NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

For the safety of our Missionary’s children, we have moved the recess and PE classes to our inside playgound.  In the past we used a park infront of our school.  We found people watching the International children.  We had to have extra people helping to watch the children to be sure they were safe. 

After a while, we decided to move the children to our inclosed area and a wall was built to help keep people from watching the children play.  In bringing the children in to our inclosure, we realized the play gound equipment we had was getting run down and in need of repairs.  We also realized we needed a cemented area for children to jumprope and play ball sports and learn other PE skills.

Therefore, we are asking for help to build this project.  We have a Cd made to share the project.  If you would be interested to share this with your DVBS, Sunday School class or church, contact me and I will send you one.

All money should be sent to Binimea Project Fund.

SEE the Binimea Web site on the NTM Mexico site.

Also pray that we will be creative in building this  project. We are limited with space, but the Lord is creative and can give us wisdom in how we should use the space wisely. 

Yours in Christ,

Barbara Russ

The Swine Flu epademia has caused the Mexican Government to take tough measures.  Though the state of Chihuahua has not had any reported cases of Swine Flu, we still most comply with the required closer of schools and social event places for 10 days. Therefore my school has been closed since April 28th. 

The children are being homeschooled by their parents.  I think for some parents it is an eye opener on how their child is doing in school.  For others parent it is doubling their tasks as they try to keep up on their Spanish studies and others working in offices. It is helping parents appreciate the school.   

One mother said this has been good for her. They will be going into a tribal area this summer and have a gal to join their team to teach the children.  The mother now knows how much work this person will have to cover her 5 grades and then add to that children from the other families.  

Elementary schools will resume  Monday, May 11.  The government is asking that the schools be disinfected before children return. Thus our highschool student janitors are busy wiping the door handles, desks, chairs etc.  The highschool will return on Thursday.  And I am not sure when we will continue the Achievement Tests.

All this makes life interesting as we need to be flexable.

Thank you for your prayers. Here are a few updates.

The children’s club is coming along. One of the new boys from the flat building factor up the hill has been answering the questions and learning a lot. Pray that more new children will come our club.

The Bible Studies in the "loma" are going well. There are three men and two women attending regularly. They are just starting so the studies are on the first three chapters of Genensis.

Please pray for some new workers in this area. Juan and Dorothy will be graduation from our NTM Latino train in May. Pray that there would be someone to take their places in these studies. I have great tapes that teach the Bible, so I am willing to do this is nothing happens. But it would be best if we had some Spanish speakers that would take an interest in the people in the "loma" or fields just outside my village. Beth will be here but we could use more help for our club as well.

Praise: a couple of weekends ago, 15 of us missionary women went to El Paso to attend a Beth Moore conference. One of our missionaries, that helps run our guest house in El Paso, was talking to the LifeWay organization (that helps Beth Moore and other Christian writer) about the possiblity for us to come and help with the running of the conference so as to get free tickets. Well, to our shock, they said they would GIVE US ALL FREE TICKETS. They even set aside seats in front three rows back from the center of the stage, behind Beth herself and the singers. Wow! what a blessing to get in free and have the best seats in the house.

BUT I got sick. We arrived, as I drove one of the two cars that brought us to El Paso, and I began to feel punk. We got over to the conventions center and my body began to rebel. I had the flu and it hit hard. I made it through the concert and Beth Moore’s first session. But that night I was a mess. I had to stay at our guest house all day Saturday. I felt awful, but was glad I had heard one session.

One gal told the fellow that was incharge of us that I was sick. He was so kind and came back with a bag of books for me. I was given Beth Moore’s devotional book on Voices of the Faithful and a study guide and CDs for the study on David: Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed by Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur. How special! I could not have afforded these books but the Lord knew I needed these and study materials more than than the conference. Besides, there was so many wonderful studies and books that I would have not known where to start looking. I can only thank the Lord for HIS FAITHFULNESS.

Thank you again for your prayers.

Yours in Christ,
Barbara

PS pray for this Saturday night as we take the kids to a movie at the Mall. Five children raised their hands that they have never been to movie and six of them have never been to a Mall.

Also the Altamirano family and I will be feeding lunch to one of the orphanages on Saturday afternoon. Pray we will be a blessing to the children and they to us.

Thank you for your prayers.

Barbara Russ

For several years I have wanted a Kids Club at my house that would be sharing the Gospel.   My Spanish is weak and I would need help.

Finally,  one of my co-worker,  who is our Dorm Parent for our MK school, said she would be willing to help.  We have a couple from our National Training that has been working in the area, so I asked them as well to help teach the lessons.  In November, after the incident about the "dog" (see: previous News Article)  Dorothy asked me if I was still interested in a club.  I said, "YES!" Thus, Dorothy, Beth, and I began. 

