It’s been a week since we returned from Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, and our minds are still whirling from all we saw and experienced. You may be wondering what some place in Pennsylvania has to do with tribal missions. In this unlikely place we gained the best information we could have ever gotten in preparation for creating the program here in Missouri to challenge people to get involved in tribal missions. After experiencing it for ourselves, we knew this group of NTM missionaries have their finger on the pulse of what it looks like to really show people the challenges and joy of reaching a group of tribal people with the gospel.
Hugely important was the fact that we were able to go out a few days early to spend some time with the leadership to talk through how they built and structure their program and their philosophy behind what they do.
Over the course of the weekend, we watched the 70 other people who had come to participate in the program from all over the Northeastern U.S. absolutely amazed at what it takes to see the gospel presented and a solid mature church established amongst a group of tribal people. Many walked away challenged in their own walks with the Lord as they were faced with statistics like there are still over 4000 language groups with no part of God’s Word written in their language, when we have over 200 different versions of the Bible in English. We saw them enter the indoor, authentic, Yanomami tribal setting and come face to face with the difficulty of living in a place where the language and culture are totally different from their own.
Seeing the impact of the weekend in those people did one thing ESPECIALLY for us, we are even more convinced that the ministry the Lord has laid on our hearts in exposing and challenging people to get involved in reaching the unreached is something we are pumped about doing, AND it confirmed the fact that we need to start this here in the Midwest as well.
Check out the video below to get a taste of our weekend and what we hope to recreate in Missouri.
T-minus 9 ½ weeks until graduation! We’re really not counting – I just figured that out.
So what happens to us after graduation? Well… our plans have changed a bit from what we originally thought we’d be doing in Jan. God has a way of keeping things unpredictable at times so we learn to trust in Him more and not simply our own planning abilities.
Originally, we planned to graduate and then head to Papua New Guinea for the month of January. But, as we corresponded with the leadership of the program that we were to help out with over there, it became apparent that what we were hoping to gain from the experience is not what they were going to be able to provide. Instead, most of what we would be participating in would be a repeat of the training we have already had during our time here in Missouri. After praying about it and talking with the leadership here, we feel that it would be a poor use of money and time to travel that far to spend most of our time doing things we have already done and then only get to spend a small amount of time in a tribal location, which we could do for much less by going to a closer location than Papua New Guinea. To throw together a trip like this in the next several months while trying to finish school would be a bit of a stretch for us. So, we have decided that we will spend the time after our graduation working solely on our partnership development. Once we have gotten established in our ministry here, we would like to visit and spend some time in a tribe in the next several years instead.
So what does our time after graduation look like? We will be spending time in Jan. – Aug. 2010 traveling around visiting churches and friends presenting our ministry and giving people the opportunity to partner with us in seeing unreached people given the chance to hear the truth of God’s love and plan for them.
Next weekend we head to Pennsylvania to participate in a program that is very similar to the one we will starting here. We look forward to talking with the leaders there and picking their brains on how they started their program, promote it, and maintain it.
As we made the eight and a half hour drive from Missouri to Wisconsin in late spring, I pondered how God would reveal Himself to me in the summer of 2009. In the two and a half months that soon followed I learned of my every growing need for Him and my ever growing understanding of my lack of faith.
One of the first question our fellow classmates asked me, when inquiring about our upcoming summer was where would we be living, which would generally be followed with what will you be doing. Although they were fair enough questions, I would generally shrug my shoulders in that, I don’t really know manner. There were some ideas for housing and jobs, yet nothing was set in stone or paper for that matter. Trying to act confident, I would say such phrases as, “God is in control” or “I’m just trusting Him”. Although God was in control, my faith was definitely lacking.
And, here I stand at the outset of the summer having seen God provide 5 family’s homes with 8 separate moves giving us a place to rest our heads every night. He also provided me with photography work with an amazing wedding photographer (click to see her work), and a weekly job, doing odds and ends for some dear friends of ours. He even provided an occasional maintenance/construction job, all of which enabled us to pay or monthly bills. Watching God provide a new computer after one of ours died, and taking care of several car issues, and yet I still find myself questioning HIM, the Provider of not only my summer but my life.
My picture of faith is getting clearer as I am realizing that the Christian life is not always about knowing, but it is about getting up and walking towards that unknown with full confidence that God is by my side no matter what. As I drove back to Missouri that eight and a half hours, I found myself not so much pondering what is to be of my final semester of training, but excited that God is next to me no matter how much I may lack in faith.
Eight high-energy, nonstop weeks as the director of Camp Vertical is where I spent my summer! For those of you who saw me throughout the summer, you may have noticed the fact that I was wearing the same camp t-shirt every time you saw me (don’t worry, I had more than one, so I wasn’t stinking too bad). Camp Vertical is a summer day camp at Elmbrook Church for elementary-aged kids that I have been a part of for the past 3 summers. As the director and one of the main large group teachers, I got to see the Lord impact hundreds of kid’s lives through my group of 40 high school and college aged staff who absolutely love kids and are sold out for Christ. Hearing stories about my staff getting to lead a child to Christ or encouraging them in their discovery of who God is and His love for them were some of my daily highlights. With nearly 300 kids at camp each week, there was never a dull moment!
I’d like to tell you about one camper in particular who had a big impact on me. The first week of camp I noticed a little boy sitting by himself during our worship time. He looked a little frightened and lost at all that was going on around him. I stood next to him and started showing him how to do the motions to some of the songs. He talked to me during the large group teaching time, asking me tons of questions about the Bible story. From that day on he became my “worship time” buddy. He would always come running up to me right before our singing time started and pull me over to come stand by him to dance and do the motions to the songs with him. He was also full of awesome questions and hilarious insights into whatever Bible story we might be talking about that day. My favorite one was one day when he looked at me very seriously and said, “I know who are 2 gods are.” Of course, I was a little shocked and confused, but I thought I’d better see where this would go, so I answered, “Oh, really, who are they?” “Well, Jesus and regular God,” was his response. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud as we got into a great discussion about how God could be Jesus, Father, and Holy Spirit all at the same time. Nothing like discussing the trinity with a 6 year old! I found out that his family almost never went to church, and his mom was struggling with cancer, and that they had tried several other camps and activities where he had never felt like he fit in, and they were just hoping that this would be the place he could finally connect with. And HE DID! He made friends with all of our staff and several other kids, and he loved coming to camp! We were hearing stories of him going home and telling the Bible stories to his family. This is just one story of how God worked this summer, and I am so thankful that I got to be a part of what He was doing at Camp Vertical.
Although Camp Vertical did take up a lot of my time this summer, we were able to see and spend time with many of our closest friends in Wisconsin, which is always the hardest part about leaving again. After a wonderful but exhausting summer, Justin and I are enjoying a slightly less hectic time back in school again (if you can believe that school’s less busy), and we’re enjoying getting to see each other a little more than just when we’re sleeping. Thanks to all of our friends who opened up their homes to us, so we wouldn’t be homeless this summer! We are SO grateful!
As you might notice our site looks a little different. New Tribes Mission hopes this new website will help you better interact with us about our ministry. Please take your time and look around, and please be patient while we are learning the new system.
Justin and Shelbi Brammer In Training with New Tribes Mission 
T-minus 9 ½ weeks until graduation! We’re really not counting – I 
