NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Our past year in Mozambique has been the most challenging year yet for us. We have had experiences that we never could have if we had never come, and are different people because of it. God continues to show his grace and faithfulness to us in sustaining us and giving us strength.  The joy of the Lord is our strength!

We plan on spending the year of 2011 focused on 2 things:

1. Continuing with our National Culture and Language Study with the aim of reaching Capable High proficiency

2. Making several trips to visit existing works of NTM in various villages and possibly potential  villages where we could work to get a clearer picture of how our field is working right now and what it could look like for us.

With these goals in mind, we hope to gain some clarity on our next steps in ministry. Please pray for the funds to make these trips and maintain a working vehicle to get there and back!

We have stepped down from our teaching positions with Crossroads Academy to be able to devote more time and energy to NCLA. On that note, please pray for the School Staff and those taking over our positions, as this is still all new for them and they have a lot on their plates!

We have recently learned that a law has been passed to increase the fees for visas for those here working from other countries. So, as ours will be expiring in February, we will need to renew our entire family’s visas for 72,000 meticais. That is the equivalent of $2322.  Please pray for us as we try to organize this and that we would not become discouraged or frustrated with the expenses of living here.

We have continued to work with the youth here (missionary kids from all over the world) and Kat will be starting up her girls’ small group again in 2 weeks. It is a definite highlight of our week and a praise in our life! We are so blessed to be able to dive into God’s word and encourage these kids in their lives as they walk with God.

Caden is doing great, learning so many new words and phrases in English and Portuguese alike! We are potty training him and he is almost ready for a big-boy bed! We have so much fun. He will be turning 2 this month and we are having a party and building a giant “Offroading Truck” themed cake. Pictures to come.

We want to say how thankful we are to all who have supported us with donations, words of encouragement, and prayers. You have been God’s vessels to carry us through this year. May God bless you for your partnership in bringing his name to the lost.

Much love from Africa!

The Warners

Life in general seems to be more tiring here in Mozambique, and it’s hard to get through the day without lying down for a bit. However, we are happy to be back in our own home and to see our friends.  Caden is doing well. He thrived in South Africa seeing his cousins and being able to run around at a playground every day. We enjoyed our time and got to see some amazing places and experience awesome things like hiking Lion’s Head, Table Mountain and Cape Point in Cape Town, visiting the aquarium and museums, being along the beach and just visiting with family. We also took care of some all-too postponed medical appointments. Being out of Mozambique was a good time to rest our minds from Portuguese and have a nice change of scenery, as well as take advantage of the fresh milk, washing machines and dishwashers, clean parks and smooth roads.

Now we are back at home, decorating for the holidays and just getting back in the groove of life’s pace here. A good friend and colleague reminded us to give ourselves some time to readjust, and that no matter how long you have lived here, it is always a bit of a shock coming back.  

Right now, our plans are to continue to look to God and his word for each day and each step and each relationship. We want to live alive, and take advantage of every moment, even if that means giving ourselves the grace to rest. Or push through knowing God will provide rest at another moment. He is teaching us the importance of listening to his voice and the meaninglessness of life without that. He is challenging us to bring us closer to him, and showing us his grace along the way. One thing we are learning is that life’s journey is not black and white, God doesn’t work like us, and he cares for us more than we can understand. These are the things that will keep us going.

We hope you are all blessed this holiday season and can find time to reflect on whatever it is God is whispering into your lives.

Much love,

The Warners

Hi everyone,

Here is a update for everyone.  Please read and pray for us.

Temperature: It’s not even summer yet here and the temperature is in the 90s every day.  We are looking forward to the afternoon rains that will be coming soon to cool things off and to settle the dust that is in the air. 

Wedding:  We went to our first Mozambican wedding last Sunday and it was a great opportunity to help the bride and groom have a memorable day.  We decorated our truck and drove around the city honking the horn in a specific way to signify that they had just got married.  After the wedding which was at our church, we went to the reception.  We walked through the bairro to get to a tent where we ended up sitting with the bride and groom at their table.  This is a huge honor and we felt humbled to do this.  As we sat and ate food with the bride and groom, over 30 people were watching us waiting for there turn to eat.  Click here to see a video of that day-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nlUfBjPLoc

