NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We ask for your prayers for Rachel as she works on her first translation project–a small book called "How the Jews Lived." This first project is to give her and the Hobongan believers working with her practice in using the translation techniques. The book will also be valuable cultural information to help the Hobongan understand the setting of the Bible–a cultural setting so completely different than their own that it’s hard for them to even imagine it. After they are finished translating "How the Jews Lived," they will move into translating Bible passages.

Pray for Rachel that she’ll be able to have the time she needs to work at a desk. Some days people come to the door needing one thing or another almost all day long. It’s hard for Rachel to get uninterrupted time to work on translation.

Please be praying for our family too. My pregnancy-related nausea continues to make it difficult for me to function. DJ has had to make 4 trips downriver in the past month, all involving at least one overnight away from home, some as long as 5 nights away. He came down with malaria after his last trip, but thankfully we were able to find the right medicine to treat it (on the second try) and it only lasted about 24 hours. He and I have both battled one skin infection (tropical ulcer) after another in the past month, but we finally seem to be on the mend now. Some days we feel very discouraged. Knowing that you are praying for us helps encourage us to keep going. Please don’t stop!

We’re happy to announce that the Lord has blessed us with another little one on the way. (At least we think it’s just one, although after last time we aren’t taking anything for granted!) I’m due June 14, so I’m about 5 weeks along right now. I’m already very sick with all-day nausea just like I was last time. We’d appreciate your prayers. I’ve had to stop any formal language study for the time being. Just trying to keep my family fed and the house work done is more than I can handle most days. Cooking is my least favorite job, but there aren’t any restaurants, fast food places, or tv dinners in here. I probably have another couple months of being sick if it’s the same as last time. Hopefully after that I’ll be able to get back into language study.

Speaking of language study, we’re excited that Rachel (DJ’s sister and our
teammate) has just completed the final level of her formal language study.
That means that she’s fluent enough in Hobongan to start translating Scripture. Please pray for her and all the Hobongan believers who will be helping with the translation as they get started on this long and difficult but thrilling and life-changing process. It has taken 2,000 years for the Bible to make it all the way to this remote part of the jungle, but soon our Hobongan brothers and sisters will be able to read it for themselves in their own heart language. Your prayers are an essential part of what’s happening here.

On August 28, we flew from the coastal city to a smaller town in the interior.  We spent the night at the best hotel in town.  Unfortunately their best rooms were taken, so we got a “business class” room–meaning no air conditioning and the bathroom down the hall instead of in the room.  At least it did have a queen-sized bed (which all four of us shared) and a fan mounted on the wall to keep us cool, so we got some sleep.  The next morning we shopped for vegetables at the open market, loaded our boat, and headed upriver.  Due to a leaking boat and motor trouble, our trip up was long and eventful.  We would have preferred the trip to be boring, but we were thankful to finally make it “home” to our house in the jungle.

In the week and a half since then, we’ve been trying to get settled in and get used to life far from “civilization.”  Here are a few of the things we’re adjusting to:

–Early to bed, early to rise:  Our village is hours away from the nearest public utilities.  We’re blessed to have a generator, which we usually run for a couple hours in the evenings.  But once the generator is turned off, we all go to bed so we can get an early start the next morning.  Nights here are pitch black and filled with jungle sounds.  Sometimes it can seem like being on a completely different planet.

–Monkey wars:  The nearest “grocery stores” are 3 hours away by boat, so we grow some vegetables and fruits around the house.  Any of you who’ve ever fought with rabbits over a garden may understand something of what we face to keep our produce for ourselves, except that rabbits can’t swing in from the treetops to snatch away bananas, cassava, and pineapple tops.  Yep, the monkeys have discovered our bounty, and nothing seems to deter them from helping themselves.

