Tim and Sharon Simmonds Equipping the Next Generation of Missionaries! “You know you are in the jungle when…”
Ryan and Nicki Coleman’s Top Ten List:
You know you are living in the jungle when….
9. You sit down at night to watch a movie and you have a hard time seeing the screen because bugs are covering it.
8. Your 5 year old son finds a stick bug that is over half the length of his arm and says, "Mommy, I found a bug!".
7. A tribal person catches a reef fish and proceeds to bite its head with their teeth to kill it.6. You find out that 6 dozen of your 8 dozen eggs are rotten and there is no grocery store anywhere for you to restock your pantry until your next flight comes in.
5. When your supplies finally do come in every two months or so, you have to number each box and hire security just so they all make it to your house.
4. It is so hot that when the temperature drops to the high 70′s you want to put on jeans and a coat just to stay warm.3. You have to sift the bugs out of your flour, or you can pick ‘em out while you roll the dough out, or you can leave ‘em in for extra protein and a nutty crunch.
2. You go down to wash in the ocean and you see a log floating by, but then you realize that it is moving and it’s not a log but a 15 foot long python swimming on top of the water. (Our hats go off to our work team from Iowa that experienced this first hand, and at night too!)
1. You are talking with a tribal person and they are talking to you while picking lice out of the hair of the person next to them, then biting the lice to kill it before throwing it away.-by Ryan and Nicki Coleman
How amazing to see these young couples moving out into very difficult circumstances, yet keeping their eyes on the Lord in the process of reaching these people with the gospel. As Ryan and Nicki said in their letter: " If we don’t continually keep before us that it is the Lord who called us to this work amongst the Akolet people and it is Him alone who will keep and sustain us here, we could become easily defeated and discouraged.."
It is hugely exciting to know that the Akolet people finally have an avenue to hear and understand the greatest Good News in their own language and cultural context.
It may often be gruelling over the next couple of years for Ryan and Nicki and for Adam and Julie as they build meaningful relationships with the people, and learn their culture and language, in preparation for sharing God’s truth with them. Pray for the Colemans and Martins:
* that their lives and relationships will honor God.
* that they will be content in every situation.
* that they will understand the culture and be able to speak the language fluently.
* that the people will be cooperative and hungry for the truth.
READ MORE about the Akolet work at:
www.martinpng.com
To read our most recent news go to:
www.ntm.org/tim-simmonds/pray.php
The Thaw before the Snow
Last Sunday, during the third ice-storm in 3 days, we stood outside and listened in amazement at the steady splintering noises of branches and trees succumbing to the weight of the ice. Shortly after this ice storm started our power went off. We were only without power for about 28 hours – thank you Lord! We were very thankful for our fireplace!
Jason experienced more frequent power outages in town, but for shorter spells, and he kept warm with a kerosene heater.
Yesterday (Friday) was a good thawing day and it was equally amazing to listen to the trees and power lines 
shedding their burdens of ice and crashing down to the ice-covered ground below, or whatever else was below! Seeing a frightened deer under the trees that didn’t know which way to go because or the noise, was funny and sad at the same time.
Snow is forecast for later on today (Saturday). Better than ice, we say, but we are still likely to be cut off from the rest of the world for a while because of the hilly, winding roads that lead to the Missionary Training Center. Hopefully we will be able to keep classes going so we don’t lose any more class time.
Thanks for praying for all of us during this time. Missionary Training Center classes were postponed for a week, and will begin on Monday. We are looking forward to the new semester. Tim will teach phonetics starting Monday.
Ozarks on Ice
Today we are “iced in”. Dangerous, inconvenient, but very beautiful!
Yesterday (Friday) afternoon the storm began with freezing rain and sleet. With two more similar storms heading our way this weekend, we are preparing for power outages due to ice build-up on the power lines. Jason, who is living in town about 8 miles away, actually lost power for a while last night after the first storm, but it was restored soon after.
Our Missionary Training Center classes for the Spring semester were due to resume on Monday, but the weather conditions have caused classes to be postponed at least a day. Please pray for safety for our many students who are traveling back this weekend.
We wanted to get this information posted before the next storm hits, since we may lose power. Please pray for Jason who is on his own in town, with possible power outages again.
Thanks for your prayers!
Name That Sound!
Beware! You may be producing sounds in your everyday speech that you are totally unaware of!
Have you ever just sat there and "felt" yourself talk? All those tongue, jaw and lip gymnastics! And barring the times our foot ends up in our mouth (:-o), all of these vocal organs function seemlessly together to articulate the words that express the thoughts that are racing through our minds. And all this happening without us even being consciously aware of it!
Have you ever had someone ELSE staring into your mouth and scrutinizing the way your articulators are pronouncing different sounds? That takes "coaching" to a whole new level!
That is part of what is involved in being a Phonetics Instructor at the NTM Missionary Training Center – trying to help others see how to form their mouth to make those new, foreign sounds! In Phonetics class we endeavor to teach our students how to hear, recognize, symbolize and produce any (?) sound the human mouth can make. Well, almost! Maybe.
Those mysterious everyday speech sounds?
If I told you there is no "t" in Portland, you would assume that I had failed spelling in school and had no right to be teaching a language course. But if you say the word Portland and listen for a "t" you will find yourself agreeing with me rather quickly.
So where did my "t" go?
In many dialects of English, the "t" in Portland is replaced by a glottal. The glottal is the same sound that we use in the middle of the expression "uh-oh." It is kind of a "glitch" in the back of your throat and is actually caused by your vocal cords momentarily closing completely and blocking off the air stream. For this reason I do not recommend stopping a conversation half way through the word "uh-oh!" Your face would turn very blue!
Puckering your "P’s" and gargling your "G’s"
So why do we put our students through these contortions? I assure you it is not just so they can pucker their "p’s" perfectly and gargle their "g’s" gorgeously. A practical understanding of how speech sounds are made (i.e. the study of Phonetics) is one of the extremely important tools that a missionary candidate needs in his toolbox in order to tackle the immense task of communicating God’s eternal Truth in a cross-cultural context with unreached tribal people after living with them, caring for them and learning their culture and language. Unfortunately, their language will, invariably contain sounds that are only reproducible by severe contortions of the vocal apparatus.
I am enjoying working with my small group class of 9 students as they wrestle with these new sounds and weird symbols. It is so encouraging to see them making good progress and wanting to learn. We (Phonetics Instructors) will be rotating to a different small group class about every two weeks. What a privilege to be involved in such a practical way in the training and development of missionaries here at the NTM Missionary Training Center.
