Grant and Tracey Whidden equipping missionaries for tribal church planting 
Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment
Our hearts are heavy with news of abuse that took place in an overseas NTM boarding school during the 1980s and 90s. Though we knew beforehand of abuse that had taken place, we were saddened to hear the extent of it. And it grieves us to know that other abuse has happened as well. Please pray for the the victims of abuse; for healing and for justice.
From leadership in August: “At the request of NTM and with the consent of the former students of the NTM school for missionary children in Senegal, GRACE conducted a review of the situation at the school in the 1980s. They presented their report to NTM and the former students on Monday.
Individuals in our organization abused children. People in leadership at the time were culpable through inadequate screening and training, creating an atmosphere of legalism and autocracy, and not addressing the abuse properly. This means that we as an organization are responsible and have sinned against these students.
True repentance, as the GRACE report points out, will be seen in our actions, and we pledge to act. Our current leaders are reviewing the recommendations in the report, and will meet with GRACE this week so we can fully understand them and move forward in the right way.”
You can read more here.
itServices.Update()
While I’m not fluent in Spanish or French or some remote tribal tongue, lately I’m finding myself thinking in about 6 different dialects, aside from English. How’s that possible? Well, we’re currently working on a brand new website for the staff and students here at NTM’s Missionary Training Center. In order for the new site to be the finished product we want it to be, I’ve had to do some custom developing which requires me to be familiar with quite a few different programming languages, including ASP.net, HTML, XML, XSL, CAML, & C# (c-sharp). It’s still a work in progress, so there may even be a few more languages to pick up along the way!
Tags: it, it services, language, learning, Ministry, programming, sharepoint, web
Summer Travels 2009
Though we packed up our stuff to move to a new place 10 times in less than 5 weeks, we DID survive and had some great times of fellowship along the way. As we shared about our ministry and New Tribes Mission in 3 different churches, we came away encouraged about the work God was doing in people’s hearts. Thank you, God, for the many opportunities to visit with our supporters, family, and friends, both new and old!
Upon returning from our trip, we jumped right into an “Enrichment Conference.” While New Tribes missionaries from both near and far were enjoying seminars, I was running around and giggling with the 5 year olds. Grant helped out in various IT capacities, and we both enjoyed being a part of encouraging missionaries in their ministries!