NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Dear Prayer Partners,

In our last letter we mentioned how life and ministry was going a lot slower than we had anticipated. You must have prayed! Life has gotten extremely busy, but that’s how we like it!

Doug has been busy researching various community development projects like building latrines for an extremely poor area of town where a group of Tarahumara Indians lives and makes bricks. One of the problems in this community is sewage runoff from a waste water treatment plant. The government sanitation department will be advised of this serious problem affecting the health of the Indian families. Also, Doug has been involved in marketing Indian handcrafts via a contact in Tennessee. These and other projects are in the very beginning stages. It’s not like in the States where you decide to do something and just go out and do it. Projects like these take months, if not years, to come to fruition. Pray for wisdom and guidance as we as a Mission move forward on these endeavors. While investigating these community development avenues, Doug has also been quite busy learning his two new responsibilities of supply buyer for the tribal missionaries and member of our mission’s security committee.

Below are a couple pictures of the ladies I have been discipling, as well as Chema, the high school student I was mentoring. Pray for them to have a profitable summer in the Lord. Pray especially for Chema to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to bring his heart into submission to what the Lord has for him. Pray for Sandy and Denesia to clearly understand what the Lord is saying to them and to walk in that light.

 Sandy,  Denesia,  Chema (on the right)

In our last letter I mentioned some physical needs I was experiencing. Again, you must have prayed! The doctor I saw changed just about every one of the medications I was taking — removed some, added new ones, and now I am feeling better than I have in a very long time. Also, the Lord has provided the funds to cover all the tests. Thanks so much for praying for that need.

We have just returned from our annual field conference where our hearts were tremendously encouraged. We heard reports from each tribal team on how they were doing and how the work in their area is going. It is amazing to hear what God is doing in some of the most remote areas of the world! We also were challenged and encouraged by our guest speaker on living and ministering from God’s point of view. Boy! Are we ever excited about pressing on for Him here in Mexico! We heard story after story of tribal people hearing the gospel for the first time, of tribal churches thriving and growing, but also sadly of tribal people dying and going into a Christ-less eternity. It was very good for us to see, up close and personal, reminders of why we are here in Mexico with New Tribes Mission. Following are some pictures of some of our new brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for these little lambs for protection from the Evil One while they are being grounded in the faith. Pray they will grow strong in the Lord and will understand the Word as it is taught to them.                 

There is a new development in our lives we’d ask you to pray about. Amelia Orrostieta is a young single missionary with NTM who has had the sole responsibility of raising her 2 younger siblings, Gaby and Tony.  She works in a tribal area far away from Chihuahua, but Tony and Gaby have lived here in Chihuahua in a dorm situation for the last few years. Now that they have graduated from high school (Tony) and the Bible institute (Gaby), they need a place to stay while they attend university. So, we have opened our home to Tony for this next semester. Gaby will be ministering in Baja California for a semester, and then will be returning to Chihuahua in January. If all goes well with Tony, she will more than likely live with us, too. Pray that we will be what Tony needs.
He speaks English pretty well, but Gaby doesn’t. This should be a good opportunity for us to really advance in our Spanish, but it could also lead to misunderstandings. Pray for clear, open communication. Pray we can minister to this family in a powerful way.

One last prayer request. We leave Wednesday, June 4, for our “summer wedding” trip. The plan is to first drive to Atlanta and spend a couple of nights with my sister. Then we’ll go up to Chattanooga where we will see our youngest son, Zac and his precious family and attend the homecoming reunion at our home church. After that we will head over to Branson, MO to help Kate with the final preparations for her wedding June 28. After the wedding we’re off to Denver to spend a week or so with our Colorado Corley Clan, after which we return to Chihuahua July 15. You know the price of gas! Pray for the Lord to provide physically, financially, spiritually and every other way for this trip. Your prayers mean SO much to us. We’ve seen great things happen when you pray!
“In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” Prov. 3:6

God bless and have an AWESOME day!

Thank you so much for praying for us!

First, pray for God’s timing and direction in the development of the Community Development ministry.

Pray for provision for medical needs.

Pray for safety as we travel to our daughter’s wedding in Branson, MO, this summer.

Finally pray for direction from the Lord whether we should go to Chattanooga, TN, or not for a couple of days before we go to Branson.

