Benjamin and Missy Hatton Connecting You With Tribal Missions 
Benjamin and Missy Hatton have made a signifcant family decision. But this decision to move overseas from their present ministry with NTM in Michigan started a long time ago. Read some of the details of this story of God’s grace and faithfulness.
Benjamin and Missy have been associated with New Tribes Mission since they were children. Benjamin’s parents joined NTM when he was only three, and raised Benjamin and his siblings in Papua New Guinea. Missy’s parents joined the mission when she was 12 and served at New Tribes Bible Institute in Jackson, MI until 2000.
Missy was trained and went to Bolivia with NTM herself in 1995. She spent nearly three years there then after her first furlough joined the staff of NTBI, back in Michigan, working in the Dean’s Department. This is where Benjamin and Missy met in 1998. Once Benjamin completed his training with NTM he too joined the staff at NTBI. Benjamin and Missy were married in October 2002 and have served as Dean’s at NTBI ever since.
Benjamin and Missy have always had the ambition to serve the Lord full time in the Gospel ministry and have felt privileged to be a part of the work NTM is doing among unreached tribal groups around the world. As Dean’s their ministry was always charged with the notion that each student was a potential church planter or support worker in fulfilling the Great Commission among the unreached of the world.
Although filling an important role in training and equipping missionary candidates with NTM, they recognize the continued plight for laborers overseas, especially for church planters. This is a role that they both feel the Lord has gifted them to fill and given their intimate understanding of the needs and the methods NTM has developed to do this work Benjamin and Missy have decided to leave NTBI for Papua New Guinea to begin a church planting ministry.
The Lord has supplied wisdom and direction and grace in this decision making process. Benjamin and Missy have received excellent counsel from their co-workers and leaders and look forward to watching the Lord continue to work out the details.
There are a great many challenges being faced in this transition. All of the funds for this ministry have to be raised by the Hatton’s. This includes not only the money to send and support their family overseas but also to fully fund the church planting ministry. All of the equipment and supplies for this endeavor have to be gathered and shipped, not to mention preparing for the long, difficult separation from family and friends. But these are only some of the challenges that lie ahead for Benjamin and Missy.
Once they are finally in Papua New Guinea the long hard job of learning both the national language (Melanesian Pidgin English) and the tribal language begins. They will face the challenges of living among a people with an extremely different culture, and will only be able to model a biblical worldview to start with. But as they progress in their culture and language acquisition they will prepare to evangelize.
Evangelizing the tribal community has all sorts of challenges to it; some that will be unforeseen. The evangelism effort will consist of chronological teaching from the beginning of God’s Word. This provides a foundation for understanding Jesus’ death and resurrection. This will take immense effort on the part of the entire community; The Hatton family, their co-workers and the tribal people themselves.
Discipling a growing church and translating Scripture will eventually occupy all of their efforts. The goal is to leave an indigenous, mature church to continue expanding the reach of the Gospel in a way that only those native to Papua New Guinea could. None of these challenges can be overcome without the vital support of the local church and fellow believers. Benjamin and Missy are trusting the Lord who is not only the reason but the means for life and ministry.
