NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We are proud to announce that Tyndale Barrett Searcy was born on June 11, 2008 at 8:24pm.

He weighed 8 pounds and 0.1 ounces.

He is 20 inches long.

Both mother and baby are doing well.

Thanks for all your prayers,

DJ, Jennifer, & the kids

Thanks for praying for health for the baby and I. The ultrasound showed that the baby is the right size, not too small. Praise the Lord! However, he is in the breech position. Unless he turns before I go into labor, I’ll probably have to have a c-section. So we’d really appreciate prayers that he will turn in time. My due date is still a few weeks away, so we’re hopeful that he will turn. Thanks again for all your prayers!

The traveling part of our home assignment is over now. We got back to my dad’s place in southwest Texas on April 21, almost 2 weeks ago now. Since then we’ve been enjoying the chance to rest and be in one place. The girls are sleeping better here than they have since we left here over 2 months ago to travel. DJ is in his element taking care of a garden that my dad planted for us before we got back.

I’ve had one check-up since we got back. The doctor has scheduled an ultrasound on Tuesday to see how the baby is doing because I’m measuring small. Also, I had a couple hours of strong contractions the day after the check-up. I have no idea what might have caused them this early (at 7 ½ months along.) The baby is active and everything seems fine other than that, but we’d appreciate prayers that he and I will be healthy and that the pregnancy will go full term.

Other prayer requests:

–DJ’s parents and Rachel are unable to send e-mail from the tribe right now because the system with the satellite phone is no longer working. We’ve known for a while that we would eventually need to find another option for e-mail, but this has made that need urgent. DJ is researching options and trying to make a decision right now, so please pray for wisdom for him. Also, pray for Mom, Dad, and Rachel to stay encouraged. It can be pretty lonely living interior with no way to stay in touch with the outside world.

–Pray that we’ll have opportunities to be a good witness to unsaved friends and family members while we’re here. I’m really looking forward to the Wimberley family reunion (my dad’s family) this summer, since I haven’t seen a lot of my cousins and their families in quite a few years. Most of them don’t know the Lord. Pray for opportunities and the courage and wisdom to take them.

We’re on the road again. We had a great month in Ohio (except for the weather .) Thanks so much to our family, friends, and church family who blessed us in more ways than we can count. It’s hard to believe the time there went by so fast.

We left on Wednesday (the 2nd) and drove to Columbia, Missouri. There we spent two nights with DJ’s aunt, uncle, and cousins. Paul, Carolyn, Brian, Ben, Joel, Grace, Beth, and Michaela, thanks so much for your hospitality. We had a wonderful time! Areli and Galilee were entertained by their cousins the whole time.

Now we’re in Camdenton, Missouri, spending a few days on the campus of the New Tribes missionary training school. We have fond memories of our year and a half spent here as students before we went to Indonesia. On Sunday we’ll get to share and fellowship with our church family at Prosperine Baptist Church, where we attended while we were living here.

Monday we’ll be hitting the road again, headed for Arkansas and then on further south. We must say the weather is getting better and better the further south we go . We’re enjoying spring in fast forward!

Thanks for your prayers.

Love,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, Galilee, and baby Searcy

PS Thanks to those of you who wrote specifically to say you were praying for Areli and Galilee. They settled in by the end of our time in Ohio. Now that we’re traveling again, they’ve been asking to go home sometimes, but they aren’t sure where home is. Overall, though, they’re doing very well. Pray that we’ll be sensitive to their needs and take the time to explain each change to them.

Once again, the Lord has granted us safe travels and good times of fellowship with friends, family, and supporting churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, and now in Ohio too. The day we traveled from Missouri to Ohio, a winter storm turned what should have been a 10-hour trip into 17 hours of slow going on slippery roads. We arrived at about 2:30 in the morning, tired but safe. Areli and Galilee were real troopers during all the long hours of sitting in their car seats.

We had about a week and a half to spend with DJ’s parents before they left to return to Indonesia on March 4. We miss them. We’ll be staying here in their house in Ohio all this month. Today we’re very thankful for the warm house because another snow storm is blowing outside.

