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Retirees' Stories
Total Years of Service with NTM "Granny” and Betty served with New Tribes Mission for 30 years, 28 of those years in Brazil.
How were you challenged into missionary service? We grew up and lived in Maine with our 4 children. We were challenged to go with Wycliffe Bible Translators as a machinist to Papua New Guinea. However, we needed Bible training and so we left Maine and went to Grand Rapids School of Bible and Music in Michigan for a year. We then heard Dick Sanford, an NTM Representative, speak and our hearts were challenged again that “The Lord just wants us to be willing to have Him use our life.” We went for training in Jersey Shore, PA and were burdened by the needs in Brazil, S.A. We finished our language school training in 1970 and headed to Brazil in 1971.
Describe some of your ministries. After studying Portuguese for a year, and home schooling our daughter Karen, while the boys attended the MK school, we were asked to take the guest house ministry in Manaus. There we cooked and had guest rooms ready for our missionaries serving interior when they came out to renew their paperwork, for medical needs, etc. During our second term in Brazil we were cooks and helped with maintenance at the NTM MK School. For about 10 years, our ministry was as bookkeeper, buyer for 7 tribal works, and running the guest house at a small town in Western Brazil.
Tribes in which you worked. We worked for 4 years with the Jaminaua tribal people. Steve and Becky Smith were our partners. We were at least a 2 hour flight from town. We bought our supplies for a whole year and had them shipped down river. Later in that time, I, Granny got acute hepatitis and Betty got typhoid. The doctors said we could not return to that ministry. Although in later years we did “fill in” in the Yanomami tribal works while others went on furlough or became ill and had to leave a family in there alone. By this time we did have radio contact in case of an emergency. Although we did not know their tribal language, we were able to do physical things as well as help with the medical ministry. Today there are a lot of Yanomami believers. We saw a real strengthening of their families as they grew in their Christian faith.
What was your biggest test of faith? During some of our ministries we were a long way from the MK school where our children attended. Flights were expensive and there was often no mail. We remember once, when after our daughter (then to be a senior in High School) had been with us for the summer, due to a shortage of aviation fuel, there would be no flights coming in by our mission plane, to get her back to school. Then a neighboring rancher said he would fly her on his private plane to where she could get a connecting flight. “What should we do Lord?” we asked. We prayed and put her on the flight. The next day we heard by radio that she had not arrived at the school! “What did we just do Lord!?” Our hearts sunk and we prayed some more. Here she and our partner’s wife, who had traveled with her, found when they got to their destination, there was to be no connecting flight. They had enough money for one night in a motel and the next day the Lord turned up a friend in that town that offered for them to stay at her house. “Thank you Lord!” Within a few days they were able to take a plane to Manaus. Again, the Lord undertook!
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be committed! There will be some real tests of faith, but you will always see God undertake for you personally.
Total Years of Service with NTM Keith and Pat served with New Tribes Mission for 29 years.
Country served We headed to Papua New Guinea in 1969. On our way over, with our 4 children, we stopped in Australia for what we thought was to be just a few days. While we were there, the “nighty” of one of our daughters caught on fire from the open flame of a space heater. She was badly burned. We ended up staying in Australia longer, until she was healed and able to travel. The hard part was sending our oldest daughter, then an 8th grader, on ahead so she could start school on time. I, Keith, was able to help build cabinets there for NTM Australia while our daughter healed.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Rudy Johnson, an NTM Representative came to speak at our home church. The NTM trio also sang some special missionary numbers. They left us applications and invited us to visit the NTM training Center at Oviedo, Florida. Our pastor also encouraged us to consider missionary service. During that time, we heard a missionary with TEAM speak about the need for laborers in Irian Jaya, so our hearts were set on helping in that part of the world.
What was your biggest test of faith? When we got to PNG, our 3 daughters were attending school at Oluguti, and Field leadership asked us to help build a new school base at Nuhmonohi. So, 3 we lived in a “pit-pit” house, while the new buildings were being constructed. Our young son was with us and we lived in that little house for about a year. It was a big adjustment to be away from our daughters while they attended school.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Have the people to your house and get to know them. Go as a learner. We are guests in their country. Don’t take over!
Total Years of Service with NTM Elwin and Virginia served with New Tribes Mission 34 years.
Country served We served for 34 years in Brazil, South America, working in several capacities in a support role. Some of these were keeping books; teaching in language school; teaching in the school for missionary children; being principal of the same school; being dorm parents; building houses; running the guest facility; having a ministry to kids in our large old home we had remodeled.
How were you challenged into missionary service? “Lord, if you will give us a healthy baby boy, I will dedicate him to you,” Elwin’s mother prayed. She didn’t feel well, and was concerned; it had, after all, been fifteen years since her last pregnancy. She never told anyone of her prayer, until as a young man, I came home and excitedly told her, “Mom, I know now what the Lord wants me to do with my life. I want to be a missionary!”. A Bible School teacher, Alan Haggert, had talked to our Sunday School class challenging us with his experiences as a missionary. When my Mom heard that, she revealed her prayer uttered for me even before I was born. His wife, Virginia (Ginger) added, “I felt a desire to be a missionary since I was a small child. I knew the Lord would prepare me and provide the opportunity.”
What was your biggest test of faith? We had been taught to trust in the provision of the Lord, so when we went, with three children, to California for “boot camp’ for our missionary training, we went with no support and just a few dollars. Yet all the way, the Lord surprised us, even providing tickets for our flight to Brazil.
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? All of the missionaries helped one another, contributing to the educational needs of the children; filling in for one another; each one doing his or her part.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Said Ginger, “…get a first-hand look at what missionary life is like. Visit the field, or go on a short term mission trip, so you can see what you can anticipate. Also, knowledge of first-aid is valuable, since it teaches you how to position an injury while awaiting care, or how to treat common ailments.” She then added, “I delivered a ‘pile’ of babies during my years on the field. Elwin delivered our last one! You simply have to be prepared for about anything the Lord puts in your path to do!”
Total Years of Service with NTM Arden & Jennette Callahan served with New Tribes Mission for 28 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Our home church was very mission minded and had a visiting missionary come to speak and show slides nearly every month. I, Arden, helped run the projector and we became well acquainted with missionary’s travels and medical challenges. Even though Jeanette and I had taken linguistics in college and were both teaching in Ohio public schools, we really were shocked to the point of laughter, when one of the NTM missionaries our church supported asked us to consider coming to Brazil as associate missionaries, to fill in at the MK school for a year. We prayed about it and soon found we were leaving our two grown children stateside and taking our 9th grade son, James with us to the Amazon River! Jeanette taught biology and I taught math, physics and chemistry during that year.
What were some of your more difficult experiences? I don’t know that there was one major thing, but it was difficult at times to be so far away from our family back in the States. My mother passed away in 1979, leaving my father to live on his own. We were not able to leave the country for her funeral, due to laws at the time that could have jeopardized our permanent visas. That was hard. But God always provided things that helped. I was able to set up an amateur radio station and keep in touch with a neighbor of my father to know how he was doing. My “ham” radio was also a blessing to our fellow missionaries since I was able to run telephone “patches” to their relatives as well. Then knowing that our grandchildren were growing up without us around was never easy. Yet, God undertook that we did get to see them quite often when we came Stateside during some of our summer breaks. Another test of faith came as we lost some of our prayer and financial supporters through the years, but God always continued to take care of us.
Did you ever return to the field? Yes, after my father passed, we were asked to teach at another NTM school further north in Brazil. It was a two hour boat trip up the Amazon. Again I taught math, and the sciences and Jennette taught 5th and 6th grade. Our son was a teacher there also and it was special that we could be close to him and his family during this time.
How was your ministry as a teacher a blessing to other missionaries? As teachers we were able to help supply 1-12 grade education to the children of our missionaries, which prepared them for college when they returned stateside. It also provided many social advantages for the children as they interacted together in a safe moral environment. They also had so much fun swimming in the Amazon River as well as learning to play soccer and lots of other sports and games.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be flexible! You have no idea what all you may be asked to do. Ask as many questions as possible before going to the field. Write and communicate with folks that have been there!
Total Years of Service with NTM Ben and Rita served with New Tribes Mission for 24 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? The ladies sewing circle at our church became acquainted with NTM through some students attending Bible School in Milwaukee, WI. The ladies were challenged to begin sewing clothing for some orphans among the Ayore tribe in Bolivia. A single missionary lady cared for these children and informed us of what they needed. The ladies also made bandages for the lepers in Bolivia. Several years later, the New Tribes Bible School and Language Institute moved to Waukesha, WI, and some of the staff and students began attending our church. They invited our family to attend their NTM Missionary Conference at Camp Awana near Fredonia, WI. After attending that for several years and getting to know some missionaries, our hearts were challenged to become involved. I was a tool and die maker and Rita was a Child Evangelism teacher. I was 41, Rita 36, and we had 3 children, ages 16, 13 and 11. The Lord spoke to our hearts, but believing this should be a family decision, we asked our children to pray about it and tell us what they believed God would have us to do. They were all God’s children and after some time they agreed that we should go into NTM.
Where did you serve and for how long? While we were in missionary training, we were excited as we heard the needs from around the world and were challenged with each speaker we heard to places like the Philippines, Thailand and Colombia, S.A. Where do you want us Lord? He led our hearts to wait on Him and “follow the open doors”.
What was your biggest test of faith? It seems it is always the hardest to trust the Lord in the lives of ones children. In 1980, Rita and I, along with our oldest son, Matt, who was by then also serving as a missionary with NTM, led a short term group of missionary workers to Colombia, S.A. on a work project. While on an outing to a river to do some tubing, a rock fell from a ledge above them and hit Matt on the head, causing him to fall 25 feet and land on a small rock ledge. They were able to move him via a makeshift canvas hammock to where the mission plane (which was miraculously available) could fly him to Villavicencio to a small hospital.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be flexible for whatever God wants! Also to quote one of our teachers, Bill Dillon, “Keep your nose in the book and your eyes on the Lord.”
Total Years of Service with NTM Marge Day served with New Tribes Mission in Bolivia for 55 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? “I grew up in the Minneapolis, MN area and became a Christian when I was a senior in High School. One night, Paul Fleming, the founder of NTM, came to speak at my church. My heart was challenged to become a missionary to those who had never had a chance to hear the Gospel. I also had a friend that was in training with NTM in Chicago, so I knew about NTM. I took three years of training with the Cadet Nursing Corp at the University of Minnesota and become an RN and was headed into the military, but then the war ended. In the fall of 1949 I went on to Mendocino, CA to begin missionary training with New Tribes Mission. I finished my training at Fouts Springs, CA, 9 months later. While there, I met Jean Dye, who was on furlough from Bolivia. Her husband, Bob, and brother-in-law, Cecil Dye, had been killed by the Ayore, a Bolivian jungle tribe then hostile to outsiders. Little did we know that one day we would become partners on the mission field.”
Getting set up in ministry. “In March of 1950, I flew to Robore, Bolivia on the DC3 named The Tribesman, which NTM had acquired to help transport it’s missionaries to South America.” At the time, NTM was only working with the Ayore tribe, but surveys had been done revealing a number of unreached tribes (Yuracare, Chimani, Trinitario and others) and plans were made to transport the newly arrived missionaries, two by two, to the towns nearest these tribes. Mel and Connie Wyma met the new missionaries and helped them get acclimated the first couple of weeks. Marge and her first partner Wanda Banman, were designated to the town of San Borja and Mel flew them there in his little single engine plane…they were allowed 75# of luggage each which included everything to set up housekeeping. They rented a room and began language study. They made friends with the nationals and soon had a small group of believers meeting nightly. Their hearts burned with the desire to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the tribal people who came into town from the river and peered at them through the open windows.
