Waukesha’s population is somewhere around 65,000 +, over 4 times the size of Corning. Traffic is not bad at all however don’t try to drive west at 9am, 1pm, or 7pm (ish) the train blocks everything during that time! We forgot that, and got stuck waiting for a really long train as we were taking Chloe to the doctors for flu-like symptoms. The doctor gave her some meds and she is rest now… But after going out for the meds, Becki and I almost got stuck waiting for the train again… but I know the short cut too!

So the kids have been use to getting up at 6:20am for school, jumping on the bus at 7:20am, being at school for 8 hours, then ride the bus home, eat a snack and start into homework…

Now Chloe and Ellie’s day looks not so structured. I wake them up around 730am, they eat breakfast, log in on their computers and check out what classes they have for the day. Yup! They are homeschooling! But through the public school here in WI. It’s called IQ Academy. Some days they love it, others they “hate it”. One week they were done by Thursday with all their work and this week they actually started Sunday night (kind of crazy I know). But what a whole new idea for school! the transition into this is not easy on any of us, but we think they are doing pretty well considering they have never had to be completely self-motivated.

Derek is working through the Abeka curriculum with Becki. They work on it for a few hours in the morning and for a while in the afternoon. Again totally new schooling idea for Derek. Some days he is all for it and does really well. Then others he is defiant and wants to have 21 other kids around him. However, he is doing really well overall and enjoys the time “off” that he gets.

Derek has done some “rock climbing” here. In the gym about a year ago they installed a rock wall for climbing, so he has been all over that!

Ellie and Chloe, started running on the treadmills in the gym here and have run a couple of miles each time. Derek tries to play with a couple of the other boys here. He and another boy jumped over some boxes 25 times, he was very excited about being able to do that so many times!

Tori, is doing a Zumba class once a week, too.

Becki and I have been clearing out and re-organizing our storage area and I have been trying to figure out a good setup for my office.

Over the last two weeks I have had the privilege of doing out for coffee and conversation with 8 different guys, who love Christ and want to see every people group discipled. These guys with their open and honest responses to God’s word and their willingness to be transparent within relationships has deeply challenged and encouraged me. I am so excited to see how God is going to use these guys!

At the end of February the NTBI is hosting a “Prospective Students Weekend”, where many people come to see the school, attend classes and meet students and staff, to see if this might be a place they want to come for Bible training. We are all very excited about this and would ask that you pray that many people will come for a visit and that God would direct them here in the near future!

Thanks for taking a few minutes to check up on us!

We love you all,

The Bennetts.

God’s Perspective is a Global perspective!

Every Tongue… Every People Group… Every Tribe… Every Nation!

Nothing less than people from every walk of life!

We look to Him; for salvation, for provision, within our deepest sorrows and greatest joys…

But do we look for Him in our life plans or for our goals for this life?

If our Creator God has the goal to have every, that’s EVERY, people group and language worshiping before His throne in Heaven…

I have to ask… Do our lives, mine and yours, demonstrate that we truly our lining our hearts up with His? Our thoughts to His thoughts?

Or does it demonstrate that we are not lining our lives up with His?

God so loved the World that He gave His only Son!

Our God is about the whole world.

God’s perspective is the right perspective!

Lord, teach us again to focus on and trust in You and Your Word.

Thank you for loving God

and

for offering yourself as a living sacrifice.

For one day around His throne there will be people from every Tribe, Tongue, People and Nation!

How can you play an active part in this?

Pray… Give… Go!!!

]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2012/02/02/gods-perspective/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2012/01/11/2012-the-end-or-the-beginning/ http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2012/01/11/2012-the-end-or-the-beginning/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:37:30 +0000 John and Becki Bennett http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/?p=218 For a while now we have heard things like; “All of the ancient calendars end in 2012″, “2012 will usher in the end of the world”, “2012 the world ends”… WELL…

For us 2012 is only… “THE END”… of our time in New York!

(We already miss our friends and family back home)

2012

is actually THE BEGINNING of our time in Wisconsin!

so…

Hello from the New Tribes Bible Institute in Waukesha! (http://ntbi.org/)

After a great time with family and friends over Christmas and New Years, as well as saying our final “good-byes” to our home church (http://www.northbaptist.org/); we hurried around our little house in NY to pack up all that we had…

here we sit in Waukesha unpacking all that we have.

