NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

This is our newest work having started just a couple of months ago. So far we have two Mexican couples on this team. Please pray for a third couple. This team is in the Mexican state of Baja California.

Jonathan was recently in Baja California and the missionaries asked prayer for motivation in the learning of the Triqui tribal language in Baja. This is a difficult tonal language and some of the missionaries are struggling. We are praying for two more couples to join this team.

When we arrived in the "town" at about 8 o"clock we were almost immediately greeted with the news that a lady had been lying outside for two nights, unable to move herself. Slowly the details emerged that she had been at a drinking party and her husband had beaten her up while they were both drunk. When she woke up, her husband was gone and she couldn’t move!

The night temperatures are still dipping close to freezing in the mountains so we were concerned about the lady. Ken  is a missonary doctor and one of the missionaries we had gone to help with language. We decided to go with him on this jaunt for two reasons; to see if we could be of help to him in carrying the lady out and also to "watch him in action". This gives us an idea of how to help him communicate better with the people.

We drove in the "ambulance" for a little under an hour and then had a hike up a valley to where the lady was lying.

After making sure we wouldn’t hurt her more by moving her, we strapped the lady to a stretcher and, along with some help from the locals, carried her back down to the ambulance, which took a lot longer than on the way up. We eventually got back to the clinic around 1.30 in the afternoon.

She is now in a hospital in Chihuahua and it has been discovered that she is paralyzed from the neck down. This is very sad because she has children which she will no longer be able to care for and her husband (once he is caught) will probably go to jail.

That evening we also helped with a little boy who needed attention. He was malnourished and needed an IV to stabilize his electrolytes. It was a loooong day!

Thre are the couples working in this area to bring the Gospel to the indians in this area. They are involved in healthcare, literacy and community projects but their desire is that the people they are serving hear the Word of God preached to them in their own language.

Our part in this is helping them to make progress in their culture and language understanding and thus make communication clearer.

Here in Mexico we have several translation projects going on at the moment. This month Carol Kaptain is visiting three different locations to go over some of the New Testament portions being translated and to help with some new procedures which should help the translators produce a clearer translation.

The work of a translator is not all sitting at a desk poring over words and phrases. There is a lot of interaction with translation helpers and other people too. Even so, there is a lot of time spent considering the best way to phrase things so that they truly communicate the message of the Bible clearly.

Part of the process to ensure a clear, accurate translation involves recording the attempts of the missionary to translate, playing it to a native speaker and then asking them how they would say the same thing.

Carol Kaptain is helping our translators fine tune some of their procedures to make the translations smoother and clearer. Over the course of nearly four weeks she will be working with translators for three different languages or dialects: Northern Tepehuan and two Tarahumara dialects.

Please pray for Carol as she travels and helps the translators, and pray for the translators who have been working hard over the last few months to prepare back translations in preparation for this visit.

Here in Mexico we have several translation projects going on at the moment. This month Carol Kaptain is visiting three different locations to go over some of the New Testament portions being translated and to help with some new procedures which should help the translators produce a clearer translation.

The work of a translator is not all sitting at a desk poring over words and phrases. There is a lot of interaction with translation helpers and other people too. Even so, there is a lot of time spent considering the best way to phrase things so that they truly communicate the message of the Bible clearly.

Part of the process to ensure a clear, accurate translation involves recording the attempts of the missionary to translate, playing it to a native speaker and then asking them how they would say the same thing.

Carol Kaptain is helping our translators fine tune some of their procedures to make the translations smoother and clearer. Over the course of nearly four weeks she will be working with translators for three different languages or dialects: Northern Tepehuan and two Tarahumara dialects.

Please pray for Carol as she travels and helps the translators, and pray for the translators who have been working hard over the last few months to prepare back translations in preparation for this visit.

Please be praying for the upcoming translation checks in March. The translators are busy getting Back Translations done for the checker along with other requirements.

There will be a lot of traveling involved during the time the translation consultant is in Mexico so we would appreciate your prayers for safety on the roads and in the air.

There will no doubt be opportunities for translators, translation helpers and the consultant to work through difficult portions to translate. Please pray for wisdom and understanding for all involved.