Here’s a look at our schedule for the next few months:

March 22-24—Trip to Indiana to share in a church

April 2-21—Travel back down to south Texas from Ohio, with stops to visit friends and share in churches in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and north Texas

June 14—baby boy Searcy’s due date

August 3—return to Indonesia

Please pray for:

–Areli & Galilee to feel secure in our love, and to start understanding God’s love for them too. They’ve been taking all the traveling pretty well, but sometimes their insecurity does manifest itself. They often ask, “Where do we live?” Some days they get very clingy too. If I just get up to go in the next room, they’ll run after me crying and saying, “Wait for me! Don’t leave me!”
–The baby to be born on time or a little early, so we have time to get his passport and visa before we have to return to Indonesia.
–Our sharing times with churches and individuals to glorify the Lord.
We’ve experienced so much in the last 2 ½ years—sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to condense it all down to what’s important for each audience to hear.

Thank you all for praying for us during the long trip from Indonesia to the USA. We made all of our connections on time, and we even got a few hours’
sleep in a transit hotel room in Singapore. DJ was still feeling very tired and weak, but his fever never came back and he held up well during all the traveling. Praise the Lord for answering the prayers that were offered for us!

We have been in Texas for 5 days now, and we feel like we’re finally getting over jet lag. A week here doesn’t feel like enough time to see family and friends, schedule a doctor’s appointment, and get ready to travel again starting Saturday (the 16th.) Even though it has been busy, this time with our family has been very special. Areli and Galilee have been keeping their Grandpa entertained, and vice versa.

Please be praying for us during our next trip. We’ll be making our way to Ohio, stopping to see friends and family in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri along the way, and sharing in two churches as well. We plan to arrive in Ohio on the 21st and be there for about a month. Pray that Areli and Galilee will handle all the changes well, and that we’ll be able to share a little bit of God’s heart for Indonesia with everyone we see.

In a few hours (1:30 PM Feb. 6 our time, wee morning hours Feb. 6 for most of you) we’ll be starting the very long journey from West Kalimantan, Indonesia all the way to San Antonio, Texas. Please pray for the Lord’s protection and strength for us on this long trip. Pray that we’ll make all our connections, and that Areli and Galilee will be able to sit still for the long flights.

We came out of the tribe 4 days ago. It was a very wet trip downriver in the rain for 3 hours, and then an hour-long flight (not wet, thankfully!) on out to the coast. That day DJ was feeling tired and achey but wasn’t sure if he was coming coming down with something or just tired. By the next morning he was showing full-blown malaria symptoms, so he took a malaria treatment. Unfortunately the first treatment didn’t work, so he was very sick by the time the second treatment finally started working. He doesn’t have fever anymore now, but he’s still very weak and having a hard time getting back to eating. Please pray for him especially since he has to make this trip not feeling very well. Pray that the malaria will really be gone, and that he’ll regain his strength quickly.

Thanks so much for praying! The next time you hear from us, we’ll be back on your side of the world. We’re so excited!

DJ and I just returned from a 3-day trip downriver to attend inter-tribal church fellowship meetings, and for me to have an ultrasound. Both goals were successfully accomplished. Praise the Lord, and thanks to all of you for praying! The ultrasound showed that we are only having one baby this time, and that this time it’s a boy. We’re very excited.

As for the rest of the trip, well, it would be impossible to describe all the different sights, smells, experiences, and impressions of travel in this part of the world. So I’ll just give you a few glimpses of some of the thoughts that passed through my mind along the way:

"If I have to climb one more notched-log ladder in front of 20 people, I’m gonna scream." Travel in this part of Indonesia is almost always done by river. That means that every stop involves climbing a high river bank on anything from a skinny pole with grooves in it to a mind-boggling array of slapped-together pieces of scrap lumber zigzagging across the water and up the incline. At every ascent, our traveling companions (tribal believers who were coming down to attend the church meetings) were convinced I wouldn’t be able to make it to the top. I must admit I prayed, "God, I know it’s just pride, but please don’t let me fall while everyone is watching."

