Worship Service for Sunday, November 13, 2022

• Worship Service
• w/ASL & CC
• Notes
• Transcript

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Notes not available for this sermon.

Well, as Pastor Greg said earlier, my name's Jesse Workman, if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet and my wife, Stephanie is here as well. And our four kids, two older ones are here with us in the service, Aiden and Sophia. And then the two younger ones are in the kids' church and Sunday School, Molly and Teddy. I want to say thank you to all of you for a couple of reasons, first of which is for blessing us so much with allowing us to live in the Ministry House at this time. We reached a point in South Africa while we were preparing to come back here for our, this is our first home assignment. And we were on the list for another mission house, and it fell through because another family needed it.
 
So for a period of time, relatively shortly before we were preparing to come back here, we didn't know where we would live. And so, it was a matter of prayer for us, a big prayer request. And within a very short number of days you were in your generosity, able to meet that prayer request, and so we thank you so much for that. Thank you also for allowing us to be here with you this morning and to share with you a little bit from God's word as well as about our Wyclife ministry. So Stephanie and I and our family have been members of Wyclife Bible translators since 2015. Well, this morning I want to just take a look at John 4. You're welcome to open your Bibles there. We'll be reading verses 1-42. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we'll read from John 4.
 
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for this opportunity to gather as your children around your thrown and to worship you, Lord, to gather around your word; Lord, to be fed on it, nourished and to look into it. We pray that your Holy Spirit would be at work this morning in our hearts, in this place, You would help us to understand your word and that you would help us to apply it to our lives as well. Lord, we thank You, we praise You, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
 
Starting in verse one, John 4 says, "When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing more disciples than John, though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, He left Judea and went again to Galilee. He had to travel through Samaria. So He came to a town of Samaria called Sicar, near the property that Jacob had given his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon; a woman of Samaria came to draw water. 'Give me a drink,' Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. 'How is it that you a Jew ask for a drink from me? A Samaritan woman?' She asked him, 'For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.' Jesus answered, 'If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you Give me a drink, you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.' 'Sir,' said the woman, 'You don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep, so where do you get this living water? You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons in livestock.' Jesus said, 'Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.' 'Sir,' the woman said to him, 'Give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water.' 'Go call your husband,' He told her, 'and come back here.' 'I don't have a husband,' she answered. 'You have correctly said I don't have a husband,' Jesus said, 'For you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.' 'Sir,' the woman replied, 'I see that you are a prophet. Our father's worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.' Jesus told her, 'Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.' The woman said to Him, 'I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, He will explain everything to us.' Jesus told her, 'I the one speaking to you, am he.'"
 
"Just then his disciples arrived and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said What do you want? Or why are you talking with her? Then the woman left her water jar, went into town and told the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?' They left the town and made their way to him. In the meantime, the disciples kept urging him, 'Rabbi eats something,' but he said, 'I have food to eat that you don't know about.' The disciples said to one another, 'Could someone have brought him something to eat?' 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,' Jesus told them. 'Don't you say there are still four more months and then comes the harvest?' 'Listen to what I'm telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields because they're ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For in this case, the saying is true; one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap what you didn't labor for. Others have labored and you have benefited from their labor.'"
 
Now, the Samaritans from that town believed in him. Now, many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, 'He told me everything I ever did.' So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said, and they told the woman, 'We no longer believe because of what you said since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.'"
 
Well, I think it would help to understand this passage a bit more clearly. If we think about a couple of different background issues that kind of sit behind this passage. The first of these is this issue of living water. What is Jesus talking about when he mentions living water? Well, I think basically, or put maybe simply; this living water that Jesus talks about, it's calling up ideas from the Old Testament when God promised that he would send salvation through His Messiah, and it includes a lot of different things. It can include things like the forgiveness of sin, this salvation; it can include things like Jesus talks about eternal life, even in this passage and especially in the Gospel of John. It's life that we have in eternity in the future, but it's also an eternal life that we can have now, and that eternal life that we can have now is had through the spirit of God, which is a gift that God gives through His Messiah. And how is this living water received is through faith in Christ in the Messiah.
 
