An appeal from Nigeria

During my trip to Nigeria last summer, I met a man who worked in the office of the primary Nigerian Bible translation organization, NBTT. I am not printing his name for security purposes, but he impressed all of us with his sincerity, earnestness and competence. Here is an email that I received from him yesterday:


Greetings to you in Jesus name Amen.
I will like you to intercede for Christians in the northern Nigeria for the series of suicide bombing on churches. the last one a week today was just four blocks to my house and three churches in Kaduna state today.
Christians in Nigeria need your prayers so that God will comfort and strengthened us always. I know many of us will be  asking if God really cares because of what is happening around us day and night, i believe this is the moment that the Nigerian Christians need you prayers the most. please pray for Us.
You can ask other believers to pray along side with us.
Thank you and remain blessed.


He's referring to the bombings reported here. Please join me in praying for these brothers and sisters in Christ who are in so much danger for the sake of Jesus' name. This is what Jesus told us would happen throughout history, and it is our responsibility to support those who are dealing with such intense, fearful circumstances.


God, I pray that You will comfort those who are grieving, as you promised in your Word. Please strengthen and uphold those who are being pursued by the enemy, and please help them know that You are with them and will never forsake them. Please deepen their faith and give them courage to respond rightly to those who hate You, and who hate them for Your sake. Please protect them and watch over them. I commit them to you, and pray that I may be able to have even a fraction of the courage that they show on a daily basis. Amen.

January Newsletter

Our January Newsletter is available now.  Already this year has been one of tough decisions and severe soul-searching for us. Our plans have changed significantly. I alluded to the big changes that are in store here.  You can download the newsletter here.


This is our final newsletter as members of Wycliffe.  Due to some health issues we are resigning from Wycliffe, so we can settle and focus on getting well.  We are leaving the door open to rejoin the organization in the future.  Our immediate future is uncertain, but we are continuing to trust God as we have for the last 12 months to meet our needs.  We are planning at this time to relocate, once again, to Orlando, where we feel most at home as a family.  


This blog isn't going anywhere but we are praying about how we can intentionally use it in our new season of life.  Stay tuned for new things!

December Newsletter: A Year of Faith

Our December Newsletter is available now.

As we look back over 2011, we are acutely aware of the faithfulness of God.  At the beginning of 2011, our pastor in Orlando shared his prayer for our church in the new year.  He asked God, “to put us in a place that is so totally out of our control, that we will be able to do only one thing, and that is trust God or fail.”  As we look back we are reminded of the many ways we have trusted God and the ways He has shown Himself faithful.

Download the newsletter to see how each and every month God grew our faith, also check out the training update and Calendar for 2012, we will be hitting the road again.  

40 Days of Prayer - Day 12

-- Wycliffe USA in the middle of 40 days of prayer for Bible translation.  Each day a new prayer request is posted on the Prayer blog.  Today's post is about technology. --

Accelerating the Pace with Technology
Information technology fuels the Bible translation movement

Laptops, email, cutting-edge software, satellite systems, mobile phones, tablets…There’s no denying information technology (IT) is at the heart of almost everything we do. Bible translation is no exception.

Technology devices and the programmers, database specialists, network administrators, web developers, IT managers, and others who provide and operate these tools make it possible to accelerate the pace of Bible translation. As a direct result of technology, in some cases the time it takes to complete a translation has been cut to a third of what it used to be only a decade ago. Through the use of BGAN* satellite terminals, remote areas aren’t so remote. And, translation checks which often require outside consultants to meet with translation teams are easier to coordinate, faster, and more accurate. Advances in technology are helping to make Vision 2025 possible.

Click here to read the rest at PrayToday

40 days of Prayer for Bible Translation

-- originally posted on Wycliffe USA's blog --

Beginning today, we’re inviting you on a prayer journey—one that will lead to Wycliffe’s World Day of Prayer on November 11, 2011.

Wycliffe USA is just eight weeks away from this annual day of prayer that is observed corporately throughout every Wycliffe office in the world. It’s a day of encouragement and a reminder of God’s goodness through the work of Bible translation. You can be a part of it.

Beginning Monday, September 19, there are just 40 weekdays until November 11, so we’re going to launch 40 days of prayer on PrayToday, and focus prayer on the Bible translation process, from start to finish. We’ll look at the scope of the vision, the major parts of a Bible translation program, and the challenges to it all. Join us, and pray along, as we take this journey.

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere” (Ephesians 6:18, NLT).


Want to know more about Wycliffe’s World Day of Prayer? Click here to find out why this is a prayerful tradition for our organization.


Check out PrayToday for the daily prayer points and join us.  

Cynthia's Thoughts: Walking WITH the Lord

Luke 24:13-15, NIV
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus... As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them

August was a tough month for us. We had to change course from attending training, we had to make good use of our now vacant calender, we discovered I was having some negative side effects to some medication I was on, and a trip we had planned to see people and present was canceled at the last minute.

