Jared and Dieneke Henderson enroute to Papua New Guinea About
We are members of New Tribes Mission and now enroute to Papua New Guinea. What does enroute mean? I don’t know exactly, but it sounds better than “awaiting assignment”, right? We finished our training at the Missionary Training Center, including the extra Linguistics training. We hope to be serving in Papua New Guinea in July 2012. Here are our stories of how we got here:
Jared:
I grew up in a Christian home and at the age of six I realized I was a sinner in God’s sight and needed His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. I don’t remember much about when I was saved except that I was sitting beside my mom on her bed. After that, I attended church and participated in things like Choir, Bible Drill and Youth Camps, slowly learning more and more about the Lord and His Word.
Soon after graduating high school, I had a goal of becoming a pilot, my lifelong dream; but I had no motivation to pursue it. I was challenged to be a part of global missions when my youth pastor left his position at the church to join NTM. After meeting with the local NTM representative and reviewing his material, I was motivated to pursue missionary aviation. After going to NTBI and getting married I started flight training and realized I had waited too long to be able to finish the aviation training in a reasonable time. I also realized that my motivation for missionary aviation wasn’t about aviation at all; it’s about God’s desire for all to understand the Gospel.
Since then, I’ve progressed to the next step in training and discovered a gift in language comprehension I never knew I had. Even though our plans have changed some, the goal and the purpose is still the same: to work toward seeing all people reached with the Gospel because God “is not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Dieneke:
Growing up, we moved a lot, and throughout all the change, one thing stayed the same. No matter how hard I tried I could never seem to be good. I tried not to hit, I tried not to steal, I tried not to lie, but to no avail. When I was about 6 or 7 I realized that all my sin would be sending me to hell, and so for fear I begged God to save me and “Come into my heart” though I didn’t know what that meant. It wasn’t really until I was 13 that I began to really consider how much more God had saved us from than just eternal punishment.
By 15 I had begun to really study the word for myself and search out what the Lord had to teach me. Being raised in a strong Christian home, I had been instilled with the fact that there was nothing of more importance than the Lord. So I decided to try it; to devote myself wholly to Him. I had no idea how much that one decision would totally transform my life.
I found this verse written to Timothy that has become my inspiration. “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” (1 Tim. 4:12) The next verse goes on to instruct Timothy to read, exhort, and teach scripture. There is nothing greater I can do with my life that to commit it to the Lord and His work. I have often decided to take my life back from the Lord and live it for my own desires, but every time the Lord brings me back to Himself showing me once again that there is no greater joy and fulfillment found than to live wholly for Christ and the glory of His name.
