NTM

Lots of fundraising – and bonding through it - and tomorrow, Nathan’s class leave for their 8th grade trip to Washington, DC. 

Three girls and three guys, plus their class sponsors, Mr. and Mrs. Woody, will be flying to DC, early Sunday morning. Their planned activities show that this will be the the trip of a lifetime.

Praise the Lord that the kids raised all the money they needed.  A yard sale (with donations of items from friends and family) netted $1042, putting them over the top.

Pray that they will have a good time, safe travel, and get some sleep.

We had a meeting this morning to make sure everything is on track for the publication of the revised Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ. 

And it looks like everything is lining up. 

We’re waiting for only 3 visuals to be drawn, and the sketches have already been approved on 2 of them.

• Keep praying for Bill as he draws the last few illustrations.

I’ve got to look over clean copy of the books.

• Pray that I’ll be alert to find any problems – it’s mostly issues of layout at this point.

Decisions have to be made about how many books that we should print.

• Pray for wisdom in these decisions.

Thanks for praying for Dave as he traveled to Tennessee. 

He left home Wednesday at 2, arrived in his motel in Dalton, Georgia, at 11.

He left the next morning at 7:30, arrived at the funeral in Knoxville at 9:30, and spent the next 6 hours with his cousins remembering Aunt Ruth and catching up on each other’s lives

He headed home on Thursday at 4 pm, arriving here Friday at 4 am.

Lots of sleeping on Friday!

Thanks for your prayers!

Aunt Ruth was Dave’s dad’s sister. She went home to be with the Lord a few days ago.  Home! 

For years and years, Aunt Ruth has faithfully supported us. Dave wanted to go to her funeral as tribute to what her faithfulness has meant to us.

Pray for Dave as he travels.  The plan is to arrive in Dalton, Georgia, around 11 tonight, and then go on to Knoxville, Tennessee, tomorrow morning. The funeral is at 10, and then he will spend time with cousins before heading home Thursday afternoon.  He’s thinking of driving straight through to get home early Friday morning. 

Yesterday, I printed out clean copy of the Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ books, and packaged the InDesign files.  I sent it with Dave to the Communications Department.  My work on the text and layout is DONE!  Praise the Lord!

The books aren’t completely finished. 

Bill is working dilegently to finish up the illustrations.  Only 8 to go. 

When the illustrations are done, Doug will drop them into the lessons. Then he will probably print out a copy for me to check.  After that, he’ll prepare the files to send out to the printer. 

Don is finishing the PowerPoints for the CD.  He’s also waiting on illustraitons.

• Praise the Lord for all the work that has been done. May it glorify Him!
• Pray that the illustrations will be finished to meet the deadline of April 15th.
• Pray for Bill as he draws them. He reports that he is getting his energy back after his serious hernia surgery, and we’re thankful for that.
• Pray for me as I coordinate between the revision team and Bill.

Ruth’s department has been meeting with the Communications department over the last few weeks to establish a checklist of tasks to be done in order to meet our May 29th launch date. We’ve all found it encouraging to be at this point in the process. 

What do we yet need to do?

• About 1/2 of the illustrations need to be drawn.

Bill, our wonderful illustrator, had a very complicated hernia surgery, and several week’s recovery time. He’s still not back to full strength, so please pray for him.

• Text needs to be finalized for the slip-sleeve box that the curriculum will be put in.

Ruth worked on writing the first draft of this today.

• PowerPoint slides need to be finished.

Pray for Don as he finishes this project.  We previewed the slides for several lessons last week.  We think those who use these slides of illustrations and outline points will have a great tool for enhancing the lessons.

• We need to get the word out that the revision is ready for purchase. 

Thankfully, the Communications department has great ideas for marketing. They have already produced a flier for those who have never heard of Chronological Teaching, and they are in the process of producing one for those who are familiar with this method of teaching.

