PATPATAR UPDATE: PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Aaron L. wants our prayers and rejoicing too. Due to unrelenting rain these outreaches were delayed.
If we are able to carry on with the teaching this week, it will mean that the first group will be taught on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus on Good Friday. The other two groups will hear the Gospel message the week after Easter.
More detail wanted? Read on, and be praying!

The Bible teaching that was to take place last Friday. This did not happen as planned. Within an hour of the arrival of all the families on Tuesday it began to rain and storm. For the next 30 hours there was hardly a break in the rain. The roads became flooded, the sea became rough, and the yards became swimming pools.

The Bible teaching was cancelled on both Wednesday and Friday. The two places where we meet were muddy and wet. The wind was blowing hard and most all of the Patpatar were hidden away in their bamboo huts with the windows closed tight. Lord willing the sun will reappear in this rain forest this coming week and we will be able to resume the teaching. If we are able to carry on with the teaching this week, it will mean that the first group will be taught on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus on Good Friday. The other two groups will hear the Gospel message the week after Easter.

Thank you for continuing to pray for us and the Patpatar people,
Aaron for the family

Fact: The typical 90% humidity reaches nearly 100% during these times of rainy weather. Even indoors clothes do not dry out for several days.

Dear Praying Friends,

Thank you so much for your part in the team job of seeing the Gospel of Jesus Christ go out into all the world.

We appreciate your part on our team. Your faithful support and prayer has been an encouragement to us in days when we shake our heads and wonder what God will do, and then He is ALWAYS FAITHFUL!

Our family has busy days ahead. Hector did not get his visa to come to the US, so the wedding will probably be June 9 in Mexico. Tim will graduate June 1 in Deltona. George and Linda, and a few friends, will be going to Michigan to see David and some former Youth Group kids for their Spring Break. We leave Thursday (April 5!). Bea is going on Full time status with the EVAC ambulance company in Volusia county. She should clear, and be able to work as a Paramedic with them soon. Little granddaughter Lily has started walking. We were able to spend her birthday with Debby’s whole family. It was nice.

Youth group had their second outreach last night, helping serve at a dinner for needy people in the community, and offer encouragement and the message of good news. We have 7 or 8 graduates this year in our Youth Group. We will start hearing their testimonies in the coming weeks.

We hope that you are encouraged and have great joy as you remember our Savior and His resurrection, this Easter. What a wondrous joy we can have as we realize we have all we need in HIM, and He is alive, giving us the power to live for Him, each day!

May you realize your rich blessings in HIM today!

George and Linda Heckman and family
New Tribes Mission
Member Services
www.ntm.org/george_heckman

George & Linda Heckman
Member Services
New Tribes Mission
ntm.org/george_heckman

Please pray:

– For the Gospel message being presented at one of the three outreaches (Patpatar people) this coming week on Friday, in Papua New Guinea.
- Please pray for us and the Bible teachers as all of the Phase 1 outreaches finish up in the next few weeks, and we will be going out to do follow up with those who have heard.
- Please pray for wisdom and strength as well as good health for the teachers, and good weather, and health as well as open hearts and minds of those that are hearing.
– Pray for the Missionary team: Aaron & Lori; Butch & Tammy, and Madonna

Thanks for being a part in reaching our world!

George and Linda Heckman
NTM US Home Offices

Well, I read the following letter this week. A friend of mine forwarded it on to me. When I am tempted to complain, this helps me keep things in perspective. “Bad day?”, maybe mine is not so bad after all. Please remember to pray for those who labor in hard places, and hold them up before the Father’s throne! They are ORDINARY PEOLE just like you and me! Take a look! Here’s how to effectively pray for missionaries.

“Hi all,

Mt. 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, …”

Well, thankfully I haven’t had too much trouble with the thieves, but the moth and rust part has really hit hard lately.

I would have written sooner, but it took me awhile to get the radio email going. Mice had gotten in and chewed through the wires. Also lightning had struck my antenna and it had fallen. I fixed it all back, but it’s still not working like it did.

