In a dark jungle village, a missionary’s computer screen is glowing late into the night. He’s learning, planning and preparing how to best plant a rock-solid church among the tribal people he has come to reach. And now he has the much-anticipated software to help him do it. He grabs another cup of coffee. Sleep can wait.
As he sets about his work, he has no idea of the history behind this moment in time. He can’t see the invisible bridge of willing participants stretching across the sea that made it possible – such as the little-known business with the very big heart.
Operating from the basement of the founder’s home, the small company’s 30-year-old story is like “the little engine that could.” Through thick and thin, it keeps chugging along, undeterred by the fact that most companies actually keep their profits.
In the 1970s, the young Christian entrepreneur and his wife, understanding the responsibility and honor of participating in the Great Commission, wanted to do their part. But they were in the middle of starting their own business and raising a growing family. What was their part?
Based on his skills and God’s leading, the couple soon realized that their role was to stay, work hard and meet their family’s realistic needs, but to give as much as possible from the proceeds of the business so that others could go – like the engineer who came to work for them in 1988.
The 31-year-old engineer and his wife had always been ready and willing to go, but were waiting for the unmistakable “green light” from God, signaling His will and timing for this next step in their lives. The “all clear” came in 1997, and they loaded up their kids and headed into NTM’s missionary training.
When they arrived for culture and language study in Camdenton, Missouri, the wife began reading the Welcome Manual and asked her husband, “What are punch cards? It says we’ll be filing our cultural data on punch cards.”
He laughed and told her to ignore that part since computer advancements had made punch cards obsolete years ago. The mission obviously needed to update their manuals, he said.
But he wasn’t laughing on the day in class when they handed him punch cards and loop tapes.
The shocked, bewildered look on his face made it difficult for his wife not to burst out laughing. And then a metamorphosis began. Before her very eyes, her quiet, unemotional, logical engineer of a husband became passionate about getting the proper software to missionaries.
With the training finished, the family of seven headed out with $385 a month of promised support. They had no idea where the rest was going to come from. But God did. On the first official support check the family received, there among the list of names and gifts given was the little company with a very big number after their name. Because the founder and his believing partners were willing to shoulder their part in spreading the Gospel, the new missionaries could concentrate on theirs – developing tribal software for missionaries.
That was seven years ago. And since that time, other missionaries have joined in the effort. By combining all of their ideas, skills and abilities, up-to-date tribal software is now available.
Today, there are no bewildered missionaries being handed punch cards and loop tapes. They receive CLAware – Culture and Language Acquisition Software. It provides them an excellent filing and cross-referencing system for dealing with cultural data, as well as tools to acquire the difficult tribal languages more efficiently. By assisting and speeding the process of culture and language learning, CLAware allows the Bible teaching to begin earlier and a newborn baby church to be growing sooner. Tribal church planters have needed this specialized help for a very long time.
And somewhere out there, one thankful missionary finishes his last swallow of coffee and reluctantly switches the computer off. Sleep is calling.
Swinging softly in a hammock nearby, a tribal person has no idea how fortunate he is. He is unaware of all the steps taken and choices made that have brought him that much closer to hearing the Gospel. He doesn’t know that 30 years ago, far across the sea, a young founder of a company and his wife decided to participate in the Great Commission. He hasn’t a clue that the joy and freedom soon to be his, is linked to the little basement business that could – and did.
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