–Language:  This is a huge one for me (Jennifer.)  While most people in the village can understand some Indonesian, many of them aren’t comfortable speaking it even on a basic conversation level.  And even the Indonesian words that they do use often have different meanings here than elsewhere.  If I’m going to be able to build friendships here and eventually talk about spiritual things with these people, I HAVE to learn their heart language.  For the last few days, one of our neighbors has been coming in the afternoons to help me start learning Hobongan.  Right now I’m just learning basic words for things like numbers, colors, body parts, and household items.  Even that is exhausting work.  Pray for me to have perseverance as the language learning process is long, exhausting, and sometimes painful.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

"I have known many troubles in my life, but most of them never happened." –Unknown

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." –Matthew 6:34a

Dear Friends and Family,

After moving 7 times in less than 5 years of marriage, we should be used to it by now. But it seems that every move brings up some of the same worries: How will we ever get everything packed and all loose ends tied up before we move? Will we be able to feel at home in the new place? Will we be able to build new friendships? How will Areli and Galilee adjust? Will so much moving around make them feel insecure? For me (Jennifer), this particular move comes with its own set of worries. I have to start learning my second brand-new language in as many years. I’ll be moving into a village where my husband has almost thirty years’ worth of friendships but I don’t know anyone. Not only do I not know them, but I don’t speak a word of their language or understand any of their culture. Hey, didn’t I already do this last year?

All that to say, the Lord has been challenging me with verses about not worrying, and I (and the rest of the family too) could really use your prayers as we get ready to move to Kalimantan next week. Pray that we’ll be sensitive to Areli and Galilee’s needs and have wisdom in explaining things to them. Pray that we won’t forget that moving and adjusting to new places and learning new languages aren’t ends in themselves–they are means to the end of seeing the Gospel and God’s Word in the hands of tribal people.

Please also pray that my (Jennifer’s) sister Julie will get her passport in time for their departure from the States (July 18). They’re planning to come to visit us over here. Julie applied for her passport over 3 months ago, but it still hasn’t come. The people she has been in communication with at the passport office say she should have it by Monday (the 16th.) We’d appreciate your prayers that it arrives in time. Thanks so much!

In our last update, we asked for your prayers as we keep serving in the mission home here in Jakarta and also as we start preparing for our new ministry in Kalimantan. This month we have seen the Lord answer those prayers as we have worked on projects involving both our present ministry and our future one.

On the mission home front, we’ve had two Indonesian families staying with us for the past couple weeks. They have been processing their visas to go to the United States and finish their schooling. One is training to be a pilot, and the other an aircraft mechanic. They desire to be involved in missionary aviation here in Indonesia once their training is completed.
We’re very excited about their willingness to serve the Lord in this much-needed way. Please pray for them that all their paperwork will soon be in order and they’ll have a smooth transition to living in the States again (they previously spent a year and a half in the States starting their
schooling.) Besides that, we’re also planning to welcome 3 more new missionary families and 2 singles to Indonesia. They’ll be arriving in mid-April. All this coming and going of members of the missionary community means that DJ has close to 40 airline tickets to book this month.

On the "moving to Kalimantan" front, we recently placed an order for 6-months’ worth of non-perishable foods and household essentials to be sent in to our future home by boat. Our fellow missionaries purchased all of those supplies for us in the coastal city and put them on a freighter boat going upriver. Once the freighter reached the nearest trade town to where we’ll be living, DJ’s dad loaded them into small boats for the 6-hour journey further upriver to the village. We’re so thankful for all the work the supply buyers and DJ’s parents put into helping us get our supplies interior. It will be so nice to have them waiting for us when we get there!

All that to say, thank you so much for supporting us in prayer. The Lord is answering every day as He gives us the strength we need for the tasks at hand.

Please continue to pray for:
–Provision of finances for my (Jennifer’s) dad and sister to come visit us for three weeks in July and August
–Us to glorify the Lord in the things He gives us to do each day
–Wisdom in teaching Areli and Galilee about the Lord. We’ve recently started telling them Bible stories each night at bedtime. Pray that they will start to understand who God is and what He has done for them.

Praise the Lord with us:
–This month we received a package from a Sunday school class in Texas.
It was such an encouragement to us to open it as a family and realize that someone back home is thinking about us and praying for us.
–We feel so blessed by all the opportunities to get to know our fellow missionaries better when they stay here at the mission home

In Christ,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, and Galilee Searcy

It has been raining almost constantly for the past 4 or 5 days, causing a lot of flooding in the city of Jakarta. Many neighborhoods are under several feet of water, and many of the main streets in our area have become rivers. You can imagine what that does to traffic in a city of over 10 million people. The other day we had to go to the embassy (about 10 miles away), and it took us an hour and a half each way. In several places four lanes of traffic were reduced to one lane because the water was too deep to drive through in all but that one lane. Children were swimming in the street as traffic inched by.