Please pray:

• That we will think of everything that we need to consider.
• That Bill will be able to finish the illustrations soon.
• That Don will be able to finish the PowerPoint slides.
• For Ruth as she coordinates many aspects of this project.
• That Ruth will be able to find a sitter for Joy when she need to go to meetings.

James 4 talks about how life is a vapor.  How true that has been these past couple months.  It’s like the days disappeared in a heartbeat.

Tom and Danielle were here. 

Tom and Danielle and four boys arrived on January 21st.  They lived with us for 7 weeks before going to Maine to be with Danielle’s parents. They are dealing with a lot – health issues, setting up meetings with supporting churches, changing ministry from being bush missionaries to being on USA staff.  We were glad to provide the family support they have needed. 

• Please pray for God’s direction for them concerning what ministry they should be involved in and where they should live.

Ben and Gina visited.

Ben had a forced time-off for about 6 weeks in January and February.  So he and Gina and 18-month old, Atalie, came for 11 days.  They stayed with John and Lisa, just down the road, but were with us when schedules permitted.  It was really cool to have all our boys here – John, Tom, Ben, and Nathan – with their families.  

• Pray as Ben and Gina are expecting a baby.

Colds and asthma hit hard. 

All of us except for Joy have been sick sometime in February and March – mostly respiratory infections.  Some were viral and some caused by the oak and pine pollen.  The doctor put Nathan on asthma medicine.

• Pray that we will all be strong physically.
• Praise the Lord that Joy did not get sick.

Deadlines have been reached.

Ruth finished the layout work on Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ.  That’s SIX books!  Lots of work.

• Pray that the next steps in preparing FFCC for publication will go smoothly so that we can meet the May 29th availability date.

Evaluations has been accomplished.

Dave evaluated netbooks – those small, lightweight, limited function computers recently on the market.  Now he knows how to respond to missionaries’ questions and give them guidelines about netbooks. 

• Pray as Dave has begun to evaluate solid state hard drives. He anticipates that this emerging technology will greatly increase realiability in the bush.

As days continue to pass swiftly, we pray that we will "Walk in wisdom … redeeming the time" (Colossians 4:5).

Tom and Danielle and family arrived home on January 20th.  Health issues were the main reason they had to leave their ministry as jungle missionaries with New Tribes Mission.

Danielle has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and is really worn down from living in the jungle village. Tom is also exhausted.  

They want to continue to work with New Tribes Mission and feel the need for family support.  So they are interested in a position in Sanford at the USA Headquarters.  They met today with Mission leadership about possible ministry.  A number of options are available; now to find the right fit for Tom’s giftedness.

They have four boys: Levi – 14; Jacob – 12; Luke – 9; and Josiah – 2.  Nathan is enjoying having his nephews with us.

Tom and family plan to live with us for about a month, and then travel to visit family and suporters.

• Pray for a return of energy for both Tom and Danielle.
• Levi may be starting a bout with malaria. Pray for quick recovery for him.
• Pray for God’s direction regarding their future ministry.
• Pray for God’s supply of a van and a house.

My shoulder is much better. Thanks for praying!

Just a week ago, I was still in pretty severe pain, but today, I have very little pain and nearly normal range of motion.  Praise the Lord!

A missionary had sent Dave a notebook computer for repair. First thing Dave noticed is that the notebook’s touch pad (mouse pad) had been disabled. And as Dave needed a mouse to check out other things, he enabled the touch pad.

And immediately he understood why it had been disabled. If he moved his finger sideways, the cursor moved upwards. If he moved his finger upwards, the cursor moved sideways. It would have made sense if it had been off by 90 degrees, but it wasn’t. It was off by more like 120 degrees.

Although he’d never encountered a problem like this before, he quickly found where to set the orientation of the touch pad, and the problem was solved.

• Pray for Dave. Missionaries are making their older computers last longer in these economically-troubled times, so Dave and his co-workers are doing more repairs than usual. Pray they will have insight to solve the problems.