Filipe:  As some of you may know, we have helped a young orphan get his business started in one of the local bairros (neighborhoods) in the city. When Filipe was 7 months old he was abandoned by his parents.  His father is no longer alive and Filipe has lived in an orphanage, on the street, and in random people houses.  He currently sleeps on the floor of his hair salon which is 7 feet by 6 feet wide.  In his orphan years he learned how to cut hair and is now very good at it.  We are excited for him because now he has an opportunity to earn some income and work hard. We completely renovated a room of his uncle’s house by adding a door, windows and curtains, as well as a giant mirror and a veranda.  We painted the walls pink and wrote in red letters, “BARBEAREA” (this is the term for hair salon).  Two days ago, while I visiting him, some government representatives came and demanded to see business licenses and documents.  We have not yet taken care of these documents.  They hassled us for 10 minutes and almost took away all of Filipe’s hair clippers and products that we had bought.  I pleaded with them to not take away Filipe’s things.  I told them that Filipe is trying to give back to the community and help the economy of Mozambique by opening a business.  One of the representatives finally gave in and said, “Good then we will come back next week for the documents”.  Yesterday we paid and got the business license documents.  Pray for Filipe and his new business.  Pray for him to be responsible and wise.  Pray for us as we interact with Filipe every week to be an example of Christ’s love as well as mentors to him.

Teaching:  We are both teaching at “Crossroads Academy” school and are enjoying this ministry opportunity.  Tim received a note the other day saying, “Thanks for teaching Bible class, it’s very interesting and I’m learning a lot. Thanks for the time and effort”.  He was very encouraged by this note.  Kat is teaching P.E and is encouraging the kids to have a healthy lifestyle both spiritually and physically.  She gets opportunities to encourage the kids with Christian life principles as well as exercise with them.  She is incorporating aspects of nutrition into her curriculum as well and the kids enjoy their P.E  time.    

Language:   On top of our other responsibilities, we are plugging away at language study.  We are grateful to have a good language helper who is also our good friend.  We are currently trying to record life stories from people which will in turn help us understand the culture and language of Mozambique.  Pray for this time. 

Orphans:  Every week we try and to visit 15 orphans (we will call them “the boys”) from our church.  This Saturday, we are going to visit the boys with the youth group.  Each kid will bring a sandwich, chips and drink to share with the boys.  This will be a great opportunity for the youth group to serve others.  Last Saturday, we brought 15 rubber powered wooden airplanes to the boys that they were able to build and fly.  It was an amazing time of fun for them and it brought joy to us as well.  Having never seen these kinds of toys, one can only imagine the joy they felt.  Pray for the boys.  The lives that some of them have lived bring tears to our eyes.  Hurt, frustration and pain are the emotions that some of them feel.  Pray God will bring healing and love through His word and the youth group on Saturday.  We will be teaching them a song we used to sing in youth group when we were younger.  The lyrics are, “Thank you for loving me, thank you for healing me, thank you for saving me, thank you for hearing me”  Pray that as we share the words of this song to them, God would heal them.

Conclusion:  If you got to the conclusion of this update, then we thank you for being a part of our lives and praying for us.  Thank you for taking the time to read this, and know that we value your prayers and thank you for your support as well.  Without this support we could not have built a hair salon for fillip, helped with our church construction, bought airplanes for the orphans or even come here to serve in the first place.  Love the Warners.

It’s Friday afternoon and we are home getting over colds, thanking God for the weekend to rest. I have been thinking a lot about God’s character, and how he views me, what he did for us all, and how much he really does Love and Care for us. Tim and I frequently sneak into Caden’s room to watch him sleep, and I imagine that the love we feel for him is only a glimpse of what God feels for us. The whole concept of God feeling love, and for a person who is so prone to selfishness, stubbornness and sin, is mind-blowing. To think that he always just WAS, and there was nothing before him, sometimes makes me wonder, why is he so good? He could have been a mean God, or a selfish God, or whatever he wanted to be, because he IS God and he would be right in that. But everything about him, his complete character is fully made of pure love, truth, light, grace, justice, and righteousness. And he uses his power accordingly. That is enough for me to want to worship him all day long.

Usually the books of the Prophets in the Bible intimidate me or confuse me, and I don’t usually go there much. However, these past weeks, God has been drawing me there again. I think that the reason I tend to shy away from these books is because I generally view them as God’s judgement and wrath. He has been changing that perspective in a huge way. Every prophet sent to speak God’s message had the same underlying purpose and reason to communicate: God is holy and God is Love.  Even the first thing he says in the book of Malachi to the people of Israel was, “I have loved you.”