The following year, at the annual NTM field conference in Cochabamba, Marge again met Jean Dye, who was beginning a new work with the Yuracare tribe but didn’t have a partner. They decided to work together in this new venture to reach the Yuras. During her first term, Jean, who had trained in SIL, had been part of the Ayore contact and had written the Ayore language. Now she had heard of a bilingual (Spanish–Yura) speaker whose help would greatly facilitate learning the Yura language and grammar.
Tell us a bit about the tribal people you worked with. The Yura people settle along seven main rivers and many tributaries. They live in small widely scattered family groups, in a hot and humid tropical setting at the eastern foot of the Andes Mountains. They hunt and fish for their daily food and raise small plots of yuca, corn and bananas. In the past they were able to sell jaguar, ocelot and crocodile hides to river launches. They had no written language, no medical care and a high infant mortality rate. Years ago they had no contact with civilization and men, women and children dressed in tree bark cloth. They were not hostile and welcomed visits from the missionaries.
The bilingual speaker Jean had heard about lived in the headwaters of the Isiboro River which necessitated a long trip…several days by river launch and then 11 days by dugout canoe, paddled and poled by six sturdy Yura Indians. Since this was the era before airstrips and radio contact, the girls took supplies calculated to last one year. Upon arrival the surprised Yuras offered them a thatch-roofed, pole-walled hut to live in. They worked for 10 months with their language helper (under mosquito netting…the bugs were fierce!) writing the Yura language and grammar. After the rains came and the rivers rose, they were able to get back to civilization, where they prepared literacy materials before returning to their base in Todos Santos on the Chapare River. Over the next several years they visited 30-40 Yura communities evangelizing and teaching literacy, but it soon became obvious it would be impossible to spend enough time in each one. They believed the Lord was leading them to begin a boarding school where many children from scattered ports could be brought together and taught for several months at a time. Just before her first furlough in 1955, Marge was able to purchase a small plantation an hour downriver from town for $400.
Nueva Vida begins. 1956…Jean Dye had married Larry Johnson and Marge’s new partner became Florencia Ferrel, a dedicated national missionary who worked with Marge for 45 years, until her death from cancer in 2001. Marge and Florencia traveled back and forth from town to the new property which they named Nueva Vida- New Life. They ministered in the Todos Santos church weekends (Florencia spoke Quechua as well as Spanish) and during the week they prepared to open the school downriver. Only four children came for the first two-month term, but as the parents lost their fear and began to see how their children were benefitting by the education, the enrollment rose slowly over the next 20-30 years until a record 180 studied in grades 1 thru Junior High with classes in both Yura and Spanish. Over the years, jungle was cleared and 15 buildings and an airstrip were built, including classrooms, a dining room, girl’s and boy’s dorms and lastly a worship hall seating 300. Some students went on to High School or Bible School and returned to teach in their home ports. One, Inocencio and his family are full-time missionaries to their own people in a remote village.
Other families who helped for a time in Nueva Vida over the years were Bob and Joyce Wilhelmson, Bob and Shirley Smith, Bill and Jeannie Cutforth, Art and Toni Barkley, Roger and Eva Jean Dockum and Howard and Karla Moss. Many national teachers helped including Judith Mendez who is currently leading the Yura work.
In the 1980’s, NTM had to pull out the missionaries, leaving several national missionaries to carry on the entire project. Marge had already moved out to Cochabamba to complete the translation of the Yura New Testament. She continued translating the Old Testament passages relating to the chronological teaching. Seeds of God’s Word have been planted in the hearts of at least 1000 Yura children and many adults over the years. His Word shall never return void!
“When I went to Bolivia the Yura didn’t exist for me, but since then they have been my entire life. Now as I step aside, I can see what God has done through the work.”
Total Years of Service with NTM Dorothy and her late husband, Delmar, served with New Tribes Mission for 17 years.
Country served We came to the International Headquarters in Florida after our retirement and Delm ran the mechanic shop there, fixing HQ equipment and cars for the HQ Staff, and missionaries coming through on furlough. I started out helping cook for volunteers and the HQ Staff that moved down until they got their apartments live-able. We cooked 3 meals a day in the guest facilities kitchen…no air conditioning in those days…quite a change from Wisconsin climate! Later on I gave visitors tours of the beautiful building the Lord gave to New Tribes for their offices. It was a thrill to share what we had seen God provide before our own eyes as the Headquarters building was renovated. God gets all the credit!
How were you challenged into missionary service? We owned a garage and home in Oostburg, WI. We got to know some of the Staff at the missionary training center in Fredonia. Soon the Lord gave us a desire to be part of getting the gospel to tribal people. Yet, we were both about 60 years old. What could we do? Where? How? We were willing to do whatever God wanted us to do or go wherever God wanted us to go. We shared our hearts with Doug and Barb McCormack and they had us make a call to Macon Hare at the NTM Headquarters in Florida. He told us they had been praying for a mechanic to come to help them there at the NTM Headquarters. God’s timing was perfect!
What was your biggest test of faith? It took a big step of faith to put our home up for sale and head to Florida, not knowing just where we would live or what all we would be doing. But we were excited and we were truly willing to believe God!
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? Delm had loved tinkering with cars since he was a boy and had a lot of experience in the years he owned his own garage. Now he was thrilled to be able to use that gift from God to keep the equipment working to run the NTM Headquarters, to fix cars for the HQ Staff and to fix cars for no cost for labor for missionaries on furlough. He never was too busy to help whoever was in need and did it with a sweet patient spirit. I helped cook the first few years and in later years gave tours of the building, but in between it was really interesting to be able to help collate Bible translations in the printing building, help get a Primer printed for helping people in a tribe learn to read their own language, or help in one of the other offices, like at Destination Summit the NTM short term mission program. God showed us a much larger picture of missionary service and that we could be used!
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Dorothy says, with much feeling expressed on her face, “Keep trusting Him! He is able! God is the same yesterday, today and forever! Pray without ceasing! Stop trying and start trusting!”
Total Years of Service with NTM Lyle and Louise served with New Tribes Mission for 45 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Lyle’s mother was very mission minded and so he grew up having hearing the missionary challenge. Then, his older brother went to Brazil, S.A. to serve as a missionary with New Tribes Mission. Also, his pastor had been a missionary in Brazil. Lyle went to Bible School after High School and one of his summer ministries was to help with a Daily Vacation Bible School program in Illinois. He was from Minnesota. That is where he met Louise and they started dating. She had not been exposed much to missions but knew Lyle wanted to be a missionary and so her heart was willing too as they developed a relationship. When Lyle graduated from Bible School in 1949, Louise graduated from High School and they were married that summer. They then went on to attend Biola for a year and entered the New Tribes Missionary training program in Fout Springs, CA after that. Here again they heard of the need for missionaries in Brazil.
Country & tribes served. “With our first son being 18 months old, we had our passage booked and all of our luggage loaded on the ship, ready to leave in the morning for Brazil. At 3AM Lyle ended up having an emergency appendectomy instead of being able to board the ship. Thankfully our luggage was one of the last loaded and so it was able to be unloaded before the boat left. We then went to one of the New Tribes training centers in Jersey shore, PA to recuperate and rebook our passage. When we arrived in Brazil, we went to a Language School in southern Brazil to study Portuguese for a year. We then worked 7 years with the Kaingang tribal people, in the mountains, until the Brazilian government moved them to a reservation in another part of Brazil. We stayed in the area and worked with the Brazilian nationals. Now that work is completely turned over to Brazilian nationals and there are 3 functioning churches plus 2 home groups in that area. Our three boys were all home schooled during this time. We were then asked to serve at Shekinah, the missionary training center for New Tribes Mission in Brazil. Lyle taught classes and I worked in bookkeeping. In January of 1982 New Tribes Mission opened the Macedonia Bible Institute and we were asked to move and help open that ministry. Lyle again served by teaching classes and I did the bookkeeping. A tremendous blessing during our ministry was that for 22 of these years we worked with Lyle’s brother Delbert and his wife Madeline and their family.”
What was your biggest test of faith? “The first thing that comes to mind is when we switched from our church planting ministry into teaching at the missionary training center. It was very intimidating! We had never done anything like this before and the students were more proficient in Portuguese than we were. But, we soon loved our ministry with the students and knew it was what God had for us.
Also, in 1984, I, Louise was diagnosed with terminal cancer and we had to return to the States for more surgery. We were able to move to the New Tribes missionary retirement center in Oviedo, FL while I had chemo therapy and radiation. Lyle was able to help on the NTM staff there. Once I regained my strength, I also was able to serve there as office secretary. Five years later, as a cancer survivor, Praise the Lord, we were able to help open the new NTM Retirement Homes property near Sanford, FL, Lyle doing administrative work and being the Chaplain and I as secretary. We served there until our retirement in 1996.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. As you go to the mission field, remember that God knows what ministries He has for you. Be flexible and willing to do whatever doors the Lord opens, not only what you had in mind. Also, get involved with the people. It is the best way to really learn the culture.
Date of interview: June, 2008
How were you challenged into missionary service? Bob and Mary met and fell in love quickly while living in Chicago, back in the 1950’s. They married soon after that and went on to have five wonderful children. The two oldest were born in Chicago. The younger three were born in Bolivia. Bob was working as a photo stat camera operator at a printing firm. Then at only the age of 26, Bob was diagnosed with colon cancer. Suddenly the reality that life doesn’t go on forever hit them hard. God used this to prepare their hearts to hear and accept the Gospel. Mary’s sister, Anna and a pastor friend counseled with them and led them both to the Lord. Thankfully Bob’s cancer treatments along with God’s healing hand brought back Bob’s health for many years. After only about a year and a half, they read the book entitled, Missionary Method’s, Saint Paul’s or Ours? by R. Allen and were challenged into missionary work. They tried applying to different mission agencies, but were turned down because they had children or needed more education. Then the same pastor that had led them to the Lord, suggested they contact Lance Latham at Woodworth, WI and inquire about the possibility of serving with New Tribes Mission. Lance had them meet Paul Burkhart at the New Tribes Bible School in Milwaukee, WI and Paul had them get interviewed by Marshal Case for missionary training. In August of 1959 they left for Jersey Shore, PA for what was then called Boot Camp (missionary training). From there they went to Fredonia, WI for Language School. Bob proved to be a good language learner and Mary even took linguistics.
Does a time stand out to you when God specifically touched your lives? “Yes, it is still amazing to me. When we had finished our missionary training and were wanting to head on to the field, we had little or no money to get there and had no idea of how God would supply for us. But we knew He would! Bob got a job, but after a few months could see it would take a long time to save much extra, much less get us and keep us on the mission field. Then one day there was an envelope in our mailbox with no return address. We opened it back at our apartment and found an anonymous cashier’s check for $1000 enclosed! To this day we have no idea who sent this to us. It was a gift from God. Within 3 weeks we were in Bolivia, South America. It paid for our tickets, paid for the shipping of our supplies and even gave us some for setting up on the field. That and about $100 a month support from family, friends and our church met our needs and even gave us enough to share with others.” To God be the glory!