April 2008

Praise the Lord; the Corleys are still alive and kicking in Mexico, just not quite as high as we used to.  The community development ministry is making progress, but a bit more slowly that we had expected. It is a bigger job than we knew getting this new ministry organized and up and running. There are a number of projects we could start or get involved with, but we need to analyze each one to make sure that it fits in the parameters of our goals and mission statement. Please pray with us for wisdom and direction from the Lord for each step of organization of this ministry. Community projects are great opportunities for our missionaries to build relationships with the people of their area. We cannot move in and plant a church in a tribal area without first laying a foundation based on relationships and trust. Those happen largely through community development.

In the meantime, our mission leaders have asked Doug to participate in the field’s “safety program” that helps keep our missionaries safe from crime and terrorism. Doug will have the responsibility to review the risk situations on the field and help develop plans that help our missionaries cope with varied threats. He also will have a part in educating our folks in the best methods of safe living. Another responsibility will be to be a first responder for car accidents and home break-ins.
As for me, I have been daily mentoring/tutoring a high school student, participating in several Bible studies, helping with the annual field conference preparations, as well as helping with the Community Development launch. In August I will start teaching English in our mission’s institute that trains Mexicans to be missionaries. I’m really looking forward to teaching at the mission institute. Until then there is a lot of reading and studying to do on teaching English as a second language and on culture and language acquisition.
A couple of weeks ago I began experiencing some unusual physical problems. The symptoms seemed to fit into the list of symptoms for women who are having heart failure. So, we contacted a heart specialist for an appointment. The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and blood tests. He ran an EKG and I took a stress test. We’re thankful that nothing majorly serious was found. However, I do have a heart arrhythmia that requires some medication. The doctor also made several changes in my medications for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When we added up all the expenses the total came to nearly $1,000 for the doctor visits, tests, and medications. We are thankful that we have health insurance. However, after the insurance company pays their part, we will owe $440. At present we do not have the funds to cover this expense. So please pray with us, asking God to meet this need which will be due by the end of April.

We are looking forward to our daughter’s wedding June 28. We will be leaving Chihuahua for Branson June 6th. We plan on being with Kate for those last few weeks helping her tie up loose ends before the wedding. Before jumping into the wedding scene, if the Lord provides, we would like to zip over to Chattanooga for the annual home coming at our home church, Duncan Park Baptist Church. This year is a very special year for our church family because they just completed an outdoor, covered pavilion for fellowships, homecomings, etc. Please ask the Lord to direct our steps as we once again drive across country. We’re so thankful for our Toyota minivan that has carried us 122,000 miles since December 2001.

There’s plenty to pray for in this letter!! Thank you so much for your continued expressions of love through financial and prayer support.

By His grace,
Doug and Melody

Please join us in prayin for wisdom and direction in laying the groundwork for the Community Development Ministry.

Please pray for the Ameritribes team that is working in a remote darkly depraved area of Mexico giving their all to carry the light of the gospel into that darkness

Pray for physical needs such as excruciating headaches, overall fatigue, etc.

We have mentioned very vaguely in previous prayer letters that we were going to be involved in a new ministry when we returned to Chihuahua. That new ministry is Community Development. We are still in the process of forming a purpose and strategy statement, but one of the primary goals is to organize and document projects that will benefit the communities where the missionaries of New Tribes Mission-Mexico work. Of course, our primary goal as a mission is to carry the gospel to unreached tribes and plant indigenous churches among those tribes. By definition an indigenous church is one that is self-governing, self-propagating and self-supporting. We have spent many years working on planting New Testament churches that are self-governing and self-propagating. Now the Community Development team is forming to help focus on self-supporting issues by helping poor families and communities improve their economic situation.

Currently the Community Development team consists of John and Linda Steinbacher and us. We are looking to the Lord for direction for another couple or two to join us in this endeavor. To begin with, we and the Steinbachers are brainstorming together in organizational meetings to lay the foundation for purpose and strategy for the Community Development team. So far we see two branches of Community Development. One is to document projects like dental clinics, micro-enterprise endeavors, engineering projects, soup kitchens, orphanage work, etc. that the missionaries have already accomplished. It is important to document those things and turn in paperwork to appropriate officials. The Mexican government loves it when we can show them that we are here helping their people in tangible ways. Another branch of Community Development will be to seek markets for the already existing micro-enterprises, as well as establish new enterprises for the people we are here to serve. Please join us in praying for wisdom and direction in laying the groundwork for the Community Development Ministry.