I think that in this life, we have a lot of challenges, choices, opportunities, distractions and relationships. But ultimately I believe, and am learning again, that it all revolves around Him. He just wants more of us with him. A friend/collegue here once told me that God did not bring me here primarily to be a missionary, but to go deeper with him. I believe that every person is being actively pursued by God’s undying love, and he’s just waiting for us to love him back. To open our eyes and ears to what he is doing and speaking to our hearts through the circumstances and people in our lives. Through his concrete Word. And knowing that he is the same God with the same pursuit of love as the day I met him, makes me realize what this is all really about.

We put a new photo album on Facebook for you all to see! Go to our page (TimandKat Warner) and check out the album called These Days in Moz.

RIGHT NOW our team consists of 4 families and 1 single man (coming in September) who are still in NCLA (National Culture and Language Aquisition) awaiting assignment in a village. We are the church planters. Two of those families are currently on home assignment, which leaves us and one other couple here in the city. We have other teammates who also live here and work in the office and with the local church, and we are blessed to have them close by. We also have 4 other people groups with teams already in place working to get the word to them in their language. You can check out their progress here.

There are two more people groups we are looking to reach as a field here in Mozambique. They are considered the last two people groups that have no access to the Word of God in their language. As we strategize our approach to bringing this to them, we are constantly considering how to incorporate and partner with the national church. We are even looking at forming partnerships with neighboring countries.

Right now we are asking for your help:

Please PRAY for us and our teammates

• For Wisdom as we plan and look to the Lord for how to move forward with these works
• For Team formation and God’s  timing in all things
• For the people we hope to reach to have a hunger for Truth and readiness for Him
• For each of the missionaries serving here to be continually renewed in strength and desire to reach these people, despite discouragements and hardships
• For our leadership: We have 3 Field consultants, two of whom are serving as missionaries in a village work and the third who has left for home assignment and will return to help open Tanzania as a part of Southeast Africa NTM. They have a lot of work and responsibilities. Please lift them and their families up in your prayers.

There are many unknowns ahead of us. As a family, we want to obey the Lord. We understand that living by faith means inevitably not always knowing what’s ahead. Even now, we are serving in support roles while we watch and wait to see what God has for us specifically. Each day here comes with its own challenges and surprises, and we are continually looking to God for guidance. We cherish your prayers!

“LET THE PEACE OF CHRIST RULE IN YOUR HEARTS, SINCE AS MEMBERS OF ONE BODY YOU WERE CALLED TO PEACE. AND BE THANKFUL.”

colossians 3:15

Decision To Teach: Thanks to those of you who were praying for us as we were deciding what to do about the opportunity to teach at the missionary kids’ school. We have decided to go ahead and volunteer for this semester to teach 6-9th graders. Tim will be teaching Bible 4 days a week and Kat will be teaching Physical Education 2 times a week. Please pray for us to manage our time well, continue to progress in Portuguese, and build good relationships with the kids so that we can encourage them in their walks with God. Thanks!

Hey Friends and Fam! We hope you are all healthy and well!

We are writing with a few needs that we are involved in here in Mozambique. They are financial, although we are not just looking for financial responses. We are first asking you to pray, and see if the Lord directs you to give. If not, please ask him along with us to provide for these needs in the ways he wants.

Our first request has to with the construction of our church. Some of you have seen a video or two that we have posted on our youtube account http://www.youtube.com/user/ntmwarners of the construction already underway. However, there is a lot to be done and the current funds are being borrowed to make progress. To finish the project in its entirety, it will cost approximately 60,000 Meticais, or about $1600. This will provide for a roof, floor and walls, doors and windows. It will be a great blessing, especially for that community to see a place that is set apart to worship the living God! If you would like to be a part of this project, there is a special account already set up that we can connect you with.

Also, this year we will be helping out with the missionary school named Crossroads here in Moz and will be teaching two subjects. We have been meeting with the school staff and learning about the needs for school supplies. This is the first year that this particular school will open (thanks to the new missionaries; our co-workers) and although they have a small budget, we want to take the opportunity to ask for you all to pray and see if the Lord directs you to give in this area. Some of the immediate needs include art supplies and sports equipment for physical education. The grades are 6-9th, but by next year they hope to be 1st-12th. School starts September 1st. We will get everything we can here and possibly order in other supplies from overseas. If you would like to be a part of purchasing equipment and/or helping with shipping costs, please let us know. We would be honored to have your help in this!

Our third and final opportunity deals with the street kids here in the city. Our pastor and his family originally moved here to open a boy’s home to get children off the street. Now they also pastor our church and take care of many other needs of the local people. The Pastor is Mozambican and the wife is from South Africa. They currently have needs for basics like bed linens and beds, for more children. We have had a couple of boys frequently visit us and as of now, there is no where for them to go, so they sleep in the park. The do not have a home to go to. By donating to this project, you can invest in the future of a boy and provide a place for him to grow, feel safe and know God’s love in a tangible way. We have such a heart for these children and urge you to pray about getting involved!

