NTM

Welcome to Indonesia:
        Smiling faces and friendly people…
   Driving on the left side of the road….
        Many different religious beliefs….
   Weaving through crazy traffic on a motor bike…
        Lots of fresh fruits and veggies….
   Learning the polite way to greet your neighbors…

Okay, so obviously I’m new here! I’m at that stage where everything is new and different. I’m still learning how to get around, and I’ve just barely starting language study.

It’s amazing to me how God has brought me this far. After 4+ years of preparing, I have finally moved to Indonesia. And the process of learning is starting all over again!

This last week I began my official language study. For the first 10 weeks I will be meeting daily with a language tutor. Once I have gained a bit of knowledge of the Indonesian language, I will begin Indonesian classes here in the town I’m living in.

Every day I and two teammates are meeting with a language helper. First thing in the morning we go on an “excursion.” One day last week we went to the pasar, which is the open air market. We walked around and saw the fruits and veggies, and we also learned where we could buy very FRESH meat, as well as live animals ready for slaughter.

Yes, these eels were still alive and kicking… or should I say slithering…

From the pictures we took, we put together a language session for the next day. Since we are just starting language study, we only learned the names for fruits and veggies and kinds of meat. Later we will go back and learn related verbs, etc.

Following the language session, I inputted the related pictures and audio into my computer so that I can practice what I learned.

Another super important part of language learning is just spending time with people. I’m so thankful for new friends God has brought into my life already. Okay, more about that in a later post…

P.S. Check out my PHOTOS page to see some more pictures.

It is hard to believe that I will actually be leaving for Indonesia in two short weeks! God has been graciously providing in many ways: in finances, in friendships, in paperwork and packing!

After some uncertainty about getting a visa, I now have in my hand a short-term visa to Indonesia. It just came in the mail Thursday! And today I was able to confirm my airline tickets.

I am very excited that I will have a traveling buddy on the plane, a fellow missionary. And I’m so thankful that she speaks Indonesian, whereas I’m limited to “good morning” and “thank you” and “where is the bathroom?”!

Upon arrival to Indonesia, I will settle into a house in the town where I’ll be living and then begin language and culture study. I recently found out that I will be sharing a house with a friend from the training; I think it will be a huge blessing to have a roommate!

So there will be a lot going on in the next month or so, between finishing preparations here and diving into a new culture in Indonesia.

Please pray that I will use HIS time wisely during the next weeks. And please also pray that my long-term visa will be granted in His good timing.

I just want to say thank you.

Thanks to all of you who are partnering with me in ministry.

But even more than that, I want to thank God for being Himself.  For being a God who deeply cares for His children.  And that care extends to meeting their physical and spiritual needs.

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."                                                                                                             Philippians 4:19

Not only has God been supplying the income to meet my immediate needs, but He has also blessed me with spiritual encouragement through fellow believers.

It has been interesting to watch God provide for me during this time of "Partnership Development"

Here are a few highlights of the ways that God has provided:

• Three churches supporting me, from both Colorado and Oregon.
• A replacement Jeep after my old Jeep got side-swiped by a semi truck coming down a snowy mountain pass – not to mention safety for me during the accident!
• Dave & Lene, who are very graciously allowing me to stay with them during my time in Grand Junction.

God has also been providing opportunities to share about this ministry:

• So far I’ve been able to speak in one church in Grand Junction.
• I’ve also had the opportunity to share at several Bible studies and other small groups.
• Last Sunday my home church, Redlands Community Church, had a combined Sunday School class and gave me the entire time to share about my future ministry in Indonesia!
• In the next month or two I will be sharing in a few more churches, both here in Grand Junction and in other towns in Colorado.

All these opportunities to share came through the efforts of friends and acquaintances of mine.  I am very thankful for the Body of Christ here in Colorado!

Even though I still have a ways to go in raising support and getting ready to leave for Indonesia, I can trust that my faithful God will provide in His perfect timing!

