NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Tomorrow we finish up another unit of language study, and on Sunday we hit the road again. We’ll be going to Jakarta and spending 5 days at the mission home there so we can start learning the new responsibilities that we will be taking on when we move there in October. Pray that we’ll have a profitable time and also be able to get in a little rest and relaxation, since we’ll be starting right back into language study when we get back.

Areli and Galilee turned two years old on July 26. Our hard working house helpers made a traditional birthday meal for them–yellow rice, fried chicken, potato patties, a fried peanut and soy mixture, finely ground dried meat, etc. About 20 of our Indonesian friends showed up to help us celebrate, so our porch was filled to capacity, and we didn’t have much food left over after they all went home. You can see pictures of the girls’
birthday party at

http://www.ntm.org/dj-searcy/photos.php?category=Birthday%20Party

I (Jennifer) have started a chronological Bible study with Ibu Alin, the lady who comes twice a week to help me with Indonesian. We are starting in Genesis and studying throug key passages in Scripture that teach who God is, who mankind is, what sin is, and how God has provided a way for us to be saved from the consequences of sin. I’m using a guide for this Bible study that has been translated into Indonesian. Pray for the Lord’s work in Ibu Alin’s heart. She has a lot of knowledge about the Scriptures, but it is mixed with her own Javanese beliefs, as well as with the belief that her good works will get her into heaven.

We just found out that there was another earthquake off the southern coast of Java, which resulted in a tsunami. Some of you may have heard about it before we did, so we wanted to let you know that we are fine. This earthquake was farther from us than the one that hit  a couple months ago, so we didn’t feel it or know about it until we got an e-mail letting us know it had happened. Thanks for your continued prayers for our safety. I think that we humans are quick to complain about troubles in our lives but not so quick to give thanks when bad things DON’T happen to us.  We have been spared once again from having to experience the direct affects of a natural disaster, and we are thankful.

Last time I wrote I didn’t tell you too much about our trip to Kalimantan and back, so I thought I’d just highlight a few points of interest for you.

Things I learned on my summer break:

1) Humor is everywhere; you just have to look for it. And if you don’t know where to start, try the English translations of safety instructions on Indonesian airplanes. My sister-in-law pointed this one out: "Live vest under your seat." (Some of you may need to read that twice.)

2) We’ll never have to worry about running out of a job in our line of work. As we made the 5-hour boat trip up the river to DDJ’s parents’ house , we passed people, villages, and language groups who have never heard the Gospel. I wonder how much longer they will be passed by before they get a chance to hear and understand.

3) "One if by land, two if by sea." Air travel wasn’t an option in Paul Revere’s time, and it wasn’t an option for us when we headed back out from the interior to the coast either. There’s only one airplane that makes flights in to the town we were leaving from.  We found out the day before we were supposed to go out that all flights were cancelled for at least a week. So we went out by bus. We finished that trip several pounds of road dust heavier and 17 1/2 hours older than when we started, but we were thankful to make it out safely and get back home in time to start Indonesian classes again.

Thanks so much for your prayers regarding our ministry decisions. We have decided to fill the need at the NTM mission home in Jakarta. That means we’ll be there from late October through June. I (Jennifer) originally wasn’t going to be finished with language study until November, so now I will only take 8 out of 9 month-long "units" of language study. I’ll miss the last month. Once we get to Jakarta, I want to try to find a language helper to come to the house a few times a week so I can continue part time with language study.

Areli and Galilee recently had a growth spurt and outgrew all their shoes, so on Monday my sister-in-law Rachel and I headed downtown to shop for shoes. From my house, we walked down to a bigger road where we could catch an "angkot" (angkots are minivan-like vehicles that are used for public transportation around here.) Thankfully, there was already an angkot waiting at the intersection. We waited for a break in traffic, crossed the street, and ducked our heads to board the angkot through the hole where there would be a side door on a normal minivan. Angkots are also different from minivans in that they have one aisle in the middle and benches around the sides. The passenger limit is 12, but that doesn’t stop angkot drivers from packing as many as 20 people and all of their market produce into the same angkot. Thankfully, ours wasn’t too crowded this time.

We got into town without mishap, found shoes for the girls, and started back on the angkot again. But this time a neighborhood vegetable vendor was going home from the market at the same time as we were. She had just bought all her produce for selling out in her neighborhood, and she loaded it on our angkot so that she wouldn’t have to carry it all the way home on her bicycle. Thus her three huge bags of produce rode the angkot home alone, while she pedaled home on her bicycle. Since those bags were placed in the aisle right in front of Rachel and I, I had opportunity to note that they were actually labeled as fertilizer bags (friendly reminder to always wash my vegetables before using them!!) We started off, and I quickly realized that the bags of vegetables were going to fall over on us if we didn’t hold them up. Each bag was almost as big as me, so I didn’t like the thought of being buried under them. I held onto the bag closest to me for most of the trip, even when the driver made a rapid dash between two buses and screeched to a stop to pick up passengers. (The produce bag almost exited the angkot with me in tow on that stop!) The lady sitting across from us must have been a little confused, because she asked if it was okay to set her empty baskets on top of "my" vegetables. She must have figured I was the strangest looking vegetable seller she had ever seen!

There’s a glimpse of "normal" life for us here.

