NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Something happened the other day that was an incredible reminder to me to have faith like a child. There is a scratch-off contest going on right now at our local grocery store, and after shopping one day, I brought home some tickets to scratch off. Anastasia (our 6 year old) asked me if she could scratch off the cards. In order to win, you must have the same picture on the 3 bubbles that you scratch off. After a few minutes, I had completely forgotten about them. She ran up to me, very excited, and said, “God is answering my prayers!” She had scratch off 2 of the 3 needed, and they were the same picture. I smiled and said, ‘Yes’, but I really didn’t believe that she would win. The probability was very low. But after a minute later, I heard her say, “Yes!! God helped me! I won!” How humbling it was for me to realize that she had complete, unabandoned faith in the Lord to answer her prayer. As adults, we use reason and logic and forget that God is above that! He doesn’t operate on our finite logic.
A few days later, she was telling her friends that she won, and they said, “Wow! How did you do that?”
And her simple response was, “I prayed!”
How often do we pray and actually believe that God can do what we ask? Or that He will?
The Lord has been teaching me so much in this area lately. He wants us to ask Him for things, believing that He can and will provide for us if it’s in accordance with his will. We know that He can choose to say no to any of our requests, but how many times might he answer with a yes, if we would just ask?
The next day I took Anastasia to the store to turn in her winning ticket. She won $5. As soon as she had that bill in her hands, she immediately took me to the flower section, because she wanted to give someone flowers. As soon as she got home, she put them in a vase and gave them to me. She had spent her winnings to give me something special, completely unselfishly. What a beautiful picture of how God treats us. He has given us so much–something so much more precious than flowers from a sweet girl. I want to remember that every minute of every day!!!
Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with salvation through your son, Jesus Christ!

This week, we are thankful.  Thankful for so many blessings that God has given us–family, friends, a wonderful church, an exciting ministry, and most importantly, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.  We are so blessed to have been born in a country where the gospel is taught freely, the Bible has been translated into English (multiple times), and we have access to so many churches and Biblical resources.  There are so many people in the world that do not have access to any of that, and as we remember the things we have, we want to keep those people in mind.  Let us not forget them!  There are over 2100 language groups with absolutely NO part of the Bible translated into their language!  Let us persevere in our goal of reaching those groups with the gospel!!!

We do not deserve to have been privileged with the opportunity to hear the gospel!  Thank you, Lord, that you have allowed us to hear the good news of Jesus Christ!

Our change in ministry is getting closer by the minute.  It seems like yesterday that Jason and I came on staff at New Tribes Bible Institute almost 10 years ago, and our hearts are torn with the thought of leaving.  We have come to love the community of believers here, ministering to them as well as allowing them to minister to us.  They have become family, and it will be very difficult to leave the place that we call home.

But we are excited about the direction that God has given us.  Many of the students that we have taught in the past are the same ones that we will be working with in the future–Bible translators.  These people have come through our training and are now working diligently on giving the Word of God to people who have never heard of Him.  We are thrilled to be helping them in any way that we can!

By way of update:  We will be heading down to Missouri in a couple weeks for a short trip to visit with the leadership of the Missionary Training Center and look at houses.  We have to be out of our house here at NTBI by June, so we need to begin deciding where we are going to live in Missouri.  We are planning on needing to buy a house near the Training Center, so we are going to start that process. 

How we’re going to do that is something I have yet to figure out.  We don’t have enough monthly support to pay for all the expenses that come with owning a home.  But we know that God is moving us in this direction, so we know that He will provide; maybe even through some of you. Would you pray with us that God will raise up people who are excited about Bible translation that would like to join our team?  We cannot be involved in this ministry alone–we need a whole team to get the job done!  Thank you to those of you who are already involved in spreading the good news of Christ to those who have never heard!

Yesterday, Jason left for a 10 day trip to Fresno, California to teach a Greek course at Fresno State University.  He is one of 4 teachers who are teaching this intensive Greek course, living language style.  The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, but no one speaks it today…until now!  There are a few people out there that are trying to resurrect this language, so that Bible study comes easier to them.  Well, Jason is one of the few, so he is out there gaining more experience in the language as well as teaching the 20 students in the course. 