The club had a disapointed turn when we found out we were in compitition with the Catholic Church in the village.  But people prayed and in January we continued the club with an average of 9 children attending.

We still have our struggles to keep the kids interested, but with your prayers we can keep going.

Praise the Lord for the children we have and for out team.  Dorothy teaches (She is a daughter of Mong refugees to the California who accepted the Lord).  Juan, her husband a native speaker, teaches when the lesson would be difficult for Dorothy to teach.  Beth, had a club in the mountains and is gifted with music and games.  As for me, I am in charge of crafts and praying for the kids during the lessons.  The children know me, so I am also the stablizer giving treats and mending wounds when the kids get hurt.  A few hugs are needed at times as well.  

Thank you for praying and do check out my prayer requests.   

Yours in Christ,

Barbara  

Dear Prayer Partners,

The children’s club is going well. The children are listening and I just heard that they are sharing the lessons with their families. Three of the children have a grandmother that is having one of our missionaries-in-training teaching her the Bible through our Chronoligical program. I asked Veronica (the teacher) to ask Lucia (her student -the grandmother) if her husband would like to learn about the Bible. She asked and found out that the brother and her son would also like to be taught. What a blessing!

Two weeks ago on my way to church I gave a lift to town to a family who lives out in the fields near my neighborhood. In our conversation I invited her two daughters to the children’s club. She mentioned that she would like to learn about the Bible. Today, after the club, Dorothy, Vironica and I went to visit the family. They said that there were three men and two womenin the area that would like to learn. Therefore, we asked Juan (Dorothy’s Husband) to teach and he said he would be happy to. Isn’t this exciting!

All this because YOU are praying. The fields are ripe with harvest. Please keep us all in prayer and pray that we can get more people to help.

Praise the Lord for Beth, our dorm parent who helps with the club along with Dorothy and my self. Today, I am feeling a cold come on and Beth just took care of games and music etc. Dorothy did a great job teaching the lesson. God has put together a great team. Thank you for praying as this has been a dream of mine and this year I am finally seeing the results. Please pray that these children and adults will accept Jesus as their Saviour.

Thank you for being a vital part of the team.

Love in Christ,

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you for your prayers last week. We had 8 children and did a fun turkey craft after the lesson about the Bible. We are having a contest to encourage the children to listen and participate. At the end, the children will be able to use their point to buy things at Barbara Russ’ pretend garage sale. I have toys left by families moving back to the US, beads from crafts sent to me, and various toys I have bought for other events. I even sent out an SOS to our Guesthouse Director in El Paso to buy me $20 worth of boy’s toys from the Dollar Tree. So I think we are set to have a good time.

Tomorrow will be our club again. I invited some children who said that others had already invited them. So I am excited to see who the Lord brings over.

Pray for Dorothy who will do the lesson; Beth Mclellan will do the music; and I will do a craft.

Praise the Lord for help to clean up my bodega and create a small room at the entrance with tarps. It is nice a cozy for those winter days.

Pray for Juan as he teaches the teenagers at night. They did not meet last week, pray that they will meet this week and Juan will have a good lesson in English and the Bible.

Well, finally we had the Clinic for Dogs and Cats in this village. Amigos de Animales were able to get donated supplies from several Vet pharmaceutical companies. There were three veterinarians and a dozen other helpers. Even a trainer came to ward off dog fights for those dogs coming to get vaccinated. It was great! Sixteen dogs and 2 cats were spade or neutered. Many dogs came to be vaccinated. One gal and I chased down some pretty poor looking dogs with rabbi shots and shots for mange. We had fun doing so.

Because I do not really have a set job with the Amigos de Animales group (they seemed confident to do what they were doing) so I took time to visit with the various families bringing their animals. I invited families with little ones to come to our Children’s Club. I am inviting the mothers as well.

The clinic was so successful, the president of our village asked them to come again. We only were able to cover one fourth of the village. And the AdAGroup seems excited to have been useful. They have tried this before and found it unsuccessful, no one showed up. This is only the second time they have done this in a community. So they were pleased with the results. We hope to do another one in March.

Thank you for your prayers.

Oh, yes, my Brown Recluse Bite, well I think it is improving. I will be off the antibiotic on Friday and I am praying it does not return. I talked to a friend who is a doctor in the mountains. He said that the venom is probably gone by now and that what I am seeing is the damaged tissue rising and shedding. It seems to peal away and red skin is exposed, then it is purple and the process happens over again. I was sick with a bad cold and stayed home from school. This kept my foot up while I was in bed and it looked really good this morning. Please keep praying.

Have a great day.

Love in Christ,

Barbara Russ

Please pray as we start a Children’s Club at my house on November 27th at 3:30 mountain time, for Elementary children and young.  

