NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

A church is born…The following is an email from one of the missionaries.  I loved the testimonies of some of the new believers (names in bold)!

Well it’s official; the new body of believers, the church here in Siar was established yesterday here in Siar land!  On Thursday we taught on the death and burial of Jesus, and then we culminated the teaching yesterday with His resurrection and ascension.  After completing the lesson, I simply asked the Siar if they had any questions or comments and then I sat down.

To be honest I knew where many of the Siar were at in their faith and that many were believing already, but I still felt nervous with a flood of questions running through my mind, “Would any testify to their belief in the gospel?  Would they be clear on the true issues of their personal salvation?” Well after a few quiet moments, my uncertainty was put to rest.

The first to stand was Jon, my translation helper.  He was emotional from the beginning which is not normal for him or any Siar for that matter.  He started by telling the people that he wanted to share with them what God had done for him.  He said that he could share a lot but he wanted to clearly state three main things.  He started by explaining how he used to call himself a pastor and teacher of God’s Word, but he never understand the true God.  He shared how God’s Word in the creation account revealed to Jon the true God who is perfect, all-powerful, and the creator of all things.  He was just amazed at encountering the one true God through His Word.  Jon’s second point was that God’s Word showed him that no matter what he thought about himself, the truth of the matter was that he was a sinner separated from God and the punishment for his sins was ready for him to bear.  Finally he culminated his talk by touching the promise of God that started back in the Garden of Eden and found its fulfillment in the person of Christ and His work on Jon’s behalf.  The previous day as we taught on the death of Christ, we nailed large nails into a cross that we had made and had laid on the ground in the teaching house.  Jon referenced that cross and shared that as he heard the sound of the hammer hitting the nails, he knew that the death on the cross was meant for him and he deserved it but Christ took his place and suffered his punishment for his sin.  He said he firmly believed it, and was confident that God bought him back and that he was now in God’s clan forever.  Jon’s talk ended with a challenge to the others as he said, “You guys, this is the truth – the only truth.  And this is the time for us to decide whether we will believe this or not!  All other issues, ideas, paths to God, are all lies.  But you all need to decide what you will do with this gospel; this was for you and you must decide!”

Next an older man named Tomulai stood and shared how he been up all night “crying in his heart” over the suffering that Jesus experienced for him.  He storied about the severity of the beating that Jesus received and the cruelty of his death on the cross and how that was for him.  He was very emotional and moved by the suffering of Christ on his account.

Another influential village leader named Ogen stood and gave a simple clear testimony that the death of Christ was indeed the only way, the only truth, and the only way to eternal life.  He shared how there have been so many lies they have believed, but that finally now the truth was here and that he believed it.

After that another good friend named Sali stood and was very emotional as he thanked us for leaving our homes and coming here to give them the truth.  He was thankful for that and thankful for the truth of Christ’s death that he now understood and believed in.

There were also a number of ladies who gave clear testimonies after we ended the meeting.  Sakman and Redi sat together and encouraged each other by simply stating, “This is IT.  This is the only truth and only Jesus’ work for me is the truth that can save me.  This talk is SO good, there is no other talk that is bigger than this.  We are believing this truth and we will never leave it for anything else!.”

Tinamidil is a quiet little lady who has faithfully come to the teaching from the beginning.  When asked what she thought of all this, she answered in simple faith, “This is the only truth, that is for sure, and I believe it.”

Another man, Stiven, as we finished the teaching, showed his excitement by pumping his fist and saying over and over, “This is IT!  This is IT!”  He also shared that Jesus’ work was complete and the only way to eternal life.  He shared his total confidence that this message of Christ’s death was the only truth and that he believed it.

These are only but a few of the testimonies and there will be many more to come.  A number of individuals, husbands and wives, older men, and older women have believed.  The main point is this – the truth of the Gospel has shown its bright light into the Siar’s minds and hearts, and many have responded in faith.  Have they arrived yet to the full measure of what God has for them?  Certainly not yet, but have they understood the message of Christ’s salvation for them?  Absolutely!  And with that, the church was born here in Siar land and God has begun the long journey of maturing these believers and unifying them together as a body of believers established on the truth of His Word.

What now?

As exciting and thrilling as it is to see people go from darkness to light and see the salvation of a number of our Siar friends, we know that this is just the beginning of what God wants to do here.  The ultimate desire of God for the Siar is a mature and thriving church comprised of Siar men and women who are grounded, growing, and dependant on the Word of God alone.  What that means is that we are not standing at the end of this work with the Siar, but we are at the very beginning.

What does that mean for us?  It means that tons of work lies ahead: Bible translation, lesson writing, equipping and discipleship, and further outreach.  It means beginning the long journey of walking through life with these new Siar believers, and see them mature as inidividuals and as a group.  We plan to take one week off from teaching, and we will visit the Siar and talk with them to get a better idea of their understanding of the gospel and their personal application of that truth.  On Thursday of next week we will meet again with the group to review and encourage them in the Gospel, share testimonies, and also to plan with them for our next phase of teaching and instruction in God’s Word.  We will be sure to update you at that time.

