NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

One of our consultants from Mexico came by the other day, and I was asking how some of our former students were doing.  I was thrilled to hear about Eduardo Melendez, one of the students we had a part in training in Mexico who is now translating scriptures into the Trique language.  

Eduardo his wife Veronica and their two children came into the training from a small church in the Ensenada area of Baja California, Mexico (south of California).  They had very few resources to live on and things got even more complicated when Eduardo had appendicitis, and then a terrible abscess after the surgery.  Their two children stayed with us for several days while he was in the hospital.  The Lord sustained them throughout the training program due in no small part to the faithful prayer support of that small church in Baja.  During their training there were some who doubted if he and his family would ever succeed as missionaries.  But it is the LORD that raises up workers and prepares them. 

Eduardo proved us all wrong!  He always seemed to be a people person, and even when learning the very difficult language of the Trique, spent hours working with them hoeing weeds in the fields.  We were thrilled to hear the other day that he not only has passed his level tests for proficiency in the language, but is deeply involved in translating lessons and scripture into the Trique language.  Please continue to pray for Eduardo, his family, and the rest of the Trique team, that they might soon all be able to plant a church among this unreached people group.

We just got a letter from our co-worker in Mexico stating that two of our students got married. What GREAT NEWS. What makes it exciting is that both were recently widowed.

José A., is a pastor also took the course wanting to deepen his understanding of the word. He was a real joy to have in class, and graduated in 2008. His wife who had been ill, passed away just last year leaving him with 3 children.

Lydia C. – is a part time student at the Bible institute in Mexico. She started training in 2007. She was married to an unsaved man, but he let her attend. She could only take a class or two each year so is STILL enrolled in the Bible institute. She is scheduled to graduate this spring. Two years ago her husband had a heart attack and passed away. It was a dark time for her and her family. But she determined to see it from a heavenly perspective.  Lydia also has several children.

One thing led to another; the two began to talk, and Javier Ibarra, my co-worker just performed their wedding. Lydia is overjoyed that God is giving her a second chance to be a part of a truly Christian family. Please pray that these two families would truly glorify the Savior as they join together. 

The following notes are from a leadership conference our leaders were at recently. We thought you would appreciate seeing our vision:

• There are approximately 2500 unreached people groups in the world today
• Right now church planters are reaching a new people group every 45-50 days. We would like to see this move to 1 every 30 days or 12 groups per year… (not to be trendy, but to be consistent with God’s heart.
•  This goal will require 15-17 people per group.
• The MTC (and equivalent programs overseas) would need to graduate 180-200 every year.
• Currently our numbers are moving the wrong direction. Would you pray for more workers to join our ranks?

I received the following statistics from our co-workers in Mexico… It was a great blessing to see that God IS still at work in Mexico! Please continue to pray for Mexico.

Without a doubt we have experienced exciting times in Mexico this past year. It is true that much of that “excitement” has come from the violence associated with the on-going war between the drug cartels. That is perhaps the news that gets the most publicity through the media. But there are other exciting things happening that have a more eternal value. Consider this – during this past year, the missionaries of NTM Mexico:

1. Translated nearly 2,000 Bible verses into the tribal languages

2. Advanced through a combined 34 levels of language and culture studies

3. Were involved in training and discipling over 50 missionary candidates.

Our missionaries were also involved in Bible teaching, literacy development and community projects. It has been a privilege to work together with the local churches here in Mexico to see the cause of tribal church planting advanced.

Statistics tell us that there are approximately 300 dialects spoken in Mexico. How many of those ethnic groups are still unreached? That is the question we are attempting to answer as we evaluate where to concentrate our church planting efforts. NTM Mexico has a survey team that is doing ongoing research to determine the areas of greatest need.

We praise the Lord that the doors for the entrance of the gospel remain open here in Mexico. In fact, as has been the case throughout history, the uncertainties have created more of openness to Biblical truth. In spite of the efforts of our Enemy, God is using this situation to get greater glory for Himself.

Thank you for your part of this work in the Lord’s harvest. As you celebrate this Christmas season, would you please pray for the people groups here in Mexico who have yet to hear God’s Word in their own language. There are still many dialects without a Bible in their heart language. And, many have never heard the name of Jesus in a language that they can understand. Pray, too, for the Christians here who are giving their lives to see that changed.

We recently blogged about the son of one of the Mexican missionary families that we trained… Chilo (Isidro), Nohemí and Jared. That blog can be found below on this page.

Thank you SO much for partnering with us in prayer for them. We just got an update to that situation so I’ve translated it and am passing it along to you.

Dear Brothers, We are writing to update you on what the doctors told us last Saturday about Jared.

The pediatric neurologist didn’t find any abnormalities in his examination of Jared, but he told us he had a form of epilepsy. He prescribed four months medical treatment. After that we need to take him back we will have an electroencephalogram and see the Dr. again. The Dr. said that they normally treat this condition over a period of two years after which it is possible that he will be released.

Thank you for your prayers for Jared. Please continue to praying for him. We are thankful to the Lord for the care and mercy He has shown in our lives.

Your Co-laborers

Nohemi, Chilo, and Jared.

Some of our former students are starting a new churchplanting effort among the Cora people of Mexico.   While still in the “ice-breaking” stages of the work, they were amazed by the testimony of a Cora man named Erasmo who already knew the Lord.  What follows is the translation of a testimony of Erasmo about the Christian life.  Keep in mind, this 73 year old Cora believer has had no formal training, just 47 years of faithfully walking with the Lord, reading and teaching the Word of God to the best of his ability (or should we say to the best of his engiftedness).