If any of the above opportunities interest you, contact us at tim_warner@ntm.org . Can’t wait to hear from you!

BIG PICTURE:

When we prepared to come here, we spent four years getting equipped. Our preparation included a chronological Bible education, in-depth studies in how to work cross-culturally, and linguistics.  We completed all this with the hope and anticipation that one day we could have a part in bringing God’s word to a place that it has not yet been. Our ultimate goal is to be able to understand and relate to the culture of a specific people group so much so that we can be relevant and effective communicators of the Gospel message in their heart language and cultural context. And from there, to teach the Bible chronologically as well as teach literacy and translate the Bible in to their language so that we can hand it over to the people and they can study it on their own as well. 

*THis is happening right now and you can follow the progress of our team as they prep for literacy and teaching with the Mwinika people of Mozambique. Check it out at http://www.ntm.org/news/11109 .

 God willing, we hope to be a part of a church plant that can grow to be fully sustainable and even reaching out to the neighboring people groups with their newfound hope.

Sound like a mouthful? Let’s just say it is definitely a long-term goal.

SO…where are we now?

And what steps are we taking to reach this goal?

Right now we are currently in what they call NCLA, or National Culture and Language Acquisition. We have been here for almost 6 months and are studying the national language, Portuguese, every day. We have lessons with a Mozambican Portuguese speaker 3 days a week, and spend the rest of our time reviewing, processing, planning and getting out in the community to practice. With this time out also comes cultural acquisition, as we observe and interact in the daily lives of people here and try to figure out how to live! Every day is a new adventure. The more we are able to observe and participate, the more effective we will be in the relationships we are building when we communicate the love of Christ. Everything counts. Nothing is wasted. People are watching us, and we need to be watching them and looking to God to learn how to best become relevent in this culture.

The amount of time we will spend here in the city before moving out to a village depends on how fast we move in Portuguese and Culture Study. There are 4 categories of language ability and cultural understanding, with 3 levels in each one, totally in 12 levels until we are considered “Proficient” in both language and culture. However, we do not need to reach Proficient before we are allowed to move on to a village. But we need to be close! Pray for us in these areas, for our minds to be open to all the Lord wants us to see! As of now, there is no projected date of departure, and we are awaiting our first evaluation in September to get a better grasp on our levels then.

In the meantime, we are continuously learning that our ministry here and now does exist, it doesn’t start when we move in to a village. God is teaching us so much and working every minute…widdling away at our flesh, molding and tenderizing our hearts, opening our eyes, drawing us into him. This is our sanctification;  it’s real and it’s happening. And our lives are a living testimony of his immense love and sacrifice that is making us who we are and giving us hope. And so, we are learning each day how to live and how to hold on to him, and how he holds on to us, even as things move up and down and we pass through dark and hard places. He is holding us. So our ministry now is to take this truth to heart and live it out loud in the ways we know how while we prepare for this greater goal.

We currently attend a local church which you may have seen in our video on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/ntmwarners  ) We have also begun to build some relationships with couples and individuals that we hope will develop into something strong. The more time we spend with the people, the more we feel at home. Having Caden is an instant link with the women on Kat’s part, and Tim has been able to be a part of a couple soccer teams here to break in with the guys, which we are grateful for. We are focusing on keeping our eyes open to the people we see everyday consistently, and asking the Lord how we can be used in their lives right now.

Every other week we get together with our team as whole, and then again with the other future church planters on our team, to discuss, strategize and pray about the future works. There are many things to consider and our team is currently in somewhat of a flux right now, with many family soon to be on furlough and others expanding our field to other parts of Africa.  So in all this, we are all seriously looking at every aspect and need for each possible work.

Today in our meeting, we were privileged to have a guest who is one of the main consultants for NTM Africa. During the time he shared, he used some words that pierced our hearts fresh for the price that was paid for our lives. After thinking a little more about how awesome and intense is the love that God has for each one of us, burning to know us intimately, to speak to us daily, to the point where he purposed his Son to spill his blood for our faults just to reconcile us to him, we are left in awe.  So I wrote a few words…

Bought with blood

Things fall away

Out grows my true identity

Strip me down                  Show me worth

Bought with pure and perfect blood

Even peace can reign through pain

When Your presence dominates

Where does life truly come from?

From You alone

King on the throne

You are the life in me

~kat