What was your ministry on the field? “When we got to Bolivia we heard that a good language learner and someone that could do linguistics were needed in the Yuqui tribal work. This work was still in the contact stage and the others on the team were living on a houseboat going up and down the river attempting to contact the Yuqui tribal people. By then we had our third child. Our oldest needed to be in school and then there was our rambunctious preschooler, Mark. We realized that life on a houseboat would just present too many dangers for him. At that time there was an urgent need for a teacher at the New Tribes school for missionary children. So we decided it would be best if I, Mary, went with the children to the school and Bob went on the boat with the contact team. Although I was not a teacher, I was able to teach high school math and the sciences. I had studied all of those subjects in college and they were still kind of fresh in my mind. I was also dorm mother to the high school girls. Talk about busy! I loved it and it helped me not to miss Bob so much. This arrangement continued for a year and a half. It was hard for us to be apart so much, but we felt it was what God was asking of us at that time. Once both the older children were in school I was able to join Bob on the boat and have our youngest little girl with us. In March of 1965 we made the first lasting friendly contact with the Yuqui tribal people! Because there was unrest between the nationals and the tribal people, we looked for a remote area to settle to avoid more conflict. There we built crude jungle-style houses and began to learn their language and culture. Although there was no airstrip, a friend about an hour and a half away had an airstrip we could use when needed for supplies or an emergency. One of our team members, Les Foster, headed up the project, with the Yuqui tribal people, to build an airstrip. Working with the tribal people on this project also served as a good way to learn their culture and language and get to know them better. We paid them for their labor with things like rice, macaroni, sugar, lard or peanuts. They were used to being hungry most of the time and really appreciated having these items available to them. Eventually we also taught them the value of money and paid them with that. Being their language had no numbers it was another challenge. Money seemed useless to them. But they finally caught on that it could be converted into food. Bob gathered language information and I began working on the language analysis, starting a dictionary, writing primers and even translating Scriptures. I had a hard time finding good language helpers from the tribal people because the men did not like sitting around inside. They were used to being outside and found concentrating on language very difficult. The ladies too got distracted with my kitchen supplies and household items and thought everyone in the world spoke their language so could not understand why I asked so many questions. Maybe these white people had poor hearing? Finally I got the most help from a young girl about 12 years old by the name of Yakyaina. She was very bright and we developed a good relationship. She helped me for years and became one of the first Yuqui to accept Christ as her Savior. Bob’s main ministry was as a Bible teacher, doing medical work and helping me with literacy. Bob was also our first school teacher for the tribal kids. I concentrated on linguistics as well as Bible translation. Through our nearly 30 years of serving the Yuqui, I was able to translate the entire new Testament except Hebrews and Revelation into their language. I also translated some books of the O.T. and other portions of Scripture used in the chronological approach to evangelism and teaching.
God opens the door for another ministry. In 1994 Bob was asked to move to Cochabamba and help with Field leadership as well as Government Representative responsibilities. I was in charge of the dining room at the guest house and had a ministry at the women’s jail. The living conditions in the jail were very difficult. The ladies took in laundry to earn money for their food and rooms. I did my best to reach out to these ladies with the love of Christ and had many opportunities to tell them about the Lord. Then in 2002 God opened the door for Bob and me to help for nearly two years in the Guarayo tribe. The language was somewhat related to the Yuqui and the workers there needed help with the linguistics and grammar. Because Bob and I had experience in this type of thing it was really an encouraging time for us to be able to help in this way. This work is now being carried on by a Bolivian national man that grew up in the Yuqui tribe because his parents were our co-workers. Bob died of cancer in 2004 after a long, painful battle. A few months later I returned to Bolivia to serve as a single missionary in the NTM finance office in Santa Cruz. I was in that ministry for five years. I am now living in the Latham Center at New Tribes Mission Homes. I continue to seek ways to serve the Lord even in retirement. Most weekday mornings I help Edna Trigg, retired missionary from PNG, in proofreading back-to-English translations of New Testament books from many different PNG tribes. These will serve as translation helps for new translators in other tribes. I also serve as an online missionary with Global Media Outreach and daily have contact with people from all over the world. With the Wilhelmsons, I visit residents at a nearby nursing home. One of the blessings of retirement for me is that I now have more time for prayer. Every morning many emails are received at the Homes from NTM missionaries all over the world. These are updates with special prayer requests - some very urgent. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a part in all that our missionaries are doing world wide. My heart’s desire is to do all to the glory of God, and in so doing, bless others.
What advice would you give to new missionaries going to the field? Always trust the Lord for your needs. Tell Him and not everyone else and then you will know He is the source. Also, never lose your sense of urgency. Keep the goal ahead of you. Follow God’s leading and leave the results up to Him. That way when you leave the tribal people, you can feel confident that God, who began that good work in them will continue to remind them of the truths that will transform their lives.
Total Years of Service with NTM My late husband, Myron, and I served with New Tribes Mission for thirty-six years.
Country served Bolivia, South America, from 1949 to 1972. Myron and Joy planned to work with the Ayore Indians, but Myron’s health prevented that. Instead, Joy worked as a nurse at a leper colony, where Myron was the director. From 1972 to 1979 they worked at the NTM Bible Institute at Waukesha, WI., where Myron was a teacher and she a secretary. Myron went home to the Lord in 1986. From 1986 to 1993, Joy was a nurse at the NTM retirement center in Oviedo, FL. Joy currently resides at the NTM Homes Retirement Center in Sanford, FL, where her son Paul is the Chaplain.
How were you challenged into missionary service? While attending Moody Bible Institute in 1943, Joy was challenged to consider missionary service. At American Sunday School Union, NTM missionaries Ken Johnston and Jim Ostewig spoke at church and later visited in her home.
What was your biggest test of faith? Flying to Bolivia on the first trip on the first mission airplane was a real step of faith! They had three of their four children, the oldest, Paul, was five years old; the fourth child arrived three months after their arrival.
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served: Learning to speak a new language, Spanish, was a real challenge. Language school was not a part of the training at that time. A University student worked with them in their home, and they just learned while they worked.
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? During their first term on the field, Myron and Joy were in charge of the guest home. Myron also was the supply buyer. It was later Joy worked as a nurse.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be committed to the Lord’s work.
Date of Interview. 11/15/06
Total Years of Service with NTM Bob and Helen Goddard served a total of 44 years.
Country or countries served, and years They served in Paraguay the entire time, from 1955 until 1999.
Tribes served and years They served in six different tribes: the Lenguas; the Sanapane; the Macca; the Ayore; the Aba and the Angaite.
How were you challenged into missionary service? What happens when a husband feels the clear leading of the Lord into mission work, and his wife strongly resists? Bob and Helen Goddard were in an electrical wiring business with their brother-in-law, and had what it would take for living a full life. Then a missionary from New Tribes, Ken Johnston, was invited to speak at their church. They were particularly interested in the five men who had been killed by Indians in South America. When that service ended, Bob was convinced that he wanted to go to the field in some capacity.
However, when Helen, who had not been able to attend that service, heard that he had brought home applications for them to fill out for New Tribes service, she resisted. "I put my application packet up on a shelf and didn't even look at it for three months," she said. "It took me that long for the Lord to gradually convince me that if He was calling my husband, He was calling me, too!"
What was your biggest test of faith? Their training completed, the Goddards were prepared to go. Then, they lost a baby to miscarriage, followed by the birth of their fifth child. Also, Helen was ill for a time. Therefore, they had to delay going to the field, while Helen recovered, and they cleared up hospital bills. But they had learned to trust in God's timing.
Just as they were preparing to go, their supporting church folded. Now what? They joined a denominational church, but didn't expect any support for independent missionaries, so didn't even ask. Instead, two members of their new church offered support, so with support of only seven dollars a month promised, and a commitment to pray for them by a single person, they stepped out in faith. Traveling from Nebraska to Florida with a family of eight children ranging in age from sixteen years to eight months, "required organization and discipline," Bob recalls. The Lord would provide just enough for the next leg of the trip, and no more, all the way."
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served. Their world views were vastly different. Some were animists; some believed in "a god," due to the influence of the surrounding peoples. Some were under the influence of evil spirits. Some believed that if a person died, their spirit stayed around to wreak havoc with their families. Some were haunted by superstitions, such as fear of rainbows.
Describe your ministries. Largely, they pioneered new works. They made the initial contacts and then turned the work over to other missionaries who learned the tribal language and did Bible translation. They also did evangelism in Spanish, in which most individuals were fluent. They actually took over for a couple of missionaries, who were unable to complete their works for one reason or another.
From contact, to pioneer, to Bible teachers, to contractors, Bob and Helen Goddard were, as he has said of himself, "maverick missionaries". Not only did they themselves give most of their productive years to service of South American tribes in Paraguay, but their children have carried on the work they had started. To begin with, they worked as part of the team with their parents, but now they continue the work god began through their faithful parents. Now the Indians are reaching out, teaching other groups and tribes about the love of god through Christ.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be grounded in Scripture; be trained. When you go to the field, be a lifelong learner, as you observe customs and culture from other missionaries and most of all from the tribal people themselves. Become involved with the people, and expect to burn your bridges, as you become part of your old ways of thinking. If you expect to change their customs, you compromise your ministry with them.
Books written by the Goddards . Missionary Maverick - Bob's autobiography From Girl to Missionary Mom - Helen's autobiography Invasion - a fictional story based on Bible prophecy The Desperate and the Blest - a sequel to Invasion The X-B Ranch in perilous times
Total Years of Service with NTM Macon and Genny Hare faithfully served with New Tribes Mission for nearly 60 years.
How did you and Macon first meet each other? “I worked in a bakery in Mobile, Alabama with Macon’s sister. The bakery had a picnic and Macon was invited to come and have his 5 member band play. On the way home, Macon sat next to me and asked me where I went to church. I told him and he said his Aunt went there too and wondered if he could go with me to church the next day.” After that Genny went to the restaurant where his band played nearly every Friday night. Their love flourished from there.
How were you challenged into missionary service? “After we were married, Macon was working as a draftsman for a lumber company. We had two boys during this time. We started going to Graystone Church and were feeling in our hearts that God wanted us to be involved in full-time missionary service.” Macon sent in applications to Bob Jones University and to Wheaton College. As they awaited their answers, Macon read a Brown Gold magazine from New Tribes Mission and also Paul Fleming came to speak at their church. Both schools had questions about Macon’s future education and their already having two children. His company wanted him to stay in the area. They would give him time off for ministry. However, their hearts were drawn toward going to “those that have never heard the Gospel”. In 1946, by faith they headed to California with their family, to the New Tribes missionary training center at Fouts Springs.
Ministries Macon’s previous experience in construction, architectural design and draftsmanship led to his being asked by Paul Fleming (one of the founders of New Tribes Mission) to be involved in several more NTM building projects. One was to help rebuild “The Tribesman” (ship) NTM had recently acquired to take their missionaries to the field. This was in 1951, just after the war, and travel alternatives were limited. Macon, joined by Jake Toews, began remodeling the ship from a cargo vessel to a passenger ship. Genny cooked for the crew that helped work on the ship. When Macon escorted The Tribesman from San Francisco thru the Panama Canal to Brazil with it’s first load of missionaries and their families, Genny went back to Mobil and stayed with her mother, while working on menu’s for future trips. She was the head cook (as others got sea sick) when the ship made a second journey taking more missionaries to Brazil and then returning back to Mobile. Macon looked at new properties NTM needed for Bible Schools and Missionary Training Centers, as well as helping with their remodeling plans.
Country served Macon and Genny Hare served in Brazil for 10 years (1955-1965). The NTM field of Brazil had a home base, with guest facilities for tribal missionaries when they came out from the tribe to do government paperwork, get medical help or shop for supplies. Macon was asked to go to Brazil to help design some needed school buildings at the base. Local Brazilians were hired and did a good job of the construction. Also serving on field leadership, Macon traveled into the tribal missionary stations encouraging and helping the missionaries living there. Genny remembers that Macon often needed to travel, leaving her to care for their now 3 children. She grew in her faith as God was always close.