I arrived on an old, roach infested bus at 2:00 a.m. I had to carry my stuff from the road, down across the creek, and then out across a field, then up the hill to my house. It was about 78 deg. and very muggy. But it did start raining (of course) so it cooled off a bit. By the time I got everything in the house I was really wanting to shower, but the water was off. So I got a machete and started cutting a path up to the water tank. It’s the middle of summer down here so the jungle had grown up a lot. Half an hour later I made it to the tank and got the water valve to the house open. But when I ran back down to the house I found I had a geyser. Ok, nothing like washing off out in the rain, right.

Then I wanted to get my little gas refrigerator going. I got the bottle gas hooked up and it lit fine, but I thought I heard something and was crawling around the back for a closer look when – poof! The whole back suddenly burst into flames and there went all the hair from one arm. I rushed out and turned the gas off and decided I’d tackle that one in the morning. Then I carefully killed all the spiders in my bedroom and made the bed. That’s when I discovered that a small tub a margarine had broken open in the luggage and had gotten all over my sheets. No matter. I was so tired I slept until day light. Then the rain woke me up because it was coming right on through the roof and on the floor in several places. The roofing is cement tiles, so when they leak (they always do sooner or later) I have to go up in the attic and move them a bit and that usually does the trick. However, who knows what creatures lurk up there, so I took a small pistol loaded with little “bird shot” shells, just in case. Turned out I was very glad I had the pistol. Rats! Yep, I got two of them. Would have had more but the pistol kept jamming, aahh.

Finally went back to work on the fridge and after burning the hair off of my other arm, I found that a seal in the main gas control apparatus had torn. I found out later that there’s no way to fix it. Therefore, it didn’t take long for all of my fresh food to start going bad. I would have gone to town for more food, but my motorcycle is broken down. Still looking for parts to get it fixed.

Meanwhile, Larry and Linda have been out and the grass around the houses had gotten really tall. I went and contacted a young man who Larry had trained to use the lawn mowers. He almost made it through the day before the lawn mower broke down. We have two but the other one … yeah you know.

Despite all of that I have been getting tons of translation work done. I tried to work late one night, but the house batteries gave out. They are 10 years old and are on borrowed time. I have a small generator so I went and got it out, but the cord snapped when I tried starting it.

Good grief! I’ve had it up to here with the moth and rust effect! Seems like all my stuff down here is old and worn out. It helps me appreciate the fact that “God’s mercies are NEW every morning!” If my translation consultant can make it down here, we’ll begin the check on 1Timothy next week. ”

by Larry Brown, Chairman, NTM USA

We thought that it might be encouraging to know to that, by God’s grace, NTM USA is still moving forward and that you would want to see some of the things that have taken place in these past few years.

I am blessed to serve with you.

Most of these items have taken place in the past three years.

* Annually, the average rate of a people group starting the teaching is one every 45 days.

* The Quest company has restructured and the Kodiak project is on better financial footing.

* The Stewardship Development team has been expanding with representatives in a number of regions.

* We’re now in a better position to serve donors on our website through Crescendo.

* A new web site was designed.

* During economic challenges, by God’s grace:

- NTM USA has been able to keep moving ahead financially and meet our budget.

- The home office is in the process of moving its headquarters to a new building.

- NTM Homes has expanded its facility with a new chapel.

- Missionary Training Center has expanded as planned including housing and a multipurpose building.

- Wayumi has been launched and is in its third year.

* NTM USA has been more aggressive to offer more than 100 teaching modules of Perspectives Courses which creates opportunities for recruitment.

* The redesigned Partnership Development has been running now for two years. New folks heading to the fields are reaching the required 75 percent of ministry support level and beyond.

* All inquiries for potential membership or short term/volunteering in NTM USA has now been consolidated into the Connection Center which has been launched and is better serving inquirers.

* NTM USA was able to facilitate the first meeting in the US of CEOs of major aviation missions to discuss how we can better work together.