While it may seem unprecedented to us, flooding is actually an annual problem in Jakarta. During the rainy season, the city’s water drainage system (or lack of one!) cannot handle the volume of rainwater flowing into it. Thankfully, our immediate neighborhood is on higher ground and doesn’t flood. We have stayed nice and dry, we just haven’t been able to go out very much since many of the streets we need to use are flooded.

From Feb. 18-24 we plan to make a trip to central Java (where we lived while we were in language study). I (Jennifer) will be attending a Culture & Language Acquisition Workshop. We’re looking forward to learning some valuable information from the workshop, as well as getting a chance to visit our friends from where we used to live.

Here’s a link to some pictures of our family (okay, I’ll admit, it’s mostly pictures of the two youngest members of our family) since we’ve moved to Jakarta:
http://www.ntm.org/dj-searcy/photos.php?category=2006+-+December+-+January

Please pray:

• For a safe trip to and from central Java and a profitable time there
• For all the people whose homes have been flooded in Jakarta this week.
• That if it’s the Lord’s will my (Jennifer’s) dad and sister will be able to come visit us this summer

Thanks for your faithful prayers.

We’ve just finished a busy time here at the mission home. I kept a record of some of the main events that kept our days interesting. Here is one day’s record to give you a sample. (Note: sorry this makes this e-mail longer than usual. If some of you don’t have time to read it all, please just skip the "diary" part and read the last couple paragraphs, where the prayer requests are. Thanks!)

January 11, 2007
6:15 AM–Rise and shine. Un, the lady who works here at the mission home, is already in the kitchen starting preparations for breakfast. She lives right here on the property, so the work day starts early for her when we have a full house. She and I make pancakes and bacon for 14 people.
7:00–Everyone crowds into the dining room for breakfast. The two new families who arrived from the States yesterday still have jet lag, so they’ve all been up for a while.
8:30–We spend time visiting with guests in the front room. Try to answer their questions about life in Indonesia.
10:15–DJ leaves for the travel agent’s office to pay for airline tickets that have been ordered by one of the missionaries in a different part of the country.
12:00–We serve enchiladas and salad for lunch.
12:15–DJ leaves for the airport for the second day in a row to meet another new missionary arriving from the States. The drive to the airport takes between 1 and 2 hours, depending on traffic.
1:00–Areli and Galilee don’t take afternoon naps anymore, but we still put them in their room to play quietly (theoretically, at least) for a while in the afternoon. While they’re doing that, I have my own quiet time.
2:00–As I’m on my way to get the girls up from their quiet time, one of our guests meets me with the news that we’ll need to wash a couple extra loads of sheets from their room–one of her kids got sick during their naptime.
We start the laundry first, and then I go back to Areli and Galilee. I guess I shouldn’t have enjoyed my quiet time so much and should have checked on them better. They have been in the potty training process for at least 6 months, but they still have quite a ways to go. I’ll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that there is a huge mess on the bedding, the girls’ clothing and hair, and other places in the room. I spend the next hour or so cleaning that up.
4:00–DJ and our new guest arrive from the airport .
5:00–Sandwiches for supper for 15 people.
7:00–Areli and Galilee’s bed time.
8:00–Meet with the new families again to answer questions.
9:30–Off to bed.

Well, there you have it. We enjoy our busy times here, as well as our quieter times. On the 13th, we had another family come on their way back to their home country, so we had a total of 9 adults here, and also 10 children under the age of 5! It was interesting figuring out how to fit all the high chairs around the tables. The last of our guests left yesterday, and the girls and I are now trying to recover from a stomach flu we picked up.

We appreciate your prayers for our family’s health. Please pray also for wisdom for DJ. He has a lot of details to keep track of right now. For various reasons we’ve had a flood of people wanting to apply for visas and process other government paperwork in the last few weeks. DJ is responsible for getting together all the necessary paperwork for these kinds of things.
He’d definitely appreciate prayer that he doesn’t forget anything important, and that he can get it all done in a timely manner!

We hope this New Year’s Eve finds you reflecting on God’s incredible faithfulness. We have seen it every step of the way this year. When the year began, we had only been in Indonesia for a few months. I (Jennifer) could say little more than "Good morning" in Indonesian. This year we’ve seen the Lord’s faithfulness to get us to a level where we can communicate in Indonesian. We’ve also seen His faithfulness in providing for our move from central Java to the capital city of Jakarta, and helping us to learn our new ministry here.