Please pray for:

1) Safety for villagers who live in the shadow of Mt. Merapi. It has been more active again this past week. From our house we were able to see the big ash clouds rising up, even though we can’t see the mountain itself (it’s blocked from view by another mountain).

2) Wisdom for us in some decisions we need to make by the end of the month concerning our area of ministry after we finish language study. We may send more details on that in a week or two.

3) Praise the Lord that I (Jennifer) am feeling pretty well back to normal after having dengue fever a few weeks ago. Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, and Galilee

We figured we should let you know that we’re fine since some of you may have seen the news about the 6.2 earthquake near Yogyakarta, Indonesia. We definitely felt it here, but the epicenter was a few hours south of where we are, so we are fine. Thanks so much for your prayers. Please keep praying for the people of Yogyakarta; the earthquake killed many there and severely damaged the city.

Thanks also to all of you who have been praying for my recovery from Dengue Fever. Please keep praying! I feel much, much better, but I still run out of energy quickly. We have been told that it takes about a month to get back to "normal" after Dengue Fever. Language classes start back tomorrow (Monday), so pray I’ll have the needed energy for that.

We’ve been reminded this month of how much we need all of our prayer partners. Thanks for coming through for us. We are so encouraged by all the notes we’ve received letting us know that you’re praying.

Last Tuesday evening Jennifer started running a fever and was achy all over. Since then she has been in bed most of the time. It appears she came down with dengue fever.
This morning she was feeling a little better. Hopefully she will begin the long road to recovery. According to what I have read it can take over a month to get back to feeling normal again.

There is not much that can be done to treat dengue. It is a virus and so we can only treat the symptoms. We have been in contact with an American doctor and he just wants to keep an eye her blood by doing regular blood tests. We can get those done at a clinic here in town.

The girls and I have stayed healthy. They can be a handful at times but can be a lot of fun too. Their vocabulary is continuing to increase but mostly in Indonesian. It is good language study for us to figure out what they are trying to say and in what language.

Please pray that Jennifer will continue to feel better.

When I found out that one of our closest neighbors had given birth to a baby girl, I was faced with a cultural dilemma. In Javanese culture, any time someone has a baby, gets sick, or has a family member die, everyone who knows them, including all their neighbors, are expected to visit them.
Thus, Javanese people wind up hosting the greatest number of visitors in their homes when they are sick, grieving, or recovering from childbirth. So I felt a little uneasy when I heard that my neighbor had her baby, because I knew I would have to swallow my own culture and go to visit her. I felt like I would be intruding on her and creating work for her when she needed to be resting, because my cultural background told me that only her closest friends and family should be there, and the rest of us should stay away until she at least had some time to recover. 
Still feeling uneasy, I asked my friend Annie (another missionary in language study who happens to live in the same neighborhood) to go with me.
It was such a relief to get to our neighbor’s house and be treated as if they had already been expecting us (which, I guess, they had.) There were already snacks set out in the visiting area, and within two minutes we had cold bottles of tea in our hands. Our neighbor seemed delighted to see us and show off her baby. We had a wonderful visit, and I learned a little more about one aspect of the culture here. Hopefully I won’t be as nervous the next time I have to visit someone at what we Americans would consider "a bad time."
We continue to learn culture as well as language here. You really can’t learn one without the other. It’s amazing how many things we assume are just "normal human behavior" until we move to a different country and learn that people here never heard of doing things the way we do. Many of our adjustments are small and some are pretty big, but we’re thankful we have the chance to see things from another perspective. It helps us to sort out which of our values are based on Scripture and which are just American culture. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to learn and adjust.
In Christ,
DJ, Jennifer, Areli, and Galilee 

We continue to plug away in language study. DJ is in Unit 6 out of 9 units of Indonesian study, so he will probably be done with formal language study in September. I am in what our mission calls the "assimilation unit" right now. It’s a month to meet with language helpers, do more hands-on learning, and review the huge amounts of material we have gotten in class so far.

After this month I will have units 5-9 to complete, so I will probably be getting done with my formal language study in November.

Language learning is an adventure some days, a chore some days, and just plain hard work every day. We have to untrain all the patterns and habits from our first language, and for adults that isn’t an easy job. We’re thankful that Indonesian is not an extremely difficult language structurally, but every language, of course, presents its challenges.

Here’s a list of a few words that are easy for us beginners to mix up (and some that you really wouldn’t want to get wrong!)

Muda–young
Mudah–easy (yes, that "h" on the end is pronounced) Murah–cheap (the Indonesian "r" is flapped like the Spanish "r" and sounds much closer to a "d" than to an English "r")

Penjahit–seamstress
Penjahat–criminal

Peran–actor
Perang–war

Kedelai–soy bean
Keledai–donkey

When you think of us, please pray for:

• A focus on the big picture of why we’re here. We desperately need that focus to get us through the days when language study seems like drudgery.
• Health for our family. We praise the Lord that we have been healthy for the most part ever since we’ve been here. But Galilee seems to get high fevers with every little cold or virus, so that can be scary sometimes.
• Salvation for our friends from the dominant religion as well as those who have the name "Christian" but don’t know the Lord.
• The Lord’s direction about what area of the ministry we should serve in after we are finished with language study. We have considered several options.

Thanks so much for your prayers.

In Christ,
DJ, Jennifer, Areli, and Galilee