Over the last 6 years God has always shown Himself strong enough to take good care of us! We are loved by and serve the Only True God!

Our kids are adjusting well, they have all taken part in traveling down 4 flights of stairs to do laundry… partly because it will text you when your load is done. (Crazy right… but true).

We have been welcomed at NTBI with open arms and excitement. We are attempting to settle our new apartment quickly, but when you haven’t seen 3/4 of our stuff for almost 2 years it takes a while to go through it and decide where it will go and whether or not you still need it.

Classes here at NTBI start next week, so there are new students and returning students arriving daily. Becki and I will be giving our testimonies during “Student Leadership Kickoff”. We have 45 minutes to share what God has done in our lives, we are excited to be used by God in this way, to encourage and help our fellow believers walk with Christ!

“The Gospel is spread by those whose life is being transformed by it!”

Allow the Spirit through the Word of God to transform the way you think, to renew your mind, so that we might reach those who have never heard of Jesus Christ!

We love God because HE FIRST loved us.

Our prayer is that 2012 will be a year of growing deeply in your walk with and trust in Christ!

Remember and take confidence in the Word of God!

Book of Revelation- That’s how things play out!

]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2012/01/11/2012-the-end-or-the-beginning/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/11/04/step-of-faith-again/ http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/11/04/step-of-faith-again/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:34:58 +0000 John and Becki Bennett http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/?p=211

There are times in all of our lives when God clearly asks us to follow Him without knowing where our foot will land, how things will work out or even what He has planned for us.

Again, God is asking us to take a step of faith with Him.

The first time was when we put our house on the market and to begin missionary training with New Tribes Mission to reach the world with the Gospel, which was kicked off at the New Tribes Bible Institute.

Now, he is asking us to follow Him back to the Bible Institute this January in order to begin investing in the future generations of missionaries. When last we were at the BI (Bible Inst.) we were the ones being invested in… God has brought us full circle so that we can invest in others.

As you know we have been raising support for the last 2 years in order to begin this new phase of ministry. God has been so gracious to us that we are currently at 50% of our needed support! He is so good. Our leadership at NTBI has asked us to begin serving in January 2012, even though we are not at our recommended support level of 70%. The need is great at the BI and the desire is to have every student there invested in, so we have agreed to come in January!

Our need for 70% is real and necessary… here is where God is asking us to step out in faith again. We believe that God has much to teach us about Him and about our lack of faith in Who He is! So we are trusting Him to show Himself strong to us and for us as we give Him our hearts completely.

Would you join us in praying for our kids, our ministry, our move and our marriage?

Kids: Adjusting to yet another move to another new school district, apartment and city.

Ministry: That God would use us in the lives of everyone at NTBI, students and staff. Also that we would fill the areas that God wants us to in order to reach the unreached of the world.

Move: We are going to move in the middle of winter… and we will be driving around Erie, Cleveland, Chicago adn Milwaukee… You know how to pray for that one I’m sure

Marriage: Becki and I will have “new” stresses placed on our marriage from reorganizing our new home to purchasing new appliances/furniture to balancing family life and ministry. Asking God to grow us toward Him and toward each other, for each of us to be aware of meeting each others needs and that we would not loss sight of our kids a midst the ever pressing needs in ministry.

Thanks so much. We do praise God for you!

John, Becki and family.

GOD IS THE GOD OF THE LIVING!

We MUST share this with the whole world. All of mankind needs to know what God has done for us through Jesus Christ His Son!

Are you remaining Kingdom minded? Remember when you first believed in Christ as your Savior? Didn’t you want to tell everyone that you came in contact with?!?

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit writes, “God our Savior… desires all men (mankind) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

And Jesus himself said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28.19-20)

Let’s keep going in making disciples of all nations!

Let’s be single-minded for the sake of the Gospel!

We ARE co-laborers with Christ!

Let’s together reach those who have NEVER BEEN TOLD!

That is what our Savior wants from us!