What does that mean for you?  Prayer.  Our team has been amazed and very thankful for all of you who have prayed faithfully for the Siar’s salvation, but if you were entertaining thoughts that your job was over now, think again!  Salvation is not the ultimate goal of God for mankind, it is only the beginning of what He wants to do.  If we understand the goal of God for the Siar is their maturity as a body of believers united and growing in truth and reaching out to those who have yet to hear, then your intercession of behalf of the Siar has just begun.

May the testimony of the Siar be a challenge to all of us to commit to whatever is necessary to build them up and present them complete in Christ.  We are so thankful for all of you that have prayed faithfully for the Siar.  As is the case with God, those prayers weren’t in vain, and the new Siar church is evidence to that fact.  Rejoice with us and with the angels as the celebration in Heaven is still going strong for the new names written in the Book of Life!

Lane for the Siar Team

To see any of the pictures bigger, just click on them.

1) It started with graduation at the end of May.  19 new missionaries heading out around the world!

2) Good friends of ours, Dave and Dona, came all the way out from Oregon to see us!  They spent 4 days here.  Dave poured a sidewalk with Joel, worked with him, and went to the boys’ jail Joel does an outreach in.  Dona cleaned, read books to the kids, cleaned, went on a middle of the night ER trip with us, and did I mention cleaned?  I got spoiled!

They quickly won the boys over.  During praise and prayer time at church Samuel raised his hand to say, “I love these friends.”  Melt my heart!  We love them too!  Thanks for coming!

Dave and Joel pouring a sidewalk

Dona and the boys

3) Camping in KY with Joel’s immediate family.  Our garage-saled, untried tent held up fabulously through all the downpours!  What a blast it was to be together with everyone.

Can you get the Oreo from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands?

Joel's brother, Jason can!

All that rain doesn't stop any fun - it makes more of it! (MUD!)

Grandma and Adam

4) Enrichment Conference – a conference we host here for NTM missionaries that are home on furlough.  A time to encourage and refresh them.  I helped in the childcare program and Joel worked late hours making sure everything was running smoothly.  We had a couple hundred attendees.  And it was so fun to see friends of ours home from the field.

5) Vacation to the lake home of some friends.  They spoiled us – taking the boys on their horse, sending Joel and the boys out for adventures on their 4-wheeler, taking us out on their boat…  It was a great time of R&R.  Thank you Ray and Vicki!

With Samuel

With Judah

So fun!

Having fun swimming

Samuel kept saying, "Faster! Faster!" but Judah was content to cruise slowly along.

Adam was so calm and was content to just lay back and float.

Being on the boat would put him straight to sleep.

Ray was brave! He let Samuel drive the boat all by himself. His favorite part was throwing the throttle forward! "I want to go fast!" was a common thing we heard.

Thank you so much for your gifts to us!  We don’t even know if you look at our blog, but I’m praying God will send you to it so that you can see this.  Since we don’t get to thank you personally, I thought I’d put a note on here in hopes that you will see it.

You are such a blessing to us (as are all our supporters and pray-ers!).  We are grateful for your ministry to us.  Thank you for your sacrificial giving to God for the purpose of reaching unreached tribal people!

Seems like I have a lot of posts about doctor visits!  : )  Well here’s another one.

Samuel woke up late last night gasping and trying so hard to suck air through a swollen throat.  He was totally fine all day and when he went to bed, so we didn’t know what was going on!

We had friends visiting from our sending church so we called them and the wife graciously got out of bed and took off with Joel to the ER so that she could try to help keep Samuel calm (he was very agitated) and monitor his breathing on the way to make sure an ambulance didn’t need to be called.

After oxygen, steroids, breathing treatments and something to decrease the swelling in his throat he was released with a diagnosis of croup.  I had no idea that could come on so quickly and could case such serious breathing troubles.

Thank you, God that he’s okay.  More adventures in Snyderland.  : )

This was all after Judah got stung by a wasp on Saturday.  His already super-pudgy hand swelled up and has red areas and bumps all over on it.  It doesn’t look any better yet, but it doesn’t look any worse either.  Still keeping an eye on that.

The day was bright and sunny.  Our van-load of volunteers was eager to put in a long day’s work helping the victims of the Joplin tornado.  Things were different this time, though, as the government was now directly involved: FEMA, OSHA & the United Way.

Difference #1 – “Minors are no longer allowed in the field [disaster area]” read a sign as we approached that volunteer check-in area.  We had brought two teens so that meant our group would have to be split up.