What was your biggest test of faith? “Macon was gone on one of his interior trips to mission stations when our 19 month old daughter, Christie, drowned. I knew he would be home the next day and I was so anxious to see him.” As he got near the base he heard from some neighbors that a child had died at the base and then found out that it was his daughter. He prayed and prayed as he spent the night enroute. When he got home he held his sons in his arms and said to them, “Don’t blame Jesus.” Before long, the Lord gave them another beautiful daughter they named Terri.
Support ministry After 10 years in Brazil, Macon was asked to return Stateside to help on the Executive Committee, NTM’s main leadership board, as the Mission continued growing and needing more properties for missionary training centers across the U.S. When they were helping set up the Language and Linguistic training center in Fredonia, WI, Macon and Genny lived in the “Cooks Cabin” at nearby Camp Awana, where Genny did the cooking for their first “Annual Missions Conference” for missionaries on home leave. Later, Macon also helped with the planned remodeling of another training center at Baker, Oregon. Finally in 1977 they moved to Sanford, Florida, and helped remodel the new International Headquarters building. Again Genny cooked for volunteers and guests as they worked on this building.
What advice would you give to new missionaries going to the field? “Obey the rules given to you in each situation. They are put there to help you! When you do, everyone gets along better and you stay out of a lot of trouble. Different country’s governments and even States look at things differently, and until you learn the culture, you can be a bad testimony, cause problems or be asked to leave.”
New Tribes Mission was newly formed in the summer of 1942. Their first group of missionaries was made up of 10 adults and 6 children, going to Bolivia to contact a tribe. Dave & Audrey Bacon, married just two months at that time, were part of this small group. In 1943, Dave, along with the men he was with, was killed by the Ayore’ Indians, who misunderstood their purpose in coming. Audrey was pregnant by then with their daughter Avis. When Avis was 12, Audrey married Rollie Hoogshagen, a co-worker with New Tribes Mission. Rollie and Audrey served in Bolivia until 1961 and then at the NTM Headquarters in Wisconsin and later in Florida until Rollie’s passing. Audrey is living at NTM Homes, the New Tribes Mission Retirement Center, in Sanford, FL.
Total Years of Service with NTM: 39
Country or countries served, and years Bolivia, USA
How were you challenged into missionary service? When Audrey was thirteen years old, she attended a conference at a church, where a lady evangelist was speaking. It was at that conference that Audrey received Christ. “I knew that day I wanted to go overseas and be a missionary. From that time on, I told everyone that would listen of my commitment to go to a foreign field with the Gospel. Everything in my life was geared to achieving this desire.” Later God provided for Audrey to attend Moody Bible College. Formal training with NTM did not yet exist.
What was your biggest test of faith? Audrey met Dave Bacon at church. They started dating before she started at Moody. When she came home at Christmas break, they became engaged. Dave wanted to be a missionary also. They were married October 8, 1942. Within a month, the Lord provided the money, just in time for them to get their visas and board the ship. ”Since it was war time, the freighter had to be camouflaged and the windows had to be curtained and couldn’t be opened. After about two weeks, and a bad storm in the Pacific, they landed in Arica, Chile.” Their next mode of transportation was the train to LaPaz, Bolivia, then, another train down to Cochabamba and a truck on to Santa Cruz. The truck ride took a week! The roads were bumpy and narrow. When the driver was heading down one of the mountains all of a sudden the truck acted up. “There were no gas or service stations way up there! We made it to the bottom of the mountain and the driver fixed the motor with a rubber band! It worked the rest of the trip. The miracles added up as we traveled along. “ Soon they were set up in Robore’. The men began preparing to go into the jungle to reach the Ayore’ Indians. They had some idea where to find the Indians, but had to chop their way through high grass and weeds. They found a plant in the jungle that had a lot of liquid in it and they used it when water was not available. They built fires and took turns heating up whatever they had to eat. They slept in jungle hammocks that had a roof, screened in sides, all in one unit. They kept the fires burning all night to ward off Indians and animals.
In June of 1943, Dave came out of the jungle for a supply and bank run. Dave and Audrey enjoyed the news together that she was pregnant! Soon after, Dave and the others had to get back to the jungle. “Our men were never seen again. A few remnants of the men’s things, like a piece of boot, pages of a Bible, Dave’s wrist watch, etc. were found. There was nothing to prove they were dead – just surmising.”
Jean Dye and Audrey did not want to leave the little interior village of Santo Corazon, where they had been living while their husbands were in the jungle. They planned to stay there and Jean would help Audrey deliver her baby, hoping maybe the men would still be found. However, mission leadership felt strongly that they needed to come out from that remote location and so sent Clyde Collins in to help them come out. “I was seven months along. Jean didn’t want me to walk, but try riding on an oxen. I tried that for a while but it gave me a terrible backache and so I decided to walk. It was a walk of about 75 miles! “
Plans were made for Audrey to go to a German doctor in Robore’ for the birth of the baby. Mrs. Dye planned to be there with her. However, she needed some dental work done and would be gone a few days. The doctor assured them both that the baby would not be born until mid March. However, little Miss Avis decided she wasn’t going to wait. “There were four men sleeping in the bedroom just on the other side of the wall from me and the Dye kids in another bedroom. One of the men ran for the doctor and also served as my interpreter, as the doctor only spoke Spanish. She was a breach birth. The doctor was able to turn Avis’ head to help her come. The Lord undertook for me 100%! Dave had picked the names Allen James for a boy and Avis Marie for a girl, so Avis Marie it was!”
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served: Eleanore LaHue (Antelo) and Audrey became partners and went to help with the work with the Ese Ejja people. Language was the first major difference. “First we had had to learn Spanish and now we needed to learn the tribal language. We started out by making friends with the Indians and they were cooperative, although also mischievous. Steeling was a constant problem. They came right into our house, if we forgot to shut and lock the doors. They pushed our dish towels through the slats. They would use our towels for patches. We had to have a sense of humor. My mother sent me some seersucker dresses. They were all the same pattern and almost the same color..Now when they saw me they didn’t think I had so many different clothes. It worked! They didn’t steal the dresses.”
Tell us a bit about “your tribe”. What changes resulted in response to the Gospel? We did not see a lot of spiritual fruit at first. It was hard to get them to sit around and be quiet long enough to listen. Slowly there were some believers and we did see some fruit. It took until 1997 & 1998 for there to be a real revival among them. Here is a quote from a letter from Mike & Cher Riepma, current missionaries there. “Our hearts had been burdened for several couples who haven’t been walking with the Lord for many years But God had been working in their lives all of the time even though they seemed to have no desire to return to fellowship. Now Luciano shared that the whole time he was miserable. We had a New Year’s service allowing these believers to give testimony…For three hours more than 30 adults and teens gave public testimony of their faith in Christ. Some of them shared that they were finally responding to “seeds” that had been “planted” many years ago. It reminded us that God is always working in hearts even though we don’t see people accept the Lord until years later at times…We can’t praise the Lord enough!”
Describe a typical day on the field. We would get up and meet together first thing for prayer and Bible reading together. Then we would go out and meet the people. We found that we sometimes had to make fools of ourselves, in an effort to learn more about the language and customs. We washed our clothes with a James washer with a little wringer on it. There was a lever on one side and we pushed it back and forth to agitate the clothes. Our only other alternative was the river. There was no refrigeration of any kind, so we boiled our left-over’s the next day. We kept our sugar and flour in 50 gallon drums. They were air tight and kept things dry. At days end we took “spit” baths in the house. We had to be careful by keeping the house dark enough so that no one could see us between the bamboo poles.
What advice would you give to new missionaries going to the field? Make sure – 100% sure – that you know it is the Lord’s will for you to go to the field!
Want to hear “the rest of the story”? It was at a Conference at Cochabamba that Eleanor found out she had TB and wouldn’t be able to go back to work in the tribe. Then Dick and Lucille were asked to be on field leadership. So, Audrey had no partners. She stayed in town working on the Ese Ejja dictionary and primer so the Indians could be taught how to read and write. She still wanted very badly to go back to the Ese Ejja people. About this time new missionaries arrived on the field and began language study. Rollie Hoogshagen was one of these. Being he had some previous training and experience, Rollie also soon became the bookkeeper and buyer for all the missionaries. They got to know one another and worked together in Cochabamba for over a year. They were married September 16, 1956 at the Mission chapel. Avis, although surprised, accepted Rollie as her Dad right away. Although Avis continued with her schooling at Tambo, she cried and cried, “Mama, I didn’t have a family then, now I have a family. I want to be with my family.” But, after some comforting and encouragement, she did go back.
“ Howard & Maxine Morarie, were now working with the Ayores, and we were invited to visit the work there. It was a day’s ride in a bus through the Andes Mountains. Then we rented an ox cart to cross the river to catch the train on the other side. Finally, we arrived in Porton, at the base of the Andes Mountains, where Howard and Maxine met us. One day Maxine called the Ayore’ ladies together and asked me to share with them while she translated. I had a chance to tell them that I was happy that my husband was able to give his life, so they could come to know the Lord. All the ladies came up after the meeting and hugged me. It really hit me…though neither of us could understand each other, the language of love was evident.”
Once Avis graduated from High School, Rollie, Audrey and Avis decided to take a furlough. After they got to the U.S., Audrey started having pain and bleeding as they traveled to see family and friends. She finally went to see a doctor, once they arrived at Rollie’s parents place. He found a mass and scheduled her for a hysterectomy. When he got in there he found it was a tubal pregnancy. Praise the Lord the surgery went well. Around this time, Rollie was asked to serve at the NTM Headquarters at Woodworth, WI for a year doing the bookkeeping. Audrey was exhausted and the Lord knew she needed some quiet time. Avis started Bible school in Milwaukee in the fall of 1961. In 1963 Avis married Ron Bodin, a fellow missionary kid she had gone to school with in Bolivia. Rollie and Audrey served there in Woodworth from 1961 to 1978!
The Mission was running out of room at Woodworth, and being it was zoned industrial they could not add other buildings. Soon a new property was purchased in Sanford, FL and everything was moved down there. The new building needed a lot of repair both in the office areas and in the upstairs apartments. By then Ron and Avis had finished the NTM training program, served in Venezuela a term and now joined the NTM Headquarters team in Sanford also. After so many years of Audrey and Avis being apart when Avis went to school at Tambo this was truly a blessing for them to be together again. Four grandchildren also were added! Rollie and Ron both worked in the Finance office, getting the monthly allowances and statements out to all the foreign missionaries. Later Rollie worked on taxes, workmen’s compensation and other insurances for the missionaries. They lived in the big downtown office building for 20 years before moving just a mile and a quarter out of town to the NTM Homes Retirement Center. Rollie continued to work full-time with no thought of retirement until health issues came upon him and the Lord took him home. Audrey now lives in the Assisted Living area at NTM Homes and is still her bright little self, walking around pushing her cart all over the property. God isn’t finished with her yet!
To read the complete story, get the books:
God Planted Five Seeds by Jean Dye Johnson
Available at the NTM Bookstore 1-800-321-5375
Total Years of Service with NTM I served with New Tribes Mission in Paraguay, South America for 32 years.
Country served I worked in the Ava Pai and the Angaite tribes while in Paraguay.
How were you challenged into missionary service? I used to read the NTM mission magazine, then called Brown Gold, telling of people who hadn’t heard the gospel. I wanted a chance to bring the gospel to them.
