Much of my life is spent doing childcare. Okay, all of my life is childcare, but on Monday and Thursday mornings I spend half the morning looking after other people’s children at New Tribes Mission. I help look after the children of students who are training to be tribal church planters. It’s a fun time for me because I get out of the house and my kids LOVE it. Every morning Lorelei asks if we get to go to childcare and both her and Delna get extremely disappointed if we don’t end up going, usually because of sickness.

It’s a nice set-up — there are three rooms side by side so I have one of my children in each.  I’m normally in with the toddlers, but every-so-often I end up with the babies and last year I was 3 days a week with the pre-schoolers — so I’m fairly comfortable in any of the rooms.  It’s nice for the children too because when they have the same workers fairly consistently, it gives them a sense that all is right in the world.  I really enjoy getting to know the children and their parents through this ministry.  Definitely a highlight of the week!

This week is Norm’s first week in the office. Norm is my new co-worker. We are sharing an office, so we appreciate your prayers as we settle into what that means.

On the weekend a co-worker in the office let everyone know they are moving on the end of May. They were tribal missionaries in North Asia, then worked in the home office. They were with NTM Canada for some 16 years I think. So they will be leaving a hole.

Tomorrow some co-workers are going to Toronto to invite some Chinese pastors and elders to an NTM informational event on April 24th. I am involved in promoting this event on the 24th. Please pray that I keep balance with all that I am responsible for. Yesterday was a little overwhelming.

Thanks for praying!

On the long weekend in February, after a lot of preparation, Jason, along with co-workers, hosted a Chinese youth group from Toronto. The group arrived late Saturday night and stayed until Sunday after lunch. Everyone had a great time.

Friday night they did some role-playing where they ate some things they didn’t recognize. Then Saturday morning they talked about the importance of communicating clearly across cultures. After a few brave souls went tobogganing Saturday afternoon, everyone spent the evening in a tribal hut around a fire talking with Pete Humphreys, a veteran missionary, about the challenges to planting a church in an isolated tribal group. The Sunday morning, Angie’s brother, Sean, wrapped up the weekend with a challenge out of Habakkuk.

All weekend long, the youth were exposed to NTM and tribal church planting!

We spent Boxing Day with Jason’s Mom and all his siblings.

Then the 27^th we were back at home in order to have Jason’s Dad over to our place. Each day came with a turkey dinner and, of course, there were lots of leftovers to follow! It was also nice that Jason could have a few days off between Christmas and New Years where we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything!

New Year’s Eve we were home with a few family members and we managed to make it until midnight! It was a short night though with church in the morning!

The next week we had a nice surprise and my cousin was able to come for a visit with her two boys. We’ve stayed at their place a number of times, so it was nice to have them to our place for a change. I got to take them all for the winter version of the ‘Jungle Camp’ tour. I think the kids just liked building the snowman at the end of the tour. They didn’t really care too much for trudging through the snow, but at least they all slept well after that!

Yep, the bridge can hold their weight!

Julie and her boys had never been to Jungle Camp

That week there was also free skating each afternoon at the Durham Arena, so we decided we should attempt to take all the kids skating. Ever been skating with a 1, 2, 3, and 4 year old? That doesn’t even include Myelle! Jason and my brother both came with us to help and it still took us a half hour to get everyone’s skates on! That left us with a half hour to skate, but that was enough. Thankfully some friends were at the arena and one of them graciously watched Myelle on the sidelines and another one helped Lorelei out quite a bit. By the end of the time, the kids were just starting to get the hang of things and we forgot our camera, so we decided to try again the next day.

Lorelei showing us how it is done. Not bad for being the first time on skates.

eventually Delena did catch onto how to use the pilon

Our second round of skating, Jason stayed home with Myelle and just two adults took the four kids. Again, a half hour of lacing, but the allotted skating time was longer, so we could actually be on the ice for a full hour. This time we took lots pictures and the kids did a lot better!

As staff at the home office for NTM in Canada, we got a sneak peak at how the students are doing. The actual open house isn’t until July 2-3. I encourage everyone to plan a day trip and see for yourself how resourceful and creative the students are.

