NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

I was recently sitting with one of my neighbors. He is an old man whose father had once killed and ate a wild rhino years ago. I was asking him about the Da’an word for “God” or the creator being, which is in Da’an [Mohontara']. I asked him about the background of this [Mohontara']. He explained that [Mohontara'] was always good, and that [Mohontara'] created everything and that everything that was created was good. My neighbor then became silent and sat thinking for a bit. We were sitting on the floor of his house and he motioned towards the floor and cracks in between the boards and then asked me, “Why then did [Mohontara'] create mosquitoes, and biting ants, and centipedes? If [Mohontara'] made everything good, and these things hurt us, what happened? I then had an opportunity to explain to him about how things started out perfect, then were ruined by man’s sin, then how [Mohontara'] made everything perfect again by sending his Son.

Please be praying that [Mohontara'] would open his eyes and heart to this message.

************************************************** James & Nicky Poarch **************************************************

February Update Serving in West Borneo, Indonesia amongst the Da’an people

PRAISE THE LORD, our first language check is BEHIND us now. We’re 50% finished with learning the Da’an language. We had a very encouraging time as our language consultants came and visited. We now have more goals and vision for where to explore more in the culture and have been encouraged with the techniques we have been using to learn language. These are the very techniques we were trained to use all those years ago while in the States training with New Tribes Mission. Our HOUSE ADDITION is going very well. We’re so thankful for the funds we’re still receiving for this. We can hardly wait to have MORE room in our house as well as our team office to get up and running. Thank you all for praying for us! Enjoy the pictures below!

PRAYER REQUESTS FOCUS After having a 2+ week break, pray that we would all have an easy transition back into tribal life. FRIENDS Would you please pray with us for our children to make friends in the tribe? They do have friends, however, we’d like to see these friendships reach a deeper level. TEAM Pictured above is just part of our Da’an team. As you know another Indonesian couple is on our team…as well as the whole Da’an church. Pray that we would have unity within this international/multi-cultural team. Pray that His Name would be glorified as we work together. MOM A few weeks ago, we received word that James’ mom got diagnosed with cancer. Will you please join us in praying for her as well as the whole family? Three out of four of the children are serving overseas. James’ sister will be traveling back to be with her as she faces surgery on March 4th. After that, she will have radiation treatments.

Love, James & Nicky Poarch

The Poarch Page January Update, 2011 Building Update Imagine living in the middle of the jungle on the island of Borneo in Indonesia! Now imagine all the “perks” of living there. The privilege of using the “best iron-wood available” for building your house. “Best iron-wood available” meaning the hardest and longest lasting wood in the world! Wood that has been on a tree for hundreds of years, and that will last at least another hundred years being a post on your house! Wood that lasts longer being stored in water! Also, imagine the privilege of building most of your house “log-cabin style” using wooden pins (almost the same type used on the Ark during Noah’s time). Now, imagine being able to live in this place for the purpose of translating the Bible into the language of the people, people whose language goes back to the Tower of Babel. (well, I guess all of our languages more or less go back there . What a privilege to be able to enjoy these things, we are blessed more than we can imagine.

The plans for the addition on our home seem to be taking off now. This includes our team office where the translation will take place. There has been a lot to do in preparation for the actual building. For a couple of weeks now, we have been getting the wood ready. We have consistently had two workers working on planing our wood. We could have had this work speeded up much more, however, we haven’t wanted James to lose out on the time he also needs for language & culture study. So we have been taking it slow on purpose so that he can do both. This week, our workers have grown to 6 now. We had a meeting with those wanting to work to talk about their pay. As the addition gets built, we will keep you updated with pictures.

