NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

A year ago, we received an application to study at our institute in Mexico from Vicente Tigre (far left) a young Guarijio man.  His name in English would be Vincent TIGER.  He helped the missionaries learn his language, and had come to know the Lord through their teaching.  When we get this type application, we wonder if their Spanish will be “good enough” for them understand the teaching, or if they would be better off studying with the missionaries in their native language.   We are so glad we admitted him, he is such a blessing.  Vicente not only excelled in the curriculum, he did it while translating Galatians to his own language.  I just received an  e-mail from one of our missionaries who works with a group of Guarijio on the outskirts of Chihuahua City.  They had to move to the city, but continue to reach the Guarijio.  Here’s what he says:

      “But God in His grace and mercy has given us another opportunity with Guarijio here in the City of Chihuahua.  Linda has been teaching some Guarijio Ladies for many months.  Luis, a son of one of the ladies has joined the group.  It is a small group, but I am sure precious in the sight of our Heavenly Father. 

   A young Guarijio believer who started this semester in our Bible Institute took over the teaching.  His name is Vicente.  Vicente was thrilled with the chance to teach someone in his own language.  (He is also a gifted teacher).  We are two lessons away from the presentation of the Gospel.  Please pray as Vicente presents Christ this week.  We will be teaching on the burial on Wednesday the 11^th of May and the Resurrection on Saturday the 14^th.”

   Would you please pray for Vicente right now as he presents the final lessons in this very important series? 

Thanks,

 Virgil and Jeri

 ps.  We’ve become aware that those who have subscribed to our blog (www.ntm.org/virgil_holt) may not be receiving notification of new uploads.  You may need to re-subscribe sorry.

We just started a new Bible Study at church last Friday.  We are looking at the book of Ruth, one of two books of the Bible that bear the names of women.   Ruth was a gentile (Moabite) and married a Jew, Esther was a Jew who married a gentile.  Yet God in His sovereignty used both to save the nation of Israel.  The story takes place during the time that Judges ruled in the land of Israel… that’s NOT a good thing because rather than have God as their king, “every man did what was right in his OWN eyes.”  I made some interesting observations regarding the story of Ruth…

Elimelech, Naomi’s husband means “God is my King.”  Naomi means “pleasantness.”  They were from Bethlehem which means “land of bread.”  Yet, when the famine hit, “God is my king” seems to take matters into his own hands, and left the “land of bread” and went to Moab a pagan worshiping nation to meet their needs.  Isn’t that  what we tend to do?  Like Elimelech, we may bear His name as King, and live in His Kingdom, without really making Him my king.  As children of the King, we have all we need, yet when hard times come we leave the umbrella of His provision and pursue our lack in our own strength.   The result is death.  Elimelech, and his two sons died, leaving Naomi and her two daughters in law with no hope of provision or inheritance.

I’m so glad the story doesn’t  end there, neither for Ruth and Naomi, nor for me when I take matters into my own hands.  God has a beautiful way of transforming our failures into classrooms of opportunity where we can learn to truly make him our King.  “Seek first God’s kingdom… and all these things will be added unto you.” trust Him even more deeply.    The end of the story is that Ruth is named as the great grandmother of David, and consequently named in the genealogy of Jesus Himself.  He has a way of turning our mistakes into blessings.

This has been a very “different” semester for our course.   We had  almost 40 students.  Over half of them are part time students.  What a varied group it was too.  Ages run from just over 14 years to 60 years old.

We have a young man from the Guarijio work who is working with our missionaries in translation.   He is extremely capable and it has been exciting to see him grow.

Several unsaved people came and  would not normally be considered for our course.  Our first requirement for attending classes is that a person be born again.  However, their circumstances have let us to look beyond the “normal” reasoning and allow them to take the Chronological Evangelism course.

One gal, has been in a church for several years, but has never really had assurance of salvation.  She shared with people in her church that she just didn’t “feel” saved.  Unfortunately no one picked up on the fact that her faith was ill-placed,  that it isn’t an issue of having enough faith to save,  rather an issue of in WHO that faith is placed.  Her problem was she had never really understood how the death burial and resurrection of Jesus applied to her personally.  A couple of weeks ago the puzzle fell together for her and she shared that that “feeling” of not knowing was gone.  She was SURE she was saved.

Another,  the unsaved sister of a pastor’s wife in town who is taking a few classes insisted on coming because that she really WANTED to hear that teaching.  We discussed it and decided it was a unique opportunity that God was providing and we shouldn’t turn them away.

Still another is Jesús Montaño.  He is our 60 year old, and readily admits that he isn’t a believer, and is considering the claims of Christ.   Earlier this month, he and I went out to coffee and the subject of the Chronological Evangelism class came up.  I was hoping to hear that he too had really understood his own condition and was trusting in Jesus as his substitute.   I couldn’t help but be disappointed to learn that he is still hanging on to the “front” of religion that has been his hope all his life.    These dear people continue to be in contact with our team.

