given for that purpose, much appreciated materials are being produced and distributed.

However, the Enemy hasn’t given up. One West Youland YOU pastor who had been recording radio programs had to flee with his family. (In this Muslim country, it doesn't seem to be OK for a YOU to be involved in producing "Christian" material.) They had a matter of hours to get on a flight to an East European country to avoid being detained by the police. They are now in North America and hopefully will continue to record from there.

Please pray for the YOU to hear the good news through the YOU New Testament, media, workers and new YOU believers. There may be a barrier to getting the New Testaments into Youland. Pray that any barrier will be removed. Pray that the YOU would have a hunger for God’s word.

Rex Moses