There are a few passages here if you'd like to look at them at home. You're more than welcome to. I think these kind of provide a backdrop for this passage and for many passages in John where it's talking about this issue of water or living water, and especially this John 7 passage explicitly connects living water with the spirit of God, the gift of the Spirit. So besides the issue of what this living water is I think it's helpful to think about this second question, which is, who were the Samaritans? This is quite significant for this passage. The Samaritans were again, basically remnants of the northern tribes or the northern kingdom of Israel. As you may know, the kingdom of Israel was divided and the northern kingdom shortly after the kingdom was divided, they went kind of headlong into a rejection of worshiping God as He commanded and went into pursuing idols and many kinds of other disobedience.
 
And God sent judgment through the Assyrians who came into Israel and conquered and captured people from the northern kingdom. They carried many of them away, and they replaced them with other conquered peoples. And then these people's, the remnants of the northern kingdom and these other people who were brought in, they mixed together and they resulted in what we today know as the Samaritans. So the Jews from the Southern Kingdom looked at the Samaritans as a nation of half breeds., esentially. They looked down on them, they despised them and they considered them inferior, and they could not associate with them as we see in this passage. They couldn't share a meal with them, and so it was completely inappropriate in their eyes, what Jesus is doing by interacting with this woman. Now, not only is this woman a Samaritan, which would make her despised in the eyes of many Jews of that day but she's also an outcast among the Samaritans who are outcasts among the Jews. So she of all people, it's quite striking how, how inappropriate it might have seen for Jesus to be interacting with her in this way.
 
Well, I think in this passage, there are kind of three major questions that Jesus answers for us as well. The first question is, to whom does Jesus give this gift of living water? So we see this Samaritan woman, the least likely in the eyes of maybe the disciples in this passage and we see Jesus offering eternal life, this living water to her. The answer, I think to that question is that Jesus gives this gift of living water to all who trust in Him, even those we would deem least likely to receive Him. I think this is true for a couple of reasons. If we look at the context within the gospel of John where this passage falls we have in chapter three, Jesus having an interaction with a man named Nicodemus.
 
Now, Nicodemus was an upstanding man. He was well respected in his community. He was a leader of the Jewish people and a member of the Jewish Jewish ruling Council, the San Hedron. And yet he comes to Jesus at night secretly. And then we have in chapter four, this contrast, this woman who is the least respected in her community and in the eyes of the people. And she comes to Jesus in the middle of the day, a time when none of the other women who would've gone out to draw water on a regular basis, they would've gone in the early morning of the late evening when it was cool and comfortable, and yet she comes in the heat of the day to do this because she lives in such shame. So this woman, the least likely maybe in our eyes to receive Him, Jesus offers living water to her. I think there are a couple of points of maybe personal application we can take away from this. The first of those would be to ask ourselves the question, who are the Samaritans in our day? Who are the people that we might look at and think, you know, these are maybe the least likely in my eyes to receive Christ.
 
The second point of application I think we can think about is to ask ourselves - what is our deepest source of shame? The thing that Jesus might be most wanting to offer His living water to overcome. If he can take this deepest source of shame from the Samaritan woman, a serial adulterous, a woman who is completely despised; don't you think that He can take your deepest source of shame as well? What does God maybe causing you to think about this morning? What is that thing that He wants to take?
 
Well, you might be asking yourself at this point, why are we looking at John 4 today? You know that Jesse and Stephanie are missionaries and they're going to share about their ministry, so why are we looking at John for? Well, I wanted to share with you something from the Gospel of John because we've had the opportunity during our time in South Africa to work with a translation team called the Fui Team. Fui is a language from Zambia. One of the translation team members is a guy named Pastor David. I talked to Pastor David and I asked him, "Have you preached at all from the Gospel of John, and have you preached from John 4? And what were the takeaways for the Fui people from this passage?" And I want to read to you what he said about this passage. When he preached among the Fui people. Pastor David said, "Some people where we live, Africans, believe that they, (black people) are not God's children. They believe that only white people can be redeemed. And even that Jesus was a white person. And these ideas come from people who had come from the West, come from Europe and many places, and taught them these things. They're living lives marked by evil and enjoying evil things because they are not counted as God's children."
 
He says, "When I preach to them,' I said that we are created in God's image. Although we in skin color, but we have the same spirit. We are God's children. So if we believe in Jesus, no matter what tribe we are, but if we believe in Him, He can give us everlasting life. He promised that Samaritan woman that if you had known me and what I have, (the living water), you could first ask it from me. So, we also enjoy breathing the same breath and having the same spirit from God. When we ask Him to be with us, He can totally change our lives, and we can even receive what we are lacking. And God can even give us eternal life where those who are white, we can be with them, because even in heaven, we will not be separated into black or white, but we will be the same because we have the same spirit within us."
 