We’ve had a couple of quiet weeks without guests here, so we’ve taken the opportunity to enjoy Christmas together as a family.   On January 10-15 we will have the priviledge of welcoming 3 new missionary families to our field. We will pick them up at the airport, and they will spend several days here at the mission home with us before they head on to central Java to begin language study. We’re so excited that they are coming, and that we get to be the first ones to meet them when they arrive in Indonesia. Please pray that we can help make their first adjustments to Indonesia as easy as possible. I remember how overwhelming the first few days in Indonesia were with jet lag, culture shock, children not wanting to sleep through the night, etc. We want to be a help and a blessing in any way we can.

Today isn’t just New Year’s Eve, it is also a holy day for the main religion in this country. In the last week or two stock pens have sprung up all over the city, selling goats, cows, and water buffalo for sacrifices.
On this day, people gather to sacrifice animals in hopes that they will be forgiven for their sins and gain merit towards entering heaven. Pray for the people of Indonesia, that they’ll be able to hear and understand that the only sacrifice that can take away sins was already accomplished 2,000 years ago.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support this year.

Has it really been almost a year since we first arrived here in central Java? It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been here this long, and even harder to believe that we’ll be moving again in less than 6 weeks. I sometimes joke that I might get bored if we ever stayed in one place for more than a year at a time! The life the Lord has called us to is full of moving and saying goodbye, it seems. Please pray for us and especially for Areli and Galilee as we say the goodbyes this time. We have two house helpers who are here almost every day of the week, and Areli and Galilee are almost as close to these two ladies as they are to us. It’s going to be very hard for them to understand why they won’t get to see them anymore.

Today I (Jennifer) taught a Bible lesson on Genesis 3 with my language helper Ibu Alin. I could tell she was really thinking as she listened to the story of Adam and Eve disobeying God, and the consequences of that disobedience. She had a hard time accepting the fact that Adam and Eve purposely chose to believe Satan instead of God, and that they purposely disobeyed God. She preferred to think that they were just tricked by the devil and didn’t mean any harm–or that the devil forced them to sin. I tried to explain to her in several different ways that although the devil did deceive Eve, she still made a deliberate choice to believe Satan instead of God. I think Ibu Alin started to understand what I was saying, but it still isn’t totally clear to her. Please pray that the Lord will be working in her heart and giving her understanding of the foundational truths in the Scriptures. I’d also appreciate prayers that one of our fellow language students will be interested in continuing the Bible study with Ibu Alin after we leave.

DJ will be finished with formal language study next week. He’ll have a lot of things to take care of in the next month to get ready for us to move.
Please pray for him as he makes decisions and starts the packing process. I may not be able to be too much help since I don’t finish language study until 3 days before we leave.

Thank you all so much for standing with us in prayer.

On August 17, 1945, Indonesia officially declared independence from the Netherlands. Night before last our neighbors spread bamboo mats on the street behind our house, and we all sat in a big circle to eat together, sing the Indonesian national anthem, and remember the day that Indonesia was born. August 17 also marked another anniversary for me (Jennifer), one year to the day since I last saw my family. Homesickness still comes and goes, and probably always will, but we’re very thankful to be here where God has called us to be.

Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for our trip to Jakarta. It was a profitable learning time for us, and we did manage to rest up some while were there too. It looks like we will be moving to Jakarta about October 18. You can see pictures of our trip and of the mission guest home we’ll be managing at:

http://www.ntm.org/dj-searcy/photos.php?category=Jakarta

DJ is in his last month of language study right now, and I (Jennifer) am in my second-to-last month. In class we interview our teachers about culture topics, read and discuss Bible passages and newspaper articles, and give presentations on culture topics. Studying Bible passages with our teachers gives us an opportunity to share some things from the Scriptures with them. All of our teachers are Christian in religion, but it has become very clear to us that at least one of them is trusting in his good works for salvation. Pray that we’ll have opportunities to share the Gospel with our teachers in a way that they can clearly understand. Sometimes that is hard to do in our own native language, and trying to do it in Indonesian is even more of a challenge. Pray that the Lord will give us clarity when we share, and work in our teachers’ hearts to show them the truth.