What was your biggest test of faith? Learning to trust the Lord to supply my needs
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served: Because I was a single woman, the people couldn’t understand why I didn’t have children. When I would respond that I didn’t have a husband they would say, “That doesn’t matter!”
If you served in a tribal location, tell us a bit about “your tribe,” their lifestyles, their “old ways,” changes in response to the gospel. There were dietary changes, as the missionaries taught them about growing different vegetables. Spiritually, for years there were few changes. The Indians simply lumped Jesus in with all their other gods. That is until NTM put out the Firm Foundations course – the chronological teaching of the Bible. Some had begun to come to Christ when we left, but subsequent missionaries have been successful in wining many to the Lord. The Indians are even reaching each other now! I still hear occasionally from ladies with whom I worked, but through other missionaries mainly, because the Indians don’t use a postal service.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. You have to get used to cooking and living without some of today’s modern conveniences. You get good instructions for that as you attend the NTM missionary training program. Beyond that, be flexible and teachable, to learn from those who have been on the field before you.
Total Years of Service with NTM Dave & Althea served with New Tribes Mission for 50 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? We met at Seattle Pacific College, where I, David, was studying psychology and music and considering going on to seminary. Althea was majoring in English, and then added the Education courses needed to teach. While there, both active on a student-led Gospel Team, we met Roger Bailey of NTM who was helping work on the NTM boat, the MV Tribesman, NTM was remodeling to take 100 missionaries to Brazil for its first run. Roger challenged us to live “all out” for Jesus Christ, to see the world reached with the Gospel. After graduation we married, and through stirring articles in the NTM periodical, Brown Gold, we were challenged to step out by faith and go to “Boot Camp” in PA after our honeymoon. At Jersey Shore, PA, Elmer Rabe, Harold Jackson and Ralph Hovland challenged us further to “live for Him who died for them”. Being I had been in Japan in the army, it was only natural to plan on going to Japan to be missionaries.
Country served When NTM started the Jersey Shore, “Boot Camp”, we were part of the first group to go to that location for the whole missionary training, instead of going on to Fout Springs, CA for Linguistics and Jungle Camp. Soon after we began, I, Dave, was asked to help teach some of the classes. When “our” class finished, to go to the field, we stayed behind to teach. From there, we helped with missionary training courses in 4 places NTM had in California. We were released to go to the field just about the time NTM was opening up missionary work in Papua New Guinea, and badly needed more laborers. We were asked to consider going to PNG instead of Japan. At first we insisted we were heading to Japan. But soon, the Lord’s leading was obvious, and after taking a brush-up course in Linguistics at Fredonia, WI, we headed with our 3 little children to PNG.
Tribes worked in. We worked in the Gimi tribe for our first term, learning the language and culture, and beginning to analyze, and write the language down, while sharing the Word of God with this people group.
Tell us a bit about “your tribe”, their life style, their old ways, and the changes in response to the Gospel. The Gimi people lived in fear of death by sorcery. People mysteriously died. The procedures involved getting some item of the potential victim, for example, sugar cane chewings, which had been cast away, and working some kind of magic to bring about sickness or death. When sorcery was suspected, the victimized village sought to find out the source and worked sorcery on someone in that village. This was repeated back and forth, in a never-ending payback system. When we arrived to live in the tribe, no language analysis had been done. Now there are many Gimi believers and 15 functioning Christian churches in many Gimi tribal villages. John and Lynn White, also New Tribes missionaries, and well as others, have worked with the Gimi people for many years. John translated the New Testament into the Gimi language.
What was your biggest test of faith? During our first term, I, David, became sick and we had to come out of the Gimi tribe to the mission base, where I was bedridden for four months due to hepatitis. As Christmas time came close, the tribal believers so wished we could come back interior to celebrate the annual Christmas 3-Day celebration with them. I was not strong enough to go, but being some NTM friends were willing to check on me and care for the children’s needs, Althea was encouraged to go interior to be with the believers. She says “It was so wonderful to hear their testimonies and see their happy faces as they were growing in their walk with the Lord! I could hardly wait to tell David all the great news. We’d hiked about 2/3 of the way back home, and reached a tribe where an NTM missionary family worked. I saw the nurse there with her husband…and thinking the worst, I just knew that David had died, and they had hiked that far to tell me before I reached the base. My joy dropped to extreme sadness. No one knew WHY I was so sad, when just moments before, I’d been so overjoyed along the trail. BUT, suddenly, when I learned that the nurse was there, NOT to tell me my husband had died, but to give 3-month shots to the missionary family’s baby, I went from total despair, to utter joy. I have never forgotten the experience and continue to thank the Lord for my wonderful husband! It took a long time for David to regain his strength after this bout with hepatitis.”
Did you ever serve in a support role, and if so how did it help the other missionaries? While we worked that first term in the Gimi tribe, I, Althea, was asked to consider teaching missionary kids IF the PNG field ever started a school. The Lord had to do a real work in my heart to have me willing to serve anywhere but in a tribe. In just he Lord’s perfect time, as we worked with other families, we could see that the educational needs of the children were not being met. Some were crying out for help, and at just the right time, God opened my eyes to see what HE wanted done. He’d given me the gift of teaching, which so far, I’d hoarded for my own family. It was to be used for the whole missionary body. So when we were asked by field leadership to consider helping start a school for missionary children in PNG, we told the Lord (and the field) YES! David served in the school for 25 years before moving into an Outreach ministry for our last 10 years in PNG. I worked with the school for 35 years. We served both as teachers and in administration at different times.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be prepared to be humbled. You will be doing things you never thought you would do! Face the fact that your best self efforts are inadequate, BUT GOD is sufficient!!!
Total Years of Service with NTM Bill and Jean Martin served 28 years with NTM after serving 9 years under SAIM.
Country or countries served, and years They served in Brazil until 1980; then as Destination Summit leaders taking short term missionaries to Africa, New Guinea and Australia; also as NTM Representatives.
Tribes served and years They served in a tribe called the Xchavnte, whose name means “The Real People” because they considered themselves to be superior over all other tribes.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Bill and Jean married after World War II, during which they both served in the Army. They had a successful life, were buying their second home, and were rearing their four children. Then in their late twenties, they met the Lord Jesus Christ. No longer was success measured by achievements or accomplishments, but rather by opportunities to share with everyone they could the new life they had discovered in their Lord. When a family member strongly pressured them not to talk about their beliefs at family gatherings, they knew that wasn’t an option.
They went to Bible School. While they were there, Bill and Jean sensed God’s leading them to go to a tribal work. They had heard about the missionaries who were killed by the Auca Indians, the very tribe they were trying to reach with the gospel of Christ. Their decision made, they finished their year and began preparing to go.
What was your biggest test of faith? The Xchavnte Indians known as the Terror of Brazil had suffered a measles epidemic, that had killed twenty-five of their people. Driven from the jungle, to try to keep from losing more people, they were encountered by Bill and Jean Martin. Said Jean, “Despite their fearsome reputation, they were wonderful to us.” They were to be the only missionaries to these Indians.
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served. “The Xchavante Tribe was ruled by evil spirit,.” Bill told me. “They danced and chanted to ward off the power of these spirits. Interestingly, they didn’t use instruments or singing. “They were a naked people,” said Jean. When they wore clothing, it was to keep off bugs and parasites, rather than for beauty or modesty. “They had small families, and the mothers nursed their children a long time. You often saw moms with their toddler nursing.”
Tell us a bit about “your tribe” (their life styles, their old ways, changes in response to the Gospel, etc.) When they first met the Xchavnte, they noticed that they kept in two groups, the men with the men, and the women with the women. The men would give their children anything they wanted, but they would beat their wives for any perceived infraction.
“I poured my heart into the life of one man,” said Bill, and Jean did the same with the woman she was teaching.” One by one, the Indians came to Christ. Then they would teach others in their tribe, until the whole tribe was saved.
The men learned to treat their wives with respect, and to discipline their children, not indulge them. The people dressed, instead of wearing simple loincloths, as the men had done before. No longer did they use their old chants; they began to set scripture to a beat. Often, the Martins would come upon someone working to playing while they chanted something they were learning about the Lord.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Lean on the Lord, and keep your focus on Him, rather than on man-made programs or organizations. Bill’s favorite verse is Acts 20:24,” However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”
Jean’s favorite verse is Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Total Years of Service with NTM Elisabeth (Betty) and her late husband James served with New Tribes Mission for 35 years.
Country served James and I were in a tribal work in Brazil, South America only a few years when we were forced to come home – James had cancer. He received care for several years before his death. I then returned to Brazil with our children and taught in the NTM missionary school. Our children attended the missionary school there, graduating high school. Later in life I also taught school at the mk school in Mexico.
How were you challenged into missionary service? While James and I were attending Bob Jones University, one of James best friends was the son of a NTM missionary. “James got on fire to go, and I knew what I needed to do!”
What was your biggest test of faith? Two things come to mind. We lost a baby at several months old, probably from malaria. Also, I was painfully shy, and my husband was frequently out with tribal work, so I was lonely for my family.
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? I taught their children at the school, where they were living in the dorm.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be sure of your calling. When you are tempted to doubt, hearken back to the place of your calling.
Total Years of Service with NTM Anna and her late husband, Leo served with New Tribes Mission for 35 years.
Country served First we worked in Quito, Ecuador, helping to establish a training center there. Then we worked with the Maquiritari Indians (the government name), the Ye’cuana, as they called themselves, in Venezuela. My job was teaching the little Indian children to read.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Leo became a believer two years before I did. However, I took the children to church and sometimes stayed myself. Leo already knew he wanted to be a missionary, but was waiting and praying for Anna to come to know the Lord. She just didn’t understand, until late one night, Harold Jackson, one of New Tribes leaders, spoke at their church. Something he said turned on the light for her. She prayed to receive Christ at midnight that night, and hurried to tell Leo. She found him on his knees by their bed, praying for her!
What was your biggest test of faith? What a lot of people fear having to send our children away to a mission school! Yet the Lord provided assurance that He was able to keep them safe while they were separated. Another very difficult time was after the death of her husband. She herself had to recover from a severe burn. Yet, once she was better, she returned to Venezuela with three teenage children, to teach in the NTM Mission’s school. Nancy Dillon became her partner.
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served: First, the tribal language was not even written down, so we really had to lay groundwork. Second, the Indians lived in big round mud houses, with bark walls between families. The men ate in the center area, and the women are separately from their husbands.
If you served in a tribal location, tell us a bit about “your tribe,” their lifestyles, their “old ways,” changes in response to the gospel. Formerly almost naked, they began to wear more clothes. Formerly, they lived a loose lifestyle, but made changes as they began to celebrate Jesus.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Completely depend on the Lord. Be open to learn a different culture. Remember, God loves them!
Total Years of Service with NTM In 1951, Cecil and Delora Neese, with their two children, headed west from Alabama to California to begin training with New Tribes Mission. They faithfully served the Lord as missionaries for 42 years. They also were representatives, speaking in churches and at mission conferences for the Mission until Cecil died in 2005.
How were you challenged into missionary service? While they were living in Alabama and attending an Independent Baptist Church there, they met Macon and Genny Hare in Mobile and heard about two missionary girls going to India with New Tribes Mission. Cecil was especially moved by what they heard and felt God was burdening him to serve the Lord in some way. He started pastoring a little church out of town and checked into getting more Christian education with South East Baptist College in Birmingham. As the fall term got closer and he did not hear anything back from SEBC he prayed about what to do next and he contacted New Tribes Mission. They told him to “come on out, as God directed”. They had many decisions to make, a large one being that Cecil’s mother lived with them and they needed to see for her care. The Lord opened all the doors in many areas, including his mother being able to move to live with her daughter.