That wasn't an application that I would've taken away from this text, but that was maybe the most obvious point of application for him and for the Fui people. I'm so thankful that they have John four in their language today, and they can hear from God's word and be able to see these truths and believe and be transformed.
 
I think a second big question in this passage is this question of how does Jesus give the living water? And how does he use us in that? Well, I think he uses us as we see in verses 27-38, as He's speaking with the disciples. He uses us through the sewing and the reaping; the sewing of the gospel and of His word and the reaping of souls for His glory. This is primarily done through making disciples. This is something that we're all commanded to do, and it's also done in ways that support and strengthen His mission to establish His word in the world.
 
When we were in South Africa we had the opportunity to visit a place called [unclear17:12], which is about two hours east of Cape Town. [Unclear17:18] was the first mission station established in South Africa or what is now South Africa. it was established by a Moravian missionary, a guy named George Schmidt. George Schmidt, he arrived and settled this small mission at a place called Bovian's Cliff, which means Baboon Gorge. It was the year 1738. He worked there a few years sewing the word, sewing the gospel. But even though the people were receiving, they were receptive to the gospel; the Dutch reformed in the country at the time, they didn't believe that he could accomplish anything, but yet they were also feeling threatened by what he had already accomplished, by going to the native people of that area, which were the [unclear18:02] people.
 
Well, over time, Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, granted ordination to George Schmidt, so he became an ordained Moravian minister. Well, after that time, he began to baptize native people. He baptized five native disciples. The names were [Joes, Christian, Magdalena, Jonas, and Christina18:30]. Shortly after that, the local non-native people took offense to this because the fact that he was baptizing these native people, implied that they were equal to the non-native people. These native people were equal to the white settlers. And so, the Dutch Reform Church refused to recognize this Moravian ordination because he wasn't ordained in the Dutch reform Church, and they sent him back to Germany.
 
He went home assuming that he hadn't accomplished much. But when he left, he left a New Testament with Magdalena, one of those disciples he had baptized. And Magdalena sat for many years under a para tree, which is still there in [unclear19:11] and she read from that New Testament to a small group of disciples who sat around her. And that group grew. Well, a second mission was opened there about 50 years later. And at that time, by that time, thousands of local people had flocked to this place. In 1806, a governor named Janssens came to what was at the time called Bovian's Cliff. And he said, "This place is no longer Babboon Gorge. This place, because of the transformation, is now [unclear19:45], which means the Valley of Grace.
 
Well, if you go to [unclear19:51] today, there's a cemetery there where a number of saints are buried, and if you walk into the cemetery, there's an archway. And on the side, as you're entering it says in [uncleear20:01], which means sown in weakness. And in coming out on the other side, it says, [unclear20:10], which means raised in power - sown in weakness, raised in power. Well, I share this because the situation in Southern Africa is such that years ago, many came and many sewed the gospel, and it has been received to a great extent by the people there. And yet there's so much work to do, still, there's much reaping to do, there's still much sewing to do. But especially, there's a great need for people to have access to God's word and the language they clearly understand. So Stephanie and I and our family has chosen to follow God in sewing and reaping in this way, and engaging in the work of Bible translation in Southern Africa. Stephanie's going to come up and we just want to share a bit about our Wyclife Ministry, how we got involved in this work, our roles, some of the things we've been involved in, and what things look like going forward.
 
Stephanie: To begin, we wanted to give you an idea a little bit about our story. We could go on ages and ages telling you all the different stories and things that led to this point in our lives, but for the sake of time, we'll consolidate that a bit. We first began considering missions in 2010, shortly after we moved back here, after Jesse graduated from Moody Bible Institute. And we started looking into serving with Wyclife because while we were at Moody, Jesse discovered that he had an interest and a gift for biblical languages like Greek. And he - well, not he wrote yet, but Greek - and just languages in general. And so then we as a couple, we learned about more about Wyclife and the work of Bible translation and the needs for Bible translation.
 