[cid:AB340C97-D878-44FD-AE3E-ABF9554952BC] [cid:010D73E2-19A6-4BE9-9279-92F6E1DBA405] [cid:12F21DED-3B70-4190-B47F-F551D75AF49B] Here the men are working to get the wood ready. Stacks of wood we’ll use for our addition. Here is the meeting we had in our home regarding pay. Language Check In about a month’s time, we will be having our first language check. Maybe you’re wondering “What does a language check consist of?” OR “What is it?”. Since this is the FIRST TRIBAL language check, we’re also learning what it entails…however, we do know that consultants our field has come in for about a week. They then test James & I to see how well we’re progressing in language learning. There are 4 checks in all, and since our ultimate goal is to translate the Bible, we have to pass all 4 checks. In order to start literacy, we have to pass check 3. For this check, James will be checked on check 2 and myself on check 1. On top of language, we also have to be showing fruit of diving into the culture as well. In our ‘culture file’ we are asked to have about 180 different ‘cultural events’ or cultural things we’ve experienced along with the tribal people which teaches us more how they live and think. Some of these ‘events’ that we’ve already experienced have been burning rice fields, planting rice fields, picking green vegetables, cooking, fishing, funerals, weddings, etc. There are MANY other ‘events’ yet to be observed, and 180 is the recommendation up until check two, after that we will need to add more! This file is kept as a team and it’s so good to study them out more after experiencing them. This greatly helps with our language learning AND relationship building. The people seem to love that we’re taking an interest in their lives.

Something funny that is going on right now is that as we’ve told the people our language check is coming up, they have recently ALL become our teachers, correcting our grammatical mistakes as well as our pronunciation mistakes directly. Usually they are not as bold in HELPING us so it’s kind of nice to see the people cheering us on in wanting us to pass!

The Sindels, our coworkers, are also on check 2 along with James. Our Indonesian coworkers, the Korengkengs, are finished with all 4 language checks. They will be coming back from their six month furlough at the end of this month. Since they are finished with their checks, they are free to move onto teaching, literacy, or other ministries.

Health Since taking Luke off milk, his stomach problems have definitely been less. There have been flare-ups where he complains about it again. But during those times, I can usually trace it back to an ingredient that had milk in it. I also started taking Luke off gluten, but after switching to rice flour, it seemed to make his stomach aches worse! So for now, we’re sticking with the non-dairy milk diet. Eventually, we would like to see an specialist about it. He also struggles with allergies to mold, dust, etc. It’s been challenging to stay on top of all that living here in the jungle!

Realizations As we have been meeting with the believers in the village in different settings, it’s been eye-opening to us how much they do not know much about the Bible. Except for the elders, who do know their Bibles well, the rest really don’t. I’m sure they were taught in the past, however, they haven’t understood. Perhaps it’s because they’ve never been able to read it in their own language OR whenever they have heard the story, they have only heard the story in Indonesian and their Indonesian language ability is poor. OR they could’ve just forgotten! Whatever the case may be, the Lord is showing us how much these people NEED HIS WORD in their own tongue. They do not have a good grasp of who God is. We often hear believers saying, “God’s going to punish you for doing that!” OR “He’s sick because God is punishing him”. This is their concept of God. They haven’t yet connected with God’s love in a real way. Oh, it’s going to be so great when they can read and understand ANEW of who God is and how He thinks towards them. We can hardly wait!

Thank you all for praying for us. We know you have been and at times when we feel strengthened beyond our strength or when we understand something in the language anew, we’re reminded of Him who is enabling us to be here, and we’re often reminded of all of you praying for us too.

Because He said “Go”, James, Nicky, Emily, Luke, & Samantha Poarch

************************************************** James & Nicky Poarch Missionaries to West Borneo, Indonesia with NTM Weblog: www.ntm.org/james_poarch **************************************************

The Poarch Page November, 2010 The Newsletter of James & Nicky Poarch Serving in West Borneo, Indonesia with New Tribes Mission

After our two week break in town, we returned to the tribe here refreshed & ready to dive into language learning again. We’re learning how important it is to take some breaks in a different setting (like in town). This break helps us gear up again for living here. We may come out from the tribe every 3-4 months for a 2 week ‘break’.

As we said in our last newsletter, our church has been teaching through the Bible Chronologically, starting in Genesis. Last week, James had the opportunity to teach the lesson about Shem, Ham, & Japeth and how they spread throughout the world and which corners of the world they went to, and to which nations they started. It was neat to hang up a map of the world and have the people learn and see the plan which God had in placing people in certain parts of the world, with their specific skin tone, with the type of weather that is there. It pointed to a God Who created a perfect world! (See picture below of James teaching). [cid:image001.jpg@01CB8B49.19285C20] [cid:image002.jpg@01CB8B49.19285C20] [cid:image003.jpg@01CB8B49.19285C20] Meanwhile, we are joining in as much as we can with the people in their daily activities as well as any special things going on. This helps us learn new words and converse with the people daily in a natural setting. Please pray that we would be able to consistently get language either through these activities or through meeting with people in their homes. It’s a busy time right now with the people taking care of their rice fields. So at times, getting a good language session can be difficult.

