NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Your heart-warming emails are truly being used by God to encourage both Faith and me. We are seeing answers to your prayers. The verse found in Jer. 33:3 says, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." You have "called upon God" and He is answering.

We asked you to pray about the pain that Faith is experiencing, wisdom to know which surgery option to go with and which to do first, the neck or the wrist, and Gods sustaining grace for both Faith and me.

You "called" and this is how God is answering.

Faith is now on a better pain medication regimen that is providing relief from the intense pain that she was experiencing. This one does not have the negative side effects that the other had. (PTL) Wow! this is a tremendous relief for both of us and we recognize that God is behind this discovery.
Yesterday we visited with the doctor that did both of her back surgeries in the past. He’s the one that will do her neck surgery as well. As we watched him carefully looking over the MRI and EMG results and X-rays and then examined Faith’s neck and range of movement, we were keenly aware that he was not "on his own" as he was deciding what needed to be done and when. He deliberated long and thoughtfully. While he was intently looking at the X-rays Faith leaned over to me and whispered, "This is the wisdom we’ve all been praying about." I nodded in affirmation. He then informed us that the surgery that Faith needs is very extensive and is basically two surgical procedures in one. IThey will have to go in the front — turn her over and then place the rods in the back of the neck. These surgeries will likely take six months to heal (much like her previous two back surgeries) and he recommended that we get the wrist surgery done first, since she will probably recuperate faster from that and will get some relief sooner. Both Faith and I are accepting this recommendation as God’s nod of approval. Thank you!
Faith is now scheduled to have "total wrist FUSION" ( NOT wrist replacement) for the 8th of August. We were hoping that she could have it sooner, but this is the first date open. We are finding the adjustments to the limited use that she has of her hands, to be manageable. God is giving both of us increasing understanding for one another. I want to ask you to pray for me that I will be increasingly "tender" with my precious wife in proportion to her needs. I love her deeply.
At this time, we do not know when she will have the neck surgery. It will likely be about 8 weeks after the wrist surgery. Much depends on her physical condition after the wrist operation —- healing time and physical strength.
So, you have called — THANK YOU — He has answered — THANK YOU GOD — and He is showing us Great and Mighty things. Praise Him!!!

Together In His Service,

Paul and Faith

PS — God blessed us by allowing our daughter’s two sons, JJ and Caleb, to spend a week with us before Matt and Starr (Arnold — missionaries in Mexico) arrived to spend another week with us. It was a pure JOY to have them here. (Even though they were physicially challenging days). Starr and Matt are trying to work out the details for Starr to come to help, hopefully, at the time of the wrist surgery! What a blessing!

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Paul Wyma Celebrating 40 years! (trying again) Mon 7/9 227 KB

I will never forget the little scene that played itself out at my kitchen window years ago when we lived in the tribe. The little Ayore boy standing there had dirty little smudges of dirt on the end of his nose and cheeks showing that he had probably been too eager eating from the honey pot the night before. He stood there staring with a look of wonder in his big brown eyes as he watched me take a batch of Christmas cookies out of the oven and when he asked what they were, it touched my heart so profoundly that here was a little eight year old boy who didn’t know what a Christmas cookie was! Isn’t that sad? It so touched my heart that now, every Christmas, as I get ready to make those cookies, I think of that little boy.

Praise the Lord — the Ayore people have heard the wonderful Christmas message and know that Christ came to earth to bring them salvation. That little boy is now in his forties! He can read God’s Word in his own language, and he can tell his own children and grandchildren about the wonderful Christmas story.

As I write you — our daughter Starr (a missionary in Mexico) instant messaged me asking us to pray for Jesus, an elderly Tepehuan man. Matt is sharing the story of Jesus with him, leading up to the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. So we are praying that Jesus’ spiritual eyes and ears will understand this wonderful truth. Because his parents named him Jesus — he believes that this Jesus is his patron saint! So, he will brew up a big pot of corn liquor and many friends and family will come on Dec. 25th to celebrate his special saint’s day. All these years Jesus has never understood the Christmas story, He has never heard it clearly explained in his own language. Pray with us please that this dear little old man will come to know Jesus as his personal Savior — not just his special saint.