We joined Wyclife in 2015. We went to our initial orientation called Equip, that same year/ the following year - so in 2016, we moved up to Canada for some prefill linguistics training. And so when we first became Wyclife members, we were assigned to serve in Tanzania. We had been praying for a people group there. And so when we were asked, you know, they asked us to put our top countries or areas of the world where we would like to serve, we named Tanzania as our first choice. But then when we were in Canada, our youngest Teddy was born, and he was diagnosed with a genetic metabolic condition called PKU. And for the sake of time, we pretty soon realized that Tanzania was not going to be a feasible option because they don't have the medical resources there that we need to support his medical condition.
 
So we started looking for a change of assignment, and at CANIL, Canada Institute of Linguistics, one of the instructors there who was also a friend of ours, he told us that we should look into serving in South Africa. He had spent some time working there, and he knew that in the greater Southern Africa region, there's lots of need for Bible translation, there's lots going on there. But in South Africa specifically where our branch is based, there's also really good medical care for Teddy. So we accepted a change of assignment to SIL Southern Africa in 2017, and then spent a little while trying to get visas. It was quite an ordeal the first time around, and finally arrived in South Africa in October of 2019. So, as far as our roles, Jesse's primary role is as a translation consultant in training.
 
A consultant goes into help assist in Bible translation. So the easiest way to put it is that it's quality assurance or quality control for Bible translation. So in the past, the model was that a linguist would go in and spend many years learning a local language before they could start Bible translation. But more and more today, we see like local communities like the [unclear24:19], doing the bulk of the translation themselves because they know their language better than we ever would if we spent the rest of our lives trying to learn it. And then consultants like Jesse's in training to be, go in and help make sure that the Bible translation is accurate with the original text, and that it is clear and natural in the local language, so it's kind of the best of both worlds. So his primary role is translation consultant in training, and he's also the director of HR for our branch, which he's been in that position for about a year and a half. But it's kind of taking over the translation side of things, so he's looking to move away from that and back into solely CIT work. I'm primarily homeschooling the kids and doing just the whole stay at home mom thing. And then all of us have been doing language learning to some extent. That was a big part of Jesse's role for our first term, was language learning for various reasons. And then the kids and I also learned some as well.
 
Jesse: Yeah, so as Stephanie said, that's the second time.
 
Stephanie: I did it for sure too.
 
Jesse: As Stephanie said, you know, we've been doing language learning together as a family. We've been studying a language called [unclear25:40] which is an indigenous language of South Africa. It's what they call a Bantu language. Bantu is the language family. So the Bantu language family is about 500 to 600 languages in Sub-Saharan Africa. And so, the primary reason for learning that is to be able to work with these related-languages in the region, which are the majority of the languages that we work with as a branch. One of the things that that's allowed us to do that's not necessarily a part of our job description, so to speak; it's part of what I would call our life ministry, the things that we do in our regular life that are not part of our work ministry.
 
We've been able to get connected with a church in the area near where we were living called [unclear26:33] Church. This is a closer church, and we've been able to thankfully build some connections there. We've been able to go and worship with them on a somewhat regular basis. But one of the kind of highlights of that making, of having that connection with the church is that [unclear26:51] is a church plant that our local church is helping to start. And many times the churches get together, [unclear27:02] is a, as I said, a closer church, so Black South African almost entirely or entirely. Our church is primarily white South Africans and other people, but an English speaking church. And so, the churches sometimes get together and have different events, and there's always this kind of barrier between the people. There's never a good mixing together of people establishing relationships with each other.
 
But in March of this year, we were able to start a language learning initiative and to have some introductory close classes at our church, which is called Gracefield Church. And the people from Grace Fields were able to learn some basic closer phrases and begin learning the language. And out of that, we've seen people begin to make some connections between the churches, which has been a great blessing. It's kind of a testament to the ability of language to bridge these gaps and to make connections between people. Well, besides that on the work ministry side of things during this first term, we've had a few opportunities to connect with translation teams. So Stephanie said my role is a translation consultant in training, which means that I would support a number of different teams, different translation teams.
 
The first of these that I was able to observe was a team called the Kuda Team. Kuda is the language from Eastern Zambia. And the Kuda team, since I was able to observe them in 2020, they've completed the New Testament, so they have a complete New Testament, and they're just working on publication now. So that project is kind of on hold at this point, but it was an unexpected opportunity to be able to observe them and to get to kind of see how the translation process works up close and to get to know a team. Second opportunity that came up was to work with the South African Sign Language team in Cape Town. There are about 600,000 deaf people in South Africa. So these people, obviously South African sign language is their first language or only language for all of them.
 