Look around you. Where has God placed you right now? Are they people around you who have yet to be told? Are they people around you who don’t yet believe?

Can we trust that God wants them saved? If so, what are you doing to reach them?

Trust God and go for it,

tell them!

We thank God for you and what He is doing in you and through you!

Take up your cross and follow Him.

]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/10/21/god-desires-all/feed/ 2 http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/10/04/fall-already/ http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/10/04/fall-already/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:17:08 +0000 John and Becki Bennett http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/10/04/fall-already/ The kids have been in school for over a month now and are enjoying it as much as any kid can enjoy school, I think.

Tori graduated last June but has 3 NYS required classes to finish before Nov. 1st. She had to take English, Economics and Gym (90 gym classes!!) She finished the Economics final earlier this week and is plugging away at the other 2 classes now. Pray that she stays focused and is able to complete them by Nov. 1st.
Chloe, she is enjoying 7th grade although she will tell you that the kids in her school are “really not nice” She normally gets all of her work done at school in her study hall time, so she has no homework to do most evenings. Being a 7th grader means that she can attend youth group now, which she has also enjoyed so far this year.
Ellie, she is in 6th grade now and goes to the same school as Chloe. A few weeks ago she came home and asked “Can I join the after school Robotics club?” WHAT? AFTER school??? Really, Ellie wants to stay at school longer? (that’s what I had to ask myself!) So she is now part of the robotics club… they use Legos to build robots in order to work out a set of scenarios. She is loving it!!! The teacher just added another half hour on to the class… Ellie is excited about that.
Derek is in 2nd grade and came home a few days ago and asked “dad, do I have $15?” “Why?” I said. “because I want to buy my friend a watch like mine. He really likes it.” “Sorry, buddy, you don’t have $15 but we can see if they are on sale next time we go to Target.” Well, we went to Target after his birthday party on Sunday and he used his birthday money to buy his friend a watch just like his.
The things children do can be trying, encouraging and challenging all at the same time. But thank God for them!

Becki and I have been asking God about what He wants us to do as we push forward in our desire to serve at the New Tribes Bible Institute (www.ntbi.org). We are looking for people and places to share our ministry with and for those who would be willing to join our ministry team, through prayer and/or financial support.

We have to be on site at the Bible Institute on Jan. 1, 2012! Which means we have ONLY 12 weeks left in which to raise the rest of our much needed support!
Please be in prayer for us in this (honestly) stressful  time.

If you would be interested in helping out financially, just click the “Support financially” link to the right —->

Thanks again,

Serving His Body to Reach the Unreached,

John and Becki

For us, when we think…

MOVING!

We, are trusting God

to raise up supporters for us to get to 70% of our needed financial support,

so that we can move to New Tribes Bible Institute in Wisconsin,

to begin our ministry.

We are greatly needed in the Deans Dept.,

where we will be

filling a gap and serving by teaching and mentoring

to aid in training up tribal church planters.

RECENT EVENTS

• July 17th, we finished serving as Interim Pastor @ Beartown Road Alliance Church.
• July 23-28, we visited supporters and a church near Philadelphia, PA.
• Aug. 2nd, celebrated Tori’s 17th Birthday
• Aug. 8th, began a 3 week trip westward to Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin

Current Support level:

Our support Level is 45% of our

100% recommended level.

Would you join our Support Team?

We only need 25% more to be able to move in

November. $62/mo. is 1% of our needed support…

Would you be willing to support us at 1% or more each

month?

Please contact us or visit our website:

http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/give/

]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/08/12/what-do-you-think-of-when-someone-says-%e2%80%9cnovember%e2%80%9d/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/06/02/the-invitation/ http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/2011/06/02/the-invitation/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:17:14 +0000 John and Becki Bennett http://blogs.ntm.org/john-bennett/?p=190 WHO? You

WHAT? Be a part of something HUGE!

WHEN? Right Now

HOW? Read on!!

This afternoon we had a visitor inviting us to buy frozen food from a traveling freezer truck… yep you guessed it the SCHWANN’S guy was out looking to drum up business in our neighborhood. I saw him this morning down the road and wondered what I would say to “let him down easy”. It was after dinner by the time he got to our house. He  had spent ALL day going door to door to invite people to buy highly fattening over priced frozen food. Which begs the question… I wonder what this world would be like if we spent half that amount of time reaching others for Christ? But we can’t just go door to door inviting people to church. People are designed for relationship and that is exactly how you reach others, by having a relationship with them!

