NTM

We are in the process of forming a team to work with the Meshicaneros in the state of Durango. We have recently finished team meetings with them and they are hoping to ask for permission to live in the area in the new year. Please pray that this permission will be granted, and that the airstrip can be registered. Without this registration, the new team will have to make a long drive over rough "road" to get to their location.

Pray also for another couple to join this team.

Phase one Bible teaching is going on along with a New Testament translation project. There is a translation check coming up in November.

We work in two dialects of Tarahumara. There are believers in both dialects. Translation projects are on going and we are looking for opportunities to partner with the believers in outreach to other locations.

New Tribes Mission works with two Tepehuan dialects. The work is progressing but we would like at least one more good language learning couple on this team to help with the Bible translation. The couple who have been doing the translation are facing some health issues and they don’t feel they will be able to complete the translation so are looking for a couple to take over.
In the Southern Tepehuan, we will be down to one family as their coworkers go on furlough soon. Please pray for safety in travel and for encouragement for the couple continuing to progress through their culture and language acquisition time.

This is our newest work having started just a couple of months ago. So far we have two Mexican couples on this team. Please pray for a third couple. This team is in the Mexican state of Baja California.

Jonathan was recently in Baja California and the missionaries asked prayer for motivation in the learning of the Triqui tribal language in Baja. This is a difficult tonal language and some of the missionaries are struggling. We are praying for two more couples to join this team.

A few weeks ago Jonathan went back to Baja California to work with the Triqui team. This team has recognized recently that they need more team members if they are going to be able to achieve what they set out to achieve.

Each of the missionaries received an evaluation of their ability to communicate in the Triqui language and then we sat down to work out a daily schedule for them to follow in order to make progress.

He also spent time with a new team forming to work with the Mixteco people who have moved to Baja California. One couple is already living there and another couple accompanied Jonathan on the trip to look for housing. They were able to find a house to live in and plan to move out there in January.

This next week Jonathan is accompanying two other consultants to one of our works among the Tarahumara people. We are hoping to talk with the church leaders about how we can better help them with their desire to reach out to other areas of Tarahumara people with the Gospel.

In a couple of week’s time Rachel and Jonathan both plan to go to the Northern Tepehuan work to talk with the team there. We are looking for more team members for this established work, to help with discipleship and translation. It is good to see how God is continuing to work on the behalf of the Tepehuan people and we trust that He will continue to provide what is needed to bring the group of believers to maturity.

In December we are planning another trip to Baja California to follow up on some of the things we addressed last month. Please pray that we can take news of new team members for the Triqui team.

When we arrived in the "town" at about 8 o"clock we were almost immediately greeted with the news that a lady had been lying outside for two nights, unable to move herself. Slowly the details emerged that she had been at a drinking party and her husband had beaten her up while they were both drunk. When she woke up, her husband was gone and she couldn’t move!

The night temperatures are still dipping close to freezing in the mountains so we were concerned about the lady. Ken  is a missonary doctor and one of the missionaries we had gone to help with language. We decided to go with him on this jaunt for two reasons; to see if we could be of help to him in carrying the lady out and also to "watch him in action". This gives us an idea of how to help him communicate better with the people.

We drove in the "ambulance" for a little under an hour and then had a hike up a valley to where the lady was lying.

After making sure we wouldn’t hurt her more by moving her, we strapped the lady to a stretcher and, along with some help from the locals, carried her back down to the ambulance, which took a lot longer than on the way up. We eventually got back to the clinic around 1.30 in the afternoon.

She is now in a hospital in Chihuahua and it has been discovered that she is paralyzed from the neck down. This is very sad because she has children which she will no longer be able to care for and her husband (once he is caught) will probably go to jail.

That evening we also helped with a little boy who needed attention. He was malnourished and needed an IV to stabilize his electrolytes. It was a loooong day!

Thre are the couples working in this area to bring the Gospel to the indians in this area. They are involved in healthcare, literacy and community projects but their desire is that the people they are serving hear the Word of God preached to them in their own language.

Our part in this is helping them to make progress in their culture and language understanding and thus make communication clearer.