At this point, the SASL team, as we call them, the South African Sign Language Team, has completed a draft of a story set essentially from the Bible. So the scripture's being translated, It's a video translation because it's sign language, and it's beginning to go out, beginning to be tested and beginning to be used in the community. Just one quick story about that that we think that was inspiring to us was, there's a lady named Michelle. Michelle is an interpreter with the SASL team. So Michelle grew up as the child of two deaf parents. South African sign language, even though she's a hearing person, is a first language for her because she grew up using it with her parents. Michelle does a great service for the SASL team. She's a fantastic interpreter. I mean, she understand this so well. And during, I think it was in 2021, her godfather passed away in Cape Town. So she was asked to come and interpret for the funeral. And at the funeral there were about 50 deaf people in attendance. Bulk of the people who were in attendance were deaf.
 
So she was signing for this funeral. And as part of the funeral, she wanted to share from John 15, which was a passage that the team had translated. It was quite significant for the team and for her, so she wanted to share with this group what they had learned. She shared from John 15 about Jesus speaking about the vine and the branches. And as a result of sharing from the Bible in South African sign language, 48 of the 50 deaf people who were at in attendance accepted Christ. And because of that, and because it was under covid regulations, she had contact info for all of them, was able to follow up with all of them afterwards.
 
It was just an amazing way that God worked through that situation, and an example of how important it is for all people to have access to God's word in a language they can clearly understand and the difference that makes. Well, the final opportunity we want to tell you about that we had to interact with the translation team during this last term was to work with a team called the Fui Team. Now Fui as I said, Pastor David is a Fui person, he's a pastor from the Fui community. Fui is a language from Zambia, Western Zambia. And the Fui team is a really wonderful team to work with. They work in what they call a cluster project, so a group of languages, translation teams who come together and work together several times a year in what's called the Mongu cluster. There are four other translation projects that are a part of that cluster.
 
So I had the opportunity to not only observe this team earlier this year, but also to begin doing some translation checking with them, which is a great blessing, something I didn't really expect to happen during this term. But the consultant who's associated with this project was really generous in allowing me to participate. So the Fui team is made up of four people. One of them is this guy in the blue and green. His name is Ndu Cosmos. Ndu means chief in Fui. So he is a chief of the Fui people, an important person to have as a part of the translation team. There are three others. One is named Innocent. Innocent is kind of the lead translator, Rhoda, who does most of the type setting or the keyboarding for the project, not type setting.
 
They do a lot of handwritten translation, and she will put all of that into Parex, which is the software we use for recording the translation and working with it. And then finally, Pastor David, as I told you about. With the Fui team the Fui people in general, it's so exciting to hear them talk about having scripture in the Foy language language, because the Fui people are very hungry to have God's word in their language, and they're using it. It's really naturally happening. Sometimes you translate, you know, the Bible gets translated and the people don't use it so much. But in the Fui community, the people are getting these, you know, portions of scripture as they are produced and they're using it, they're reading it, they're preaching from it, like Pastor David, and it's really blessing the community. And they value these translators so much that Innocent reported to the team, to the group - at the beginning of one of these workshops, he reported that there was a lady from the Fui community who told him, "You translators, you are chosen by God. You are chosen from your mother's womb," she said.
 
They value this translation team. They face a lot of challenges. They don't come from wealth; they come from what we would consider poverty. They're farmers, they travel to a central area about four times a year for a three week workshop, leaving their families behind at home to watch over things. And they deal with sickness and all kinds of things, and yet they applaud forward, they continue in the work. So we're thankful for them. And this is just a picture of what the workshop looked like. It's the best we could do at the time. Everybody prefers to meet in person for these things. Technology is wonderful in that it allows us to do things that we couldn't otherwise do. But it also comes with its challenges, especially when you're meeting with a team in a remote area.
 
So Jim, the consultant is in the top left, then Hillary and Diane are consultants in training like myself, and you can see the team on the bottom right there. So pray for the Fui team that they would be able to continue and remain healthy, and that their families remain well, and that God's word would continue to bear fruit in the community. As far as our future plans, we plan to return to South Africa in March. We plan to continue supporting translation teams such as the Fui, possibly getting into sign language, although I'm not sure if that will be the case or not, but we're looking at that.
 
