NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

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.

Why is it important to expose missionary candidates to the subject of Animism?

In order to prevent syncretism (the mixing of belief systems) in newly established tribal churches, it is important to understand the worldview and cultural grid of the tribal people. Most tribal societies are animistic in their worldview, which dramatically affects the way they perceive the truth that we teach them from God’s Word.

What is Animism?  It is the belief that spirits and spiritual forces control the environment and lives of people. Because of this belief, people need to find out what spirits or supernatural forces are affecting them so that they will know how to appease them and manipulate their power in order to prevent harm, promote well-being and take revenge.

A hallmark of animism is constant fear. The animist is always wondering: What did I do (or not do) to bring about this calamity (big or small)? Which spirit, force or malicious person caused it? Who do I consult for a solution? How can I influence or manipulate the spirits or forces to improve my situation? How can I prevent this from happening again? …And much of the time, while subconsciously asking these questions, they resign themselves to the fact that another inevitable calamity is just around the corner. There is no relief.

A young mother sees her four year old daughter developing painful boils on her legs and immediately her mind flashes back to that otherwise normal day about two weeks before… She knew they should not have stopped at the creek on the way back from the garden. She should not have allowed her daughter to sit down on that rock to rest. She knew the water spirits were very protective of that area of the creek. They should have kept on walking… Now her daughter was in pain and they would have to pay a local witchdoctor to appease those water spirits and cure the boils. This probably won’t be the last time…

Is our Creator God able to be manipulated? Is sickness and death caused by spirits or sorcery? What does the Bible teach about angels and evil spirits, sorcery and witchcraft?  These questions, among many others, must be answered and communicated clearly by carefully teaching, comparing and contrasting biblical truth with their animistic worldview.

How can we, as messengers of the Good News, be sure that our message will be accurately understood by those who are listening unless we care enough to know them well – to the point of being able to predict how they will perceive what we are telling them? Our message is too important to risk miscommunicating it.

Please pray for the missionary candidates’ hearts to be prepared for this exciting yet challenging job of cross-cultural church planting.