Clif and Kari Huntting Serving Mexico with Mission Aviation Reaching People…
We are now pushing one year in Mexico! Wow! The time has passed so quickly. We have officially been in language study here in Mexico since October of 2011 and have learned so much.
Unofficially of course, the minute you step foot into Mexico with the idea of living here on a permanent basis, you are in culture and language study whether you want to be or not. This has been our life and will continue to be our life for at least another year, as learning the language and culture of your host country is so important to long term ministry.
We wanted to share some pictures and give you an idea of what UIMA, the mission that we partner with, does here in Mexico, who the UIMA team is, and where we work.
The top photo is a good friend of mine who works in the Nahuatl Tribe which is a direct descendant of the original Aztecs. One of our pilots was able to bring much needed equipment in with the airplane. Other pictures show mountains in the region to which we may move, as well as Huichol kids who are excited to see the airplane arrive in their village. The Huicholes and Nuahtl people, and the missionaries and pastors who work with them, are all directly aided by the airplane. Your support and prayers directly supports and aids them as well, and so thank you for the part you are playing in reaching these isolated people.
Tags: airplane, culture, equipment, huichol, language, nuahtl, pilots, uima
Made it to Mexico!
Well, here we are in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico, and today marks our first week. It has been very busy with trying to set up the house while juggling orientations, meetings, and other assorted appointments, not all of them stressful. We have had a chance to sample some of the local restaurants, grocery stores, and shopping centers, and in the middle of it all we got to hang out at the local pool for a day.
One very cool thing was to see God go before us and pave the way for a smooth transition. Some of you already know the story, but it is one that I definitely want to tell. It all started of course when we pulled out of McNeal, AZ with everything we own inside of a large 24 foot enclosed cargo trailer. Can anyone say high profile? On June 6th when we pulled up to the border, we had many people around the country praying for us, and it we saw God answer prayer in some exciting ways.
After we had visited all of the counters and paid all of the required dues, we had our paperwork in hand and we thought things were going to go smoothly (this was after about an hour and a half). Then this official came up and asked to see the trailer and look inside. This is where things got sketchy. At one point he wanted to know what I thought the value of the contents of the trailer were after we took out what we were allowed personally. Because I had all of my aviation tools in the trailer, I tried to give a value that would reflect that, but not seem too high. It was too high. After talking with him for about an hour, it became apparent that we were going to have drive to the international crossing in downtown El Paso/Juarez and get a commercial importation permit, which in the end simply means we would have had to pay much more.
In my mind I had already assumed breaking the bank, and having to unload and re-load my trailer that day, which would mean going back to the guest house and spending the night, just to try again in the morning. About this time a woman working in the office who seemed to be the “jefe” or boss asked to see the trailer herself. I opened the back and showed her the contents…about this time Kylie flopped down almost at her feet and gave this big sigh, and said, “I’m so tired.” Kari and the kids had been out in the heat for about three hours by this time, watching the vehicle and taking care of Diego, our dog. After a few moments at the trailer, she brought us all back to the office where she started talking to the first guy who had inspected our cargo. Essentially she was defending us by saying that our cargo was worth a much lesser value, allowing us to pay a fee at that location and cross that day. It took about another hour and then we were on our way.
In the end we spent just over four hours at the border, four hours driving south, went through two customs checkpoints, three other checkpoints, and three toll booths…BUT…not one of our boxes were opened or even moved, and though we did pay a fine for so much “stuff,” it wasn’t nearly as large a sum as it could have been. We want to encourage those of you who were praying, because God answered your prayers in some pretty cool ways. We feel like He had the right people in place at the right time. Keep praying because it is a HUGE part of this ministry. Thank you so much!!
Below are some pictures of some of our first experiences in Chihuahua.
