Posts Tagged ‘evangelism’
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Thursday, February 14th, 2013
On Monday I made the two-hour drive down to Branson to share at a Perspectives class with Doug Schaible–an awesome friend and NTM representative who has had a huge impact on my family’s journey to Papua New Guinea. This Perspectives class was especially encouraging, because the pastor of the church served with NTM in Papua New Guinea for more than a decade and reached a tribe with the Gospel. Also, the class coordinators had served in in the Asia Pacific region (of what used to be called Irian Jaya) with Wycliffe for twenty-plus years doing tribal Bible translation as well! I was surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses!
I spoke about a topic that has become more important to me each and every day:
Pre-Field Training
Seven years ago, Lael and I went through Perspectives and were “ruined for the ordinary!” For the first time we heard about unreached people groups and the biblical basis for missions. We were determined to leverage our short time on earth for nothing less than this great commission to see every tribe, tongue and nation reached with the gospel. We were fired up and couldn’t wait to get out there and do “something!”
And that’s the problem. Our “something” was completely undefined. We had no idea what ministry among an unreached people group would look like. We knew we needed a plan. As George Walker, one of my favorite instructors saw, “We genuinely felt the weight of own not-enough-ness!”
The Needs You Don’t Know You Need To Know About…
That’s where New Tribes Mission came into the picture. We toured the Missionary Training Center and were blown away by how thorough the training was. Now we’ve gone through all four years of their training (two years of Bible school and two years of missionary training) and I can’t imagine what our overseas ministry would have looked like had we left straight for the field after college. There were so many issues we didn’t even know we needed to be thinking through.
Now we have a game plan for things like: acquiring a new culture and language, pushing through culture shock, creating an alphabet, developing a literacy program, setting up a medical clinic, running a house completely off of solar, implementing Bible translation techniques, creating chronological Bible lessons that aim at worldview level issues, understanding an animistic worldview, maintaining a healthy marriage in a stressful situation, protecting our children, taking a newborn church on toward maturity in Christ through strategic teaching, discipleship and outreach, preventing and addressing team conflict, tailoring a unique homeschool curriculum for our girls, avoiding syncretism, modeling discipleship from day one, preparing for emergency situations, leveraging various translation and linguistic software, adjusting to an event-oriented culture while maximizing time management, and counting the cost now. That’s just from the classroom side of things.
I can’t begin to describe all the valuable lessons I’ve learned from daily rubbing shoulders with staff and instructors who have been there and done it. God has used the discipleship process here in at the MTC to not only strengthen my walk with Himself, but I’ve also learned some incredibly important leadership principles.
If you’re planning to go long-term, get extensive pre-field training this side of the ocean.
One more thing. NTM has an incredible language, culture, and translation consultant program. When we’re out in the tribe trying to learn a difficult language and a strange culture, these consultants will come out regularly to help us get unstuck and reach the next level of proficiency. Doug Schaible likes to say that NTM’s consultants are like the wench on a Jeep. When you get stuck, they pull you out so you can get back on the road. I’m so glad that NTM has people in place who will be able to continue equipping us at each new leg of this long journey toward seeing a mature tribal church who is glorifying God.
Thanks again for joining us on this journey!
-Jack
Tags: animism, Brooklife Church, chronological teaching, Church planting, CLA, Culture, discipleship, evangelism, firm foundations, George Walker, Jack Crabtree, Lael Crabtree, language learning, learning language, Linguistics, literacy, missionary training, missions, mobilization, MTC, New Heights, New Tribes, new tribes mission, ntm, training, tribal, worldview
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Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Thursday, February 14th, 2013
This semester, I’m working in the development office here at the Missionary Training Center, while Lael takes the linguistics course. While working on some mobilization materials today, I came across the pledge NTM’s founders made back in 1942. Here are a few excerpts. I hope they inspire you to walk with God and finish this task like it inspired me!
“We hereby pledge ourselves to work for the completion of the Bride of Christ until death…to measure all our effort in the light of this task…to refrain from doing even the good things if they do not contribute to the most important thing, namely, reaching the last un-evangelized tribe in our generation…to do nothing that would hinder or detract or render us powerless in the accomplishment of this goal.”
Let’s keep moving forward! Thank you to everyone who has partnered with us on this journey. It’s a joy to be about God’s work together!
Sincerely,
Jack
Tags: Brooklife Church, evangelism, Jack Crabtree, Lael Crabtree, language learning, learning language, Linguistics, missionary training, missions, mobilization, MTC, New Heights, New Tribes, new tribes mission, ntm, training
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Posted by Jim and Lianne Glemboski on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
We had an interesting visitor in our driveway the other day – a 3-legged bobcat!
The poor critter probably got caught in a trap, and thus, lost half of a front leg. He was all healed and functioning quite well in spite of his handicap, however. As a matter of fact, he’d – wisely – come looking for a free breakfast, hoping that Jim had tossed yet another dead mouse into the woods, a tasty morsel to start out his day.