Here are some photos from the current class:

Elisabeth and Yvon from Montreal

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Here are some posts from our summer of 2007 in Jungle Camp

Round 1 of Questions about Jungle Camp

Jungle Camp 2007

Hot Water Plumbed into our Jungle Camp Home

Here are some photos from our summer in Jungle Camp:

Angie tying our counter top together

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The police officer was kind enough to knock the offense down to 60 in a 50 km/h. It was on a fairly rural road, with homes only on one side of the road. The speed limit along there kept going from 80 km/h to 50 km/h and back, so I think he knew what he was doing, waiting for us at that particular spot.

Angie’s embarrassing moment was soon over-shadowed by one of Jason’s.

When we got to the hotel, we realized that when we had dropped Delena and Lorelei off at the sitter’s, that Jason had unpacked a little too much. Myelle’s bag was no longer with us. No clothes. No diapers. No snugli. Thankfully Angie had two outfits in Myelle’s diaper bag, which was still with us, and we were able to buy some diapers.

Embarrassing moments out of the way, we had a really relaxing two nights away in Wallaceburg, ON. Co-workers of ours, Wes and Brenda Dyck, were so kind to keep Delena and Lorelei for us.

While Angie’s favourite part about the hotel was the extremely large pool, Jason liked that our room came with supper one night, and breakfast both mornings!

On the way home to Durham, we were able to stop in and wish our mother’s a “Happy Mother’s Day” and do a little bit of shopping! Both Delena and Lorelei were thrilled to see us too! All said and done, it ended up being a very restful weekend, once we got beyond the shaky start.

This is an interesting question, because the answer has been in constant flux since April of 2010. The week before Christmas I revisited my list of current responsibilities.

So here it is, in no particular order:

Help Missionaries serving with NTM:

• designing, editing, proofing, and printing of ministry updates
• designing prayer cards and business cards
• publishing e-news bulletins for Canadian missionaries with NTM
• oversee the development of internal manuals, reimbursement forms, etc

Preparing a New Website

• coordinating the content for a new public-facing NTM website
• planning a campus blog for our new website
• researching companies to help with online donations

Promoting NTM on Canadian Radio

• Oversee the mailing of promotional CDs to 70+ radio stations across Canada
• Oversee followup calls to each of the radio stations

Assist in Mobilization Co-ordination

• Setup and implement salesforce.com
• Oversee the design of new literature and DVDs for promoting NTM, such as Awayo
• Ensure that representatives across Canada have the literature and DVDs they need to be successful
• Help plan how to best follow-up with Canadians who have gone to NTM’s Bible colleges or otherwise been involved with NTM in the past
• Oversee the designing of new retractable banners for our representatives

Helping donors/churches know the impact they are having

• Oversee the thanking of donors to the operations and development funds, both through written notes and phone calls
• Develop a welcome package for first time donors to NTM of Canada
• Continue to develop a “support report” service for churches and donors asking for an update on their missionary’s financial needs

Help with NTM’s social networking efforts internationally

• Oversee the NTM international twitter account, which includes:
  • Daily tweets
  • Thank new followers and engage
  • Listen for mentions of our ministry and engage

Oversee the Canadian version of the NTM@work

• Fine-tune the content of  NTM@work magazine for Canadian donors
• Oversee the printing and mailing across Canada

Teach in the Missionary Training Centre

• I help teach a module/class on “Ministry Partnership Development”. This class is about building and maintaining a team that will pray for you and support you financially. Everyone within NTM has to raise their own support.

I am sure there are things that I do that are not coming to mind right now. And there are things I have taken off my list, such as coaching  graduates of the Missionary Training Centre as they raise their support. I can’t do it all. Technically this list falls into two separate departments: Communications and Media, and Mobilization. The more I get a handle on what my new ministry is, the more my work blends together into “promoting what God is doing in tribal missions across Canada.”

I am thrilled that I don’t have to do this all alone. This last fall I had two interns, and two mom’s (Angie being one of them) helping as they could as well. One of the things on my personal prayer list is a full-time graphic designer, and a full-time administrative aid. Do you know anyone who may be interested in volunteering for a year or two?

Have you got your new NTM@work magazine/calender yet? Did you notice anything different?