NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Expectation are a funny thing when our life is more full of unknowns than knowns, and we have this sneaky suspicion that God is redefining those 2 little words “Trust Me”.  When we are asked if our partnership development is going as we “expected”, I think, “Sure… I didn’t really know what to expect.  I always assumed it would be an adventure of learning to trust the Lord, and He hasn’t disappointed me yet!”

Hanging out with Justin’s parents on our way home.

Here’s a few of the reasons why we loved our time in Wisconsin:

• The winter Olympics are more fun to watch with several feet of snow outside
• You never quite realize how much you enjoy the sun after spending weeks without seeing it
• Countless friends who fed us such abundant meals that we now have to join a gym
• The men from my (Justin’s) Wed. morning Bible study, who consistently got me up earlier than I ever wanted to get up, yet never ceased to challenged me in my walk with HIM
• Thur. evenings with our friends who kept us smelling nice by allowing us to wash our clothes at their house each week
• Our Couple’s Fellowship group who gave us a reason to buy ear plugs with all the newborns they provided.
• Our friends and wonderful hosts, who gave us a place of solitude to retreat to for our time in WI
• Friends who have contributed to our ministry resulting in our recommended monthly support level going from 8% to 20%

Thank you, dear friends, for inviting us into your homes, for sending us e-mails and notes offering us incredible support and encouragement through a tough season in our life, for the gift bags with super thoughtful treats, for coffee talks, movie nights, and being the kinds of friends that make it that much harder to say good-bye to.

A Challenge to March On.

It’s been a week since we returned from Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, and our minds are still whirling from all we saw and experienced.  You may be wondering what some place in Pennsylvania has to do with tribal missions.  In this unlikely place we gained the best information we could have ever gotten in preparation for creating the program here in Missouri to challenge people to get involved in tribal missions.  After experiencing it for ourselves, we knew this group of NTM missionaries have their finger on the pulse of what it looks like to really show people the challenges and joy of reaching a group of tribal people with the gospel.

Hugely important was the fact that we were able to go out a few days early to spend some time with the leadership to talk through how they built and structure their program and their philosophy behind what they do.

Over the course of the weekend, we watched the 70 other people who had come to participate in the program from all over the Northeastern U.S. absolutely amazed at what it takes to see the gospel presented and a solid mature church established amongst a group of tribal people.  Many walked away challenged in their own walks with the Lord as they were faced with statistics like there are still over 4000 language groups with no part of God’s Word written in their language, when we have over 200 different versions of the Bible in English.  We saw them enter the indoor, authentic, Yanomami tribal setting and come face to face with the difficulty of living in a place where the language and culture are totally different from their own.

Seeing the impact of the weekend in those people did one thing ESPECIALLY for us, we are even more convinced that the ministry the Lord has laid on our hearts in exposing and challenging people to get involved in reaching the unreached is something we are pumped about doing, AND it confirmed the fact that we need to start this here in the Midwest as well.

Check out the video below to get a taste of our weekend and what we hope to recreate in Missouri.

A Story of Faith in a Homeless Summer

As we made the eight and a half hour drive from Missouri to Wisconsin in late spring, I pondered how God would reveal Himself to me in the summer of 2009.  In the two and a half months that soon followed I learned of my every growing need for Him and my ever growing understanding of my lack of faith.

One of the first question our fellow classmates asked me, when inquiring about our upcoming  summer was where would we be living, which would generally be  followed with what will you be doing.  Although they were fair enough questions, I would generally shrug my shoulders in that, I don’t really know manner.  There were some ideas for housing and jobs, yet nothing was set  in stone or paper for that matter.  Trying to act confident, I would say such phrases as, “God is in control” or “I’m just trusting Him”.  Although God was in control, my faith was definitely lacking.

And, here I stand at the outset of the summer having seen God provide 5 family’s homes with 8 separate moves giving us a place to rest our heads every night.  He also provided me with photography work with an amazing wedding photographer (click to see her work), and a weekly job, doing odds and ends for some dear friends of ours.  He even provided an occasional maintenance/construction job, all of which enabled us to pay or monthly bills.  Watching God provide a new computer after one of ours died, and taking care of several car issues, and yet I still find myself questioning HIM, the Provider of not only my summer but my life.

My picture of faith is getting clearer as I am realizing that the Christian life is not always about knowing, but it is about getting up and walking towards that unknown with full confidence that God is by my side no matter what.  As I drove back to Missouri that eight and a half hours, I found myself not so much pondering what is to be of my final semester of training, but excited that God is next to me no matter how much I may lack in faith.

Lots and Lots of Camp!

Eight high-energy, nonstop weeks as the director of Camp Vertical is where I spent my summer!  For those of you who saw me throughout the summer, you may have noticed the fact that I was wearing the same camp t-shirt every time you saw me (don’t worry, I had more than one, so I wasn’t stinking too bad).   Camp Vertical is a summer day camp at Elmbrook Church for elementary-aged kids that I have been a part of for the past 3 summers.  As the director and one of the main large group teachers, I got to see the Lord impact hundreds of kid’s lives through my group of 40 high school and college aged staff who absolutely love kids and are sold out for Christ.   Hearing stories about my staff getting to lead a child to Christ or encouraging them in their discovery of who God is and His love for them were some of my daily highlights.  With nearly 300 kids at camp each week, there was never a dull moment!

I’d like to tell you about one camper in particular who had a big impact on me.  The first week of camp I noticed a little boy sitting by himself during our worship time.  He looked a little frightened and lost at all that was going on around him.  I stood next to him and started showing him how to do the motions to some of the songs.  He talked to me during the large group teaching time, asking me tons of questions about the Bible story.  From that day on he became my “worship time” buddy.  He would always come running up to me right before our singing time started and pull me over to come stand by him to dance and do the motions to the songs with him.  He was also full of awesome questions and hilarious insights into whatever Bible story we might be talking about that day.  My favorite one was one day when he looked at me very seriously and said, “I know who are 2 gods are.”  Of course, I was a little shocked and confused, but I thought I’d better see where this would go, so I answered, “Oh, really, who are they?”  “Well, Jesus and regular God,” was his response.  I had to keep myself from laughing out loud as we got into a great discussion about how God could be Jesus, Father, and Holy Spirit all at the same time.  Nothing like discussing the trinity with a 6 year old!  I found out that his family almost never went to church, and his mom was struggling with cancer, and that they had tried several other camps and activities where he had never felt like he fit in, and they were just hoping that this would be the place he could finally connect with.   And HE DID!  He made friends with all of our staff and several other kids, and he loved coming to camp!  We were hearing stories of him going home and telling the Bible stories to his family.  This is just one story of how God worked this summer, and I am so thankful that I got to be a part of what He was doing at Camp Vertical.

Although Camp Vertical did take up a lot of my time this summer, we were able to see and spend time with many of our closest friends in Wisconsin, which is always the hardest part about leaving again.  After a wonderful but exhausting summer, Justin and I are enjoying a slightly less hectic time back in school again (if you can believe that school’s less busy), and we’re enjoying getting to see each other a little more than just when we’re sleeping.  Thanks to all of our friends who opened up their homes to us, so we wouldn’t be homeless this summer!  We are SO grateful!

Welcome To Our New Blog Site.

As you might notice our site looks a little different.   New Tribes Mission hopes this new website will help you better interact with us about our ministry.  Please take your time and look around, and please be patient while we are learning the new system.