Something else that has been awesome is what I have witnessed Him do in the lives of others that are walking the same path.  I have mentioned the Warners a couple of times in updates.  They are my friends that are going over to Mozambique the same time as myself.  Caleb Lindsey is a good friend that also lives here in Waukesha .  He is a missionary going to the Czech Republic .  All four of us want to be in our fields this January.  I talk with all of them a few times throughout every week and God is also making the paths straight for them and as we share with each other how support raising is going, we almost laugh because God has increased our support for all four of us at the same time over the last few months.  He has allowed us to share the different struggles, challenges, and anxieties that we have through this journey.  

          I want to thank all of you for your support that has come in so many forms.  So many of you have been praying for me and this ministry.  I know and constantly remind myself that prayer is what will sustain this ministry.  I sent out a letter last month regarding some of the needs I had before I leave the states.  All of them have been met.  Also, I have been raising monthly support from churches and individuals and my support has doubled in the last month.  I have more than 50% of my recommended monthly support!   To top this off, I have been able to reconnect with so many people.  People that I have not talked to in years ( not that I am old yet )  but it has been cool to see what they are doing.  Students that I worked with in in Palos Park and in St. Petersburg are getting married, in college, or are in their careers now!  I am also connecting with people from Jr. and Sr. High school.

Praise and Prayer Requests

• Praise for the awesome response for this ministry.
• Prayer for continued focus and drive not only for the time remaining in the states, but also when I arrive in Mozambique.
• Praise for family and friends that continually encourage, challenge, and push me.  I couldn’t do this without you.
• Prayer for using time wisely. 62 days to go!

Here are my requests, what are yours?

They have a pretty cool history.  It started from a church that was established in 1983.  Right away they started focusing on youth ministry.  The different age level for youth began to increase rapidly and they decided that they would have nights that they would all come together for worship.  They called them “United Nights”.  The band that was put together began writing songs for these nights and then began to put out albums annually.  Hillsong United has become very popular and you probably have heard many of their songs in church or on the radio.  A big group of us from church were able to see them in concert at WillowCreek in Illinois.  IT WAS AN AWESOME CONCERT!!!  Check out this band if you have not already.  They just came out with a new album entitled faith + hope + love.

Here are some of my top favorites ( the old ones and the new ones)

Mighty to Save

Hosanna

We the Redeemed  * off the new album

Desert Song

From the Inside Out

Enjoy Listening. . .

Here is a quick overview, “ a sort of crash course”  based off questions I have heard lately. . .

MOZAMBIQUE 101

Where is Mozambique located? Mozambique is located on the southeast coast of Africa. It is bound by Swaziland to the south, South Africa to the southwest, Zimbabwe to the west, Zambia and Malawi to the northwest, Tanzania to the north and theIndian Ocean to the east.

What language will you speak over there? Portuguese is the national language.  Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.  I have had some language tutors to start learning and I am also using Rosetta Stone.

What will you eat? First of all, I heard a couple of months ago that there was no McDonalds over there,  WHAT? REALLY?  It really caused me to rethink this whole moving to Africa thing.   Corn is the traditional food crop in Mozambique, while chicken, seafood, bananas, and cashews are also part of main dishes.

Satellite image of Northern Mozambique

Where will you live? Most likely I will live in an apartment in a city in northern Mozambique. Missionaries are renting apartments and houses all throughout the city. There is not a central location.  You can get a good idea of how big the different cities are  by looking at a satellite view.  Here is the link to Google Earth  just click here  –> Google Earth.  After looking at northern Mozambique, you should check out the beaches along the east coast!

What is the climate like? Mozambique has a tropical climate with two seasons, a wet season from October to March and a dry season from April to September.  Rainfall is heavy along the coast. Average temperature ranges are 55 to 75 degrees  in July to 22 to 72 to 88 degrees in February.

How big is Mozambique and many people live there? Mozambique is about twice the size of California and has 22 million people living there.  There are 44 different language groups.  New Tribes is currently working in three villages and wants to work in at least six more within Mozambique.  There are people living in Mozambique that still do not have the Bible in their own language.

Will you still have internet? Lol,  yes, don’t think that I am going to quit sending my updates once I leave!  I have also been practicing skype, so if you do have skype, add me to your contact list. Skype is a free way to talk and view friends and family over the internet.  All you need is a webcam.  My username is Jerry.Pettigrew.  If you don’t have skype, GET IT. It’s free and easy to use, here is the link to download it.  Just click here –>  SKYPE

101 Thank you all for your encouragement, prayer, and support.  There is another significance for the number 101 today,  I HAVE 101 DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE!!!

Prayer and Praises

Pray for continued focus and drive of taking hold of opportunities here, while preparing and looking forward.

Pray for financial support, I am still in need of $2,000 of monthly recommended  support; please let me know if your small group or church might be interested in learning more about my ministry!

Praise for what He has been teaching me lately through His Word, church, Bible studies, friends, and family.

I am constantly being hit with learning more about prayer and how God meets each one of us, right where we are!

Now, to see who has made it down to the bottom of all this. . . Here is a Trivia Question:  The first person that knows the correct answer and sends it to me through facebook gets a prize that came from Mozambique.