Difference #2 – “No personal gas allowed; it will be provided in the field” we were told when we checked in as a chainsaw crew.  We had our own gas, but had to leave it because of this new rule.  We had brought two chainsaws but didn’t get any gas till after lunch which meant they sat silent all morning.  That was frustrating.

Difference #3 – When we got on the bus to go to the field, a guy with the United Way got on after us and gave a several minute speech thanking us for our efforts, encouraging us to think about the people impacted and how we were being impacted, reminding us to be safe and informing us that if we had any emotional stress from what we were going to see or experience there was free counseling available at some phone number.

When we did finally get to work, we did less standing around this time than last week.  We worked in a nicer part neighborhood, where the houses were mostly still standing but completely trashed.  The home-owner of the first house was a 70-something looking man that was there the whole time we were.  He must have signed a waiver for heavy equipment to drive on his driveway because a large front-end loader with jaws came at one point and moved several piles of large trees to the curb.

After lunch, we went around the corner to another lot where a number of trees had been felled but not cut up or hauled off the lot.  So with our chainsaws now fueled up, we cut and hauled them.

The last place they took us to was down a dirt road and seemed to be on the edge of town.  There were a few destroyed houses but mostly just a bunch of mangled trees.  We cut and hauled once again, but made only minimal impact as the area was so large.  It was said that we were working where the tornado originally touched down.

The heat seemed to drain the energy right out of us (it was well into the 90s with plenty of Missouri humidity).  We were originally told that we would end that day at 4pm due to heat and I thought, “No way!  We came to work and I want to work till dark.”  But by 3pm everyone was done.  On the ride back to our vehicle, I got to talk to a lady about tribal missions.  Her only question was, “Why don’t you just teach them English?” so I got to explain about that and other things.

Once again, all through the day people were driving around offering drinks and food.  At the end of the day, we waited for a meal by the “where’s the beef” people and then left, arriving home much earlier than last week but probably just as tired and maybe more so.  We were grateful for safety and a good team spirit.  Thank you for your prayers!

I (Joel) had the opportunity to go to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri on Friday.  There were about 25 of us that went, leaving about 5:30am and getting back about 10pm.

The worst-struck parts of the city are on lockdown, so if you want to work there you have to park in a certain place where you then get id’ed, fill out a work experience sheet and finally get shuttled by school bus to a “work zone check in” where you are divided into groups and taken to specific area – we worked around Jackson Street.  To get to your specific work area you had to walk, and walk, and walk.  There was no transportation available in the work zone so you have to take all of your gear with you on foot.  We were coming as a chainsaw crew so we had chainsaws, gas and oil, all our food and water for the day, safety gear, etc.  It was quite the trek!

Having grown up in Central Florida, I’ve seen first-hand what wind can do – but this was different from hurricane damage.  While the destruction is not near as widespread as a hurricane it was more concentrated and more intense.

Everywhere around us we saw houses flattened or completely gone, trees down, and cars smashed and laying in some awkward position.  One house might have minimal damage while the house across the street would be completely gone, or entire neighborhoods would be destroyed.  There was a lot of sheet metal wrapped around or hanging from broken trees and poles.  The absence of vegetation was striking.  All the big trees were stripped bare and most small shrubs were gone.

There were a lot of volunteers working around us and quite a few other volunteers driving around offering us drinks and food.  We spent the day cutting trees and piling the wood by the roadside.  Our efforts seemed futile, to be honest, but we knew we had made a difference.

Thank you for your prayers.  It was a privilege to go, and I hope to return on a subsequent trip.  Praise the Lord there were no injuries and some of our group even had some opportunities to talk to and encourage some survivors.

That’s what “Jane” told me when she called me crying earlier this week.  “Jane” is a new believer I’m discipling.  She proceeded to pour out her hurt – her relationship with her husband is a wreck and she wants out…she doesn’t want to live this way, but she doesn’t actually want the relationship to end.

It gets harder – her husband isn’t actually her husband.  She considers him her husband – they’ve lived together for many years and had a number of children together, but they never did get married.  She recently got saved, but he’s not a believer.

So how do you counsel her with that?!?!?  He’s not a believer and biblically we aren’t to marry unbelievers.  Should she not even try to repair this “marriage”?  But they have a life together and young children together.

Since she’s not married should she take the kids and leave?  That can’t be right.  Yikes.  I like things with easy answers.  But sin is so messy.  When I see things like this, I see why God gives us parameters.  He’s saving us tremendous heartache!

At this point, she’s not even at the point of dealing with those questions yet.  That’s just what’s running through my mind.  With her I just went through a lot of verses about how God is our Comforter, our Refuge and our Strength, how He’s always with us and walks with us through everything.  I wanted to point her to the One that is always there for her and longs to love and comfort her…to remind her to run to Him with all her hurt and questions.

Please pray for me as I meet regularly with her.  I really need WISDOM!