"For people, this is impossible, but for God all things are possible!" – Mark 10:26-27

"It’s true! This is a true talk!" shouted Todopui, our local Dao leader as he heard how God had raised Jesus back to life again, showing that His sacrifice for our sins was acceptable. Within seconds of Todopui speaking out you could hear all kinds of excited talking going on all over the room. Within moments others such as Wusimpaa, Apiyaawogi, and Obapui started to chime in – "I believe this is true as well!…I also believe!". Bedenadus then spoke out-"Jesus has done a very big thing for us!" and then Wadamena, one of the women added in- "This really is a big and true talk!"

Others continued to excitedly add in from all over the room and the people broke out into a spontaneous time of testimony, some of them standing up to share their personal belief of what Christ had done with the rest of the group (Top center pic), still others just listening while grinning from ear to ear (Top left and right pictures) and shouting out in aggreance -"That’s true…that’s true talk!" . Almost the entire group of Dao people that had been coming to the teaching faithfully for these past few months was right in front of our eyes expressing faith in speaking out about what Christ has done on their behalf.

As the day went on we spent as much time as possible among the people and around their houses questioning many of the men and women on what they had heard and asking them if they had fully understood and placed their trust in what Christ had done on their behalf. As we spent time with them throughout the day we continued to rejoice together with them over their new found faith and just laughed with joy as we listened to them speak out to both us and each other of their love for Jesus. We sat back, listened and smiled as we watched God doing what Jesus told his disciples (Mark 10:26-27) was "humanly impossible" for we ourselves to do – He was creating saving faith in and transforming the hearts of many of the Dao people for His own glory!

After it was all said and done, from what we can see from a human perspective it seems that God has used this past few months of teaching to call out believers from at least fifteen different Dao hamlets and two diferent dialects of our language. There are now believers from every major pocket of the Dao people group as a result of what God has done these past few months and Many of them are already talking of taking what they have heard back to their own family members that have not yet had a chance to hear!

This past week we have seen God step forward in faithfulness to His promises. We stand in testimony that no missionary will ever be able to go to an unreached corner of the world without confidence that God will do a work there, simply because God Himself has promised in passages such as Revelation 7:9 that one day there will be "A great multitude which no man could number from EVERY nation, from ALL tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb…" and God never breaks His promises! This was a week that we saw God step forward and "Do the impossible" in the Dao valley.

Please continue to pray for the Dao people. The journey is just now beginning for these young believers and we are right now printing up the very first portions of Genesis to give to the believers that have the ability to read. We will give these first portions to them in the next few weeks so that they can grow in their love for God’s Word and begin learning what it means to spiritually feed themselves daily. We will begin meeting weekly with the Dao as a body of believers so that they can learn what it means to function as a church body and continue hearing what God has done for them while at the same time we will continue on with translating the Word of God into the Dao language and teaching other Dao people how to read and write so that they can have the ability to read God’s Word for themselves.

Because He said "GO!" – Scott & Jennie Phillips

Id-Ra-Ha-Je ?

"I’d Rather Have Jesus!"  And Jesus was the heart of our three weeks of camp this summer in backcountry Colorado.

I’ve worked summers at Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je West since 2001.  I really thought that I would never get to go back, but God opened the door once again!

It was exciting to be a part of a staff that functioned like the body of Christ is supposed to.  God was moving this summer and we got to see the fruit of it.  It was a great time of discipleship – it is so exciting to see kids growing in their faith!  We also witnessed a number of kids place their faith in Christ for the first time.

Each week I was able to do a missions presentation to the kids.  It was super encouraging to hear their questions and feedback.  Quite a few of the staff and campers have a desire to be involved in some kind of missionary service.

And as always, camp was a growing time for me too.  The demand of being a counselor to a group of girls around the clock always reminds me of my need to be utterly dependent upon the Lord.  His Spirit is so faithful to provide the wisdom we lack and to guide us to minister in the ways HE wants.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting…"

James 1:5-6

• Pray also for the tribal group in Indonesia that the Lord would have me minister to – that even now He would be preparing hearts that they might one day understand and respond to the Gospel.
• And please pray for my transition to Indonesian food, lifestyle, time zone, etc. When I was in Papua New Guinea, I never adjusted to the time difference during the whole 6 weeks I was there, so I’m praying that the Lord will grant me SLEEP at night once I get to Indonesia!
• I know I will be tired, but I don’t want that to stop me from getting out and getting to know new neighbors, and otherwise integrating into Indonesian life.
• And lastly please just pray that the Lord and my relationship with Him will be first in all of this.

