**I have been trying to mail this letter for the last week, but have had no Internet access on my laptop.  Hopefully I can get it mailed while I’m at one of the three airports I’ll be in today!**  Sunday update:  didn’t happen at the airports.  This is being sent from Oregon!

Here is a quick recap of my last four weeks.

Four weeks ago I was in Oregon & packing to head to Florida!

Three weeks ago I was in Florida!

Two weeks ago I was attending an amazing Seminar in Florida at the NTM Home Office – “Sharpening Your Inter-Personal Skills”.  It was a great seminar and will greatly help us with our friendship, our co-workers & teammates, & also in the future with anyone we come in contact with!  I normally hate attending seminars/workshops, but this was very good because it had a great amount of interaction with each other, and there was no boring lectures!  Following the seminar I was able to spend some more time with Amy & her family, and we even got to go to the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida!  Life was busy & exciting in Florida!  And I even saw my alligator!!  He/she was around 10-12 feet and I could have reached out & touched him!

One week ago I was in Louisiana.  I came to Louisiana with the big purpose of sharing at my cousin’s church in Erwinville, Louisiana.  I was able to share with their church on Sunday (9/6) for about an hour!  It was a great time & I came away totally encouraged by this church and their desire to see God’s name reach people all around the world!  I’ve been able to stay with my Aunt Rosie, and I have seen almost all of my cousins that live in Louisiana.  We even took a trip to Mississippi to visit with my cousin & her family.  Now I am helping my aunt pack for our trip to Oregon on Saturday!

My Aunt & I will flew home to Oregon on Saturday.  Then Sunday I plan to 56will drive her to my grandma’s house and she will spend about 2-3 weeks with her, while I will only stay until Wednesday.  And that is all of my traveling (I think) for just a little bit.  My next big travel plans should be to Mexico!!!

When I get back home to Oregon the next big plans are: continue to raise my prayer & financial support, prepare for a yard sale, & pack my things for Mexico.  Currently my financial support level has reached 41% ($1299 out of $3152)!!  Amy & I have been trying to plan for a leave date to head to Mexico, and while we would like for it to be October, we are really going to have to wait until our support level reaches 60% ($1900).  And then we will be able to plan on heading down to Mexico!

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to do God’s will in our lives.  Also as we are getting closer to heading to Mexico, and for our families as we will soon be leaving them.  And also praise God with us as He continues to prepare the way for us to head to Mexico!

Patiently waiting on the Lord,

Crystal Pierce
en route to Mexico with
New Tribes Mission
www.ntm.org/crystal_pierce

P.S.  You can also check out my website – it has now turned into a blog & it looks pretty good!  www.ntm.org/crystal_pierce And Amy’s is www.ntm.org/amy_heckman . ]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/crystal-pierce/2009/09/22/september-2009-travel-update/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ntm.org/crystal-pierce/2009/02/01/are-missionaries-living-in-the-united-states-real-missionaries/ http://blogs.ntm.org/crystal-pierce/2009/02/01/are-missionaries-living-in-the-united-states-real-missionaries/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:00:00 +0000 Crystal Pierce

In October 2008 I spent three weeks in Florida, and while down there, I was able to go to the NTM Home Office quite a few times.  Our USA Home Office has close to 200 staff members serving 2,300 American missionaries!  These home staff missionaries are extremely important!  And these are the necessary jobs that they fill:

• Finance Department – making sure that  support from churches & individuals reaches my bank account & they also make sure the other 2300 USA missionaries get their support!  If you sent it to me in the mail while I’m in another country, it probably wouldn’t make it to my bank account!
• Tax Department – these missionaries file taxes for those of us that will be overseas & those of us who have a terrible time with the tax jargon, because the commute would be terrible from Africa or Indonesia!  There are volunteers that come to help send out missionary tax forms.
• Member Services – there is so much done here: they help track missionaries home on furlough, help missionaries if they’ve lost a family member, encourage missionaries that have just completed the training (like me) before we get to our country of service.  They are great with encouragement.
• Retirement Department – they help me with figuring out what I need to do for my retirement and Social Security.  Which is something weird to think about at only 25 years old!
• Mobilization - sharing with others about the need for more missionaries.  New Tribes looses 80 missionaries a year to retirement, health problems, and more; but there are only 100 missionaries making it to the field.  So really we only gain 20 new missionaries a year!  We need more help!  They also organize trips to different countries for high schoolers & college students.
• Website Development & Control - you wouldn’t be reading this right, if not for the computer tech guys!
• IT Department – they help out missionaries at the Home Office with computer problems and also missionaries around the world.
• E-mail Maintenance – I wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone!  And that is not allowed!
• Distribution Center – they handle all online purchases from the NTM Online Bookstore site.  I’ve had them ship me some things that I ordered.  The ship to people and missionaries all around the world.
• Retirement Center - when I get old and gray, I can retire in Florida (if I ever grow to like it down there).  There are missionaries that help with landscaping, and building more homes for retiring missionaries.
• Communications Department – these missionaries write the news articles on the website, the Daily Prayer Bulletins, and articles in NTM@work.  They are the ones that help get the word out to churches and individuals about tribal church planting and prayer requests.

These are extremely important jobs and without these missionaries, then I would have a ton of work to do!  Somehow I would need to make sure I got all my support every single month, take a week or two to get my taxes ready, spend time every month trying to get some more people to help us all around the world, write & call my co-workers to make sure things are going well for them while they are in the US, and more!

And what about those missionaries that help with training at the Bible Schools & Missionary Training Center?  If there wouldn’t have been missionaries at the Bible School when I went through there four years ago, it would have taken about 70 years of attending two church services a week to gain the same amount of Bible Teaching!  So theoretically I would be ready to be a missionary at 70 or 80 years old!!  But I’ve not received training in how to plant a tribal church, learning an unwritten language, understanding their culture and the way they think, and so much more at any church.  So where do I go if we don’t have a Missionary Training Center with staff that have been involved in church planting?  I won’t be able to get that training at a church.

I just thought y’all might like to see another view of the missionaries that serve in the USA.  I hope that you can see that they are missionaries too!  It’s kind of like being a member of the body of Christ.  Some are the mouth, some are the feet, and some are the big toe, left eyebrow or pinky finger.  But we all need each other to get the job done!

1 Cor. 12:18-27 – But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.  How strange a body would be if it had only one part!   Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.  The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”  In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.   And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.  This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.  If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.  All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

Missouri Vacation
My two weeks in Missouri was great because I was able to see four of my old roommates & their families, visit with staff, & encourage students getting ready for Partnership Development (after training before you get to your country). It was a nice vacation & very relaxing. I was also able to ask two missionaries from Mexico questions about life down there & especially life as a single woman, it was very encouraging & helpful!

Do you have a job, right now?
Yes & no. Right now a lot people think that I need to be working at a “job,” but this is my Partnership Development time – I’m “working” on raising support (raising prayer, financial, & encouragement support) to go to Mexico! So that is my “job”! But currently I’m filling in temporarily at the prison in Baker. Some of you may remember that this is the job that I had before I left Oregon & entered the training with New Tribes. I’ll be working at the prison until the end of January! Which will be great, because I won’t be going crazy at home & I’ll be able to save some more money for moving to Mexico!

***Poinsettia Fact: Poinsettia plants are native to Mexico!

Luke 2.10-11 – Don’t be “ afraid!” he said.  “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.”

This October I took my first trip to Florida!  As I left the fall colors in Oregon, I wondered what Florida would be like.  I knew there would be palm trees, and moss, but there was so much more.  I tried to enjoy the fall colors, but there was only one tree that changed colors, and it wasn’t even the leaves, it was a flowery looking thing.

