BEING PREPARED
March 22, 2007
Had any guests in your house lately?
Ever had 16 guests show up with little notice -- and stay two weeks?
That's the ministry of Dean and Trudy Hess in Senegal. And that's the easy part.
Dean and Trudy run New Tribes Mission's guest house in Senegal. This is where new missionaries stay when they first arrive, where missionaries come for a break or meetings or shopping, or pass through on their way home. It's where visitors to NTM ministries get their first look at the country and the work.
Recently a group of 16 missionaries had to temporarily evacuate from their ministry sites in Guinea due to political unrest. There wasn't much advance notice so Dean and Trudy had to swing into action to prepare for the missionaries' arrival. Their 16 guests ended up needing to stay for two weeks.
And it's a cross-cultural ministry with challenges of its own.
Dean and Trudy strive to make guests from a variety of nations, cultures and backgrounds comfortable. They do so while working with a team of Senegalese people to navigate the sometimes complex routes to supplies, equipment, repairs and services. All this while also ministering among the people in their neighborhood.
It's not a role people often think about when they consider church planting, but it's one of the many ministries that are vital to the task, and one of the many roles that NTM's Missionary Training Center can prepare you for.
Thank you for praying and giving for expanding this needed training program! You are helping expand the reach of the Gospel.
- More than 40 students from NTM's Bible institutes are visiting the Missionary Training Center this weekend. Pray that God leads them all to continue their training to become missionaries.
- Pray for preparations that are already under way for the Fall 2007 semester. The training center is in need of additional classroom space and experienced missionaries to teach.
- The missionaries working on two particular areas of the curriculum would welcome your prayers. One group is working out the details so students can practice culture and language acquisition in Mexico in September. Another is reworking the linguistics course. Pray for God's wisdom, leading and help.
- Thank the Lord with us for volunteers who are helping greatly. One group from Ohio put up siding on two buildings and framed another four-unit student apartment, while a group from Kansas installed a playground that they also purchased.
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