Ronda Schmidt Just another weblog 
… always labouring fervently for you in prayers… Col. 4:12
One of the classes students take throughout their NTM training in preparing to go to the mission field is Hold The Ropes also known as HTR. This has been a term used within NTM since the early days of the mission. Do you know where this term comes from? Do you know what it means?
Many people hold on to ropes – it may be for work, sports or for some to save lives. Some hold on to ropes in mines, for fishing, others for drawing water from a well, and what about Paul when he was lowered in a basket by a rope.
Hold The Ropes is a sailor’s term as described in the following poem:
“Hold The Ropes”
Down beneath the mighty ocean
Divers plunge for treasures rare.
But men hold the ropes above them
So they breathe the upper air.
Seeking pearls of richest value
Braver hearts have dared to go.
But our hands must every moment
Hold the ropes that reach below.
So amid the heathen darkness
There are heroes, true and brave,
Shrinking not from death or danger,
Hearing all to help and save.
But they cry, “Oh, do not leave us,
“Mid these dreadful depths to drown,
“Let us feel your prayers around us,
“Hold the ropes as we go down!”
When William Carey, the Father of Modern Missions, was leaving home as a missionary, he told a group of interested friends:
“Saving souls can be likened to a man drowning in a deep well and a volunteer can do nothing unless there are people who will hold the rope for him to be lowered till he reaches the drowning man, and then pull them up to safety.”
“I will go… as a volunteer to seek sinners drowning in the well of SIN, but I can’t do it alone. I need rope holders. Will you be my rope-holders?”
Through the years of my time in NTM you have been my faithful “rope holders” and I want to thank you for the time and effort that you have put into bringing me and my ministry before the throne of grace.
AND thank you for “Holding The Ropes”.
Until the Last Tribe Is Reached,
Ronda