As you make those cookies this year and celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, please be encouraged with the part you are playing to spread the Gospel around the world! Little boys with big brown eyes and old men with wizened, wrinkled faces are hearing the Gospel for the first time. NINE new tribes were entered by NTM missionaries this year and NINE tribal groups heard the precious story of Jesus for the very first time in their own language in this year of 2006.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, dear friends! How we praise the Lord for you! And let’s be encouraged for what GOD is going to do through our joint efforts in this new year. THANK YOU for your prayers and financial support!

We all have heroes — don’t we? We just celebrated Veterans Day and how we praise God for every brave man and woman who have fought (and are fighting) for our freedom!

There are another group of “veterans” — brave souls — sacrificing souls — who have given the best part of their lives in a different kind of battle — and they are called Retired Missionaries! They have fought for the souls of men and women. Each time I visit our "NTM Homes" (This is NTM’s Retirement Center), I am reduced to tears as I look around that room of white heads and try to fathom the amount of years of sacrifice and courage, and love that each one of these dear people represent. THESE are my heroes! These precious soldiers could each write a book! There are 158 retirees at our NTM Homes and it is estimated that they have served approximately a total of FOUR THOUSAND years with all their years combined together! THAT’S hero stuff!!! Wouldn’t you say? Isn’t that AWESOME?

How many Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations did they miss being with their families? How many years have they laid in hammocks and beds in far away places with disease and fever wracking their bodies? How many hours of language study and translation have they invested? These are the ones that many times waited for months for a letter from the "outside", they traveled days on end by canoes on rivers no ones ever heard of. There were few airplanes — no emails — months of isolation — heat and bugs — living in humble little houses with mud floors or bamboo slats.

But look around at these faces! I see no regrets etched into those lines — I see no sorrow for the years of sacrifice and hardships! What I DO see is joy — an absolute joy to be alive — to have been a part of this great job of reaching the lost with the gospel of Christ — JOY for living in this wonderful place — for having Godly servants ministering to them. We sang together “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and I wonder what memory — what incident came to their minds as they sang those words? I can only imagine the smile on God’s face as He heard that group of veterans raising their voices together in praise and adoration!

And by-the-way — you are our heroes also! How we praise God for your lives and for your faithfulness in supporting and praying for us! God bless and keep you, dear friends.

Lovingly in His Service,

Paul and Faith

The history of communicating by symbols and letters goes back to carved stones making impressions on skins to computers where an amazing number of gigabytes are stored on something smaller than the size of your thumb!

The other day we had the privilege of representing NTM at the Holy Land Experience. We went through the Scriptorium —- and our hearts were touched by the “story” of how God has preserved His Word down through the ages! God touched men’s hearts to spend their life copying, letter by letter, His message to mankind. As the world grew God allowed man to create printing methods that would speed this process. In 1526, William Tyndale finished the English translation of the Bible from the original Greek as his heart was burdened for the common man to be able to read God’s Word. This was the basis for the King James Bible in 1611. He was executed for his “heretical efforts” ten years later!

God has preserved His Word down through the ages — and He continues to touch people’s hearts to preserve and translate that precious Message. Just this week, in Bolivia, the Esse Eja people were presented with the New Testament in their own language! New Tribes missionaries have completed 42 New Testaments! Well — now we can make that 43 J ! There are around 70 in progress! Pray for our Bible translators! The enemy does everything he can to frustrate and stop this work, and we need to bathe them in prayer.

Isn’t it a privilege to be a part of this work?! How we praise God for your lives, for your partnership and your prayers. We keep very busy —- Paul, in many committee meetings and directing NTM USA, and I with the secretarial part and running the home, with all that goes into that. I should say that my hand is healing well. It’s probably at about 80% — but I can use it and we praise the Lord for that! May God richly bless and encourage your hearts today as you pull out your Bible and are encouraged and nourished by His precious Word.

Together in His Service,

Paul and Faith

It’s been four months since the staph infection invaded the arthiritis thumb surgery that Faith had done on June 2nd.  It was a grueling couple of months of pain and then another time of regaining the use of her hand, but we are VERY pleased to report that she can now use her hand — can make a fist again  and is making very good progress.  Thank you SO much for your prayers during this time.  We are humbled before our Lord as we watch the body of Christ praying and supporting us through this time.