“The Christian life isn’t about a style of life which that pastor (another Mexican pastor in the area) teaches, it is not about following rules and regulations, it is about knowing His Word, hearing His voice and obeying.  We come to know the Word of God, the Spirit of God convinces us, then a conflict arises in our lives between our hearts and minds and the flesh until we arrive at the point when we make a decision:  to obey the flesh or obey the Spirit.  When we obey the flesh we are carnal, when we obey the Spirit we are spiritual, it’s that simple.  I want my people, the Cora, to walk by faith in a loving relationship with God, not obeying the ‘laws’ of men.  There is no true joy in that.  That style of Christianity is a lie, the people live a lie when they follow formulas or human rules pretending that by those things they will attain spirituality or maturity.  We go to church because the Spirit of God moves our spirit to look for the fellowship of the body.  We go to church because the Spirit of God makes us aware of our need to feed on the Word of God.  We sing together like brothers because the Spirit of God directs us to raise our voices and sing to him who looked upon us and saved us.  We go to church not to pay back God, it is not about paying God anything (it isn’t about God saying, I paid for your salvation now, what are you going to give me?) It is about something that happens inside of each one of us, in our hearts and minds and results in a ‘turning upside down’ completely in a life that results in a life of praise and adoration towards our God, who took the time to save people who are not important in this world.  I Cor. 1:26-29; I am not famous in this town, few are those who love me, but God, He loves me.  The Spirit of God convinces us of God’s love and we make a decision to obey, when we do love Him.  I don’t want people in my church that attend as an effort to change their lifestyle, I hope that those who come are believers and that they come out of a conviction of spirit (from the new man Col 3:9,10), that they are people who are convinced of the truths of the Word, coming from a place of spiritual obedience not from the appearance of spirituality (carnality).”

 Would you please pray that God would use Erasmo and our missionaries to plant a church among the Cora?  

Please pray for Jared Martinez, son of Isidro (Chilo) and Nohemí, one of the Mexican missionaries we trained. Chilo found his son convulsing in his sleep last week. The Martinez’ live among the Cora people in a remote area of central Mexico. They had to take Jared to a hospital two hours away. He is now conscious and the doctors are running tests to see what caused his convulsions. Please pray for wisdom to determine the cause, and provision to pay for the hospital, and their travel away from home.

Are you hungry for God’s word? I take for granted the printed and electronic access I have to the Bible. Here is an excerpt from one of our missionary letters. It’s about a conversation among some elderly tribal folks that desired to hear more of God’s word in their language. “Maybe, if we could be really quiet and sneak up under the house, no one would hear us. We’d have to be sure they weren’t looking, when we did it. Surely there is some way we can hide under there and listen in.” Some nefarious plot being planned? No, the ruminations of some of the older members of our community, calculating how they could manage to listen in on our translation sessions. Literacy came too late for them, so that diminishing eyesight and lack of flexibility left them without the ability to read the Siawi Bible, but with a hunger for the Word.” I can’t imagine what it would be like to not have any of God’s word in English. Thank you for praying and giving that more like these might at least hear, if not read His precious promises.

These days I am involved in “CLA-Practicum” a culture simulation class where we instructors take the parts of people of another culture and allow the students to develop relationships and endeavor to understand our “culture.” Today, after one of our more “serious” skits, I saw just how seriously some students are taking this part of the training. The students had developed their relationship with a particular culture “helper” and today that “helper” suddenly died on them (please understand this all just simulation) Some students were really taking it seriously because I saw several of the students, men and women talking with the instructor who played that part, and several were in tears.

Afterwards, in the session wrap-up, the teacher who has many years’ experience on the field challenged the students with the question, what do you do when you know a person may actually die before you are ready or able to present the Gospel to them. I remembered a teacher we had many years ago who shared about a deaf and blind man in the tribe he was trying to reach. As he neared death, he knew he had to try to share the gospel with him. He squatted down next to the man, and in the tribal language shouted the gospel in to his useless ears. After he had shouted in the man’s ear a while the man responded… “I’m sorry brother, I am both deaf and blind. I feel your breath on my face, but I cannot understand. It broke his heart that the man would never hear the gospel and went into eternity not long afterwards.

The preparation of these young lives is not something to be taken lightly. They need to be able to effectively and quickly move into a new culture and get to the point of sharing the Truth with them. Time is running out. The preparation of these young lives is not something to be taken lightly. They need to be able to effectively and quickly move into a new culture and get to the point of sharing the Truth with them. Time is running out.

I got a news letter the other day from a couple that are celebrated a 10 year anniversary last July 17th.  It really made me think.  They were on their way back to the field, when they missed a connection in New York City.  They spent quite a bit of time at the airline counter trying to get on a later flight but were unable to do so.  The next day they discovered that TWA flight 800 had gone down shortly after takeoff.  All 212 aboard were lost.  God had miraculously spared them to continue on in their ministry.

Yet the story doesn’t end there.  I know another missionary whose church had a group of teens on that flight.  They were NOT spared.  The point is, our lives are NOT ours.  They belong to Him who created us.  He has the right to use us and all we have to His glory.  It was a sobering reminder to me that my life is NOT my own.  It has been already purchased by God through Jesus Christ.  He alone has the sovereign right to use me as he sees fit.

Only one lift so soon it will pass.  Only what’s done for CHRIST will last.