"The first two Dao people have heard the Gospel for
the first time this week!" wrote missionaries Derek
and Sarah Grant. "And they believed! Praise the Lord!"

"As our two translation helpers Daapoi and Wikipai were
hearing about the torture and death of Jesus Christ," wrote Scott Phillips, "they were astounded at what Christ went through."

"The words that you are telling me make my heart hurt.  This is a talk that would make us cry," said Daapoi. "Jesus could have easily fled from those men or killed them all by merely speaking, but he did not."

Scott explained why Jesus had refused to fight back but  instead die a willing death on the cross for our wrongdoings. Daapoi and Wikipai were very quiet.

"I could tell that they were thinking hard over what they were hearing," Scott wrote.  "They were realizing that Jesus had died on our behalf just as the lambs had been sacrificed over and over again throughout all the stories they had heard from the Old Testament."

Scott then explained that after three days the tomb was found empty and the angel announced that just as Jesus promised, He had risen.

  Wikipai laughed with joy at what he was hearing. "Only the Son of God could do something like that! Only Jesus could come back from death! Is there anything at all
that He is unable to do? I don’t think so!"

We continued on, hearing how Jesus appeared again to his disciples and walked the earth another 40 days to prove he had conquered sin and death.  "These two
Dao men were soaking it all in with smiles on their faces as they were hearing that Jesus had come out victorious!" wrote Scott. "I began to question them to make sure that they understood what they were hearing." Daapoi was the first to respond.

"If it were not for Jesus, our sins would have never been cleared away," said Daapoi, joy written on his face. "If Jesus had not become the Lamb of God, sacrificed for us, we would have faced eternal punishment! I believe that this message is true. I believe that He died for me!"

Then Wikipai chimed in. "If His sacrifice would not have been enough, God would have never raised him from the dead. If Jesus’ sacrifice had not been enough then
the curtain in God’s temple would have never been ripped in half to show us that we could now come into God’s presence. I also believe that Jesus’ death on the cross was for my sins and that His sacrifice was sufficient!"

  Scott closed the teaching with Jesus’ final command, His ascension into heaven and the angel’s words to the disciples. "Men of Galilee, why are you standing here
looking into the sky? Jesus, whom you saw taken up into heaven will come back in the same way you saw Him go!"

When they heard these verses they immediately began asking Scott, "When will he come back? Will he come back today? Tomorrow? Will he come back quickly?"

Scott told them He would come back when someone from every tribe has heard and believed the "Creator Talk" about Jesus Christ.

"Well then we have to tell the others!" they said. "We have to tell our families! We have to tell the Kupekuye clans and the Mokotaka clans! We have to tell the Taomi clans too so that Christ will come back! We have to tell them His message!"

Now that the Bible lessons and scriptures necessary for teaching have all been completed, the missionaries hope to begin teaching on June 11th, with the help of
Daapoi and Wikipai. Pray that the Dao people will be as receptive to God’s Word as these two first believers.

This week I drove from the Missionary Training Center in Missouri to Estes Park, Colorado. I was very thankful that the trip only took 13 hours – I was expecting it to be longer!

It is wonderful to be back in "my" mountains. Already I have walked by a number of elk, and I even spotted a large cinnamon colored bear close by! But what I really was not prepared for was the four inches of snow last night! Only in Colorado!

I attended Ravencrest Chalet Bible School here in Estes Park in 2002-2004. The last few days have been a great time to catch up with friends and see what the Lord is doing in one another’s lives.

I also had the opportunity to share with the missions committee at the church I attended while I was in Bible school. It was also an encouraging time to reconnect with people and to see the church’s commitment to partner with missionaries around the world.

From here I travel to Grand Junction, Colorado to spend some time with my home church. Then I’ll be working as a summer camp counselor for a few weeks before I drive out to Oregon to spend the rest of the summer with my parents.

My schedule for the rest of the summer is as follows:

May 24 – June 6                     Grand Junction, Colorado

June 7 – 30                             Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je West                                                             (Somerset, Colorado)

July 1 – mid August                 La Grande, Oregon