One thing Doug has been very active doing is gathering information from as many sources as possible on what kind of projects, etc. folks are wanting to have done. He’d really like to visit the mountain stations to talk face to face with missionaries and get their input. Last weekend he was privileged to make the first of many of those trips. He went with Cyrus Moffett, a missionary with Ameritribes, to deliver a Suburban/ambulance to Dr. Kenny VanKirk’s clinic out in the mountains. Dr. VanKirk is a medical missionary  who has established a clinic in a remote area called for the purpose of ministering to Tarahumara Indians.

The name of the place the went means “the place of crying”. It was explained to Doug and Cyrus that for years the Apache harassed the Tarahumara, attacking them, murdering them, etc. Finally the Tarahumara decided it was time to put a stop to all that, and one night when the Apache were asleep in a cave, set fires above and below the cave of sleeping Apache and burned them alive. Hence the name, Place of Crying. Although the surrounding terrain is beautiful and majestic, Doug said it is probably the darkest, most depraved place he has ever known. Please pray for the Ameritribes team that is out there giving their all to carry the light of the gospel into that darkness.

An interesting side-note, on the way out to the clinic, the men passed a place where some folks were trying to get a recreational park going. The horseshoe entrance gate was quite an interesting site! Be sure and check out more photos in the Mountain Trip Gallery.

  We’ve had another special opportunity lately in the area of hospitality. Erin Douglass came to Chihuahua as an intern for UIM, the mission that takes care of our aviation needs. As an intern Erin was visiting the mission field to find out more about missions and to see what the Lord might have for her in that area. We had the privilege of having her stay with us for a little over 2 weeks. She was SUCH a delight!

As you are praying for the ministry, please pray for our physical needs. Both of us have been experiencing quite a bit of physical distress lately. Doug has excruciating headaches and overall fatigue. It is very hard for him to think when his head hurts so badly. I’ve been having a lot of knee pain, and just this morning we found a painful lump in my back in my kidney area (I think). We don’t have a clue what it is, what kind of doctor to go to, or whether I should go to the doctor. Pray for wisdom. 

Thank you SO much for joining us in prayer. You are so, so important to us and what happens here! Thanks for not forgetting us!

Blessings, in Jesus’ name

Please pray with us that:

God will provide a buyer for our house so we can return to Mexico.

We will be extremely sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading as to the use of our time while we wait for that to happen.

Doug will be able to do well in his online course and learn what he needs to for the Mexico community development ministry the Lord is leading us into.

We have been holding off sending out another prayer letter until we had the good news that all “our ducks were in a row", and we were on our way back to Mexico. Recently a couple saw the house and loved it! We started the whole complex process of accepting offers, etc. that is part of selling a house. We were super excited thinking that in the next few weeks we would be closing the house deal and heading back to Chihuahua. We really thought that the end of our "praying BIG" for a buyer was drawing to a close.

Then we’ve hit a bump in the road. This morning our realtor called to say that the buyers have some debts that must be paid before they can buy the house. They are expecting Christmas bonuses on December 8 with which they plan on paying those debts. Then they could close the deal in December. Their realtor plans to check with them on a weekly basis and report to our realtor just to keep us in the loop. Meanwhile, we will keep the house on the market in case the Lord has someone else in mind to buy the house.

So, we are still in GA, still in the need of some BIG praying. Please pray with us. Hopefully we’ll be writing next month to inform you that the deal is done!

In the meantime we are keeping busy. There are always things going on at church with which to be involved, and Doug has been substitute teaching. If that’s not enough, this week he started an online college course that will be extremely helpful in the community development endeavors he will be making when we return to Chihuahua. I have been enjoying my “grandmother’s role”. Speaking of that, our newest grandbaby will be born either this weekend or on Monday, Oct. 29. We can hardly wait to see her in person!

In our next letter I look forward to explaining about the new Community Development ministry the Lord is leading us into.