Each of our Bible Institute students represents a unique window of opportunity for us.  Please pray that God will continue to work in their lives and draw them ever nearer to His plan for them.

Like many of you, we have spent a lot of our free time yesterday glued to the TV watching the Chilean mine rescue.  Jeri just turned to me and said, “What a beautiful picture of salvation.”  She is RIGHT!!   We ARE like the miners.  When the cave-in happened these men were left in total darkness, without any hope of rescue.  They were so desperate they began to quarrel and fight about what they could do about their situation.  They sounded horns in hope that someone on the surface would hear them.  In fact they did hear from above, but only assumed that “they were cries of the souls of the 33 dead miners.  What desperation!  If you’ve ever been in a cave without light, the darkness is almost palpable.  Then hope came from above.  Like to Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled, they began to hear the grinding of a drill.  At times irritating I’m sure, but every hour it got louder.  When it broke through, they knew they had hope of delivery from above.  Finally the heard the big drill.   They had real hope of rescue.  The path to their salvation was opened.  Someone (actually 5 of them) went down to them to show them the way to be free.  What a picture of what Jesus did for us.  We too were in that same condition.  We were in total spiritual darkness.  Our own efforts only led to frustration.  The only real hope we had was in the promise that a Savior would come.  Then came the day when we heard the sounds of deliverance.  Jesus had made a new and living way for us to enter into the liberating light of God.   We learned that the price has been paid we were free.  We only had to believe it was true.  Now we only await our physical liberation.  We have experienced the joy of knowing that everything has been done.  There is nothing we can do to make it better.  However, even though our salvation has been provided, we are still living in a dark place.  We don’t belong here.  This dark world is NOT our home.  We are children of light.  We live in a dark place, but we are no longer possessions of darkness.  Rejoice, brother, Jesus has promised to transform your darkness into the bright light of liberty.  The Apostle Peter understood, he says we are “God’s OWN POSSESSION… called… out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1Pet.2:9) “Even so come Lord Jesus.”

 One added note… Jeri just heard that the miners listened to translated messages by the late Adrian Rodgers while they awaited their rescue.  Could it be possible that this analogy actually happened to some of them??  I’m going to pray that!!!

over 30 pastors at breakfast

Last Saturday, our Instituto Misionero Transcultural hosted a breakfast for all the evangelical pastors of Chihuahua.  We had over 30 in attendance, from various different associations of churches.  We expressed our appreciation for them and their faithful proclamation of God’s Word, and their support of both students who study with us and missionaries and pastors who we have trained.  We also explained our reason for existence as an organization, and enlisted their help as co-laborers in preparing men and women to carry out the great commission.  Here are some of the statistics that we shared with them covering what has happened since we started.

1994-2010

Bible Course:

• 159 students (about 30% of them part time)
• 75 have graduated from the 2 year course.

Missions Course –  (this course is full time)

• Total of 52 students
• 14 of them went through the Bible Course
• 51 have graduated from the Missions Course
• 3 of them were return students who came back after getting married so their spouse could be trained.

 Work with our organization-

• 22 are working with NTM in Mexico.
• 2 are looking to the Lord for support
• 3 NEW works have been opened by teams formed from our graduates:

               Among the TRIQUE

               Among the MIXTECO

               Among the CORA

Work with other organizations-

• 11 Graduates of the Bible Course (2 yrs) are working as pastors, pastor’s wives or are involved in other types of ministry in their churches.
• 12 Graduates of both the Bible Course and the Missions Course are serving as pastors, pastor’s wives, or some other ministry.

     We sometimes sing that Willie Nelson song as we pack up and prepare to travel again.  Usually we sing it in fun, but this time it is with mixed emotions.  This trip will be our return to Mexico.  The joy of returning to God’s place of ministry for us is tempered with new concerns.   

     Long gone are the days of worrying about traffic, or whether we are taking everything we will need.  Now our minds are filled with thoughts of aging parents, personal health needs, and separation from kids and grand kids.  How will God meet the needs of aging parents?  How will we manage Jeri’s new knees, my diabetes, and various other concerns?

     The situation in Mexico doesn’t help much either.  Many have expressed concern whether we should go back.  Yet we are convinced that that is exactly what God would have us do.  We recently went out together just to talk about what God is doing.  It was encouraging to remember how God lead us out of our previous ministry in the states to go be a part of equipping the Hispanic Church as missionaries.  We know he called us to Mexico then and we have been encouraged that He is not finished there yet.   He has been so faithful!  Has anything happened that somehow took God out of authority?  The words of 1 Thessalonias 5:24 are very encouraging… “Faithful is He who called you, who will also do it.”

