The plan was to meet Katrina as she rode south from Wisconsin and we drove north from Florida. The last mile we pulled in behind a vehicle that didn’t look local. We ended up in the driveway of Kristia’s parents home at the exact same time as Katrina and the girls she was riding with.

That’s kind of how our holidays went. Things went wrong but nothing happened that God did not already know about and provide for. …Like the engine on our van that started missing very badly right after arriving in North Carolina.

It was a repair that involved taking the top of the engine apart, but God provided a special gift to cover the expenses. We started out the trip with four engine code warnings and this resolved two of them.

Back in Florida on David’s commute to the NTM offices the engine on his truck suddenly went silent. The electrical was still on but the engine was completely dead. It was the coldest morning of the winter up to that point — nearly freezing.

Within minutes David’s Dad was able to pick him up. A co-worker got the keys and towed the truck to a repair shop so David could continue with his work for the day.

The timing belt had broken after 152,000 miles, but no other damage had occurred. It was a four hour, labor intensive job, but again God had provided some unexpected gifts that covered the rather expensive repairs.

David had been putting off an inevitable trip to the dentist for a cracked molar for at least too years. We just never seemed to have the money and chewing on the left side was still working.

With generous gifts over Christmas we were finally able to start taking care of this need also. Within two hours of his check-up the cracked tooth broke, but the solution was the same and a follow-up appointment was already scheduled.

Praise God with us for His provision and the gift of being able to join Him in seeing people redeemed from every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation.

Bara (left) with his Christmas camp group

Bara and I met a few years ago when the Yagaria Bible translation was being dedicated.  He subscribes to NTM email lists and is a friend of New Tribes Mission on Facebook.  Since then we have communicated through email and a few brief telephone calls. Bara and his family made a special effort to see Katrina when she was in Papua New Guinea for the Interface college-level missions course.

Over the Christmas holidays Bara was invited to travel back to his home area in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea to be the guest speaker at Christmas camp. He reports baptizing 38 believers upon the completion of teaching Firm Foundations Bible lessons.

If that wasn’t blessing enough, while Bara was away, his wife won 10,000 kina in a drawing at a shopping center.  Bara asks for prayer in locating a suitable family car.  Praise God with us for the lives that have been saved and the unexpected gift Bara and his family received.

We really didn’t have the money before, but God provided it through our generous ministry partners last month.

Praise God for good dental care and His provision to pay for it after the long wait!

Her teachers would like to have a better idea what might be causing the inconsistent performance.

Please pray that the results of the testing Savannah has today will help Savannah and her teachers be more successful.

The first day of teaching among the North Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea.

On Monday the North Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea began hearing the Firm Foundations teaching from Creation to Christ. Our co-workers among the North Wahgi, Levi and Robyn Lenz, write, “… we saw God answer prayers in many ways.

“For the last week we have been getting rain daily sometimes lasting all day. We’ve been praying that God would hold back the rain until after the teaching for the next several weeks. Today was the brightest day we’ve had in a while without a dark raincloud in the area.

“This alone got some people talking. Some said that this must be a really important talk for God to hold back the rain. To top it off the night is light up with the most spectacular display of twinkling stars as far as the eye can see.

“Though many people have said that they would come to the teaching, we were uncertain how many would really show up. Today we had roughly 180 people come for the first day of the teaching. We are praying that they will stay committed to the end and that even more will come. It looks like an addition may be in order for our teaching house. But that is a good problem to have.

“We continue to ask for your prayers as during this time more than ever before. Pray for continued good weather. Pray for Andrew and Dan as they teach the Bible lessons. Pray for God to be working in the hearts of these precious people.”

On Day 2 the teaching stops

On Tuesday Levi and Robyn write, “After such an encouraging start to the [Creation to Christ] teaching, yesterday was cancelled due to the death of a young woman in the village.

“Please pray for the [North Wahgi] people as they are, again, experiencing the bitter victorious sting of death. Pray that they will continue to come to the teaching once we resume so that they may learn how they can have victory over death through Jesus Christ.”

Will you pray for the North Wahgi people and the missionaries who are sharing God’s Story with them?

Follow God as He plants His Church among the North Wahgi on NTM.org: North Wahgi News

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David working at the NTM home office.

David and his dwindling Communications team have three huge projects on their plates right now. He’s working with a company called WMtek to build a new intranet website for New Tribes Mission members.

