NTM

Fall 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Did you know that there are still over 2,200 people groups without the Bible or access to learning about Jesus that they wake up each morning without hope? They live in fear from sun up to sun down, practicing rituals, spells and manipulating spirits instead. There is no Jesus to hear about (Rms.10:14) or read about, they are living in spiritual darkness. This is why we are “compelled by the love of Christ” (2Cor. 5:14) to bring the light of the Gospel to these areas of such darkness, “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We are thankful for this God-given opportunity to be a small part of reaching those still without hope.

Life here in FL has been busy. Josiah and Micah keep us on our toes and we are realizing how flighting childhood really is. At four, Josiah is homeschooling with a Pre-K program with Lesley, and Micah is now 6 ½ months old. He is looking around and grabbing anything he can get his hands on. We are so blessed to have two beautiful boys to raise and love! Aside from mothering, Lesley is involved with a Mom’s group and a women’s Bible study at church. She has really enjoyed both these groups. When not helping with the boys at home or working on support-raising, Curtis has been working part-time to supplement our income.

How is life for you? Let us know how we can be praying for you and your family. Thank you to many of you for your love and support! We praise the Lord for your faithfulness!

In His Care, The Sewells

How you can help:
-Host a dessert or dinner
-Refer us to a friend or someone you know who would be interested in our ministry
-Support through prayer, financially or encouragement
If you need more info on any of this, please let us know.

Prayer Requests:
-For our support to increase
-Opportunities to share about our ministry
-Diligence in this task of support-raising
-Our commending process at our church
-Wisdom in raising our boys

22% – Current support level (Monthly)

Who would ever know that you can have so much fun with lizards! Josiah has made a few friends (or friend) in our backyard this month. The pictures tell a lot about his new friend.

Even in the heat of the summer, he has enjoyed going to our local park for continual rides down the slides.

Micah has just recently discovered how tasty his hands and fingers can be! They seem to keep him entertained for a while at times. No teeth are starting to show yet, but the drooling has begun! Time to pull out those bibs.

Summer greetings! We are back in Florida doing our official support raising before heading overseas. Where overseas you may ask? We see the Lord leading us to serve in Indonesia. There are still many unreached people groups in Indonesia who have yet to hear the gospel just once in their own language! Many of us are blessed to have heard it many times before ever making a decision to believe it or not. We are thankful to the Lord for providing for all our needs and look to Him daily for His continual provision.

Would you be interested in joining us to reach tribal people (men,women & children) who have yet to hear the gospel even once?

How you can partner with us:

Through Prayer: This is essential for any effective ministry. We appreciate anyone who would commit to partnering with us in this way.

Through Giving: It’s obviously not free to live as a missionary overseas. NTM recommends 6,000 a month for a family of four in Indonesia. We are currently around 10% of that recommended amount.

Through Encouragement: A simple email or a picture of you and your family can be so encouraging. We want to be a part of your life and know what our Creator is teaching you!

If you, your small group, or church would be interested in having us share about our ministry and the needs of tribal people let us know. You can send us an email through the link above or click here. Thanks!

PRAISE:

- We are so thankful for Micah joining our family! He is already 13.5 pounds and doing well!

PRAYER: (in no particular order)

- For opportunities to share about NTM in Indonesia

- For God to work in the hearts of people we share with about tribal people who are daily living in fear and spiritual darkness

- For many to catch the vision and join us in reaching tribal men, women and children with the hope of the gospel in Indonesia

- For wisdom, unconditional love, and patience in raising Josiah and Micah

- For our time in God’s Word and in prayer to be intentional, even in the busyness of life

Thank you for praying for us!

We would love to know how we can pray for you and your family aswell.

Josiah and Micah are growing so fast! Micah turned 6 weeks old Sunday, and has grown so much! Josiah is going on four years old in August, and looks just like a little version of his daddy.