Here is the question. . . What is the monetary unit in Mozambique and what is the current rate of exchange to the U.S. dollar? – Good luck

Thanks for visiting my blog.  My name is Jerry Pettigrew and I am a missionary with New Tribes Mission.  I am headed for the field of Mozambique on December 29th. Mozambique is one of the newer fields in our mission organization.  Initially, I will be a part of  a language team in order to learn the national language – Portuguese.  This will allow me to communicate with nationals and become more involved with outreach in the city.  Learning the language will also allow me to help with some of the roles on the field such as survey work.  Currently we are serving in three tribal works and plan on serving in at least six more.  Conducting survey work helps us understand more about the culture and language of these different people groups.   There is also a sense of urgency for a missionary school.  There are more than fifty children from New Tribes and even more from other mission organizations.  Part of my vision for ministry is to teach at this missionary school.  Please continue to pray for me as I prepare for what “He” has planned for me in Mozambique.

I have found that other languages do a better job with this word — love. Languages such as the greek language have distinct words for love. They have different words that all describe love but are very diverse.
I chose to dig a little deeper at the different words for love in greek because I believe it can really help us understand what type of love we have for someone else and what kind of love someone else might have for us.
I focused in on three of the words and want to present them, much like the order of the progression of a relationship.
First we have Philia  which means a love between friends. It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. It denotes a general type of love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity. We probably would include many people and things in this category.
This would include sports and other recreational activities. This would also include those people that we work with or neighbors down the street that we would consider friends even though we may not intentionally spend time with them outside our daily routines.

The second word for love in greek is eros. The people and activities that we enjoy in this group are much smaller than those in the first group we talked about. Eros is a passionate love. The Modern Greek word means “(romantic) love;” Eros can be interpreted as a love for someone whom you love more than a friend. It can also apply to dating relationships as well as marriage. Platos definition of eros is that after thinking about a person, there is an appreciation of the beauty within them, or there becomes an appreciation of beauty itself. Plato also said this type of love helps us recall knowledge of beauty and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth.

And now we come to the last word in Greek for love – Agape. I think this is the most important type of love and it is probably the least seen. This is the charitable, selfless, and unconditional love. It is a parental love. A love that does not seek out what can be done but simply is just given. A love that does not expect or want anything in return. It is the way God loves us.

The New Testament of the Bible was written in Greek and it uses these different words for love so there is no doubt of what kind of love is being talked about. For example, when we read the famous verse John 3:16 in English, we read it as For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son. When we read this verse in greek, we see this word agape being used, so there is no doubt the kind of love that God has for us — unconditional.

The last definition I came across for agape was that it can be described as the feeling of being content and secure when receiving this love and allowing the people you love to feel the same. This is the love that I believe we are challenged to have for eachother.

We recently started a college / career Bible study and we jokingly chose the theme "the underground" partly because we are meeting in a basement.  This theme caused me to look into the underground churches around the world.  I am fascinated and humbled by the stories of Christians that have been and still are being persecuted for their faith.  One book in particular that has captured my attention is called Tortured for Christ.  It tells the experiences of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand who spent fourteen years in and out of prisons in Romania during the 1950’s and 1960’s for his involvement in the underground church.  You can even request a free copy of this book through voice of the martyrs.  Just click on the link below :  Voice of the Martyrs – free copy. 

I am also going through 1 John with a men’s Bible study.   We talked about verse one of 1 John for an hour last week!  This week we will be tackling verses two through four.  lol  It is amazing how much is packed into such small phrases.  We are using a commentary called Maximum Joy by David Anderson.  If you are interested in digging into 1 John, I highly recommend using this book to help guide you.

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

This message helped me to focus once again on how I view my Lord, my God. Do I walk daily by faith or by sight?  I know that most of my updates talk about focus. I have come to realize that as soon as I take my eyes off of Him, I loose sight of what is really important.  As I sit in church services and prepare for Bible Studies, I am constantly reminded of how privileged I am / we are to have nearly unlimited resources of Bibles, commentaries, workbooks, all in our language.  As I look forward to Mozambique, I pray that I  keep the sense of urgency of joining His work here in Wisconsin with those He puts in my path and also in reaching the unreached in Africa.

With all these truths and promises,  I continue to have moments and days where I can’t help but question myself, “Are you really going to Mozambique?”.  I have been challenged by others to keep my eyes fixed on this goal.  While this is true and right, I know that If we only fix our eyes on future goals, we might miss out on opportunities that He presents to us everyday.  It is through everyday life and opportunities that we grow and persevere. 

My challenge to you and myself – Pray for daily opportunities to have your faith stretched.  Pray for God to put a desire in your heart to take hold of these daily chances and live out the truths and promises from His Word. 

• safety while traveling on all the trips over the next year
•  clear direction on setting specific dates to leave for Mozambique and knowing when to buy plane tickets 
• that God will continue to raise supporters and churches that are interested in my ministry

  There was a couple of steps that needed to be taken in order to become an official member of the field of Mozambique.  On July 15th, I received my official letter of acceptance! This is another step that has been completed in the process of starting my ministry over in Mozambique.  I have been in contact with field leadership for about a year now.  I have had the privilege of working by email and skype with future coworkers.  This work has included fielding research and discussing options on the school that will officially open in September of 2009.  Things are continuing to progress over there and although things are not "set in stone"  we are moving forward with making plans for facilities that will be able to accommodate grades kindergarten through eighth.