A friend of mine recently returned from Afghanistan where he worked as a consultant for a major relief and development organization. While spending the night at a Christian guest house in Kabul, he saw sitting on a coffee table, a lesson from the Disciple Nations Alliance “Worldview and Development” curriculum that had been translated into Arabic. He made a copy and brought it back to me.

From time to time, we hear reports of people finding translated DNA materials in the most unlikely of places–and we have no idea who translated them or how they got there. We are always encouraged by these serendipitous reports.

God has a way of getting the ideas and messages into the hands of people who need them, often without us knowing anything about it.

Part of this is by design. One of our Operational Principles is “Getting Ideas Out as Widely as Possible.” It reads:

We are seeking to spread a set of ideas into churches, Bible schools, seminaries, mission/church-planting organizations, discipleship movements, and relief and development organizations… Since we want to widely distribute these ideas, we hold them—and the materials in which they are conveyed—very loosely. Those who join with us need to share this conviction: they are responsible to distribute and disseminate materials and ideas, but should not control, own, or franchise Disciple Nations Alliance materials or messages for their respective organizations.

This principle continues to enable DNA materials to find their way into the hands of Christians in places like Kabul, Afghanistan, and for that, we praise God.

-Scott Allen

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