* We have seconded members to four different organizations who share our same goals and purpose.

* We have selectively opened our training for other missions and two missions are utilizing this training with more potential on the horizon.

* We have been working with other global partners and things are now positioned to move ahead by initiating the GMA board.

* The Communications department has provided some excellent video, internet and hard copy media resources.

* To enable the Executive Board to better serve our partnering churches, Mike Sullivan has been appointed Director of Church Relations.

* The NTM USA Chairman has served on the board of CrossGlobal Link for six years and now serves on the Board of Missio Nexus, keeping us connected to the mission community.

* The NTM USA Chairman is a member of C12, giving him opportunity to bring NTM to businessmen in the community.

* We have restructured the Department of Child Protection to better serve our members.

* The tax department staff has increased to nearly 10 members to continue to serve us all. The department nearly closed two years ago.

* We’ve on our fourth year of our Advisory Board.

* We’ve migrated our members to GuideStone for their retirement savings.

* NTM USA is now part of a private cooperative insurance company, Lucent, which is saving us money.

* We have restructured our IT department.

* The annual Leadership Forums are very much appreciated and are helping us develop new leaders. There is healthy engagement and interest in these.

* We have become members of and continue to forge relationships in the Christian Chamber of Commerce of Orlando.

* * *

2) LES PEDERSON WITH THE LORD

Tuesday, Les Pederson passed away after two weeks in intensive care.

Les and his wife, Lorraine, went to Paraguay in 1949 and served there for 26 years. After that Les spent more than 20 years on the Executive Committee.

Thanks for your continued interest in our ministry. It has been great hearing from many of you via e-mail! Thanks for keeping us up to date on your lives as well!

January holds many interesting events for us.

Beka has 3 recording sessions at Full Sail University in Orlando. Their state of the art equipment gives her songs a new professional dimension. She has had 2 sessions so far, and has recorded 4 songs. You can listen to them on her facebook.com “Band page” by going to www.facebook.com/bekaheckman. You can get a download of her songs from www.noisetrade.com as well. She is also beginning to work a fulltime shift for the EVAC ambulance in Volusia county for the next 6 weeks or so. She still loves her work.

Linda has surgery on her hand January 19. Thanks for your prayers as we go one-handed for the next couple of months. They will be removing bone from her left hand and replace it with a tendon to form a natural cushion for the now arthritic joint which causes lots of pain. The doc says not to use my laft hand for 6 weeks. Think I can do it?

We still keep busy with our work at the Member Services Offices at NTM. We handle much paperwork which enables our missionaries to remain at their work of tribal evangelism. We do a lot of correspondence with our mission family to help them, and be a resource for their needs. We communicate with our members who are nearing retirement age, and those who find the need to move on to other ministries or care for aging parents and have to step out of the NTM ministry for a time. This scratches the surface of our responsibilities, but I wanted to give you a glimpse. Please pray for us as we minister here at the Home Offices of NTM.

Our ministry with the MK (Missionary Kid) teens and their friends continues with some review this week and then we plan on taking a group to Dare 2 Share in Lakeland in February. Pray we get a good group to go. We have discounted tickets, but need to get some fundraisers lined up quickly! Time is flying away!

peaking of “flying away”, Amy flies away also this Saturday. It has been a pleasure to have her home for a few weeks. David flies back to cold Wisconsin next week. It has been nice to have him home, too! Brett and Debby and the Grand-girls joined us for a week or so around Christmas as well. We had a full house and lots of laughs! We missed Hector, but he joined us several times on SKYPE.  What a blessing to have our children walking with the Lord!

Amy and Hector are trying to get wedding plans arranged. We have an answered prayer in that Hector got a job. He is planning on taking the training in Mexico, now that his visa situation did not work out. That will begin in August 2012. They are thinking of a summer wedding, in Florida. After that time, they will move out to the Mexican training center as well, and Amy will be involved there with the folks in training, while Hector studies.

