NTM

As promised, we’re updating you on our trip up north this summer.

We finished up our travels and jumped right back into work here at the NTM USA Home Offices.

PRAISES:

• • Jenn’s class at camp went very well, and she was blessed when a 14-year-old girl in her small group shared the Gospel with the other campers. During an in-depth conversation about the Bible and Christianity, Jenn was able to join in to clarify some things, and was encouraged by 3 campers who did a fantastic job representing Christ in love.

• • God provided all the money to replace our (now dead) desktop computer. What a blessing and THANK YOU!

• • We spoke at 5 different churches during our time in WV and VA, and the Lord was working at each place. It is such a privilege to share the news about what God is doing around the world. We serve a big God who is doing amazing things! It was rejuvenating and energizing for us to talk about tribal missions. We also had the opportunity to speak to day-camp kids at the Wade Center in Bluefield. We had planned to talk about missions, but the Lord led us to spend more time clearly sharing the Gospel with those kids. We trust God will water those seeds.

• • After more than 50 hours in our van traveling over 5 1/2 weeks, we arrived home safely! Praise God for his protection!

As soon as we returned home, Patrick got right to work on a big project. All of the ministry websites for NTM missionaries are changing in format, and the Communications Department is in charge of that huge transition. Patrick has been working with programmers and preparing training videos to help our missionaries with this changeover. It’s been fun, though, to hear from missionary friends around the world who watched the training videos and recognized Patrick’s voice behind them.

While Patrick has been working hard in the office, Jenn has been focused on school. We had to buy school supplies for the 4 children who are attending LMCA, NTM’s school for missionary kids, and we had to get everything we needed to homeschool Caleb. Of course, we also had to spend as much time swimming in the pool with friends, eeking out as much fun at the end of summer vacation as possible. What a blessing the NTM pool is to us!

School began last Thursday, so we have happily settled into a routine. The changes to the NTM websites have just been implemented, so Patrick will soon be working on other projects.

PRAISES:

• • The schoolchildren are off to a great start! Lauren is in 6th grade; Rachel is in 5th grade; Silas is in 2nd grade; and Jackson has begun kindergarten. Caleb is doing 3rd grade work at home.

• • The school administrator allowed Jenn to speak to all the faculty about Tourette Syndrome. Everyone was very receptive, and Rachel and Silas were able to begin the year feeling comfortable that all the adults understood their tics.

• • All the major obstacles with the ministry websites conversion were able to be resolved.

• • Caleb is already responding very well to some new learning strategies Jenn is trying out. God has given us great optimism for Caleb’s ability to do 3rd grade.

PRAYER:

• • Please pray for all the details in the transition of NTM member’s ministry websites and for our missionaries as they learn to use the new system.

• • Please pray for the Lord to move in people’s hearts as they hear the radio stories, which are playing on at least 90 radio stations around the country. Patrick has had the privilege of writing and editing these stories, and Jenn was able to record many of them in the studio. A brand new station and all its affiliates has added these encouraging stories to their daily lineup. Check them out at www.ntm.org/listen

• • Please pray for Jenn as she balances her days of homeschooling Caleb, mothering Griffin, and managing household tasks.

• • Please pray for Patrick’s health. His blood glucose levels have not been where we want them since his heart problems in the winter. He is working hard to be more disciplined and figure out the proper insulin dosages through his insulin pump, and Jenn is trying to cook heart-healthy, diabetic-friendly meals. We are praying for healthy blood glucose levels. Also, Patrick’s heart doctor informed him that his pacemaker/defibrillator was activated several time in response to episodes of rapid heartbeats over the past three months.

• • Finally, please pray particularly for Silas and Jackson. Silas is almost 7 and is so concerned that 5-year-old Jackson has not accepted Christ yet. He regularly tells Jackson, “You know, you could get saved today. You could just pray sometime today before you go to bed.” And he recently got very upset when Jackson spoke of dying and practically yelled, “You don’t want to die! You’d go straight to Hell. You haven’t asked Jesus to be your Savior yet!” Finally, as a last resort, Silas held up part of his lunch and offered, “I’ll give you a Dorito if you get saved right now!” While we have gotten some laughs from Silas’ tactics, we are glad he seems so burdened for his younger brother. We are praying that Silas will learn to trust the Holy Spirit to work in Jackson’s heart, and that Jackson will soon understand the Gospel message and his need for a relationship with Christ.

We’ve written so much already, and still there’s much more to tell. For instance, our co-workers in the Banwaon tribe in the Philippines have recently checked the books of Revelation and 1st & 2nd Thessalonians, which means the Banwaon New Testament is 40% complete. That is exciting! And even more exciting — after almost 30 years of work, 2,000 copies of the Higaunon New Testament are printed and on their way to the Philippines. Can you imagine? Your brothers and sisters in Christ are receiving the entire New Testament in their own language for the first time!

That is what it’s all about. That’s why we’re here. And that’s why you pray for us and give to us and encourage us. And someday we will sing praises around Christ’s throne with our Banwaon and Higaunon brothers and sisters. (Rev. 5:9)

Thank you for your faithfulness!

We’re humbly serving with you,

Patrick & Jennifer

www.ntm.org/patrick_hatcher

patrick_hatcher@ntm.org

Tags: New Testament Translastion, New Tribes, NTM, Summer, Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under Family, Ministry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.