NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

On December 19, 2008, 95 students graduated from the Missionary Training Center. The next step for them is to build a support team before they leave for Indonesia, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guinea, Mozambique, Mexico, Senegal, Bolivia, Brazil and the Philippines to name a few of the countries that they will be serving in. Pray that they will be diligent to make wise use of their time and for opportunities for them to share the ministry that God has prepared them for and that people will become a part of their support team both in prayer and encouragement as well as financially.

The Regions Beyond
To the regions beyond I must go, I must go, Where the story has never been told; To the millions that never have heard of His love, I must tell the sweet story of old.

To the regions beyond , I must go, I must go, Till the world, all the world, His salvation shall know.

The 2008 spring semester here at the MTC is well underway. The 139 students are in different semesters of training. The training is constantly being evaluated to give the students the best training possible for cross-cultural church planting. Last fall it was decided to shorten the training here so that more on-field training could be given. In light of that decision 41 students will be graduating the middle of March. From now on the MTC training will be completed in three semesters instead of four.

The fourth semester students (some of which were my students last semester) are busy with CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) Methodology II. During this class, students continue their exposure to CLA methodology begun last semester (language acquistion), with an emphasis on culture acquisition.

Through an extended cultural role play they learn how to acquire culture through culture events (participation, observation, recording, and by getting to know a culture helper), through interviewing and learning how to file culture information using a software program designed by NTM. This software is used in analyzing the culture to recognize cultural themes. These cultural themes will then be used to help write bible lessons, addressing cultural barriers that are contrary to God’s Word.

Thank you for praying for the Mexico trip. I arrived back at the Training Center November 9. Since then I’ve been busy doing the final write ups on the students evaluations. So many neat things happened it’s hard to know where to start. The Lord was certainly faithful.

One of our main concerns had to do with getting everyone to Creel by bus and back to El Paso,
Texas at the end of our stay. Thankfully it couldn’t have gone smoother. At one of the bus stations
where we had to switch buses I asked at the ticket counter when the next bus was leaving. The lady
told me in 20 minutes. I told her we needed 12 seats and she said that was the exact number of seats
still available. If we couldn’t have all gotten on we would have had to wait for at least another hour.

Another testimony of God’s faithfulness was in how He protected some in the group from a bad batch
of cookie dough. Kimmie invited her language helper and some friends to the camp to make
chocolate chip cookies. As they were mixing the dough Kimmie couldn’t figure out why the dough was
so dry. Some tasted the dough and had to spit it out. Her husband tried a baked cookie and said it
tasted funny. Come to find out they had accidentally bought lime (the stuff that is in cement) instead
of flour. In Mexico lime is sold in the food section because they use it to soak corn in before they grind
it to make tortillas. Those who had tasted the dough and cookies had burns in their mouths for
several days which made it difficult to eat. We called the Doctor to see if anything needed to be done
since some of the lime had been swallowed. He said that if Aaron would have eaten anymore cookies
he would have had to have his stomach pumped.

God also showed us His faithfulness in providing some very precious language helpers for the
students. Everyone seemed to bond immediately
and it was neat to see how those cross-cultural
relationships grew over time. It certainly was hard
to say good-bye after four weeks. They were all so
gracious to open their homes and share their lives
and families with us.

Thank you for praying for us during our time in
Mexico. It was certainly evident that you were
bringing us to the throne of grace on a regular
basis.

If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36

These days we think about freedom as July 4 is just a few days away. We celebrate the freedom that so many have given their lives for so we can live in a country where we enjoy many freedoms that people in other nations can only dream about.

There is another freedom that comes to my mind as well these days and that is the freedom we have in Christ. For those of us who know Christ as our Savior we now have the freedom to choose between obedience to God’s Word or to sin – to follow our fleshy desires. Before our salvation we were like the people who live in countries that can only dream of a free democracy, we were enslaved to sin because that was all we knew. Jesus promised “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. John 8:31-32.

On May 19, 67 students received their degrees here at the New Tribes Missionary Training Center. As brand new missionaries they look ahead, trusting God to work out every detail so they may serve Him wherever He leads. There are more than 3,000 tribal groups still without the Gospel in their own language. These people live in fear of Satan’s bonds and the control he has over them, not having ever realized that they can be set free. These new missionaries will be scattering all over the world in the next few months to 2 years, desiring to share with tribal people how they can experience true freedom that is only found in Jesus Christ. Please pray for them that God will raise up folks to partner with them in prayer and finances as soon as possible so they can be on their way to where God would have them serve. Some of them have medical issues that need to be resolved and others left MTC with a school debt.

