Todd and Kelley Duston connecting you to tribal missions Highlights of 2010
2010 has been an exciting year for our family! The biggest event was Nathan’s graduation from high school and shift to life in the dorm at NTBI. He has wonderful roommates and did great his first semester in classes. We had 3 Emergency Room visits. Noah gashed his leg while biking, Nathan had his appendix removed and I had strange headaches with sudden numbness in my hands and feet. It is handy to have a hospital across the street, but thankfully we are all currently enjoying good health. Andrew, Anna and Noah all made the switch from homeschooling to public schools this fall. Andrew made the all conference B-team in varsity soccer and Noah has played well on this 8th grade basketball team. The twins scored lots of goals in soccer this fall and have just started playing floor hockey at NTBI. It was fun to go to cheer on our boys and we met some nice people. They have all worked hard in school. However, all the sports and homework has been very demanding in our family schedule. So, getting other important things accomplished is much more challenging. Our family experienced two auto accidents with no injuries, except to a bank account. We thank God for His protection! It also provided a good lesson for us in the area of personal discipline which we all need to grow in. For Thanksgiving this year, we spent a whole week in Wisconsin, which we have not done in 10 years. It was great to hang out with family and friends and help my dad with projects around the farm. God blessed us with the opportunity to share about our ministry in two churches. Another trial this year took place this fall when we were notified by our home church in Wisconsin that they would stop supporting our ministry with NTM at the end of this year. However, we are very excited to say that through our church in Michigan and various individuals, and a part-time job Kelley has, that support has been replaced. We realize these are financially challenging times for nearly everyone. So, we are thankful for God’s provision for us as we head into a new year of ministry. There are still many tribal groups who remain unreached with the Christmas story. They have no songs about the Savior! It thrills us to see our NTBI students leave here for missionary training and then head to various tribal groups with their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Thank you for praying for our family and ministry. We would like to pray more specifically for you and yours. We hope to hear from you this season and we would love to see you at some point in the New Year!
Graduation!
Dear Friends,
The big news for us is that Nathan just graduated from high school. So, besides an enjoyable commencement ceremony for Jackson Christian School we had an open house for Nathan at our NTBI student center. My folks were here and so were Kelley’s, along with lots of other family and friends. Please pray for Nathan as he plans to attend NTBI-Jackson in the fall and live in the guy’s dorm.
The spring graduation for NTBI-Jackson was wonderful! Great class speakers and the student choir was amazing. It is always hard to say goodbye to the seniors but what a thrill to see the spiritual growth that takes place in two years. To help students pack up as they are moving on to the Missionary Training Centers in Missouri and Canada is always such an encouragement for me personally to keep doing the work we do in the admissions office. Kelley and I are currently communicating with 200 applicants. 104 for Waukesha and 96 for Jackson. Please pray that God will continue to encourage these prospective students with the incredible value of studying the Word of God. You can also pray for the Lord to provide the finances for those He desires to come. The summer months are the busiest time of the year in the admissions office. So, we take our vacation as extended weekends. This allows us to be in the office every week.
In January, God brought two Korean families to NTBI-Jackson and Kelley and I, meet weekly with one of the couples for tutoring in English language and culture. Both couples are doing well. Please pray for the Kim and Lee families to be able to start the bible classes in August or to have the faith and encouragement to keep moving ahead in English for another semester.
A few weeks ago the entire staff at each NTBI campus had a three day seminar on Partnership Development. For the past few years MTC students have been getting this training. However, we have not had it in the 16 years that we have been serving with NTM. All staff have been given the new responsibility to raise 100% of their approved ministry budget within the next three years. This is going to take a lot more of our time in communication and travel on top of our current ministry responsibilities. So, we would appreciate your prayers for us and for God to help us connect with potential ministry partners. If any individuals would like to know more details about this, please contact us. We are excited to see how God is going to use this situation to grow us and use our lives in new ways. Together, let’s keep reaching new tribes with the gospel!
Todd and Kelley
Nathan, Andrew, Anna, Noah, David and Daniel
Life in the tribe
There are many exciting events taking place in the tribes where New Tribes Mission is working.
Today (4/22) as I write this the DINANGAT believers in Papua New Guinea (this church was born less than two years ago) will present the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to a new group of Dinangat. This will be the climax of bible teaching that has been going on for the last two months. Pray for a positive response to the gospel.
Marg and Bobby Jank. (mother and son missionaries) have just finished two weeks of audio recording the old testament scriptures for the YANOMAMO scriptures. This will be added to the N.T. recording that have alreadybeen completed.
In recent months the total amount of verses that are being translated into tribal languages by NTM missionaries is averaging 1,000 VERSES PER MONTH. This is an amazing amount of work for the translators and NTM is currently looking to God for wisdom for getting more translation checkers in place. Praise God for this problem and pray for field leadership to know how to reallocate certain missionaries for doing the checking.
Life in Jackson
This time of year there is a lot happening as we continue to coordinate the admissions for both NTBI campuses.
This semester we also coordinated more campus visitors to the Jackson campus than ever before! We have had over 50 prospective students and in March we had at least one prospective student per day for four weeks in a row! Please pray for these prospective students to consider the value of studying the Word of God at NTBI.
Also please pray for our Seniors who will be on their Senior Retreat the last week of April and then they graduate on May 15th. Many will be going on to the NTM Missionary Training Centers in MO and ON. Others are still seeking the Lord’s will for the next step in their journey of faith.
There is always plenty going on in our lives outside of NTBI. On Tuesday nights we host and lead a community group from our church and on Wednesday nights we always have extra mouths for Kelley to feed for supper before we fill up our van and head to youth group which I lead. It has been such a blessing to have a number of NTBI students committed to working with our youth.
Andrew has also been a great help as a student leader. This past week he helped lead music and made numerous calls to encourage other youth. He and Anna will be serving at Camp Barakel as volunteers for a week this summer.
We are still seeking the Lord for what schooling God would have for our kids this fall so we would appreciate your prayers for that decision. Nathan will Graduate on May 28th and he will be 18 in June. He has been accepted for enrollment at NTBI. Please pray for him as he adjusts to adult life and that God would prepare his heart for studying the Word full-time. Also pray for many other students to join him at NTBI this fall.
Life on the road!!!
We have talked about going out west for a few years but finally felt God leading us to do it this year for Spring Break, before Nathan graduates from High School. The Lord provided some significant extra gifts from friends, for which we are very thankful.
We celebrated Easter weekend with family friends in Colorado Springs. Andrew and I were able to ski and snowboard for a day! We were also able to visit with former NTBI students in Denver.
We then went on to Utah where we stayed with Parents of a current NTBI student. We were able to see the Arches, Bryce, and Zion (our family favorite). From there we went to Las Vegas (least favorite) and the Grand Canyon.
We had a longer trip planned but enduring the stomach flu along the way we decided to head for home.
The return trip was extra long due to trouble with our van. However God provided for everything we needed. Seeing the handiwork of God’s creation out west was totally worth the long journey!