Country served After Cecil and Delora finished their missionary training they were aiming to serve the Lord in Panama. Then they were asked by NTM leaders to go to Florida and help to open a new NTM missionary training center (called Boot Camp back then) in a little town by the name of Oviedo. While they were there they were asked to consider going to Venezuela, South America as a new work was beginning there and they needed more laborers. They left for Venezuela on March 13, 1954.
Tribes served. Once they got to Venezuela, they became part of the leadership team there and also soon helped open a new base called Tama Tama to work with the Guaika Indians, part of the larger group known as the Yanomamu tribe. The families set up base at Tama Tama and the men would go to the tribal area for a month or two at a time beginning a work among the Indians while the women stayed at the base and home schooled the children. By this time a new baby was due in the Neese family. Through the years 2 more children were added for a total of 5, 4 girls and 1 boy.
Interesting additions about “your tribe”. As Cecil taught the Guaika’s from God’s Word, they learned many things that were very different from their previous thinking. However, sometimes he found they had things that lined up with God’s Word. For instance, they knew the there had been a time before a “great flood” when there had been “no rain”. He spent many hours talking with and teaching them. After Cecil (Cecilio) died, the Indians said, I remember when he told us about the “Great Spirit”. They did not mention the name of a person who had died. But one is remembered to have prayed, “The one that told us about you is gone now, but You are still with us!”
Other ministries Cecil did Bible teaching among the Guaika Indians as well as his role in Field Leadership. Delora taught the Indians literacy as well as cared for the family. They also helped with other ministries as they were needed, such as supply buying in Puerto Ayacucho and helping at the guest house in Caracas.
Can you think of times when God was especially close and taught you things? When we first went to the field, I thought “Do we have to stay 4 years!?” Later as I looked back, the time went by so fast we stayed almost 5 years before we came back to the States for our first furlough. God kept us so involved in the work and in people’s lives the time flew by. Another time I remember, was after we were set up at the interior Tama Tama base. I was starting to learn the tribal language and wanting to study as much as possible as we awaited the birth of a new baby as I knew my time would be less after that. I knew we had to go out to the city of Puerto Ayacucho for her birth. Then we were asked to consider going out early as the couple buying supplies needed a break. My heart rebelled as I didn’t want to leave early. I wanted to have this time to study the tribal language! But once we got out there and saw how ill the wife was, I knew they needed to return Stateside and why God wanted us there. We stayed there for 5 months doing the supply buying (and we had a beautiful baby girl!) before we had another couple come to replace us so we could return to Tama Tama. Probably the hardest times I experienced was being separated from our children, when they went out of the tribe to go to school. Yet God always helped me through it. The hardest maybe was when we came home on furlough and were returning to the field leaving two of our children Stateside. Elna had married Joe Snyder and they were taking further New Tribes Missionary training. Wilford was attending Tennessee Temple. Then my father had had one of his lungs removed and had already lived longer than the doctor’s thought he would, so we both knew we would not see each other on this earth again. Yet, God gave us peace and quietly whispered in my heart, “Go.” My father passed within the next year. My prayer was, “Lord, help me not to question you.”
What advice would you give to new missionaries going to the field? Don’t ever question the Lord. With His help you can do it! Another thing is, “Be content in His will. He knows what is best for you and has your best in mind.”
Total Years of Service with NTM Morris served with NTM for 31 years.
Country served Morris served as a missionary with NTM in Bolivia, South America.
Tribes served Morris did dental work for many tribal people, living several places, including with one tribe that was uncivilized.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Morris says he heard the message of the need for missionaries for years, from Ken Johnston, the chairman of NTM, and others. Then Dick Sanford, an NTM representative, gave a challenge at a church in Chicago. He responded, and applied to NTM in 1962.
What was your biggest test of faith? “In 1993, before I was to come home on furlough, I had a physical. Though I hadn’t yet begun feeling sick, I was found to have hepatitis! I quickly became very weak, as my liver literally became hardened. I was a pretty sick man. So instead of beginning furlough, I had to stay in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, so I could go to the clinic – for three years! "
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served: “The missionaries try to be on time when they have someplace to be, and to start promptly. However, I observed that when the Indians came to talk to me, they would spend half an hour or so with small talk. Then before they left, they would ask about the real point of their visit. If you had a time constraint, you would have to stop them and ask how you could help them. Then they would get to the point of their visit."
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. “Trust the Lord completely! Wait on Him, as you have a wonderful relationship with Him.”
Date of interview: November 29, 2006
Waldo and Greta Paul served with New Tribes Mission for about 25 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Waldo and I were saved when we were quite young. We were High School sweethearts and married in 1953 in Caribou, Maine. Waldo worked with the Air Force as a civilian. About 10 years, and 3 children later, we took a transfer with his job with the government to work in American Samoa, in the South Pacific. We lived right in a Samoan village and got to know and love the people. A dear Samoan brother in the Lord, Lototau, asked us to become involved in working with the young people in the local church. We also worked as volunteer directors for Child Evangelism and went to many places on the island with a flannel board under our arm. There were many opportunities to share the Gospel. It was during this time that the Lord began to work in our hearts, giving us the desire to become directly involved in missionary service. After 4 years in Samoa, we were transferred back to the United States. We were still praying about going to the mission field, but by now we were in our early 40’s. Where would we begin? In our church in Ohio, Delaware Bible Church, had its annual missionary conference and Mel Wyma of New Tribes Mission was the main speaker. We prayed and talked to Mel, who then gave us applications for NTM’s training program. We filled out the applications and returned them the next day! We were accepted and began missionary training in Oviedo, FL the fall of 1975. Thus started the most challenging and rewarding days of our lives.
Country served After our training, we worked for over a year at the NTM International Home office at Woodworth, WI and then helped NTM move to a new location in Sanford, FL. We then went to Paraguay, S.A. in August of 1978. We served in Paraguay until 1991. During these years, Waldo developed a genetic kind of emphysema and so we were stateside several times due to his health. During these times we helped with administrative duties at the International Home office and at the Air arm of NTM, then called Tribal Air Communications (TAC).
Describe your tribe, and your role in ministry to them? The Ayore’ are an energetic, aggressive people who live in northern Paraguay and eastern Bolivia. NTM had made an initial contact with the Ayore’ group in Bolivia in 1943. Five of the New Tribes first missionaries were killed by them. Eventually a friendly contact was made and missionaries began working with Ayore’ Indians in Bolivia. In 1966 five NTM men (Norm Keefe, Duane Stous and his son Gary, and Bob Goddard and his son Philip) made a successful, peaceful contact with the Ayore’ people of Paraguay. It was not long after that the men moved their families into the Cerro Leon camp. They learned the Ayore’ language and cared for their medical and other basic needs. They hired them for work and taught them the concept of buying and selling. Eventually other sites were found that provided better living conditions and the village was moved as the lagoon had dried up. The people were taught to read their own language and the Gospel was shared with them. Ayore’ believers from Bolivia came and shared with them about the life changing power of God and how Christ had transformed them from killers into men of peace and forgiveness. In 1980, after studying language, my husband Waldo and I started working with the Ayore’ tribal people at Campo Loro in Paraguay. Besides teaching literacy, Waldo was the business manager and traveled with the Field Committee to encourage and offer help in decision-making, etc. I taught 2nd grade at the Ayore’ school.
What changes did the Gospel make among the Ayore’ people? In the early days the Ayore’ people believed in a bird god called Asonjna. If anything went wrong they believed it was because they had offended this bird. Asonjna always got revenge, and her power was terrible. The Ayore’ believed that the night the red star appeared in the sky, Asonjna closed up the whole world and it no longer rained (dry season). Asonjna did not want to be awakened during this time, so no child was allowed to kick the leaves or turn over old logs, as this is where she slept. Every fall the men made an altar to Asonjna, piling up leaves and sticks and asking her for an abundant harvest. Asonjna had no concern for their moral behavior. So the Ayore’ lived with adultery and much fighting even among other Ayore’ tribes. They lived in constant fear of revenge. Now the Ayore’ know how to read and write and have materials in their own language. They have a school of their own. They have opportunities for jobs, working on ranches and in nearby towns. Those that have become Christians no longer live in fear of Asonjna. They no longer war between villages. They memorize Bible verses; they have their own church leaders and Bible teachers who reach out to fellow Ayore in other camps. They have built a church building of their own. The New Testament and portions of the Old Testament are now in their own language. Maxine Morarie, a fellow NTM co-worker, worked for 15 years translating, revising and getting it printed in their language. To God Be the Glory!
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. I think a quotation from Amy Carmichael’s writings should stir our hearts. It was she who said, “There is nothing so kindling as to see the soul of man or woman follow right over the edge of the usual into the untracked land, for love of Him, for sheer love of Him.”
Since returning Stateside, and after her husband’s death, Greta has worked on the project of writing an Ayore’/English dictionary. This project was edited by Maxine Morarie and Alice Higham, who are proficient in the Ayore’ language. Maxine could add many words from the “spiritual vocabulary”, since she translated the New Testament into Ayore’. Alice, a proficient language learner took it and practiced it with the people in the village to be sure it was correct. This work took 8 years to complete and is a wonder to behold. Again, To God Be the Glory!
Date of interview: July, 2008
Total Years of Service with NTM Les and Lorraine came into New Tribes Mission in July of 1942. That means they served 65 years! To God Be The Glory! And, they are still being a blessing while retired at the NTM Homes Retirement Center!
Country or Countries served They went to Paraguay, South America in 1949. While Lorraine maintained a strong home front for their 5 children she also was a true helpmate to Les in each of his roles. Les did contact work to help decide where NTM would want to work in Paraguay. He was the government representative helping to get NTM registered to work there, as well as served as a missionary pilot and the Paraguayan Field Chairman. Les also was on the Executive Committee of New Tribes Mission in the USA for many years.
Tribes served. Les and Lorraine, helped to serve in the Lengua tribe in Paraguay. This included establishing a church, teaching literacy and doing Bible translation.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Les’s father was a pastor, and he grew up hearing his father pray for him and his sister, (in Norwegian) “Make missionaries out of them.” And, they both did! Les served in Paraguay and his sister in Brazil.
Lorraine remembers hearing about missionaries at church, but never met a “real one” until she was about 10, when her mother invited a missionary from China home for dinner. She was so interested and thought that was something she would like to be someday. Later when Les and Lorraine met at the Wisconsin Tabernacle Church in Wisconsin, they both had the same goals from the Lord. Although they checked into several mission boards, their hearts were drawn to the work of New Tribes Mission “to those who had never heard!”
What was your biggest test of faith? Les saw and felt the need to have airplane service to the tribal works in New Tribes Mission, yet airplanes were expensive! When he was given the opportunity to purchase one for $900 dollars, he said yes because it was an amazing deal, but he had no idea how he would pay for it. Within a few months the Lord brought in all of the money! Praise Him and He continues to do it again and again!
Les and Lorraine both felt their biggest test of faith was because Les had to be gone from her and the family, sometimes for months at a time! There were so many uncertainties!
Lorraine: “With no radio contact at first, we didn’t even know if he got there! When would he get back? Was he safe? Oh that my concern and loneliness will not discourage the children! Later when we had radio contact, 9 times through the years, I heard that the plane had a forced landing! Yet each time God brought Les home again without a scratch! What a God we serve!”
Describe a major cultural difference in the country where you served. Learning when we got to the field, that we would have to learn two languages before we learned a tribal language was our biggest hurtle. Many Paraguayans are bi-lingual and so we had to know Spanish and Guarani in order to be able to communicate with them. Then later when we worked with the Lengua we had to learn their language as well. Our hearts still are challenged to pray for our missionaries when they are learning language.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Les says “Remember that God is leading you! You are in His hands! We will all have different situations that happen, but God will use it for good.”