This intranet website will enable New Tribes Mission leaders and departments to share important information with members including valuable church planting resources. Members will also be able to interact with each other and receive donor information in real time.

The other project with WMtek is to take our current public website design and move it to another content management system called Site Stacker. David was at a Site Stacker conference recently where he was able to meet the company owners and developers and hear their heart for serving mission organizations.

Last week David tested a major upgrade to the 500 missionary blogs he manages and met with a company called Purple Rock Scissors to make some adjustments before releasing the upgrade to NTM missionaries. The sites enable church planting missionaries around the world to post updates online even if their only connection is through email over an HF radio or satellite phone.

All these applied technology tools are for one purpose — to glorify the name of Jesus Christ among all nations. Please pray that God will enable us to continue serving as full-time missionaries with New Tribes Mission.

Katrina and a friend from Florida who is also an NTBI student

The last few weeks have been a really dry time of learning for me. I sit in classes and want to learn and understand what the teachers are saying, but it seems no matter how hard I try and concentrate nothing is going in. I have been reading on my own in the mornings and as I read I see the truth of God’s Word, but thinking deeply about what its saying is hard to do.

Through this hard time I have seen God teaching me and working in me. Our God is so good and faithful no matter if we are faithful or not. God has been teaching me that it doesn’t matter how I feel because feelings don’t always match up with truth. What God says in His Word is true whether I can see it or feel it.

Jeremiah had one of the hardest ministries ever. He was persecuted, ignored and exhausted in every way possible. The book of Lamentations may seem depressing, but it shows how Jeremiah was feeling and what he was going through. Lamentations 3:22-24 says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

I have learned that even if I can’t feel God’s love, mercy, grace or nearness, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t real. Because whether I feel that God is good doesn’t change the fact that He is good. Just because I don’t feel God right beside me through the hard times doesn’t mean that He isn’t right here with me. God’s truth is the solid rock on which we stand. There is nothing else we could possibly lean on because only God is faithful and consistent.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Our lives don’t need to be based around our circumstances. We can look at the circumstances around us to decide if we are going to be happy or not, but if we do that then we will go up and down so much. But if we base our attitudes off of God’s Word and the truth we find in it then we will remain consistent. Our day can be good simply because God is good and we know that He will work all things out for good as we follow His perfect will and plan for our lives.

God has been faithful to teach me even though I feel so empty and dry right now. I am tired, depressed and so busy, but I know that God has me here for a reason and He will be faithful to work in and through me as I keep depending on Him.

You could be praying with me as I continue to juggle classes, homework and jobs. I want to get the most out of my time here as I possibly can.

You could also be praying for the whole student body. There are huge waves of sickness, exhaustion and depression going through the school right now. Satan is real and certainly doesn’t want us spending so much time in God’s Word, serving each other and learning how to love those around us.

God is a good God and He is working! If He is for us who could possibly stand against us?!

————————————–

Katrina’s Birthday is November 15.  If you’d like to send her a card or care package, you can mail it to:

Katrina Abbott
915 North Hartwell Ave
Waukesha, WI  53186-5099

Because we understand that Jesus has called us to make disciples and not simply get people to “make decisions,” it is important to us that those we disciple not only come to biblical faith, but become obedient to start making disciples themselves.

The man David has been discipling for three years has made numerous attempts to study the Bible with family members and people in his neighborhood — all to no avail. He and David have studied from Genesis through Romans together and David has really felt this man needed to grow in the truths he has learned and apply them before further discipleship.

Last month Don started meeting weekly with another man, teaching him the Gospel beginning at Genesis. Don called David several times before and after the study got started and described the experience as either “as good as fishing” or “better than fishing.” You’d have to know Don to know either way — that means the discipleship experience is pretty good.

Due to all the interruptions that happen in a small group, it has taken a little over two years to teach Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ in that venue.

In the last month, two of the men who have participated in our small group have started teaching others. One is teaching his two teenage children. Another is discipling a young man and long-time friend.

As David was wrapping up his first Foundations: Creation to Christ class at CrossWay Church, Kristia was approached about whether or not she would be able to teach a lady who was not able to attend the class and needed more one-on-one time in understanding God’s Word.

Kristia is already teaching two ladies, so would really be stretched to take on another. It was such a personal blessing to be able to approach one of the ladies who participated in small group and in David’s Foundations class and ask her if she would be willing to disciple another lady.