There are many sign language needs in Southern Africa. Our branch has received requests to support 16 new sign language projects in Southern Africa. So if not us, somebody's going to need to step in to help with those things, so just some exciting things for the future. And then finally, we plan to continue engaging in and through our church Gracefields, as well as with [unclear36:09] Church. You can pray for them as well, that church they face challenges as well. It's in a very poor community. And some of the challenges, you know, challenges with leadership, the difficulties of life really make ministry very difficult in many cases. And also, especially I think, you know, they have many children who come to the church, which is wonderful. They have many women who come to the church, but there's not many men who are a part of the church, so you might pray that God would bring more men into the church [unclear36:44], and that God would continue transforming the community of [unclear36:48, where the church meets.
 
Stephanie: So there's a few different ways that you can get involved with Bible translation. First of all, you can pray. We have seen time and time again how important and how crucial prayer is, not only for us and our ministry, but just for missions in general. So you can definitely pray for us. There's a few different prayer requests that we have. First of all, we would ask for prayer for our visas. We applied for new visas about a month and a half before we left, and were hoping that they will be ready for us to pick up by the time we return to South Africa. It's taking quite a long time right now for visas to be processed for a few different reasons, but we're hoping and praying that they will be ready for us to pick up when we return.
 
Secondly, we have a budget deficit right now. So just due to fluctuations in giving, because of people have to stop or reduce their giving for various reasons. We've had an increase in like, just cost of living increase as everyone has seen. And then we also have to budget differently for Teddy's Medical needs this term. So we currently have a need of about $900 per month to be fully funded, and we have to be fully funded before we can be released to go back to South Africa. We also have branch personnel needs. Like I said, Jesse's wanting to step out of the HR director role and back into full-time consultant and training roles, so that means we need a new HR director, but our branch also has other personnel needs especially on the leadership team right now. We've had people just move on to different roles, and so we've got a lot of needs in our branch for personnel.
 
And then also out on our table, we have prayer cards with other prayer points on the back. So secondly, you can give, like I mentioned before, for our our deficit right now. And then thirdly, you can go. Maybe you have been called to missions in some capacity. And the thing is that missions needs everyone, and any walk of life can be helpful in missions. It's not just linguists and translators, even in organization like Wyclife needs people like it staff and medical personnel and teachers in some cases for the missionary kids and things like that, so anyone in any walk of life can be involved in missions. And last but not least, you can advocate not only for us and for our ministry, but also for missions and for Bible translation in general, so that people know what the needs are and that there is a need for Bible translation.
 
But for us personally, if you know of any other groups or individuals that would like to hear from us about our ministry and about Bible translation, we're open for presentations or one-on-one meetings or anything like that. We would love to talk to you if you would, if you know anyone that would like to hear from us. And we also have materials out on our table out in the back. We have business cards with just our contact information. We have prayer cards with our picture, and then prayer points on the back. We have magnets, and we also have our brochures where you can sign up to be on our newsletter team or where you have various options for giving for our Wycliff Ministry.
 
Jessie: So just returning to John 4 as we close here. I'm going to ask you - maybe you've been sowing the gospel in the life of someone you know, for a long time and you haven't seen the fruit from it yet. I just want to encourage you to continue doing that and may God bring a harvest soon. You never know when that time might come. Maybe you've had the opportunity to be the harvester, and praise God for that. Maybe God's calling you to join in supporting this ministry of the Gospel through God's word and translating God's word. We ask you to prayerfully consider that. And then finally, I think there's one more big question that Jesus answers here in John 4, and that is, why does he give the living water?
 
I think we see that he gives the living water to us so that we can worship him the true Messiah, true God, through the Holy Spirit and spirit and truth. So let's do that again this morning. Let's continue doing that, remembering that God is drawing and gathering a people to himself from every nation. This picture was something that I just saw that caught my eye [unclear41:43]. There are a lot of things in this picture that I'm not crazy about, that I don't like necessarily. But there are a lot of things that I do like, and I think it's a picture of the motivation that George Schmidt had, when he went and established that mission station, which is that all might worship him. You see Jesus in the middle of their reigning and receiving the worship of people from many nations.
 
Well, let's pray. Ask the team to come back up. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word, Lord, for your salvation that you give us. Lord, we know without you, we are nothing. Yet we continue on and saying, yet, not I, but through Christ in me, we thank you, God, that you are with us, that you help us through Your spirit You empower us. I pray that your word would take root within us, that you continue to speak through it as we go through this week, and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.