This past week Jonathan and I, along with Ramon, a Mexican missionary, another consultant Dorr Granger and a  missionary pilot, Dave Wolf, left for Baja California in a small mission plane. Half an hour into the trip, Dave realized that we wouldn’t make it even half way to Baja, because of the strong winds that were against us. We had to turn around and within 10 minutes were back on the ground! The next morning (Tuesday), we tried again. The flight went well and we were able to land approximately half way to refuel and use the facilities. We then continued on to Baja, and arrived safely there about two and a half hours later. The whole trip took about six hours.
The time we spent with the “Triquí team”- (the Mexican missionaries that work with the Triquí people), went well. Jonathan did some teaching on discourse analysis and he also did some practical language work with them. We then laid out a language and culture study plan for the next few months. The Triquí language is a difficult tonal language and so the missionaries are grateful for any help they can get. Dorr Granger shared a good devotional on the Wednesday morning and then he, Ramon and Dave went in search of a good place for Ramón’s family to locate as they are planning to work with the Mixteco tribe, along with some other new missionaries that are nearly done with their training. We left Baja California early on Thursday, hoping to arrive safely home that afternoon. This didn’t happen as we became surrounded by clouds about two hours from home and we couldn’t get through. Dave had to follow the river to an airstrip in Sonora that he knew about, and make an unscheduled landing. I for one was happy to be safely on the ground and out of the clouds. It is too dangerous to fly in the clouds because of the mountains and the plane can’t go too high this time of year because the cold and clouds would freeze the plane. After securing the plane we hitched a ride into town and found somewhere to eat and somewhere to spend the night that even had hot water for a shower! The next morning it was still cloudy but we decided to return to the plane and wait for an opening in the clouds as Dave had checked and found that it was clear beyond where we were. We took off around 11am and managed to get through the clouds and safely back to Chihuahua. The children were happy to have us home!

We want to thank everyone who has been praying for our family during this time.

Dad was told October 12th that he had a tumor on his pancreas. Obviously the tumor had been there a while before that and he had not been feeling well already, but just six weeks later he slipped from this life and into the next.

Trained as a banker, Dad sought to put his faith to work in practical ways so sixteen years ago he and Mum went to the Philippines to help out for a couple of years. They stayed three and Dad uncovered a talent for helping sort out and straighten up accounts systems set up by "amateurs".

Over the next decade he traveled around the world to help audit the accounts on several NTM fields, sometimes returning more than once in his desire to help.

The past few weeks saw a rapid decline in his health. God graciously granted enough time to see many people for the last time in this life but we are so thankful for his sake that the end was quick and peaceful.

All three children and his wife Margaret were with him when he died.

We are now back in Mexico, having spent two months in England and Wales.

During our time we did plenty of fun things as a family; climbing up Snowdon, going to Alton Towers theme park, going to the beach, visiting friends and family. Rachel and I even got away for two nights on our own!

Our first week back, we said Goodbye to Max Morgan as he was on his way to hospital for treatment for cellulitis. He has lived with Rachel’s parents for over 20 years, as he and his wife got older. His wife died several years ago and Max also died a few days after we saw him. It was sad but we were glad to have seen him one last time.

A week later, Jonathan’s mother had a heart attack, caused by a blood clot in one of her coronary arteries. The paramedic arrived within ten minutes and the damage to her heart was minimal. After a week in hospital and an angioplasty, she was back home again, and once again we were glad for God’s timing

Just over a week before we left to come back to Mexico, we helped celebrate Debbie’s birthday. She is Rachel’s sister and was born with spina bifida. The whole Simmonds family was able to be together to celebrate her 40th birthday. We even got Debbie outside for some pictures! The following Thursday, Debbie died peacefully. We are so grateful we could spend some time with her before she died and yet again we see God’s hand in allowing us this time with Debbie. We are thrilled for Debbie as she is no longer in pain but is rejoicing as she sees Jesus face to face.

We would like to ask prayer for Jonathan’s dad who is facing a possible return of his prostate cancer. He was treated five years or so ago but it seems that it may be coming back. He has several tests to determine the best course of action.

Please also pray for Rachel as she is going to travel back to England in September on her own for Debbie’s memorial service. This is the first time in twenty years that she will have flown by herself.

When we worked in Panama Jonathan was able to work with Jerry McDaniels, helping the tribal missionaries with their CLA and church planting strategies. Jerry now lives in Florida and travels to different countries helping with literacy and materials production.

Just the other week, Jonathan had a trip planned to visit some missionaries working among the Tarahumara people of northern Mexico and it worked out for Jerry and his wife Joyce to go with him and help present some possibilities of how to provide literacy materials for the indians.

Between them, they spent a couple of hours each morning talking over what is involved in literacy and also conducting evaluations of the missionaries language proficiency.

There were also opportunities to go hiking up and down canyons and just spending time catching up with each other.

Please pray for the missionaries working there as they continue to learn language and begin to think about how best to teach literacy and Bible lessons in the future.