It was not without some prayer and encouragement, but this lady we have taught has accepted this new opportunity to disciple another. She was already sensing God was wanting her to do something, but didn’t know what or where. God answered her prayers!

Please pray that God would continue to fan into flame what He has started in our local church and community and those we have discipled would be “set on fire” with a passion for God and His people.

David and Kristia are funded by individuals and churches who believe that disciples should be made of all nations. In recent months their funding has dropped several hundred dollars a month below their minimum expenses.

If you would like to be informed about David and Kristia’s financial needs, please update your profile from the link in their email or Subscribe Now.

Make a one-time tax-deductible donation to help David and Kristia continue in missions: www.ntm.org/dave-abbott/give

Katrina is a Junior at New Tribes Bible Institute.

We have been going through some amazing classes at New Tribes Bible Institute this semester. I have gotten to take 2 Corinthians, Romans, Missions in Church History, James and Angelology.

Right now in Romans class we are going through verse by verse and learning about man’s desperate need for God, about how God provided the only way for man to be cleansed, and about our new life in Christ- our justification, sanctification and glorification.

I had always loved reading the Old Testament. I loved seeing how God showed Himself faithful to individual people, fulfilled His promises and did signs and wonders that could have been done by no other than the Creator of the world. But this semester I have seen something else. I have seen how God shows Himself in the New Testament.

As I read through the testimonies of believers and how God worked with the early church it just amazes me. Our God never changes. He is always consistently working with people, staying faithful to His word and His great love is constantly being poured out on us!

We deserve nothing that He has given us, and yet He loved us enough to not only provide the only way to be saved, but that He completely finished the work on the cross. John 19:30 …He said, “It is finished!” There is nothing more we can add to the already finished work of Christ. All we can do is accept the gift by believing in what God says He has already done!

I was so worried before I left home that my focus would get off of God and on other things around me. Last year I really struggled with finding balance in friendships, homework and my personal time with God. God has been so good and faithful to me though.

The more I study His Word and learn about who He is and the personal relationship He wants with me the more I desire to get to know Him more. My focus has remained on God so far and I pray it continues to stay there …because all else apart from God and His will for my life is completely meaningless and unsatisfying.

Thank you so much for praying for a job for me. God is so good and faithful to provide us with exactly what we need. God has provided a few different jobs for me.

I work on Wednesdays nights at a church babysitting. I clean at another church on Tuesday and Sunday nights. On Sundays I have a seasonal job at a farmer’s market.

Please be praying that I can keep up with homework, continue to build relationships with the girls in my room, and that my focus will remain on God and what He has in me. I know that God will remain faithful as I look to Him.

Romans 4:21 “And being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”

(Leave a Reply below if you are praying for Katrina or found her update encouraging.)

Katrina and Caleb on a family hike in North Carolina.

When it was time to leave New Tribes Bible Institute and come back home for summer break I was really struggling with leaving friends, leaving classes and fearing that I would loose my desire to study God’s Word and that my relationship with God would fall apart.

This summer has honestly been one of the best things God has done for me. Being home with my family, getting to reconnect with friends, not having a schedule, and just having time to think through all the classes and what God’s taught me over this past year has been so helpful.

I’ve been able to study so many things out this summer! I read through Ephesians and learned so much about this new life that we have in Christ. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We were saved by the grace of God. We did nothing to save ourselves! We could do nothing but accept the free gift of salvation that God gave us. We have been given this new life with good works that we were called in advance to do. Ephesians 3:12 says, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

We can approach God with freedom and confidence through Christ as our mediator. We can come to God with any struggles, fears or desires. He wants us to talk to Him and share things with Him. We weren’t saved just so we could go to heaven when we die. God wants a relationship with us now!

As I study out God’s Word more and more I realize how much I don’t know and it makes me want to study and learn so much more. Our lives are not about ourselves, but about Christ and being His ambassadors here on earth. 2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us that we are ambassadors to make an appeal for Christ on this earth. We cannot live out this new life on our own. We need the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide us daily!

I have been working hard this summer to save up for initial payments for this next semester and I’m looking for a job for this next year. It was great having a year off of work to be able to spend my time studying and building up relationships, but I’m going to have to work hard and trust God to provide for me this next year.

I have just a few days until I head back up to the NTBI campus in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I am really looking forward to getting back into classes again, but I am really going to miss my family. I could use prayer in saying good-byes, trusting God with finances and getting back into a crazy schedule.