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- Front entrance to our house
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- The girls feeding Diego
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- Setting up internet
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- Fence around our back yard
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- Our “in transition” kitchen table
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- Eating Barbacoa at “El Jefe
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- Typical sight at the stoplight
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- Inside church…it was an old home
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- Our church entrance
Leaving the USA…
Well, that day has finally come…the day we leave to our field of service. It has been many years in coming, and many have been the challenges and obstacles, but God is faithful. Thank you to all of you who have played an integral part in getting us here. We are blessed to have an awesome team behind us, and we don’t take that for granted. Please pray for us as we head south.
The plan is to be in Chihuahua for somewhere around two years as we integrate into Mexican culture, and work at becoming fluent in Spanish. This is the next big challenge and we certainly would appreciate your prayers for this next phase in our lives. We’ll catch ya’ll on the flip side!
Road Trip to Nebraska…
We are continually amazed at the team of individuals and churches that is required to get a missionary family to the field and then keep them there. I sometimes think, isn’t there something else that we can do? Is the cost and sacrifice worth it?
The short answer is that in today’s world we still need the western missionary to live and minister cross-culturally, and yes it is worth it, because we are talking about people and their eternal future. God’s heart is for people, and so we do what He has asked us to do, which is reach out to those who have never heard His story before. The challenge is to inform people of the need and then give them the opportunity to be involved in bringing the gospel to the remote and forgotten regions of the world. We have resources in this country that are matched by no other country in the world, and the question arises…are we using those resources in the right way?
All of that to say, we are also amazed by the team of dedicated supporters who understand the need, and have purposed to be a part of changing lives in Mexico through the ministry of aviation. On this particular trip we reconnected with some amazing folks out in Nebraska who were such a huge encouragement and blessing to us. We have an awesome team partnering with us…thanks so much to all of you!!
Tags: amazed, aviation, blessing, churches, cross-culturally, forgotten, partners, remote, supporters, team
Move to Mexico status…
Airdrop
Where did 2010 go? Time has flown by in so many ways, and here we are in the year 2011. What does this means to our family? It means we have just over four short months before we leave the country to start a new phase of our lives serving the people of Mexico, and the missionaries working with them with aviation service. There seems to be so much to do before that happens, but we can also look back and see that so much has been accomplished to get us to this point. So here is the latest on what is still needed…
After meeting with the leadership of United Indian Mission Aviation, it was determined that because of ministry expenses (consisting mostly of travel costs) incurred by the pilots serving in Mexico, we would need to be at 80% of our monthly budget before moving to Mexico, rather than the 60% required by New Tribes Mission Mexico. When I hear 80% and 60% of monthly budget I am sure I react in much the same way you do. I ask the question, “what does that really mean?” Well I sat down and crunched the numbers, and this is what it means: we need about $1,100/month more to meet budget requirements before we can leave for Mexico.
This may sound overwhelming, but let me break it down into manageable numbers. This can be accomplished by 11 people giving $100/month, 22 people giving $50/month, 0r 44 people giving $25/month. As always, we want to take every opportunity to thank those of you who have committed to financially supporting this ministry. It is such a humbling experience to operate in this manner, yet at the same time we see God provide for our needs in such amazing ways, and we have many opportunities to see our faith grown. We hope that many of you are encouraged in the same way as we share with you the ways in which your sacrificial giving makes a difference, and as we share some of the ways that God has provided for us. Thank you for being such a key part of seeing the gospel taken to the remote regions of Mexico.
Tags: 2010, 2011, aviation, budget, financial, gospel, mexico, Ministry, missionaries, phase, serving
Sledding in Arizona…huh?
Yes, it’s true…about once a year we have the opportunity to enjoy snow. This year we had to head to the high country to find it, and find it we did. We found about 24 inches near the top, and had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the slopes. We also enjoyed the fellowship with friends and family, the hot chocolate, hot soup, and the burritos desayuno (breakfast burritos–we are in Arizona after all). Half of the adventure was getting there…as cool as the Yukon looks up there in the mountains and snow, the real story included a lot of pushing and spinning tires. I have lower profile highway terrain tires on it, so I didn’t have great traction, and I didn’t have as much ground clearance as I needed. At the end of the day, however, that was part of the story of that trip to the mountains, and we enjoyed it.