     So with this brief blog entry, we hope to motivate you to think of us these next months.  Pray that God will continue to raise up laborers for the harvest.   Pray for safety and provision for us, and for those we work with and train.   The situation in Mexico may be scary, but the safest place a person can be is in the center of His will.   Thanks for praying.

These are exiting times for our training program in Mexico.  Last week Veronica Ramirez flew from Guadalajara, Mexico to join the Murillos among the Mixeco people south of Tijuana, Mexico.   This missionary team is  made up of two couples and 4 single folks and will be opening a new work in an “ejido” or cooperative farm among the Mixteco people.   All but one member of this team have been trained in Mexico.  Izabel Medeiros is from Brazil.   This week the Saenz family and another single lady, Arehmi  Barrera, will be moving into the work.    Rafael Lopez, and Izabel Medeiros are both working on getting the support they need.

The Mixteco people are a tribal group in southern of Mexico.  Some of them moved north to Baja California pursuing work and ended up forming a colony south of Tijuana.

Please pray for the missionary team  that the Lord would give them unity and that they would develop a practical strategy for Language and Culture acquisition.  Financial support is a big issue for all of them but especially for Rafael and Izabel.  Please continue to pray for their churches to truly see the part they play in reaching lost tribes with the gospel.

A friend just sent me this… I thought it a very appropriate “new year’s resolution.”

***

One Day at a Time by William MacDonald   – January 1

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months:
it shall be the first month of the year to you.”       Exodus 12:2

New year’s resolutions are good but fragile, that is, easily broken.  New Year’s prayers are better; they ascend to the throne of God and set answering wheels in motion.  As we come to the beginning of another year, we would do well to make the following prayer requests of our own:

Lord Jesus, I rededicate myself afresh to You today.  I want You to take my life this coming year and use it for Your glory.  “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee.”

I pray that You will keep me from sin, from anything that will bring dishonor to Your Name.  Keep me teachable by the Holy Spirit. I want to move forward for You.  Don’t let me settle on a rut.

May my motto this year be, “He must increase; I must decrease.”  The glory must all be Yours.  Help me not to touch it.

Teach me to make every decision a matter of prayer.  I dread the thought of leaning on my own understanding.  “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps”  (Jer. 10:23)

May I die to the world and even to the approval or blame of loved ones or friends.  Give me a single, pure desire to do the things that please Your heart.

Keep me from gossip and criticism of others.  Rather, help me to speak what is edifying and profitable.

Lead me to needy souls.  May I become a friend of sinners, as You are.  Give me tears of compassion for the perishing.

“Let me look on the crowd as my Savior did,
Till my eyes with tears grow dim.
Let me view with pity the wandering sheep,
And love them for love of Him.”

Lord Jesus, keep me from becoming cold, bitter, or cynical in spite of anything that may happen to me in the Christian life.

Guide me in my stewardship of money.  Help me to be a good steward of everything You have entrusted to me.  Help me to remember moment by moment that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  May this tremendous truth influence all my behavior.

And, Lord Jesus, I pray that this may be the year of Your return.  I long to see Your face and to fall at Your feet in worship.  During the coming year, may the blessed hope stay afresh in my heart, disengaging me from anything that would hold me here and keeping me on the tiptoes of expectancy.  “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

***

Jeri and I want to wish all who read this God’s very best this year.

My granddaughter, Atalie, was playing in the backyard, running around and having a great time.  I noticed that every time she got off the cement, she stopped, sat down and inched forward until her feet were on the grass and then she got up and took off again.  What was interesting to me was the fact that the grass was at the same level as the cement.  There was no real danger that she would fall.

Then a few days later, she and I were leaving the house to get in the car.  The steps at the front of the house are about eight inches high, and this time there was real danger, but she launched herself off those steps as if she had no question she could do it.  What was the difference?  Why no fear?  Simple… she had her hand in mine.  How I wish I could learn to fear my own ability, and wholly trust in His hand!

Yesterday I got another lesson in that classroom.  I had the privilege of representing NTM in a church where Gracia Burnham spoke.  Hearing her testimony of how God worked in their lives through their ordeal that ended eventually with Martin’s death kind of put everything in my life in better perspective.  God IS sovereign.  God IS all-knowing.  God’s plan for my life is perfect.  My place is to simply put my hand in His, and take that step of faith knowing he will accompany me in his perfect will.

In Mat. 6:25-34, Jesus addresses this very issue.  In verse 33 He draws His conclusion stating “…be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.” That truth is something I’ve spent over 35 years trying to make practical, and yet it’s a truth as new to me today as the first day I heard it.  Oh that we could just abandon our own forces, take His hand and follow!

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