Mr. Bobcat has made me do a lot of thinking of late. How many friends, family members…people in general…do you know who DON’T have scars of some kind or another that they’re learning to live with? Do we turn a blind eye to them, hoping the hurts will just go away or at least not affect us? Or do we have the courage to look them in the eye, love them in whatever “language” they need it in, and point them to the God of all hope?
What “tasty morsel” has God given you today that you can pass on to some other hurting soul?
Tags: discipleship, encouragement, evangelism, Love one another, Member Care, new tribes mission, ntm
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Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
Suduwama preaching on an outreach.
One of my favorite teachers, George Walker, served for many years among the Bisorio people of Papua New Guinea. Today the Bisorio church is thriving and has its own tribal Bible teachers and elders. One of the church leaders, Suduwama, asked George to pass this stirring message on to those of us in training at the Missionary Training Center.
“Don’t turn back form the work which you are learning about and being strengthened in. Do not turn back from that work which God has given you to do. Be strong. If you give up and turn back and do not go to tell those who have never heard, then who will go and tell them? Those people will continue living with their total sin debt. But so that they can be forgiven and free from their sin debt, they must be told God’s Word. Be strong in continuing to do the work of God.”
Thanks for helping me keep the real vision in the forefront of my heart, Suduwama.
-Jack
Learn more about missionary training >>
Tags: animism, Bisorio, Brooklife Church, chronological teaching, Church planting, CLA, Culture, discipleship, evangelism, firm foundations, George Walker, Jack Crabtree, Lael Crabtree, language learning, learning language, Linguistics, literacy, missionary training, missions, mobilization, MTC, New Heights, New Tribes, new tribes mission, ntm, training, tribal, worldview
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Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
Believe it or not, our 3.5 years of pre-field equipping with New Tribes Mission is drawing to a close, and we’d like to take a few moments to share with you all about our future. With that said, we have posted several new blogs that are more reflections on and lessons learned from the last three years of training. Click the link at the bottom to go to the blog.
Christmas break:
We’ve been bouncing around between Oklahoma and Arkansas ensuring that grandparents get their much needed grand-baby time! Now we’re back in Arkansas and will be at New Heights on Sunday worshiping together and touching base with some of you all.
This Spring:
Lael will be receiving specialized (and very intensive) linguistic training. We all have received some linguistic training during the normal 3 semester track here in Missouri, but Lael will be focusing on this specific problem: how do you accurately break down an unwritten language and produce a usable alphabet (i.e. create an orthography)?
To remedy this problem of developing an orthography, Lael will be taking the equivalent of a 20 hr. semester class load (not including several hours of practical homework each night) of solid linguistics classes. The alphabet Lael will create in the tribe will be extremely important, because it will be the foundation for literacy, Bible lesson development and Bible translation for the tribal people.
While Lael is developing her linguistic muscle, I’ll be working on staff with the mobilization and development office at the training center. I worked in that department as a student last semester for my campus work detail. I’ll be working on developing/writing/editing digital textbooks for some of the specialized courses on campus, as well as scripting various mobilization video projects. That journalism degree keeps coming in handy : )
This Summer:
We’ll be focusing on reconnecting back in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. We’ll also be trying to finish raising our recommended financial support, so we can make it to Papua New Guinea in 2014. A sincerely humble thank you to everyone who has been faithfully partnering with throughout our years of training! We couldn’t do this without you, and we wouldn’t want to! Drop us a line, if you’re interested in joining our partnership team.
This Fall:
Lael will be putting her linguistic skill to the test as we go to a Cherokee reservation in Tahlequah, OK for the LING Practicum. For six weeks, Lael will be working with a Cherokee language helper and develop her own alphabet for the Cherokee language. Practice makes perfect….and perfect is close enough!
2014:
Papua New Guinea accepts new missionaries in February and August (due to their six-month national culture and language program). Please pray for us as we endeavor to be wise stewards of our time and accomplish two vitally important tasks: taking the time to build relationships and plug back into life at our sending church and with friends and family, and completely raising our field-recommended financial support.
We want to accomplish both of those things well before we leave. This means that if we make it to our required financial amount, but have not had enough time to connect with our church, our ministry partners, our family and friends, we will probably go in August instead of February. Conversely, we don’t feel right about leaving prematurely with only 75% of our recommended support with a hope of just “getting by”. Getting by often translates into having to shift focus away from where it should primarily rest: the tribal people among whom we’ll be serving.
Please pray for us as this year unfolds, and God continues to surprise us with plans far more beautiful and rewarding than our own could ever hope to be.
Looking to Him,
Jack
Tags: baby, baby girl, Brooklife Church, Canopy Church, Cherokee, Church planting, discipleship, evangelism, Fayetteville, George Walker, Jack Crabtree, Lael Crabtree, language learning, learning language, Linguistics, literacy, missionary training, missions, mobilization, MTC, New Heights, New Tribes, new tribes mission, ntm, Summer, Tipping Our Kings, training, waukesha, Wisconsin, worldview
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Posted by Erica Dorsey on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012
“I’m a missionary with NTM on the verge of leaving for Papua New Guinea.” Since you are reading a missionary blog on a mission website, that probably seems like the most bland statement possible. But to me it is still a fact so equally wonderful and absurd, that it makes me laugh.