My mom fell about a month ago so I will be home for most of July, helping my parents with things around the house. While home I will need to do some preparation for a class that I will help teach in the fall as well as visit supporters in my home area. I also have a trip planned to Illinois and Michigan to visit friends and supporters. I will return to MTC at the end of July to get ready for a trip to Mexico August 1 – 9. Several of us will be going to finalize our plans for the Language Practicum in the fall. Our main goals for the trip are to find language helpers that speak some English, make contact with the local pastors and make sure that things are in order at the camp where we will be staying.

Thank you for partnering with me as I serve here at the Missionary Training Center, preparing people for the task of telling unreached people groups of the freedom that they can have in Jesus Christ.

How important is the Word of God to you? Would you be upset if you misplaced your Bible or lost it? The following is what one girl thinks about her Bible.

Dear Finder,

P.S. If you send it home or call I’ll give you my thanks. This Bible is very special to me. It has taught me lots of things that have brought me to being saved, in other words it brought me to being born in heaven exactly on Fathers Day, 4:15 A.M., 2005 as if I were another present to the Lord. So now I consider this Bible a very valuable treasure. 

The above is written in the front of Brianda’s Bible, one of the children from Mision Bautista Latinoamericano. It has been a blessing to be a part of this small group of latin believers. The group isn’t very large, but those that do attend on a regular basis, desire to walk with the Lord.

Please pray for Brianda and her family as well as the rest of this group as they seek to walk in obedience to God’s Word.

Memories came rushing to my mind as I sat in the dark Sunday night. Beginning Friday afternoon, Missouri experienced one of the worst ice storms in the state’s history.

Here at MTC we were all fine since everyone had been to town to stock up on supplies. We knew if the storm did what was predicted we weren’t going to be able to get out anytime soon. Saturday passed without incident and so did Sunday until mid afternoon with only 5 minutes left in the game between the Seahawks and the Bears. I have to say it wasn’t the most convenient time for the electricity to go but it did anyway. By early evening on Monday we were pleasantly surprised when the lights came back on as we were expecting it would be at least Wednesday before the power company could get to this part of the Lake area.

As I was lighting the oil lamp and candles, memories of my life with the Embera in Panama came rushing back – showers by lantern light, eating and reading by candlelight, ready to go to bed by 7 PM (what else is there to do when it’s pitch black outside?), listening to the radio for news from the outside world, etc.

The darkness also reminded me of the many indigenous groups who live in spiritual darkness because they have not had the opportunity to hear that Jesus Christ came as the light of the world. The new semester was to begin on January 15 but due to the ice storm students were not able to make it to the Training Center so classes will begin January 22. Will you pray for us as we train these folks to take the Gospel to very dark places in the world and that people’s hearts would be prepared to hear of the redemptive work of Christ. Pray also that as they have the opportunity to hear what Christ has done for them that they would choose to live in the light and leave the darkness behind.

(To see more pictures of the ice storm click on Photos).

… always labouring fervently for you in prayers… Col. 4:12

One of the classes students take throughout their NTM training in preparing to go to the mission field is Hold The Ropes also known as HTR. This has been a term used within NTM since the early days of the mission. Do you know where this term comes from? Do you know what it means?

Many people hold on to ropes – it may be for work, sports or for some to save lives. Some hold on to ropes in mines, for fishing, others for drawing water from a well, and what about Paul when he was lowered in a basket by a rope.

Hold The Ropes is a sailor’s term as described in the following poem:

“Hold The Ropes”
Down beneath the mighty ocean
Divers plunge for treasures rare.
But men hold the ropes above them
So they breathe the upper air.
Seeking pearls of richest value
Braver hearts have dared to go.
But our hands must every moment
Hold the ropes that reach below.
So amid the heathen darkness
There are heroes, true and brave,
Shrinking not from death or danger,
Hearing all to help and save.
But they cry, “Oh, do not leave us,
“Mid these dreadful depths to drown,
“Let us feel your prayers around us,
“Hold the ropes as we go down!”

When William Carey, the Father of Modern Missions, was leaving home as a missionary, he told a group of interested friends:
“Saving souls can be likened to a man drowning in a deep well and a volunteer can do nothing unless there are people who will hold the rope for him to be lowered till he reaches the drowning man, and then pull them up to safety.”
“I will go… as a volunteer to seek sinners drowning in the well of SIN, but I can’t do it alone. I need rope holders. Will you be my rope-holders?”

Through the years of my time in NTM you have been my faithful “rope holders” and I want to thank you for the time and effort that you have put into bringing me and my ministry before the throne of grace.

AND thank you for “Holding The Ropes”.

Until the Last Tribe Is Reached,
Ronda