With all our love and appreciation,

Doug and Melody

We got back last night from our latest trip across country. This time we went out to Colorado and back with stops in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. A few weeks before that we made a huge trip to Texas, Missouri, back to Georgia, then on to North Carolina and Virginia and back! It seems like we’ve been gone forever!
Thank you so much for praying for us! Although we saw several severe accidents and had to drive through heavy rain at times, we had a safe trip. I’m sure that one of the reasons for that is your effectual prayer. Even though you didn’t particularly know we were traveling so much, we know you’ve been praying. Thanks!
We arrived home last night to discover that the air conditioning in our house was totally dead. I found out how spoiled I have become! We are just not accustomed to dealing with such humid heat! God gave us grace to sleep well, and we’ve made it through the day without the air. Praise the Lord! Doug worked all day with Zac and one of his friends from the fire department to get it fixed. Finally after one more part replacement, it’s working. That’s a huge praise as we need the a/c to be functioning well in order to sell the house.
Speaking of the house, it still hasn’t sold. Our wonderful real estate agent showed it a time or two while we were gone, but so far no takers. Pray it will sell soon! We are resting in the Lord that He is in control of the situation, but our hearts are in Mexico and we will be so happy to return.
Also, we’d appreciate your continued prayer for the Lord to raise up a few more supporters. I tell ‘ya. I’m getting tired of asking prayer for that! I’m really looking forward to the day I can say that we’ve got all we need, and we don’t have to talk about it any more!! Until then, please pray with us about it.
After we get the grass mowed and a couple more minor chores, Doug will be making more contacts. Pray God will guide us in those endeavors.
Following is a story from one of our missionaries in Mexico that will help you understand why our hearts are “south of the border”.
An elderly Tarahumara shaman in Mexico, who once placed a curse upon missionaries Tim Roberts and Ted Wingo, is now a believer. Friday morning Valentin and his wife, Cuka, placed their faith in Christ.

“My heart was happy today,” wrote Tim. “Well, happy doesn’t quite cover it. I was overjoyed … as I listened to two old shamans giggling like little children because of their newfound faith in Jesus Christ.”

The missionaries had been praying for the couple for 13 years.

“During those years there have been many mixed signals in our relationship with them,” wrote Tim. “Sometimes they were very friendly, and at other times not.”

There were times when Cuka hurried to go inside if she saw the missionaries coming. Ignoring them was the norm if she didn’t have time to hide. Over the years Cuka had been very vocal about her disapproving thoughts of the missionaries.

The couple began listening to God’s Word after seeing the change it made in their son, Nacho. Nacho befriended Tim and Ted and became a believer after hearing the Gospel in his own language.

Nacho now meets with Tim several times a week to study God’s Word and to check scripture in the Tarahumara language.

“It’s no small task to reduce the truths of God’s holy word into an indigenous language that’s bereft of terms or even concepts that correspond with scripture. As we’ve believed God to build His Church among the Western Tarahumara, He has been faithful. The light of understanding has begun to shine.”

Pray for Nacho and his parents to grow in their relationship with Christ and to make Him known to others.
Thank you, Dear Ones, for holding us up before the throne of Grace. We deeply appreciate you!
Blessings,

Thanks so much for your prayers! We got back today from that "marathon" trip to Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. It was an incredibly awesome trip. What a blessing to visit with old friends as well as current friends and family!

We traveled 2700 miles! It sure is a good thing we have an economical car! We’re also thankful for a dependable car. We had not one speck of trouble along the way. Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow we hope to map out the rest of the summer. Pray that we will have wisdom and unity as we make plans for where to go and when. While you’re praying, ask the Lord for a buyer for our house. We are more than ready to head back to Mexico, but we we need to sell this house first! A realtor brought someone to look at it while we were gone and they are supposed to be working up an offer for us, but we haven’t heard anything yet. Pray they contact our realtor with an offer we can accept.

Thanks SO much for your prayers. It is SUCH a blessing having you on our team!

God bless,

Pray for safety on the road as we start a summer of travel here, there and everywhere!

Pray for our house to sell.

Pray for the Lord’s direction and wisdom in making plans for the rest of the summer travel and for the return-to-Mexico date.

Pray we will be a "sweet fragrance of Christ" to everyone we come in contact with.