Education Camps are when many of our Paraguay MK’s are able to get together for a fun-filled week of learning interesting things, doing activities, going on field trips, and growing together.

We praise the Lord for a great week.  Mark taught elementary science as Detective O’Casey helping his Junior Detectives discover some of the amazing things in God’s creation.  Mark also taught the older students the computer program Google Sketchup helping them learn  this fascinating tool for generating 3-dimensional images with the computer.  Janet kept busy helping Detective O’Casey and also assisting with art, food preparation, etc.   These Ed Camps are certainly a highlight for all our MK’s and especially for those who homeschool and live in remote locations.

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Cases in Paraguay October 2009 from Mark Case on Vimeo.

We just completed an Education Camp for our Paraguay MK’s.  We had 28 MK’s attend the 3 day activity.  Families traveled up to 8 hours to attend the sessions.

I enjoyed teaching sessions on eyes and vision.  We studied the anatomy of the eye and how it functions.  We did eye tests that included vision and color tests.  We learned how corrective lenses work.  We studied a variety of eye disorders and diseases.  The funnest part was actually doing a cow eye dissection where students could learn exactly what makes up the eye.

This week we also had music, sports, speech, and a variety of other topics and subjects.

Ed Camps are a highlight for our MK’s as it gives them an opportunity to grow academically, socially, and spiritually.

Growing up on the mission field brings with it many exciting adventures and challenges. Many MK’s grow up speaking a national or tribal language and are able to assist with their parent’s ministries in a variety of ways.

Some of our MK’s live in very remote locations due to NTM’s focus on planting churches among tribal people. One challenge for families is the education of their children and preparing them to return to their passport country after completing high school.

It is our vision to assist these families with their educational needs so that the MK’s can receive the best possible educational experience and so that parents are able to focus their time and energy on their specific ministry. We are all working together so that tribal churches can be planted. 

Since coming to Paraguay this past July, we have been part of a team to start a field-wide educational support structure for NTM Paraguay missionary families. We have started an MK school which provides a traditional school option for our families. We also provide assistance for families who homeschool. NTM Paraguay has 40 school aged children. We consider it a privilege to serve these MK’s and their families.

One of our strategies to serve the families here in Paraguay is to conduct Education Camps for the MK’s. The purpose of the Education Camps is to provide an enriching academic, social, and spiritual experience for all of our MK’s.

We just finished our second Ed Camp. Thirty-four of our MK’s gathered together for a variety of classes and activities. The elementary had Bible, music, astronomy (with "Professor Cranium"), art, and court hockey. The secondary students had Bible, art, music, college and career planning, science experiments, survival skills, first aid, translation workshop, and court hockey.

The days were busy and profitable. Some of the homeschooling children live in remote areas and have little contact with other MK’s. Activities like these are a special highlight to these MK’s.

We praise the Lord for the privilege of assisting families with their education needs. In the future, we would like to see churches send some people down to help us conduct these Ed Camps. It would be a real blessing to have teachers come to help offer a variety of classes to our MK’s.

Check out the photos: Ed Camp March 2008

Our goal is to provide a field-wide educational support structure for the nearly 50 NTM MK’s here in Paraguay.

To accomplish this goal, we have started a traditional MK School for students in grades 4-12, and we also provide homeschool assistance. One of our strategies is to provide Education Camp Activities which will bring both the homeschooling and MK school students together for educational activities two or three times a year.

We just completed our first Education Camp for the 7-12th grade students. We praise the Lord for an excellent time together. We started each day with a Bible class where we focused on overcoming life’s challenges. By looking into Scripture and by hearing the testimony of a Christian man born without arms and legs, we were challenged in our faith to trust God for power to overcome difficulties. Then we had various classes including wood-working, speech principles, story-telling skills, tone chimes, study and time management skills, and volleyball. We then were able to enjoy swimming, horseback riding, and other fun activities.

We are hoping that in the future these Education Camp activities can become short-term missions projects for churches or teams to come and actually offer the classes to the MK’s.

Explore NTM MK Education>> www.ntm.org/education

During January, Mark attended the New Tribes Mission MK Care and Education committee meetings in Missouri.

As a mission, we are very concerned about the care and education of our MK’s (missionary kids). You can probably imagine that living overseas provides many exciting learning experiences, difficulties, and challenges. Educating our children overseas is often complicated by living in remote situations and by challenging ministry responsibilities.

It is our desire to provide assistance and direction to the fields and families around the world in order to ensure quality care and education. As a family’s educational needs are properly met, they are then able to be more effective in their particular ministries. The ultimate goal is that church planting efforts among tribal people will be more effective as a result of a proper educational support structure for families.

During our committee meetings, we heard reports of what is happening on various fields around the world. We evaluated a variety of issues affecting the education of our MK’s such as different learning styles and learning disabilities. We discussed the impact of internationalization in MK schools and the blessing and challenge of having children and teachers from various countries. We looked at homeschooling issues and ways to support and provide assistance to homeschoolers. We brain-stormed various ideas of assistance that can be provided in the future such as mission trips going to the fields to put on education camps. We discussed child protection efforts, the care of graduating and adult MK’s, and TCK (Third Culture Kid) issues. The week was a profitable time with the goal of equipping our fields and families to be even more effective in addressing MK care and education issues.

We have been privileged to serve MK’s and their families over the past 18 years in Panama, and God is now directing us to serve in Paraguay. Our vision is to provide a field-wide educational support structure for the over 50 MK’s living in Paraguay. We will be providing assistance to all the families whether they homeschool, attend an international Christian school, or attend a small NTM MK School.

We plan to go to Paraguay this coming July. We will be living in the northern area of Paraguay. The area is semi-arid and called the Chaco. Presently, renovations are being made on a property to accommodate a small MK school with multi-grade classrooms. Pray for continued progress so that classes can begin by the beginning of September.