We were also able to meet some new students from Africa at the university, help with VBS, attend life group for the first time, celebrate Caleb's birthday with our families, have friends over for dinner at different times, all things that wouldn't have happened if we were at training in NC.

Our plans changed but God was not absent, he is working on us and in us. He is walking with us and not waiting for us in Nigeria. We are where he wants us. And we need to do is stop rushing and walk with him in this place as well. We need to stop and wait on God to guide our next steps.

Please pray with us, we want God to order our steps so that they are fruitful and intentional.

Faith Goal for ICC

We have deliberately avoided using this blog as a platform to invite people to be financial partners in our ministry with Wycliffe, and we don't intend to do so very often, but we have a specific need that we wanted to make known. As many of you know, Wycliffe is a faith-based organization, and members such as us do not receive a guaranteed salary but rely on people and churches to give faithfully to meet our needs.

Since Bob returned from his recent trip to Nigeria we are even more eager to be there and to support the 81 translation projects going on. There are now two things still standing between us and Nigeria: raising our financial budget and one more training course, called ICC.

We are scheduled to attend the ICC (Inter-Cultural Communication) course in Waxhaw, NC during the month of August. This training will prepare us for the stress of living cross-culturally, and is required for overseas assignments. We are looking forward to learning the skills necessary to survive and to serve in another cultural context.

We must have 50% of our budget raised before attending, but right now we have commitments from partners that cover only 30% of our monthly needs. If we are unable to get to 50% by July 22nd, the cut-off date, we will not be able to attend this training, and we will have to delay attending until January, which will significantly change our departure timetable for Nigeria.

If you have considered joining our partnership team, now would be a good time to let us know. You can let us know of your commitment by signing up HERE, or by sending us an email at bob-cynthia_heren@wycliffe.org to let us know. We definitely appreciate special one-time gifts, but to meet this deadline we need regular (preferably monthly) commitments to support us as we live in Nigeria. We don't even necessarily need money given at this time, even if you sign up. We need to know if you can make a specific commitment that we can plan on, so that Wycliffe can know that we will be provided for as we step out to serve with them in Nigeria.

Whether you join our partnership team at this time or not (or if you already have), please pray with us that we reach this goal, if it is God's will, and that God's sovereign timing is perfect in leading us to Nigeria.

Prayer Request: Visiting Nigeria

A couple months ago we found out that Wycliffe Associates (a Wycliffe partner organization) is sending a team of volunteers to Nigeria to do some IT work in June, so I asked if I could be included, and a few weeks ago I was able to confirm that I will be able to.

On June 4th I will be traveling to Nigeria with 10 other volunteers, and we will spend a week installing satellite internet systems in remote locations around the country for translators to use. JAARS (yet another Wycliffe partner organization) has a self-contained box that creates a satellite connection specifically tailored for translation and collaboration traffic. It's locked down so it can't be used for regular internet browsing or other things; the connection is too expensive to use for anything except translation and backup purposes.

I'll get a chance to travel around the country quite a bit to install several of these systems. I'll also be getting an initial look at them, in case I have to help with one of them later. Additionally, I'll be able to meet some of the people I'll be working with in the Jos office and also see a couple of the housing options waiting for us in Jos. It's going to be a great opportunity, so I'm excited to be going over soon.

We do have to cover the cost of my plane ticket over and back, so if any of you feel led to give anything toward that we'd appreciate it. Please also keep me in prayer June 4-13 that logistics work out well, that everything goes smoothly in-country, and that I learn what I need to while I'm there.

Moving Day

As you are reading this we are loading a moving trailer with our belongings and beginning our move to IL.  We will be stopping in Tallahassee to speak on Mother's Day, before driving north and arriving Monday with Bob's parents in Carbondale.

• Please pray that our travels go smoothly
• That the kids travel well
• We arrive at our destination safely
• That the time we spend sharing in Tallahassee will be fruitful.

Wycliffe Wednesday: EQUIP

We wanted to thank everyone for being part of our journey to join Wycliffe Bible Translators through your prayers and encouragement. Please remember us throughout the next 2 weeks (January 15-29) as we attend our official Wycliffe training, called EQUIP. We will be learning a variety of things, including strategies to build our team of prayer and financial  partners.  Our next step after our training will be building our prayer and financial support teams so we can serve the Lord in Nigeria. 

Please pray for us in the following areas:

• Lydia: That she does well in the childcare setting, learns well and enjoys the company of the other preschoolers.  
• Caleb: that he is able to handle the unfamiliar setting and schedule for the two weeks, and is able to adjust to the different caregivers
• Cynthia: that she'll be able to be at peace with the kids in childcare every day all day and sleep well and handle the stress on her and the kids.
• Bob: that he'll be able to stay in the Word consistently, listen clearly to God, learn what is needed from the experts here in Orlando, and make clear-minded decisions.
• Future: pray for the plans that we will make during EQUIP about how to invest our time, money and effort to raise the support we will need to get to Nigeria.  Please pray for wisdom and for us to be sensitive to God's direction.