The kids and I, of course, are going to miss him, but are excited about this opportunity for him.  Just pray that we won’t miss him too much while he’s gone! 

As we change ministries over the next year, travel will become a frequent reality for our family.  I hope that as that happens, our family is able to go with him on most of his trips, so that we are ministering as a family.  The kids and I want to be as much a part of the ministry as Jason.

“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him.”  Prov. 26:12

So often in our walk with God, we compare ourselves with others.  We start feeling pride in our ability to respond to others in a kind fashion, make right choices, etc.  I (Stephanie) find myself forgetting who I really am and what I really deserve. 

Today, as in every day, Jason was in pain and feeling bad, and made a comment that I took offensively.  He didn’t mean anything by it, but I took it wrong.  It was my response that was wrong, not his comment.  When we talked about it, he told me how he was just reading in James that we should be slow to speak, and that he should have kept his comment to himself.  He was sorry, we both apologized, and all was fine. (I know if you’re reading this right now, you’re shocked that Jason and I ever do anything wrong!)

As I was reading my Bible afterward, I came across the verse above.  So many times we focus on what others have done wrong, instead of realizing our own rotten sinfulness.  It was such a good reminder that our best (which was not what I had exhibited) is horrible compared to the holiness of God.  Thank God that He doesn’t require holiness of us, in and of ourselves.  We could never attain holiness without the precious blood of Christ.  In Him and only Him, can we truly be righteous.  I need constant reminder of the wretchedness of my sin and my daily need for a savior.  I need Him every day, depending on Him to conform me to His image.

“Where no oxen are, the manger is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of the ox.”  Proverbs 14:4

I read this verse this morning, and I loved it!!  So I thought I would share it.  Not calling my kids oxen or anything…but if the shoe fits…   This is a verse that I should have learned long ago, but now, in the middle of summer, with my kids coming in and out of the house all day, it was a good reminder that my house doesn’t always need to be perfectly clean and neat.  In my family, there is strength, and I want to enjoy that every day!

Well, it is official. We will transition completely into a translation training ministry next summer.  This year will be our final year at New Tribes Bible Institute.  While we have loved our time here tremendously and are very sad to leave, we are confident that the Lord is moving us in a new direction.  Jason will begin training our translation consultants and translators in Greek beginning next summer, the summer of 2012.  We are thrilled that we will be a part of the translation process for multiple translations around the world!  How exciting is it to see the Word of God be put in a language that has never had the Bible in that language before!  These people groups will be able to read, for themselves, what God is saying to them!  And we get to be a part of that!  We are so excited about this opportunity!

Jason’s new ministry will include workshops for the translators, both overseas and here in America.  He will also be answering email questions that the translators have about the meaning of a passage, developing resources for their benefit, and a host of other jobs that will eventually make the translators’ jobs much easier.

As we make this transition, we have a lot of questions in our mind.  Where will we live?  How much will Jason travel?  Will we have to raise more support?  How will the kids do with this transition?  What will life look like in a couple years?  As we find answers to our questions, we will update you all as clearly as possible.  We are confident that God is moving us in this direction, so we are equally confident that He will provide for us in every way we need.

Lifest was so much fun!!!  It is a christian music festival held each summer in Oshkosh, WI.  This year New Tribes Bible Institute decided to set up a booth to promote NTM and tribal missions.  We shared about NTBI, Wayumi, and other opportunities with New Tribes Mission.  It was incredible!!  We went with 3 other families: the Freemans, the Winters, and the Links.  Our team was able to talk to numerous people who were very interested in what New Tribes does.  Many of them had never heard of New Tribes, and most had never considered tribal missions.  Others had felt the Lord directing them into missions, but didn’t know where to begin.  We were able to encourage them and point them in the right direction.  What a blessing!  I am so excited to see what the Lord will do in these lives in the years to come.  Not to mention that we had an awesome time going to concerts–Newsboys, Group 1 Crew, Toby Mac, and Skillet to name a few.