Tags: adventure, Family, friends, mountains, snow, tires, yukon
Christmas 2010…
Christmas this year was spent with Kari’s side of the family. While we certainly missed our family in Idaho, we had a busy, but great time here in Arizona, due in large part to the awesome baking and cooking skills of our wives. Here are a few pics of the kids, etc, involved in Christmas activities and stuff. As we face the reality of this being the last Stateside Christmas for a while, we wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who had a part in making this Christmas special for us.
Moving to Mexico…
Tepehuan Airstrip in Northern Mexico
This is probably common knowledge to just about everyone we know, but the Huntting family is headed to Mexico. Our leave date is sometime in May of 2011. The kids are getting very excited about it, and are even getting into learning Spanish. Just the other day Haley put two words together on her own to complete a sentence. Then she told me she needed to learn more words, so she is diligently going to watch more Dora the Explorer. We thought that was pretty cute.
We will be studying Spanish language and culture in the city of Chihuahua. Chihuahua is located in the central part of the State of Chihuahua, and is home to rugged mountains and high desert very similar to where we live now. In many cases the airplane saves countless hours versus driving over very rough and dangerous roads.
We will be serving with a mission organization called United Indian Mission Aviation. Although, our status will still be New Tribes Mission Aviation, we will be on a permanent “special assignment” to UIM. We have gotten to know the families working with UIM in Mexico, and are very excited about this partnership and the potential in Mexico. We are on a track that will eventually move our family farther south to a small city in the State of Nayarit. The plan is to start a flight program there that will serve missionaries who haven’t had service for several years now.
Please pray with us as we continue to plan for this move and work to accomplish all that needs to be done in preparation for this big step in our lives.
Tags: aviation, chihuahua, dora, mexico, nayarit, new tribes mission aviation, spanish, united indian mission
Passports in hand…
Ready for Mexico
One more step closer to Mexico. While in Boise this Summer the whole family headed to the Passport office and filled out the paperwork. Approximately six weeks later they arrived in the mail. Our kids are very proud of their official documents. Next step visas…now that should be fun!
Fanda Eagles Abuse
Dear Friends and Family,
In the interest of being transparent and honest about current events in our mission organization, we need to take a moment to write this letter and explain some recent news. For us the news is both emotional and heartbreaking.
During the middle of the 1980’s and into the 1990’s members of New Tribes Mission in Senegal, West Africa committed child abuse in the form of sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse. The perpetrators were people the missionary kids (MK’s) trusted (dorm parents and teachers). What makes the story much more sad is that several of the leaders that should have been protecting them, in many cases covered up or didn’t follow up on what was happening. The Huntting family was part of the Senegal field in the 1980’s, and it was only by God’s grace that Clif was not affected, since he only spent brief periods of time in the dorms and we left the field in 1985 before most of this abuse happened. We know some of the MK’s who were abused, as well as some of the perpetrators, and some of those who were involved in handling the abuse.
It hasn’t been until this year that an organization named GRACE was retained by New Tribes Mission at the request of the MK’s to carry out an independent investigation. The full report is now finished and the recommendations are being carried out. Kari and I want to express deep sorrow that this happened…we are angry and heartbroken and confused. Nothing will ever be adequate in dealing with the pain and abuse the MK’s have suffered, but we know our current Executive Board is in a place of humility and brokenness before the Lord, and are doing all they can to account for the past failures of former leaders.
We are, and will remain vigilant against the autocratic leadership philosophies that existed on certain fields; the lack of understanding that existed concerning our children’s place in our ministry, and the lack of child protection policies that created the environment which allowed this to happen. We firmly believe our children are a gift from God, and as such we need to protect them. Please pray with us for healing and grace for the victims, wisdom and humility for our leaders as they carry out the GRACE recommendations, and for God’s direction in all aspects of this.
Serving Mexico with Mission Aviation,
Clif and Kari Huntting
Questions or comments? E-mail us at clif_huntting@ntm.org or call (520) 508-8580.
Tags: abuse, honest, huntting, mk, new tribes mission, senegal, transparent, west africa