Lorraine says, “Trust the Lord! Be confident of what the Lord will do before your children! It will help them trust Him throughout their lives!”
Books written by Les Pederson Airborne to the Tribes
Date of Interview January 2010
Total Years of Service with NTM Ann and her late husband, Robert (Bob) served 15 years with New Tribes Mission. They started working at one of the NTM training centers in Jersey Shore, PA. Trained in business they then worked at one of the NTM Bible Schools in Jackson, MI. Ann worked with the students who were attending there. “I baked many pies in those days, and even learned to decorate wedding cakes. When students got married, I would make them a gift of their wedding cake! They loved it,” She told me New Tribes Bible Institute was dubbed “New Brides”!
Their next assignment with NTM was with Tribal Air Communications, the air arm of NTM now called NTMA (NTM Aviation). Robert was the business manager and ran the terminal in Arizona. Here pilots are trained for missionary aviation.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Robert owned a trucking company, in Pennsylvania, and he used to deliver to one of the NTM training centers there. His contact with the NTM missionaries, especially Macon Hare and missionary trainees influenced his decision.
What was your biggest test of faith? Ann didn’t want to leave her home. Finally after their last child was five years old, God changed her heart, and she told Robert, “Okay, I’m ready to go into the mission now.”
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. “Just keep your eyes on the Lord. Any Christian should do that!” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
Total Years of Service with NTM Mel & Rosemary served with New Tribes Mission 45 years.
How were you challenged into missionary service? I was the pastor of a small church in Indiana, as well as working a full time job. The Lord continued to send people to visit us, who challenged us to consider missionary service. They all seemed to be with New Tribes Mission! The first ones were college friends, but we were not interested although we saw they had a special “walk with the Lord” we really wanted. Then Harold Jackson, of NTM came to speak at our church. I loved that he challenged my cousin to missionary service, but I still did not respond when he challenged me. I felt we were just beginning our family and had too many financial needs. Rosemary remembers being at a Winona Lake Conference in July of 1953, when Merv Rosell, gave the news that 14 NTM men lost their lives in a fire in the Mendocino National Forest in California. He prayed and asked the Lord to replace those laborers with more folks that would be willing to go. At that time, Rosemary’s heart became willing. Soon after that we both yielded to the Lord’s will for our lives.
Where did you serve and for how long? We worked on staff at the NTM missionary training center in Oviedo, Florida for 5 years before going to Brazil, South America. By this time we had 7 children from 7 months to 10 years old. After studying Portuguese, we headed interior to work with the Karaja Indians. Years before, the village where we worked also had English doctors working there helping the lepers. There were 2 other American families, 1 single American lady, and 1 single Brazilian lady already working in Macauba when we arrived.
What was your biggest test of faith? While living in the Karaja Indian village, I headed up river to town for supplies for our team. When I was ready for the trip back interior, the river was flooded. We worked hard to get everything loaded onto the boat when I realized I had left one suitcase containing some valuables in the truck I had from town to haul our supplies. I decided to have the supplies head on down river while I would trace the truck back toward the city to get my belongings. I finally found the truck and the driver. My suitcase was safe and sound. He hadn’t even noticed it was still there. I then hitchhiked back to the river, taking several days. When I got to the river there were no boats and I had to wait and wait. Finally, I continued on down river with some merchants, stopping at every small village and making poor time. I then switched to another larger boat that was already quite overloaded, but I finally arrived back in the village to my wife and family. When Rosemary had seen the first boat arrive with all of my belongings and yet I was not there, it was a real test of faith for her and the children, wondering where I was. We were both so thankful for the Lord’s safely bringing us back together again. We remembered His faithfulness many times in the future as we had to trust Him in other situations.
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? After about 5 years of serving the Lord in the Karaja village we were asked to help with Field Administration, maintenance and construction at the NTM school base. This was a tremendous blessing for the education of our children. Rosemary taught at the school and also did the school bookkeeping in our home. After the office building was constructed, the bookkeeping was done there. I helped build several other buildings and traveled a lot to help missionaries in tribal villages.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Keep your relationship with the Lord as your first priority. Never neglect your prayer time and your time in the Word. Remember when the Lord laid being a missionary on your heart and never doubt His leading. Never criticize other missionaries before your children.
Total Years of Service with NTM My late husband, Robert, and I served with New Tribes Mission for twenty years, until his death.
Country or countries served, and years Venezuela
How were you challenged into missionary service? Ever heard of a drive-in Bible Conference? Well it was at such a conference that my husband and I, Robert and Peg Shaylor, first heard Paul Fleming, founder of New Tribes Mission, speak. Until that time, Robert always wanted to farm, and support missions from his earnings. We had already heard about the first five New Tribes missionaries who were killed in 1943. I was glad that Robert didn’t want to go. When we heard Mr. Fleming speak, however, Robert decided to consider missions. Therefore, I had to rethink my stance. “It seemed like it was what the Lord wanted us to do,” Peg says. “I just had to decide whether to do it!”
What was your biggest test of faith? We prayed about our response to the call. We would have to sell our home, the dairy, our dreams. “Bob had a tough time seeing the cattle go – we had done well in the business. And I was saddened to see my house sold. Yet in retrospect, it made it easier to move from time to time, and leave other places behind over the years.”
Once they were on the field, Peg says she often found it was a struggle to maintain her responsibilities with Bob being gone so much. “He was the Field Chairman, and where we were located was fairly isolated.” There was one five year period when she didn’t leave their mission station. Her responsibilities were to provide housing for guests who came there, whether scientific teams or guest missionaries. Once, when I had an illness, I was home alone with our baby, and thought, “God, don’t you even care?” At once, I thought of the disciples of Jesus, crying out to him in the boat, “Carest Thou not that we perish?” I quickly realized that He did care, not just for his disciples, but for me!
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? Robert’s many responsibilities as Field Chairman had him traveling to meet with those working in the different isolated tribal locations. He listened to their excitement about all the Lord was doing, heard their heartaches, praised and exhorted as needed. Other areas of his work was that of filing government reports and working with the Indian Commission, which gave permission for the New Tribes missionaries to work with the different tribal groups. While he traveled, I served in a similar role at the guest house, and doubled as radio contact operator, for the pilots in the area.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be versatile, and don’t expect things to be as they were back home. Whether it is in the area of foods you eat, or jobs you do, just be available to the Lord. Because of our location in Venezuela, we found ourselves hosting parties to Botanists, there to study our unique location, as well as parties of young people there to hunt and fish. But families didn’t settle there, because of the large swarms of gnats that were present constantly. Yet the Lord used our ministry, as we had an MK school as well as guest house there in the spot He provided.
Total Years of Service with NTM Manny and his late wife Ruth, served with New Tribes Mission for 14 years.
Country served We served in the Philippines at the guest facility as well as in the U. S. as a Representative to some of the NTM donors.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Our son was serving with NTM in the Philippines when he told us of a need for a couple to come to help in running the guest facility there in Manila. We were both more than willing to go!
What was your biggest test of faith? It was still a big step of faith to make such a drastic change in this our later stage of life. We knew that living in the Philippines was going to be very different than our life had been here in the U.S. However, we were both willing and very excited that we could be of help to the missionaries there.
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? As the missionaries came to Manila from their tribal locations, for medical help, for paperwork, for rest and recuperation, or for consultation with field leadership, we were able to help them have a nice clean place to stay and good food to eat, at a reasonable cost. We provided transportation to and from the airport as well as a smile of welcome. It was a role we loved.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Keep in the Word! Keep your eyes on the Lord!
Total Years of Service with NTM Duane & Mary have served with NTM for about 55 years.
Country or countries served They served in Paraguay in the Mbya (Guarani) tribe as well as in Field leadership for about 12 years. Then Duane was asked to teach at the NTM Bible School in Waukesha, WI. During this time, Mary worked in the bookstore and then was Dean of Women there. For 11 years Duane taught at the Bible School and then became the Coordinator of the NTM Bible Schools and Boot Camps for 20 years. In 1975 he was asked to join the Executive Committee (main leadership board) of NTM and served in that role for 25 years. After retiring from the Executive Committee, he also continued to teach, first full time and then part time at the Bible School until he retired in 2008.
How were you challenged into missionary service? It was the summer of 1953. Duane’s first wife Ladene, had been killed, about 6 months before, in a car accident, leaving him with 3 young daughters (one age 5 and twins age 2). His parents immediately said they would care for the girls so he could continue in college at Biola in California. That summer he read the book, Beyond Civilization by Sophie Mueller and his heart was challenged to be a part of that type of missionary work. Hearing Arthur Mouw tell about his work with the Dyaks in Indonesia furthered that desire. He wrote to NTM and they sent their representative, Mel Wyma to talk with him. Mel came on the day Duane was moving, as he had just sold his house to Bob & Marge Gilman (who later also became NTM missionaries.). After visiting, Mel said “How about moving right on to the field?” Three days later Duane left for missionary training with NTM in Fouts Springs, California.
The previous year, 1952, Howard and Mary Rowe heard an NTM missionary speak in their church. They invited them to their house for dinner. As they heard about their missionary work, they both felt that was something they also wanted to do. By then they had 2 children. Howard had finished college and was attending a Baptist Seminary in Chicago. They sent in their application to NTM and in the summer of 1952 left for Fouts Springs, California. It was a one year program, which they finished in the summer of 1953. They stayed on living there while preparing to head on to the field. Duane and Howard met each other on work detail duty that summer. Howard introduced Duane to Mary, his wife, one day after work detail. The Fouts Springs NTM missionary training center was located on government land in the Mendocina Forest. It had previously been an old CCC camp. NTM had an agreement with the Forestry Department, that they would send a crew from the student body to help fight fires when they occurred. All the men would go when there was a fire.
What was your biggest test of faith? It was in July of 1953, the beginning of the fire season in the Fouts Springs area of California. Duane had just arrived to begin missionary training when on his third day there was a forest fire and a Forestry truck came to pick up the men. The truck’s arrival was announced by the ringing of a bell. As the men all headed out to get on the truck, Howard Rowe said to Mary, his pregnant wife, “Kiss me Mary, because I may not come back.” The men fought the fire all day and all of the next night.
Duane well remembers when they were told that 15 of their co-workers had been killed in the fire. 14 of them were from the NTM missionary candidates and 1 forest ranger. Duane’s mind was in turmoil. “Did I make a mistake in even coming here?” Then the thought, “No, God spared my life two times now… once in the car accident and now in the fire!” God then gave him peace to continue on training to serve Him. One of the men killed in the fire was Howard Rowe, Mary’s husband. When she was told, she remembered Howard’s last words to her and had a peace that God had prepared Howard’s heart for what was ahead.
Since his wife’s death, Duane had a habit of walking and praying thru his times of loneliness. He continued this after the men’s death in the fire and he added praying especially for those that had lost their spouses, as he understood their loneliness. Soon he realized that many of his prayers were centered on Mary. He went and talked with her about this and she admitted that she was drawn to pray for him too. They then went to the training center Staff and talked with them about their feelings. The Staff said they too were praying for them to be drawn to each other. Duane and Mary were both rather stunned that this was happening so soon. As Mary’s pregnancy continued, she decided to go back to Chicago to have her baby so parents could help care for her other two children when she was in the hospital. This also gave them both some time apart to think about their future relationship.
