NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to send out some pictures of the work I am doing in the village here. Things are going well. I am working on our house, fixing the ceiling, fixing the windows, adding screen, etc. I have been doing a lot of traveling on the river, transporting out items to the village.

We also have been involved in teaching the Scriptures chronologically to the people here in their language. Many are interested and we are at Genesis 6 now. We work on the house during the day, and at night go to the meetings.

We had a fire in the house I am staying at, our co-workers’ house.  They had a kerosene refrigerator that we tried to get started. Well, we left the house to go work over at my house, about 200 feet away. The kerosene in the refrigerator leaked and caught fire, then proceeded to burn the floor and the walls of the kitchen (all made of wood). We saw the smoke coming out of the roof and ran over. (Markus said that in Germany if you see smoke coming out of a roof, it was normal. Then I told him that in the tropics it is not normal ) Markus had left the door locked and so he went to go find the keys. In the mean time, I debated about breaking a window but decided against it. Then I quick put on my shoes thinking that the floor would be on fire. By that time, Markus had found his keys (it was nice of him to find a convenient time to misplace his keys) and we opened the door and rushed in. One whole wall was on fire, I grabbed the bucket that we used for filtering drinking water and dumped drinking water onto the base of the fire. It worked! (Maybe drinking water works the best on fire). We then attempted to put out the rest of the fire on the wall. The frig had melted and ammonia from the frig had sprayed everywhere. Praise the Lord we were able to put the fire out, in just a few short minutes the fire had reached the ceiling as you can tell from the picture. Markus had a large ammo box (ammunition box from Germany that he used to store food in, not bullets) placed against the wall directly behind the frig and as it was fireproof (an ammo box should be fireproof, right) contained the fire so it did not spread. Praise the Lord for good German engineering! All in all, it made for an exciting day and an adrenaline rush. We found that our village is actually quite large, as the whole village showed up in the front yard and inside the house. You see, when there is a fire in the village, they ring the gong and the whole village comes running with buckets. We had the fire mainly out by the time the “village” arrived, but at least we could take a good village census at that time.

The whole situation was good though: 1. we were able to easily decide on what type of frig to use, kerosene or battery powered (we will go with battery powered). 2. we now have a usable village census, although we will probably not try it this way again. 3. the tropics is not a good place to have a fireplace.

I wanted to make up a good story about my German friend carrying the burning refrigerator all the way to the river and throwing it in, but he would not let me, as it did not happen quite like that.

Thanks for praying for us.

James

The local men are very good builders when it comes to the “rough carpentry”.  They are the ones doing the work.

Our German co-workers are currently living in our house and building their own house nearby. When we were there we were just able to start clearing the land at the location. The Da’an people are the main ones helping build the structure. After that, we missionaries will do all the electrical (solar electric), plumbing, and fine carpentry (cabinets, beds, etc.)

Here are some pictures of our co-workers, Markus & Lilly Sindel, and their residence building activities.

Happy New Year!

It has been wonderful to be able to spend Christmas and the New Year with family around. It was a something we will never take for granted.

Upcoming Travels
Feb 26-March 22 are the dates our family is flying out East to visit friends, churches, & loved ones in Center Barnstead, NH, Chambersburg, PA, and Connellsville, PA. We are excitedly looking forward to participating in a mission’s conference in Chambersburg as well. Please pray for our travels. We will also be taking our children out of school, please pray that we can keep on track with their school work we will be bringing along.

“Faith Unchallenged is a Faith Stifled”
I know this statement is true, but to be honest, I’ve often told the Lord “Ok, I think I’ve been stretched and challenged enough, how about working on someone else?”. On the contrary, this is exactly the type of “faith challenge” we should LONG for, desire, and seek after. But when this time of stretching comes, how do we react? I know I’m not good with my reactions (just ask my husband!); however, I AM learning to abide in such a way as to point out that the Lord is totally in control of every situation that touches my life. And since we were created to glorify Him, pruning is needed, branches need to be reshaped & broken off at times so that we can truly glorify Him in an honoring way. in each of our lives.

PRAISE REPORT (project update)
God has answered our prayers through YOU! Thank you for responding to the needs we have been communicating. Take a look at what has been happening:
Art Curriculum – RECEIVED
Science Curriculum – RECEIVED (just received in the mail last week!)
Handheld GPS – RECEIVED (just received in the mail last week)
Food List – RECEIVED
Monthly financial supporters – since that letter went out, we’ve RECEIVED 5 new supporters!

STILL NEEDED
Plane Tickets – I just checked the price of tickets and will be $4500 to fly our family back to Asia-Pacific
Satellite Modem – This will enable us to communicate through e- mail while in the tribe. $1500

After His Glory,
James & Nicky Poarch
Along with Emily, Luke, & Samantha

Eating together as a (large) family

Da'an Team-April 2008

A Privilege to Work with the Da’an Tribe

The Da’an people have a history of being drunk, especially the men. They used to drink the strong rice wine together, then go home and beat their wives. This was their way of life. Were they happy? If you ask them today, they would say no! They lived under the control of the bottle. They also lived under the control of their animistic beliefs.
Before they did ANYTHING (even walk on a jungle path), certain rituals had to be done in order to appease the spirits.

After 20+ years of missionaries serving amongst the Da’an people, there is a small thriving church in two of the seven known Da’an villages. Words cannot describe the testament of God’s faithfulness that we see with these Da’an believers. Instead of being controlled by alcohol or by their animistic beliefs, they are living under God’s grace. They have true joy that comes from the fruit of the Spirit.

A year and a half ago, one of the Da’an believers came to one of the New Tribes Mission’s conference that was going on in our local town. At the end of the meetings, he stood up and asked the chairman of New Tribes Mission when they would be able to read God’s Word in their own language. Over the years, no Bible translation has been made into the Da’an language. The man who stood up was desperately wanting missionaries to come. He said they were ready and needed to have the Da’an Bible in order to reach out to neighboring Da’an villages.

Today, in God’s infinite timing, there is a team in the Da’an tribe learning the Da’an language. The goal is to translate the Bible. Nicky and I will be part of this translation team after our one year home assignment. We know it is a real privilege to be a small part of what God is doing amongst the Da’an people.

Our team is made up of a National family, a European family, and our family. It is a truly international team!

Incidentally…this is the same tribal group that my parents, Marvin and Mary Poarch, worked with for twenty years! Isn’t God good?