“The Gospel is spread by those whose lives are being transformed by it!!”

That is what we will be doing at New Tribes Bible Institute (NTBI), living life on life discipling  people who want to spend their lives reaching the unreached! That is why we want to be there this fall!  But we can’t do it alone, that’s where YOU come in. We need teammates!  Would you like to be a part of something HUGE? Something GLOBAL?

We weren’t able to be there last year, but we are asking God to supply the prayer and financial support needed for us to move there this fall. We can’t wait begin investing in the lives of the future missionaries at NTBI. In the next few months, we are hoping to connect with people who want to be part of our team. Please contact us if you would like more information about our ministry, about how you can become a missionary, and/or if you would like to support us prayerfully or financially.

How will they believe if they have never heard and how will they heard if no one is sent?

Thank you for prayerfully considering to join our team to REACH THE UNREACHED!

facebook- JohnBecki Bennett

NTM email- john_bennett@ntm.org

Cell phone- (517) 416-2656

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Ps. 119.105

As many of you know my dad was diagnosed with cancer in May of 2010, we were home for the summer and got to spend a lot of time with him. God is GOOD!

Six month recap

September – We enrolled our children and started school in NY some-thing we never thought we would do again. It was a very difficult adjustment for them.

It’s strange how when you are used to moving around and starting over, and then you don’t move when you think you are “supposed to” your life can be turned upside down for a while. I think we were all in shock. We all had antici-pated starting over, but it was supposed to be in Waukesha, WI, not in Corn-ing, NY. Of course, we used this time to teach our children, and remind our-selves, how GOD is in control and it’s HIS timing we are looking for not ours. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts.

October- I started working part time. More adjusting… John was home all day and I was out working?! That had never happened in 17 yrs of marriage. But God is Good!

Our kids are all in school and we were both home just starring at each other all day not sure what to do next. We visited my par-ents and helped out when we were needed, John had lunch or coffee with friends and old co-workers, trying to reconnect to this place we now call home again. Driving around the streets of Corning, a place we only came to visit a couple times a year was now home, it felt very strange. So I was working a couple of days a week helping some friends of ours with their mom who has Parkin-son’s and dementia. I felt like I was “contributing” and it got one of out of the house!

November – One of my favorite times of year, a time to be reflect on all that I am thankful for. To remember all that God had done for us in the past year.

This Nov. was a very busy one, with dad’s health failing every day and mom needing more help with him. I found myself spending more time at their house than mine. My brothers had come for a visit, one last time before the funeral. One of the hard-est days in my life was watching them leave and say good-bye knowing they would never see him alive again. As dad’s time got short and Thanksgiving fast approaching I realized mom couldn’t put a dinner together by herself, so I went there and baked and cooked for 3 days. We watched dad get weaker and I found cooking or cleaning something, anything would keep my mind from thinking about what was coming. The end. The end of a life. One I can thank God for, for the years we had together. The years we lived just across the street and I would see him every day, when he taught my daughter how to spell her name and his. The years we spent competing for the perfect apple pie. The years we spent at their house 3 days a week because they let John run a busi-ness from their garage. The years when we were in training, and we would come to visit and stay at their house, and wake up on Christmas morning just like when I was a kid. It’s amazing how God takes care of us in those times we need Him most. Dad pasted on Nov. 26, Black Friday.

December –Now this is a strange way to start the Christmas season, planning a funeral. But this was not going to be a sad event but a celebration of life!