Thank you so much for the support you have offered to us. We appreciate your kind generosity. Please remember to pray for us as we balance our time, ministries, and home business. Thanks much!

George and Linda Heckman
& Family

PRAYER REQUESTS:
Linda’s surgery and recovery
Amy & Hector’s wedding and training plans
George wisdom in his work
Beka’s recording and wisdom for how to best use her music ministry
David to have enough hours at his job to cover his school bills
Brett and Debby as they raise their girls to love God, and their ministry with Grace Bible Church
Tim to finish his last semester of High school well, he also needs a job.
Thank you!!

In early November, Tim took a week to visit NTBI in Waukesha. He enjoyed the classes there and was encouraged by the students. He even had a few minutes to visit with his brother!  He came back challenged in his walk with the Lord. His plan is to attend NTBI after graduation, next Fall.

November 18-28 the whole family, as well as Cody (Beka’s special friend), drove to Mexico to visit Amy and meet Hector, her fiancé. One reason for the trip, was so we could have the traditional dinner with the family of the groom, where they ask for the girl’s hand in marriage. We had a tremendous time, and enjoyed meeting Hector and his family. They were very nice folks. We pray that God will use our visit to open doors for the unsaved members of Hector’s family to be open to the Gospel. We have seen opportunities for this even in the time since we have been home.
We had a nice time visiting with Amy and Crystal, as well. Both seem to have adjusted well in their new ministries. It was fun to visit their church for a potluck/bonfire, and also to sit in on the ladies Chronological Bible Teaching class, which was followed by their English class. What a nice group of ladies is studying there!  We visited the best food places (the ones Amy likes anyway!), and had a fun afternoon shopping in El Centro (City Center), and walking around De Portiva, a large city park. If you go on Facebook; to Amy or Beka’s page, you can see a bunch of pictures from our outings. (I don’t have my pictures up yet!)

A big prayer request is for Hector to get his passport as soon as possible. He was not able to have the needed paperwork in December, and the next available appointment was in January. This means he will not be able to begin the missionary training in the US in January. This development changes their plans which were in place. Now, they will new plans. We will keep you updated!

David flies home on December 18. Amy flies home on December 19. They both return in mid- January. Amy will continue teaching at the Missionary Kid’s school in Chihuahua for the time being. (The school principal is happy about that!) She is enjoying teaching the kids and helping the Spanish speaking kids learn English and she also helps, and tutors several of them. It is exciting to see the friends she has made, and how God is using her there.

And that wraps up the review of the last month. We look forward to a BIG Christmas with all the kids and granddaughters! It should be fun. We will miss Hector, but trust he will make it for next year!

We have seen a change in our youth group as we have about 10 less kids! The group at Bible School is doing well. God is teaching them new lessons. The group we have at Youth is younger, and we don’t know them as well at this time. We have a couple of gals who will be moving away, and that is hard for them, and us. We plan a trip to Dare 2 Share in Lakeland in February. We pray that this trip will be one that brings the group together in unity more. Several of our kids are dealing with pretty heavy issues at this time. Please remember to pray for each of them to grow more, and walk closer to the Lord. We hope to teach and challenge them to be in the Word of God and growing in their walk daily. Thanks for lifting them up to the Lord with us.

The Lord has blessed, and provided, and given wisdom. Please continue to pray for us as we desire to challenge and encourage, and to be a blessing where God has placed us in ministry. Thank you for your participation in our ministry.

Blessed to be a blessing,
George and Linda Heckman and family

They got away from Central Florida yesterday early in the afternoon. They ran over a tire in the road near St. Augustine, which caused some damage to the underside the Prius (AGAIN!!). It is drivable, so on they went. Travelled all night and are due to arrive soon in Waukesha.

All the guys were excited to see family members and friends at NTBI. Pray they have a great week. That God will grip their earts, and give them clear direction for their futures; and that he will give them SAFETY on the trip back too!

Thanks for partnering with us in prayer! We appreciate you!
George and Linda