I like to think that’s why Abraham laughed when God told him he’d have a son. The wonder comes from watching the intricacy of God’s plans as they unfold and realizing He has a special part in them for me and planned it out ages ago. The feeling of how absurd it all is comes from the same thought! As plans continue to evolve, I’m reminded of what God says in Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (more…)
Tags: Church planting, Culture, evangelism, language learning, new tribes mission, ntm
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Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Sunday, December 9th, 2012
The last 3 1/2 years have been interesting to say the least, due in large part to the fact that God has stretched me in more ways that I could have imagined. Honestly, it’s been a journey of unexpected joys.
Sure, there have been stressors, but I’ve seen enough of those turn out for the best far too often not to notice a pattern: God is faithful. At New Tribes Bible Institute, many of my questions about Scripture were answered, but those answers prompted more questions. I realized the necessity of embracing my role as a lifelong learner (especially in our cross-cultural line of work).
Coming into the Missionary Training Center, I had so many questions about life on the field. I knew all the generic answers to those questions, but when it came to specifics like, “How am I actually going to break down an unwritten language? How am I going to run completely off of solar? How do you actually write/plan/run a literacy program? What does translation and curriculum development look like? What happens after the church is born?
I was clueless.
Well, those questions and many others have been answered during our time here, but I have once again realized that I still don’t have all the answers…and I never will. There has to be some element of trust in God. Signing up for this transient life demands both flexibility and spiritual dependence. My relationship with God has to be paramount.
I’ve come to understand that many of my questions are simply opportunities for God to continue to improve upon His perfect record of faithfulness. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, God takes the simple evils of Satan and Man and weaves them into a complex good.
Tags: animism, chronological teaching, Church planting, CLA, Culture, evangelism, firm foundations, Jack Crabtree, Lael Crabtree, language learning, learning language, Linguistics, literacy, missionary training, missions, MTC, New Tribes, new tribes mission, ntm, training, tribal
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Posted by Jessica Heppner on Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
This has been the theme in my life since June when I first sensed God calling me to an adventure with Him in Papua New Guinea. It has been a whirlwind since the moment I filled out the preliminary questionnaire to last week when I joined 6 others at the NTM home office for a week of pre-field training. I cannot express how good God is and what peace He has given as I’ve tackled unbelievable amounts of paperwork and e-mail correspondence and not to mention the learning curve called “support raising.”
A new dear friend and soon-to-be coworker in PNG!
This is the beginning of a new journey and I’m excited to share of God’s faithfulness and His provision. Stick with me and we can praise Him together as He reaches the lost with His message of hope!
Tags: Church planting, Culture, discipleship, evangelism, firm foundations, language learning, literacy, new tribes mission, ntm
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Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Friday, October 12th, 2012
My book, Tipping Our Kings, will be released on Black Friday! This project kind of created itself and has been in the works for more than three years. The promo video will hopefully be out next week!
“For every believer who longs to reach someone who seems unreachable…this is the book!” -Todd Ahrend, International Director of The Traveling Team.
Here's the front cover.
Here’s a quick synopsis:
Tipping Or Kings is the true story of Nick, a philosophy PhD (and chess champion), coming to Christ. I was barely out of my undergraduate studies in journalism, when I met Nick. Throughout our dialogue God was faithful to provide me with answers to Nick’s tough questions. Our conversation takes place over a wide range of mediums including phone conversations, Facebook chats, emails and written letters. You’ll walk with Nick through every evolutionary step of his worldview and be asked to examine your own worldview as well. You cannot passively read this book! I hope you’ll be encouraged and emboldened to see how God can truly use anyone to reach anyone.
God has shown me throughout this whole process that He is in control and that it takes the whole body of Christ working together to accomplish something like writing a book! So many people have crossed my path at the absolute perfect time to help me make it to the next step in the writing/editing/publishing/advertising process! Pray He will use this story to impact hearts and change lives!
Again, I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but this project would not have been possible without your prayer and support! To God be the glory!
His every blessing,
Jack
Tags: Apologetics, Bible School, book, discipleship, evangelism, Jack Crabtree, missionary training, missions, mobilization, publish, Tipping Our Kings, Wisconsin, worldview
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Posted by Gene and Gina Park on Friday, October 12th, 2012
How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!” Romans 10:14-15
“그런즉 그들이 믿지 아니하는 이를 어찌 부르리요 듣지도 못한 이를 어찌 믿으리요 전파하는 자가 없이 어찌 들으리요. 보내심을 받지 아니하였으면 어찌 전파하리요 기록된 바 아름답도다 좋은 소식을 전하는 자들의 발이여 함과 같으니라.” 로마서 10:14-15
Tags: Church planting, Culture, discipleship, evangelism, firm foundations, language learning, literacy, new tribes mission, ntm
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