Missionary Blogs The latest Christian mission news from around the world Embedded below and available on Issuu.com you’ll find our latest newsletter! Thanks for your continued prayers, support and encouragement about the upcoming changes in our lives. Blessings, Ric and Sharon
Posts Tagged ‘missions’
Vision Casting!
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Thursday, February 14th, 2013On 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
Remembering Your Roots
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Thursday, February 14th, 2013This 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
Missions: Passion or Obedience?
Posted by David Abbott on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Katrina at the Interface missions course in Papua New Guinea.
When I was a little girl growing up, whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I lit up because I knew the answer, “I want to be a missionary.” My whole life has been influenced by this desire because I knew the need, I knew God’s heart for people and I wanted to be the one who went.
Suduwama Says
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
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Our Journey Toward PNG…
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013Believe 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
In the Landing Craft…
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013This post has moved. Paste the following address into your URL bar to read it:
www.tippingourkings.com/jacks-blog
A Journey of Unexpected Joys
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Sunday, December 9th, 2012The 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.
Mobilizing in Wisconsin!
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Monday, November 19th, 2012Lael and I just returned from a long trek up north to Waukesha Wisconsin, where we spoke to the students at New Tribes Bible institute about what life here at the training center is like. Owing to our additional precious cargo (baby Rynn) the trip took an extra 3 hours each way, but she and Nora were pretty good most of the time.
Wednesday night we ran through all our presentations and got the kinks worked out!
We kicked the morning off with some amazing worship!
I was able to share with the students about the in-depth look we get at animism (basic tribal belief systems) and worldview analysis (breaking down our own Western worldview and matching that against a Biblical worldview). I also shared about Hold The Ropes (HTR), which is a great time of prayer that we have several times a week. We get to pray for NTM missionaries all over the world and follow some of them as they’re teaching through creation to Christ for the first time! In a given week we pray for more than 500 missionaries and teams! How cool is it that we can play a part in what God is doing around the world…from Missouri!?
This roll of paper contains all the names of the remaining language groups who lack God's word in their language...there are more than 2,000 and many of them don't even have written alphabets yet.
What a great opportunity to mobilize some Bible school students toward what God is doing around the world. I thank God for every opportunity he gives me to multiply myself before I go. We all have a part (or should I say “parts”) to play in His plan. Let’s get involved!
Camping!!
Posted by Jack and Lael Crabtree on Monday, November 19th, 2012We just finished up our practical skills class and had quite a good time. Not only did we learn about essential skills like chainsaw maintenance, knot-tying, compass/map/GPS skills, and measuring and building rafters, stairs and other construction things, but we also had a three night camping trip where we put many of those skills into practice.
I love camping, but since Lael literally had our newest addition, Rynn, a few days before the trip, we decided that I’d be the only one roughing it.
Lael brought Rynn out to the camp for a quick visit!
We built our shelters out of tarps, logs and rope, and they had to be waterproof and well-insulated. The temp dropped to 28 degrees one night, but it only rained the first day we were out there.
I cut down my first tree of any real size with a chainsaw and also got to butcher a chicken!
yup...bare hands...
We also had a great time of community as a class and took the initiative to whittle a chess set from some branches (I carved a white bishop).
Don and Luke engaged in a rustic battle of wits
One day we were told that the meat for dinner that night was hidden out in the woods. We were then given GPS coordinates and told to find the food with a map and compass. After hiking through the woods for a few miles, we came to our first target. The only problem was that our next coordinates were written on aluminum plates…frozen inside two large blocks of ice. We quickly built two fires, melted the ice and read our next coordinates. It was a great team building exercise…and the meat for our dinner tasted even better after the long hike.
One night after learning to navigate with the stars, we started a huge bonfire!
On the techie side of things we rigged up a solar panel to a water pump and ran water up to the holding tanks at our main camp…that way we always had plenty of fresh water. Overall, the trip solidified many theoretical ideas.