In May of 1954 Duane and Mary were married and started their married life with 6 children! By November of 1954 they left to serve the Lord in Paraguay! In 1956. The Lord gave them another daughter Juanita making a perfect number 7.
What advice would you give to new missionaries going to the field? “Build a strong personal relationship with the Lord through His Word and prayer. Trust Him no matter what!”
Total Years of Service with NTM We served with New Tribes Mission in Venezuela, South America for 32 years.
Country served We worked with the Maquitari Indians and others near the NTM mission school base in Venezuela.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Before he was a believer, Lee asked a co-worker, who often read his Bible at lunch break, how he could be so sure he knew Jesus. That man told him about Christ, and through Lee himself reading the Bible to his mom and grandma, he understood what the Bible was saying. After getting out of the Navy, he went to Moody Bible Institute, where he met Irene. There folks encouraged students to consider missionary service.
What was your biggest test of faith? "Trusting the Lord to supply our needs," said Irene, "also showing care for the children and the tribal people around the school, by extending love and understanding."
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? Lee and I were among the first missionaries from NTM to arrive on the field of Venezuela. We had to help arrange places for the missionaries that followed to live, since nothing had yet been set up. Later we served as dorm parents at the mission school, so parents could focus on their tribal works.
If you served in a tribal location, what changes did you observe in the tribal people as a result of the gospel. We had two main tribes that lived in the vicinity of the school base where we worked. We had many opportunities to work with boys, several of who came to the Lord. In fact, many of the people came to faith in Christ from the tribal groups in our area.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Listen to the Lord and learn from other missionaries who have been on the field. Most of all, it takes a lot of prayer! You have to change your ways of living to win the tribal people.
Total Years of Service with NTM Edna’s Total Years of Service with NTM was 49. When Edna was 16 years old, she heard 2 NTM single girls, who were heading to Japan as missionaries, speak at her High School, They invited her to come to hear them speak again at a nearby church. That was where she got saved and challenged into missions at the same time. She started her missionary training with NTM in 1951 in Fout Springs, CA. Because of her bookkeeping and office skills, after a very short time she was asked to help at the NTM Headquarters in Chico, CA and was there a couple years. When the NTM Headquarters was moved to Woodworth, WI she served there in the mailroom for another 3 years. However, she knew the Lord wanted her to be a missionary overseas and so in 1959 He answered her prayers and opened the doors for her to head to Papua New Guinea.
“Unbeknown to me, I met my future husband, Chippy (Richard Trigg) when I went through Australia on my way to PNG. He was finishing his missionary training at that time and came to PNG in 1961. Chippy had been in the Royal Navy for 22 years. He got saved at the Naval Christian Fellowship in Hong Kong. When he returned to Australia he heard Harold Jackson from NTM speak and was challenged into missionary service. On the field, we became friends and in 1962 he asked me to marry him. I didn’t say yes until September of 1963 and then we didn’t get married until March of 1964!”
Tell us about your tribal ministry. Soon after my arrival in PNG, I went to live in the Yagaria tribe. I lived in a little native hut, with no windows. It wasn’t even tall enough for me to stand up completely. Rain leaked in around the center pole to the roof and kept half of my bed damp at times. I was soon joined by another single girl from Australia, named Ruth Parry. The Yagaria people lived in fear of the “spirits of their ancestors”. Therefore they spent much of their time trying to “trick the spirits” in order to do what they wanted. They had no way to earn a living and so lived off what they could grow or glean from the jungle. Soon the government introduced peanuts and coffee to them for cash crops. We learned their language and culture and developed many friendships with the people. One of my jobs was to teach them to read and write their own language.
What things did you see change through the years for the Yagaria people. Many of the Yagaria people have become believers. They have their own elders and teachers in their own church. They now have the New Testament in their own language and are reaching out teaching other tribes people around them the good news of the Gospel. They no longer practice having intertribal arranged marriages, or kill the second baby if they have twins. They testify happily of their freedom from fear of the ancestral spirits. We could see it daily, as now the children “can play outside among the trees” instead of being afraid of them.
What was your biggest test of faith? Facing the unknown! It seemed to have crossed my path from so many different angles through the years. First of all I remember as a single, just heading off to another unknown country and then going to live in an unknown tribe. Later I remember struggling to decide if it was God’s will for me to marry Chippy. Yet now I look back and those were the happiest years of my life! Then there were times when we had low financial support and this faced us with many decisions, not always knowing what to do. Probably one of the hardest times for me was when I had to go on without Chippy. He died of congestive heart failure and was buried in the Yagaria tribal area in PNG in 1991. I knew he was in heaven, but it was hard to leave the country and “leave his body there”. Then later it was just as hard to go back without him. But through it all God led me step by step and still is! I say over and over again…”I am SO glad God this is your problem. I can’t fix it and I am trusting you. I continue to remind Him of His promises.”
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Ask God for 100% of His grace not 75%! God’s grace was sufficient for me and it will be for you too. If we try doing it ourselves, it will take us out of the work.
Edna came to NTM Homes in 2000 and continues here on retired status. However, she has returned to PNG 4 times, for several months at a time, since then to work on various projects. She has helped to type the Yagaria Chronological Bible Lessons onto the computer so they could be proofed and printed for use by the tribal leaders. She is now helping with the same thing for the Sina Sina Chronological Bible Lessons. She also continues to proof read other tribal works projects that are being printed at our NTM International Headquarters. Edna’s life continues to be used to glorify her Lord and Savior!
Total Years of Service with NTM Joan came into New Tribes Mission in 1949, not long after she had graduated from High School. She has now had 42 years of active missionary service.
How were you challenged into missionary service? Joan was raised in a moral, but non Christian home in Muskegon, MI. She was the oldest of 5. She accepted the Lord at the age of 17 and through prayer, felt God told her to be a missionary. Immediately she had a desire to serve the Lord. But how? She heard in church about a missionary in Africa, but had never even met a missionary. She talked to her Pastor about attending Bible School. Soon after that some representatives from New Tribes Mission (Harold Jackson and Bob Shaylor) shared at her church and told about NTM’s 1 year missionary training program in Stoneyford, California. She immediately knew that was where God wanted her. That fall, she and 4 other people from her church, the Muskegan Heights Gospel Center, headed to California to start missionary training! Her parents did not want her to go, but they did give their approval. They even sent along some canned goods. It was her first step in trusting the Lord.
Country or Countries served In 1951, Joan was aiming for Brazil when General McArthur asked for missionaries to go to Japan. She felt if she got a military visa and her passage money came in, God wanted her to go to Japan. She lived in Japanese homes to learn their language. Joan served 8 consecutive years, (no furlough) in Japan, sharing the Gospel in many villages, leading people to the Lord and discipling believers. Ten years after her salvation, she heard that her parents had accepted the Lord! What a happy day! She came back to the States to be with them for a while. While stateside she also got some linguistic training at the New Tribes Language School. There were a lot of Japanese people living in Brazil and she and her Japanese friend talked to the Mission board about their serving together in Brazil. She served there for 30 years, and later for 3 years stateside on the NTM Homes Retirement Staff.
What was your biggest test of faith? “Through the years, probably one of the hardest times for me was when I did not have a partner…especially when I was in a tribal location.” But she did have two wonderful Japanese partners. The first was Sakurai. They visited in homes in villages in Japan and shared the Gospel. Because Joan had learned Japanese when she served in Japan, she loved witnessing to them and working with them in Brazil too. Later Sakurai was Joan’s partner in Brazil and they worked together with the Yanomami tribal people. When Sakurai became ill and returned to Japan, Joan continued in the tribe in Brazil without a partner. Then later Joan worked in the Isana tribe in Brazil where she also had a Japanese partner.
Tell us a bit about “your tribe” (their life styles, their old ways, changes in response to the Gospel, etc.) When in Japan, Joan spent a lot of time right with the Japanese people, in their homes learning the language. She heard them praying to dead ancestors. Some of those that accepted the Lord have carried on with sharing the Gospel to this day. Some are even serving as missionaries in other countries.
If you served in a support role, how did it help the other missionaries? Joan did bookkeeping for 5 years in Brazil. This was a big help with getting the finances from the U.S. to the missionaries in Brazil. Supplies could then be bought and sent interior to the tribal missionary stations. This helped every missionary working there! Another time, in Brazil, she did accounting and data input on the computer for 10 years. While doing this she also was able to help in the local church in town and with the Japanese believers there. In later years, Joan helped on the NTM Homes Staff as the person on “night duty” at the Assisted Living Facility as well as was on the cooking staff. She also drove the Mission van so retired missionaries would be able to go shopping and to doctor appointments.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. Be sure the Lord is sending you and you are not going just for adventure or to find a husband or wife. It needs to be commitment and dedication, not adventure or “I’ll try it for a while.” Remember that the plan the Lord has for you “is for good, not evil.” Jeremiah 29:11
Total Years of Service with NTM Mary Lou began in 1948 and retired in the late 90’s, so she served about 50 years.
Country or countries served, and years She served her entire mission service in Venezuela. She had a break of six years to care for her ailing mother, and then returned to Venezuela.
Tribes served and years Mary Lou worked with the Piaroa Indian Tribe.
How were you challenged into missionary service? “I had been “frozen” in a secretarial job after World War II. I often wondered if there was a better way to use my skills. Then I was invited to a ladies meeting where, Rena Williams, the wife of one of the founders of NTM was speaking. After the meeting, she asked me, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?” This led me to entering into missionary training with New Tribes Mission. I still had no idea of where I would go, or in what capacity.”
Mary Lou says she probably would never have gone to a foreign field, if it hadn’t been for her partner, Margaret Gilmore. While Mary Lou was pretty shy, Margaret was outgoing and knew that she wanted to go overseas. When their missionary training was over, they headed off to Venezuela, knowing neither the language nor the customs. Yet New Tribes had a work in progress there, and they were on their way!
What was your biggest test of faith? When Mary Lou and Margaret first arrived in Venezuela they had to wait for their belongings to arrive. They also had to wait until a boat was available to take them upriver. This ended up being a wait of six months! The Lord provided housing there in a home of a Christian family, who were out of the country for several months. Never wanting to waste time, and living in a Spanish speaking country, they made use of those months to begin learning the language and the culture of Venezuela.
“Our riverboat trip ended in Puerta aya Cucho, where Mr Northrup, from NTM met us and took us to his home. There we stayed for another six months, and continued work on the language.” Mr. Northrup knew of a man upriver, who had contacted a tribe of Piaroa Indians, with whom he wanted missionaries to work.
Describe your tribe, and your role in ministry to them? The Piaroa were a gentle people, and when the missionaries came to tell them about God, they were very interested. Each group of Piaroa lived in a large palm-covered building, and each family had its own fire area. Next to the large common house was a much smaller mud house for storing their belongings, to keep them from being stolen. In this mud house is where Mary Lou and Margaret were housed until they built their own house.
What was a typical day like in your tribe? “We would get up, have prayer and Bible reading together, then I would go to work on language study. My partner went out to “meet the people” and interact with them. As the years went on, I continued to work on language, writing lessons for the missionaries to learn the tribal language, and creating primers for the increasingly literate Indians to learn to read.”
Working as a team, New Tribes has developed translations of the New Testament, and subsequently of the chronological teaching. Work continues to this day. The Indians themselves now have churches and function on their own.
Advice you would give to new missionaries going to the field. If you really hope to fit in and reach them with the Gospel of Christ. expect to learn the way they do things and adjust your lives to theirs.
JFYI Mary Lou is legally blind, but you would never know it. She is still very active and helpful around the NTM Retirement community. Her cheerful yet quiet spirit is an encouragement to everyone.
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