NTM

We became official missionaries in January 1, 2009, and now part of our ministry is partnership development.  Partnership development is a process that is tough, enjoyable, discouraging, and humbling all in one big sandwich.

Tough = In the beginning I had a hard time because I battled with these thoughts, “I hate asking people for money, I’m not a good salesman, I feel like a beggar, etc.”  Then God helped me realize that I am not asking or begging, I am giving them a great opportunity to be a part of something amazing, and part of God’s heart !!

Enjoyable = It’s great traveling around meeting with old friends, family, and meeting new people.  Just seeing how God is working all around, and being encouraged by our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Discouraging = When you have made all the contacts to all the churches and individuals you know, and you exceeded to 35%.  Satan gets to me by looking at that figure, and seeing that we have 65% left, and we are wanting to leave this April. The sin of not trusting God does occur at times. Then with God’s grace we are encouraged and know that we do have faith and we do trust in His Will.

Humbling = While we are making these contacts, it is very humbling seeing people who you know and don’t know very well, be supportive financially and prayerfully toward our family.  Seeing those people making sacrifices, and willing to give up certain things to get us over to Indonesia, to share about Christ to people who have never heard !!

Israel enjoying the waves

       Where can you go to get cotton candy, elephant ears, hot dogs, & 3 stages filled with live christian music for 3 days !?! The answer is the Big Ticket Festival in Gaylord, MI.
We were able to set up a table and represent New Tribes Bible Institute. There was well over 15,000 people that participated in this festival. Sharing with people about the heart & ministry focus of New Tribes Mission; then helping them understand the purpose & reason of the Bible Institute.
       "Do you like free stuff?" Either it’s the Christian community or the economy crisis, but people love free things! We had drawings either for a T-shirt or a Nalgene bottle every 3 hours.
       Overall, the festival was a success in letting people know about the need of God’s Talk among tribal people all over our world. Also, talking among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and seeing what God is doing in their lives.
        Thanks for your prayers and support !!!

      Omaha was the mark of Israel’s first haircut. Bye-bye to the dark brown, hello to the newly fresh blonde hair. He could not maintain the looks of his dad anymore. This was one of the many things we accomplished in the city of Omaha with my brother, Jason and his family.

      Does anybody not like dessert? With knowing the answer to that question, my brother, Jason and his wife, put together dessert parties a couple nights that consists of friends and leaders of different churches. These 2 nights helped us to inform them the future ministry we have in Indonesia and letting them know how they can be a part of reaching tribal people with the gospel!!

     We Started out staying a few days, then ended up being there for a week. We kept having opportunities to meet with pastors & leaders of churches for coffee or lunch to share about our ministry. Every meeting, we walked away very encouraged and blessed by these men. Lord willing a couple of these churches or individuals will be a part of ethnos 77, because we like the passion and love they have for God and for the lost. These are the kind of churches and individuals we want on our team!

      We are in the mist of our 2nd month of Partnership Development (PD) and we find God challenging us in many ways.  This whole PD thing is a challenge in itself, but have really been grown through this process. It is great to see how the body of Christ encourages and strengthens us as we go through this. 

      But the biggest challenge has been through the health of my parents.  My Dad has a disease that has been attacking the lungs and heart.  Then my Mom is having difficulties with her back.  We have definitely seen God’s hand in having us live only 2 miles away as we can help them in any way we can.  I thought these kind of times would have never came so early, but it is amazing seeing how the body of Christ, once again, comes together and helps with everything they can. 

     Life has been a challenge, but we definitely see how God uses these kind of times to strengthen our faith and we know we can rest on God’s sovereignty!

     We are now in March, and see the training getting a little more intense!  For the first 2 hours we are taking an unknown language and trying to break down the grammar in this language…  Man I thought doing grammar in English was hard enough back when I was a little guy, but trying to take these different languages and learning how to put it into an English format for us to understand and interpret.

    Then for the next 2 hours we have to learn how to say and write all these crazy sounds that cover all language groups worldwide (at least the known languages   )   But overall these classes are intense but we are enjoying the little taste that we are getting now to reality of things overseas.  We are excited and anxious for out future!