The big reason why I traveled to Florida was to see my co-worker Amy Heckman!  We were invited to share at a missions conference at Hopeful Baptist Church in Lake City, Florida!  We had such an amazing time sharing in this 5 day missions conference.  We loved sharing about our desire to be involved in tribal church planting in Mexico!  Amy & I shared with: a homeschool co-op group, a Christian club at a High School, Adult Bible Study, teen girls from the youth group, at our display board, with a group of kids, an adult Sunday school class, families in their homes, and an adult Bible study.  But I think one of the most fun groups we got to share with was an Awana Sparkie group!  The reason why that is so exciting, is because that’s where Amy & I met each other when we were little kids!!  I had a great time meeting all these new people in Lake City & I came away from the time extremely encouraged!

Then the second week that I was in Florida, Amy & I spent a lot of time at NTM Home Office!  Some people wonder if the missionaries here in the states are “real missionaries“?  I would have to say YES!!  My next article is going to share more about that!

We also took a trip with the whole Heckman family down to somewhere around Fort Lauderdale to visit Amy’s grandparents!  We got up on Saturday, went to a craft fair, and then to Wal-Mart.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to Wal-Mart so many times than on my trip in Florida.  We went almost every single day.  Which is very different for a girl that lives 42 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart!  And while I was at Amy’s grandparents, I was able to go swimming in their pool!  Awesome!  That’s something that doesn’t happen in Oregon especially in October!

And week three found us doing a couple more tourist things.  I was able to visit Downtown Disney,  go to the Holy Land Experience, the Wycliffe discovery center, the beach, and also an Orlando Magic Game!!!

The Holy Land Experience was great because we got to see some of Jesus’ Life & Ministry acted out.  I got to see the miracle that Jesus performed at the Wedding Feast in Cana, which was great because we’ve been going through the book of John in my Bible study group!  And we got to see the Passion play acted out!  Oh my goodness, it amazes me every time I think about what Christ went through physically & emotionally to redeem the whole world back into a right relationship with God.  Another part of the Holy Land Experience is called the Scriptorium.  We got to see how the Bible went from being written on stone, and the transformation through the centuries that eventually led it into being made available today in English!

Then the next day we went to the Wycliffe Discover Center, which is great for hands on learners!  It shows that while we have the Bible in our own language (English), there are over 4400 languages without any Scripture!  Which is amazing since the complete Bible has been around for almost 2000 years!  Actually in the English language, we have the option of choosing a Bible from over 500 different translations!

The Friday before I left, Amy & I put on our own version of a Mexican Fiesta for a youth group!!!  It was awesome.  We made lots of Mexican food, played some games, sang some songs in Spanish, and we were able to share about Mexico and how we’ll be involved in communicating the Truth of God’s Word to people that won’t ever have a chance to hear!

I stayed extremely busy at the Heckman home and so much living with them!

Florida was fun.  I didn’t expect it to be, but I met amazing people, and was able to reconnect with lots of friends.  And I suppose, that one day I will travel back to Florida.  But when I go back, I want to go fishing and see an alligator!

Fall in Baker County

Hey Y’all,

It’s now fall time in Oregon! Which is great, but I won’t be here to enjoy it! Why? I was invited to share at a missions conference in Florida with Amy Heckman. So now you are wondering, “Crystal, why in the world would you want to go to Florida?” I thought I would never have to go to Florida, I’ve heard terrible things about it & seen terrible pictures of snakes & alligators (thank you Dun Gordy!).But, my co-worker, Amy Heckman lives down there, & we are going to this missions conference together. It will be good to also see some friends from Bible school that I have seen for four years. So in about a week I will be taking a plane ride down there, but not before I share with two churches: Prairie Baptist Church & Camas Creek Community Church! I am super excited about sharing my passion for assisting in tribal church planting among unreached people groups!

After three weeks in Florida, I will fly to Missouri to spend time with friends at the Missionary Training Center before they head for the ends of the earth!

My next e-mail will come to you either while I’m in Florida or Missouri!

Question: Does anyone have any snake repellant?!!

Click this link to check out my prayer requests!

Because they haven’t heard,

Crystal Pierce