We are settled in now in Florida, and have enjoyed getting to spend some time with our family here so far, and look forward to seeing our friends and church family a lot this year. We are sad to leave Missouri, but are thrilled to have warm weather now and be in the next stage of the journey before going overseas! We’re looking for a team of people to partner with us both in prayer and financially in order for us to serve in Indonesia. We are looking to leave next summer… Lord willing.

Josiah’s first words when he saw his new brother in the hospital were, "I don’t like him, he has wrinkles on his hands."

But, now he wouldn’t say that! It didn’t take him very long to warm up to little Micah and his wrinkles. He now says, "This is my Mikey" and "This is my brother" and he often asks, "Where’s the baby?"…"Where’s Micah?".

Just after a few days, Josiah is learning so much about being a big brother and he’s really enjoying it. He has been very eager to help Mommy and Daddy with anything that involves Micah! Down the road, we know there will be days where these two won’t get along, but for now (however long it may last) Josiah is proud to be Micah’s big brother!

Boy!!

Introducing:

Micah Aaron Sewell

Born: 3/16/08 @ 11:37am

7lbs 1oz & 20.5 "

We are praising God for this little gift! Thank you to so many who have been praying and eagerly awaiting the arrival of this little one! Mommy and baby are doing well. They will be leaving the hospital today.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17
 

Not yet! Lesley had an appointment on Tuesday and the doctor said she was 2cm dilated! She is 38 weeks and the baby is doing well (at least 6 1/2 lbs!). This is the biggest she has ever been!

She had another appointment today to do a "baby stress test" and during it we got to listen to the heartbeat – it was like music to our ears. The doctor has been doing these stress tests once a week to monitor how the baby is doing. The baby has been showing no signs of stress. Even though Lesley and baby are doing well, if she doesn’t go into labor before next Thursday, he is suggesting for her to be induced. He would normally be fine with her carrying longer, but because of her history he sees inducing to be a good idea. In this case, she would be induced next Thursday (20th).

Both of our parents are here right now for our training graduation that takes place tomorrow. They would all love for the baby to come before they have to leave! So, we’ll see what happens…

…to be continued!

Here is Josiah opening his gifts from family on video! This is definitely worth a peak!

We were unable to make it back to FL for Christmas, so we celebrated here in MO. We are really looking forward to seeing many friends and family when we head back home after graduation in March.

For cute, 3 1/2 yr old expressions opening Christmas gifts go here or click on Josiah above.

Enjoy!

Here are some changes that occured in our lives this semester…

First, Lesley is pregnant! She is due the end of March. Her and the baby are doing well, as we are thankful for each day. Breaking our "tradition", we are waiting to find out the gender of the baby (this wasn’t Lesley’s idea). We appreciate your prayers for the rest of the pregnacy, as many of you know our past complications. We praise God each day for this gift. We have really come to believe more that is what children are…. an undeserving,  purposeful gift from our heavenly Father.

Do you see a smile??

Second (for those of you who didn’t know), we were on our way to go to Oklahoma to study the Cherokee language and culture for our Practicum, but there were some concerns with Lesley’s pregnancy, so we ended up staying here the whole time we would have been gone. We studied the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture instead. Lesley was on bedrest for most of that time. Thankfully, this was temporary…as she is getting around now. The practicum was very helpful in not only "experiencing" NTM’s method of "aquiring" the language and culture, but learning a lot about ourselves aswell. Through this (and other factors), Lesley decided not to pursue the Linguistics training that we were planning on staying for after we complete the training here. So, after graduation we will be done with training (here).

Lastly, on that graduation note… we will be graduating nine weeks earlier than what was previously scheduled: March 14, 2008. This isn’t because we’re really good or smart missionaries or something, but due to the Missionary Training Ctr condensing it’s training program. We are very excited to be able to graduate this much earlier (especially with the baby due that mth).

So, all this to say, we will be completed with our training in March, we are expecting our new little one at the end of March, and we hope to be home again in April, to start our Partnership Development.

We hope you are resting in Jesus in this time of celebrating His birth, God’s gift - the Hope of Life Eternal in Him!