• Pray for an exciting lesson
• Pray that the children will be excited and invite others
• Pray that God’s Word would reach their hearts
• Pray that they will come to Christ
• Pray for all of those helping with our club.  There will be only  two now and more later.

Trying to find ways to reach my neighborhood, I asked "Amigos de Animales" to help do a clinic in my neighbor hood.   We went house to house, giving rabies shots and inviting those who are interested to have their dogs spade for free at an upcoming clinic. At our last house, two doors from my house, we came upon a very sick dog, owned my their renter.

The little dog’s hair was matted against skin and bones.  Its eyes looked at me as if to ask for help. The family was not home, therefore our group leader gave me a bag of food to give to the family and asked if they would like for them to take the dog and give it to a better family.

I returned with this message and the food.  I was met by a boy of 14 years old.  He looked so sad when I told him the message,  that he needed to feed his dog and take care of it. or the Amigos de Animales could help find a good home for the pet.   My heart went out to both the boy and the pet.  The boy looked so alone as well.

I decided it would be best if I tried to help the boy take care of his dog.  I also felt we needed to reach out to the boy.  I asked one of the students from our NTM National Training camp to come and help me. 

We met the boy and his dog on Saturday, November 15th.  I realized I needed help to cut the hair and deal with the parasites, thus I took the dog to my veterinarian.  In the mean time, Juan (our NTM student in training) took over and helped the boy clean out the dog’s living conditions.   He invited the boy and his friends to have English classes at my house.

Two boys and one girl came to my house the following Monday.  During the classes in English, Juan asked the students if they would like to study the Bible.  They all seemed interested to learn about the Bible. 

PRAY that they will keep coming and accept Jesus as their savior.  Pray more will join them and they will be faithful to come each week.

After the Vet gave the dog a shot, it perked up and after the medicine, the paracites are gone.  He has had a haircut and is doing much better.

Pray that his master will listen closely to the Words of the Lord, which are medicine to our soul.   God is our strength, pray that He will show Himself to this boy and to His family.

Dear Prayer Partners,
I finaly am able to get on the internet and write you a note.

Thursday, around 4:30 I was leaving a co-workers house from a Bible study and walked to school to pick up my car. I felt an itch on my foot thinking it was one of those pesky mosquito bites. It had a pit of a pricky feeling as well, but I did not think anything of it. I went to get my haircut, but had time to walk around a large park near there for exercise. Then after I got the hair cut, I went to Home Depot to pick up a curtain rod for a man to put up some curtains. My foot was beginning to swell and it was hard to walk around the store.

Up on returning to my house, I felt tired and took a shower and went to bed. Chills began to over take me. I thought maybe I was getting the flu but I did not feel nausious, just tired and cold. I took a Benedrel for sinuses because I felt stuffed up and wanted to sleep.

In the morning, Friday, I felt better and went to school. My foot still hurt so I wore a more open shoe. At school, I began to feel cold again and was trembling. But people thought it was just an ant bite and that it would go away in a couple days. The flu was going around so I thought the chills maybe part of that.

Saturday morning, my foot ached, burned and itched. It was swollen, red, and now I could see where it had been bitten. I contacted a friend to help me. We tried to find friends that knew what to do. She contacted a gal in her mission whose father worked in the mission hospitals over seas. He told his daugher to get me to the emergency room as that was a spider bite and it can damage the cell walls of the blood vessels to the point I could loose my foot. So action was taken and the missionary in my neighborhood took me to a good hospital here in chihuahua. They contacted a doctor who is aware of such things and I was admitted to the hospital on Saturday for heavy dose of antibiotics and other medicines.

I was bitten by a Brown Recluse. It is funny to think that we were studying about Spiders this week in my 5th and 6th graded science book. But I didn’t learn our lessons very well did I? But know I know!!! Brown Recluse truly gives a serious bite.

I am not sure when I will be released, hopefully tomorrow. But the red was almost up to my knee and now is down below my ankle.

Pray that we will be able to know what to do clearly once I leave here. I have some questions and some of my Mexican visitors helped me translate the questions

Added note: After sending this out to my prayer partners. I began to get more information about the Brown Recluse.  It does not like light.  Therefore, I figured out what may have happened.  They are digging a long trench near our school.  The spider may have been hiding under my car, which at the time was the only car on that side of the parking lot, to get out of the sun.  I recalled being told when I first went to Aritao in the Philippines to be careful because there are more bugs around when they are doing construction and digging in the ground.  Well, I have found centipedes in my classroom so this may account for all the BUGS=(

Thank you for your prayers,

I am beginning to travel westward toward home.  I am in Detroit then will go to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and then start downward.  Please continue to pray for safety on this summer furlough.