"This must be what the tower of Babel was like." Picture a meeting of believers from 4 different tribal groups, each speaking their own languages in their own groups, and switching to one of two other languages when they wanted to speak to someone from one of the other tribal groups. As I was asking one of my Hobongan friends to tell me what things were in Hobongan (in an attempt to continue my language study), other ladies sitting by would be offering the words in their own languages and in the area trade language
(Melayu) as well. And then they wondered why I couldn’t remember anything!

"If I have a least favorite thing about grocery shopping, I guess it must be the smell of week-old fish in the sun." We saved our shopping for fresh goods until the last morning, so our lettuce, carrots, potatoes, etc. could survive the all-day trip back upriver. We’re so thankful that we’re able to get so many fresh vegetables in the market now. DJ’s family remembers a time when very little was available. I would venture to guess that the fish has always been available, though–in every species, body part, and state of decay you could possibly hope to want.

We arrived home tired, sore, and very glad to see Areli and Galilee again.
Their Aunt Rachel took good care of them while we were gone. Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for our travels, and please keep praying for DJ as he goes upriver for several days starting tomorrow (Jan. 19.)

Christmas was a busy time in our village, as the Hobongan-speaking believers from two villages (this one and one upriver) got together for 3 days of food, fellowship, and teaching from God’s Word. The church leadership from both villages took turns teaching on the theme "Why did Jesus have to come to earth?" Since there’s no Bible in Hobongan yet, they use the Indonesian Bible and then explain in Hobongan what the verses mean. We all look forward to the day when they have Scriptures in their own language that all of them can read and understand.

Rachel is still busy working on translation. She’s in the beginning stages of translating Scripture now, starting with the story of Joseph in Genesis.
This week one of the church elders and his wife have been coming over every morning to work with her on that.

DJ and I are planning a trip down river to the nearest town January 13-16.
Rachel has graciously offered to keep Areli and Galilee for us during that time. While we’re down river, we’ll be attending some fellowship meetings between the area tribal churches, meeting a boat from the coast that has supplies for us, and getting an ultrasound to determine how many babies we’re having this time! As far as we know it’s just one, but after last time we just want to be sure.

After we get back, we’ll just have a couple of weeks to pack up and get ready to leave for our home assignment in the USA. We appreciate all of your prayers for our travels. I (Jennifer) am still feeling pretty sick, although I was thinking I’d be feeling better by now. I would love to feel better by the time we have to do all our traveling, so I’d appreciate your prayers for that too.

In response to our last e-mail update, we received an outpouring of prayers and encouraging e-mails. Thank you all so much for praying, and for writing to let us know you were praying. We are so blessed to have encouragers like you.

Speaking of thanks, we had a special blessing for Thanksgiving–visitors from the "outside world." The Buettners, a missionary family who serve out in town, came interior to spend 4 days with us over the holiday. For Thanksgiving dinner we had a baked chicken (we just pretended it was a
turkey!) with most of the traditional trimmings. We had even hoarded a couple cans of cranberry sauce for the occasion!

We wanted to let all of you know that we’re planning to return to the States for 6 months of home assignment from February-July of next year. Lord willing, we’ll arrive in San Antonio, TX on February 7, spend about a week with my family, and then travel up to Ohio. Our window of time for traveling to visit churches and other supporters will be mid-February through the beginning of May. After that we’ll need to be back in Texas for the birth of our baby (due June 14.) We plan to return to Indonesia the first week of August. We hope we can see as many of you as possible during our time back in the USA, and we’re looking for opportunities to share what God is doing here in Indonesia and specifically among the Hobongan people.
If any of you know of such an opportunity or want to make sure we fit you into our traveling schedule, please let us know.

We appreciate your continued prayers more than we can express. Praise the Lord that we’ve had no more malaria or other serious illnesses since we last wrote. I (Jennifer) am still very sick with nausea, but I’m hoping the end is in sight now.