My brothers had come home a week before the funeral, it was a sobering time, but a good one. The funeral was exactly like dad wanted it, not just about him but about God in him. We read his poems and his thoughts on life and death that he had written in the last months of his life. We sang songs and watched slide shows of him with his family and friends. We laughed and cried with people we hadn’t seen in years. We grieved together like you are supposed to and then they had to leave, way too soon. Another one of those days you chalk up to the hardest days of your life. Having to say good-bye again, too many good-byes. But it’s Christ-mas, and life moves on, with or without you. John took a quick trip to Florida to visit with a friend from Bible school that was way past due! Thank God for airplanes and safe travel! 20 days after the funeral we enjoyed 3 days of Christmas with the families: Christmas Eve at my sister-in-laws parents, not quite the same without dad, Christmas Day at mom’s, that’s hard to say. And then Christmas with John’s family, and Grant, our visitor for 10 days! We had a fun Christmas break, but now it’s time to get back to the real world. What’s that supposed to look like again?

January- God opened the door for John to be an interim pastor at a church in our area. Wow, who would have seen that one coming?!

I lost my job 2 days before John started his. Isn’t God’s timing just amazing? So a new job as a pastor means a new church. Needless to say, even with all this change we are not experts in the area. I wonder what God has up his sleeve? We are getting used to new names and faces, loving getting to know the body of Christ. A new part of it that has been here all along, but we didn’t have the privilege of knowing until now. It is strange to be in your hometown but not be going to your church on Sunday morning. But there is always something that brings us together, Wed. night is one of them. We do still go to North Baptist’s (our sending and home church) kid’s program. We eat dinner there, I help in one of the kids classes, and John goes to Beartown Road Church (our new church) to do prayer meeting. We are also involved a couple of Bible studies, one in our home with some friends on Mon. night, one at church that I attend on Tuesday night, and one at my mom’s house on Wed. morning with a bunch of ladies that John leads. We are busy, but it has been fun to be studying the Word again with a group of people!

February- It seems life is falling into a bit of a routine, but not in a bad way. Our lives have been changing faster than we could figure out what to do about it, so a little “normal” feels good right about now. We have lost one supporter but gained 2!! God is good! We are still planning on moving to Waukesha, WI to serve as deans at the Bible School. We are currently at 27% and only need another $2500 a month to be able to go. God is the great provider and in His time we will be moving once again to start a new chap-ter of our lives, but for now we will “bloom where we are planted”. And this is where we are planted.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek Gods plan for our lives and raise support to do His work. If you would like to partner with us and be a part of our prayer team, please contact us or go on the web.

Website: www.ntm.org/john_bennett

Email: john_bennett@ntm.org

Phone #: 517-416-2656

Facebook: johnbecki bennett

Walk right through?

Try to just peek inside?

Turn away and look for one that might seem better?

What should you do? You prayed for an open door of ministry. You told God you would do anything that He wanted you to do.

God is trustworthy! He alone knows what is best! He answers prayer!

God has opened a door for ministry while we are trying to raise support for working with missionary candidates at New Tribes Bible Institute (www.ntbi.org ). The opportunity presented is to be an interim Pastor at one of your areas local churches. The church is fully aware that we are trying to raise support for ministry, yet they asked us to help them.
Sometimes, I feel that God gives us multiple opportunities that are good and are not wrong to choose. Both trying to “aggressively” gain supporters and still ministering where we are at, are good things… trying to choose which one is best is some what of a challenge… But thankfully resting in Christ is still the same!

God is so faithful. He is the only one who has the power to change lives! What a difference He is making in our lives!

As we walk with Christ He seems to actually allow us to “trust in the Lord with all our hearts, lean not on our own understanding… in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths.” What more can we do as believers than to acknowledge Him in all our ways? Because HE WILL DIRECT. I am reminded of 2 Corinthians 5.15 “… He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” Jesus died and was raised for me (and you too), so that I might be able to have a relationship with my Creator God! So that, I now get to live no longer for myself but for Him! He will direct my path! I can trust Him… after all He created the world and made it inhabitable for mankind, before He made man and placed him in Eden. God is good and the Giver of good things. I can trust Him (so can you).

Since the start of writing this post, January 8, 2011, I have been led to accept the position offered by the church and we are still praying for God to raise our support level from 25% to 66%, about ($3200/ mo.). I am currently a part-time interim Pastor, a full-time follower of Christ, full-time husband and father, and God in His grace is giving Becki and I opportunities to lead bible studies twice a week. But best of all, Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever!

My prayer is that you will go talk to God, right now.After all, He is the Only One who has the Power to change lives!

John