NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

While in high school I found myself searching for authenticity. Like many of my peers I started the search in the drug culture. It wasn’t long before that lifestyle prove to be a dead-end road. Late in my junior year, in an effort to get a date with a young lady in my biology class I found myself attending several Christian youth functions. It was through these functions and the young men and women that attended them that I was introduced to Christianity. Yet it wasn’t until I was a freshman in college when Jesus Christ reached into my heart and saved me. I had broken my leg in a skiing accident, lost a very serious girlfriend, and gotten fired from my job when I had realized I was heading nowhere fast. I believe my exact words were; “God I have made a royal mess of my life if you want it, it is yours.” It was at that moment that all the information I had passively learn about Jesus Christ while attending those youth functions back in high school came to me in a flood of authenticity.

My wife (that serious girlfriend I had lost ) and I were married in March of 1980 over spring break of our freshman year at Kearny State College.   At that time I was a psychology major with a desire to be involved in family counseling.   During our first year in college God began to work on our hearts to serve him in full-time ministry.  Through a series of events and key people that God put in our path we began missionary training with New Tribes Mission in January of 1982.  When Toni and I started the training, we knew that God was leading us out of college to reach the tribal people of this world.  In the last twenty five years plus we have received what we consider the best training, years of a variety of experiences, and a heart for what it takes to be a career missionary.  I left my ambitions of a career of working with people as a counselor, and set my heart towards serving as a career missionary.  Serving on the field of Panama, both in the tribe and then as dorm parents at the mission school, we have watched how “prodigal” missionary kids “MK’s” affect ministries and more importantly, their missionary parents.  Even closer to home, Toni and I have been struggling for the last six plus years with our adult prodigal child and we have a wealth of experience as to the long term affects that they can have on their siblings, parents and extended family.  Our experiences alone have given us countless opportunities to be involved with other missionary and non-missionary parents of prodigals all over the country.

God has used our personal experiences and the testimonies and experiences of other parents of prodigals, to create a burden and a new direction for our ministry.  Over the years, we have been increasingly drawn to other couples who are suffering as we have, to offer an ear and an opportunity to exchange shared experiences and helpful tools and successes.

We believe that God has given us this burden and provided for further education and is leading us to follow Him in caring for missionaries, their marriages, and their prodigal children.  I have completed my Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and at present I am working on my Masters at Grace University.

I have agreed to continue serving with NTM Video Productions, as time would permit, serving as consultant, trouble shooter, Web page coordinator and computer / software tech.  Though my primary responsibilities would be to complete my Masters degree in counseling for the intent purpose of developing an in-depth study and care for parents of prodigal MK’s.

I believe that as we get closer to the second coming, we are going to see an increasing frequency of prodigal children, thus more hurting parents.  I am seeking this education because I believe that we are already playing catch-up in our understanding of the needs of our families in this area.  I hope to gain a greater understanding of human behavior in order to assist the mission and expedite effective member care.  This particular course of study is inherently flawed when it comes to understanding human nature in light of spiritual influence.  Psychology as a “science” has little if any understanding of God’s authority in the ways of man.  It is for that reason I am attending a Christian University.

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