Sometimes we will be sitting at our kitchen table and we’ll see a large amount of boards being carried on someone’s shoulders. James & I usually start craning our necks to see which guy has been working & cutting wood. Lo & behold…it’s usually not a MAN but a WOMAN who is carrying this heavy load. The majority of the hard work in this village is actually done by the women. A couple days ago, James & I joined a husband & wife to their rice field (see picture on far right above). As the wife & I were doing the work, the husband just stood there and watched and talked with James. James offered to help us, but the husband laughed and said “no, no, this is not our work” meaning it was the work of a woman to work in the fields. The labour that is solely the man’s in this tribe is chainsawing wood. All other work is either the woman’s or both, but usually the women do almost everything else. This fact is just incredible! I tried to explain one day to another lady that in America the heavy lifting is left for a man to do (usually), of which she replied, “oh, women in America don’t work!”. Obviously I didn’t get that across the right way! I’m sure with us living here, it will allow these people to see how our husbands help us carry things and even help and care for our children. Having them see things done in a different way will definitely broaden their worldview.

Prayer Requests: 1. We need to be able to start our addition soon. It’s a bit overwhelming to actually begin this process, we have to count our wood according to the measurements of our addition, we have to get workers, and it will take James huge amounts of time organizing it all. We also need a bit more money than we originally thought. At the moment we have $2,500 towards this project, we are projecting we will need closer to $4000 than the $3000 earlier projection.

2. Health. Luke has been having some health problems with his digestion. Please pray that we would find ways daily to help him eat things that would be a help. It’s hard when certain foods run out. Please also pray that our family would remain malaria & dengue fever free.

Thank you all for being a piece of our ministry as the Lord is choosing to use us here amongst the Da’an people.

In His care, James, Nicky, Emily, Luke, & Samantha Poarch

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Hi All,

This may sound like a popular movie title at first, but sometimes this is the reality. We recently “attended” an activity where all the people in the village went to a small tributary to our river (a large stream) where they made a fence across the stream for when the large “Bornean Giant Catfish” will spawn up the river. When they do spawn during high water, the people guarding the gate, will close the gate and trap the fish. Some of these catfish are as big as I (James) am! The people will then attempt to spear the fish with special spears and then jump into the water and drag them into shore. Once this happened and the fish was not yet dead and the thing bit one guy on the head. Actually put its teeth around the man’s head and bit him. I don’t think the guy will do that again.

We hope to join in on the action, at least everything except for getting bit on the head by a fish. I would love to bring my double-barreled shotgun for this event, but sadly guns are not allowed in this country. So, I am stuck with using a spear just like everyone else.

**************************************************

Serving among the Da’an people of West Borneo, Indonesia

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Hi everyone,

Just wanted to update my blog and let everyone know that I, James, made it safely to the village. I am posting this via satellite modem that we have for use here. I arrived last week in the rain and was able to bring everything in on the boat. I loaded the boat and then took the trail bike over the mountain to meet the boat at our village. Everything arrived safely. I am now in the process of working on our house and fixing it up for when Nicky and the kids come in. I am taking out some of the ceiling and opening up the inside of the house. I am also fixing all the AC and DC wiring in the whole house and adding some solar panels to the existing panels that I have. My solar electric system is working well. I am the only house for miles around that has lights and no noise of a generator!

Thanks to all who are praying for this time Nicky and I are apart. James

Hi all, just wanted to update you on our status.

We made it safely to Indonesia and are planning for our trip into our village. I, James, will go first for about 3 weeks as there is some work that needs to be done on our house first.

James & Nicky

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James & Nicky Poarch

www.ntm.org/james_poarch

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Well, we are here on the other side of the Pacific ocean.  I am in Malaysia while Nicky and the kids are on their way to Indonesia.  I have to stay here for a few days to see my skin doctor (all this tropical sun which I love…).

Thanks for praying for us and our travels, we are doing well and getting adjusted.  All our bags seem to have made it fine and nothing missing [which is nice ]  Its nice to be near home again.  And the food is great once again!  I do like American food, but nothing beats authentic asian food, fried rice, fried noodles, and lots of it.

James and Nicky and kids

bags for travel

We are loading everything up into our bags to get ready to fly to Indonesia.  We leave next week.  We are so excited to finally get going!  Thanks for praying for us and for our journey.