Focus, focus...

What have we been up to?  Why, playing with wires, light bulbs, batteries, and soldering pencils, of course! That’s right, we are in the Technical Tips class that is offered here to help us be better prepared to get things up and running in another country. Some of our favorite topics have been: Odorless Outhouses, Cooling Homes without AC, and Solar Hot Water Heating. Sound practical?

Yes, our break has ended and we are back to school again!  It sure was great having the time off to see our family & catch up with so many of our dear friends! Thanks so much to everyone who let us stay in their homes & who welcomed us back so warmly! You are a blessing!! We thank the Lord for you.

The sunny weather in Arizona and California was just what we needed, as we saw what had happened in Roach while we were away! Check out the frozen lake!  Brrrr!!

We have started this semester with a VERY practical course, yet it can also be a bit overwhelming at times… it is an International Health & Wellness class.  We’re learning about all the terrible diseases and critters you can get when you move to a tropical location.  We are learning how to care for ourselves in remote areas where we can’t just run to the ER.  Something we are really appreciating are the ideas on how to help develop an indigenous health program for the people we’ll be living among, who may not have any idea of how important something as simple as drinking clean water is. The woman teaching us the course is a nurse who lived in Senegal and has so many amazing stories of things she’s seen & people she’s helped. We are thankful that we can attend such a class… I mean, where else would you get to watch someone insert a stomach tube in front of the classroom?!

It has been so great getting to spend time with family this break. Hannah and I are loving the moments we get to spend with our little niece and nephew. Aren’t they the cutest?

We hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!  We are enjoying our time with family & are so thankful for this break to reconnect with family & friends!  Here are a few photos of our break so far… Enjoy!

A new tradition with Andrea (my sister-in-law) & Steve's Mom...making tamales! Delicious!!

Enjoying time with our nephew, Cade!

Steve on the drums, his dad on guitar & his brother on vocals, all enjoying Chuck's Christmas present...RockBand!

Have a Happy New Year!  We are looking forward to seeing some of you in these next few weeks!

KEVIN HARKINS

Well done my friend. Not only did you prove to be fast, but accurate as well. You are most deserving. Your prize is on its way!

For all of you who played and were curious…and for those of you who thought about playing, but didn’t actually go for it, the correct answer was:  C) 117 Yards to the shower-house.

Thanks for playing and keeping up with us. We appreciate you. Your prayers and support have been such an encouragement these past few months. God Bless You!

P.S. If you’re reading this and wondering “Why didn’t I get a chance to play?” we may not have your email address. If you would like to get our email updates drop us a note with your email address and we’ll be sure to add you.

“What?  He want us to go live on the radio for an interview?” That was my first reaction when Steve told me that one of our teachers had asked us to do a live radio interview at the local Christian station.  Had there been a sign up sheet for volunteers to go do this, I can’t say my name would have been on the top of that list (if anywhere on that list).  But, since we were asked to do it, I began getting excited about the opportunity. Hey, it’s always good to try something new, even if just for experience sake.  In this case, we were excited for people to have the opportunity to hear a little more about what New Tribes is all about.  So what was this interview all about?  Well, the Spirit FM Christian Radio station has played a really neat role for the past few years in getting the community involved with NTM’s training center. Around Thanksgiving, they let the people in the surrounding neighborhoods know that they can help out the students and staff who are on tight budgets by bringing donations of nonperishable food items and household items.  They do this by putting out an “ad” on the radio & also by interviewing someone from staff & a student or two. This year, we got to be those students. We weren’t given the questions we would be asked ahead of time, so everything we were asked was right on the spot.  The Lord was gracious and allowed us to answer the questions clearly…(or so we’ve been told…we didn’t ever get to “play back” what we said to hear how we sounded). Do you know what’s neat?  That very day we were able to bring back with us a number of boxes full of food to help out the students here!  Some people even donated turkeys & hams for Thanksgiving!

Marc & Annette (the pastor from our church here and his wife) heard the interview on the radio & told us that that very morning they had been praying about who they could help out this season.  They thought it was pretty cool that the Lord used a radio interview to answer that question, so they drove over with boxes of more food, ham & other goodies!  What a blessing!  We are so thankful for the chance we were given to share what the New Tribes Missionary Training Center is all about & how the Lord is at work around the world, and have been blessed to see the community generously helping out by their giving!

Thankful for a turkey.

… for flowers to bloom! We started these from seeds the week we got here!  It’s been fun watching the marigolds pop out in bright, cheerful colors!

…for herbs to grow!  Steve has been diligent in taking care of the parsley, basil & chives (not pictured).  He brings the pots inside every night that it goes below freezing outside.  His preferred method of irrigation: a squirty bottle on the light mist setting.  I perfer the dump-the-water-on-by-the-cupful method…which is maybe why the hardy marigolds do better under my care. We look forward to the day when we can have a bit more of a garden, but for now we are content with these little pots!  The herbs have turned out to be a simple, yet tasty addition to our dinners.

…for it to be time for a road-trip: That’s right, we’re headed to Wisconsin tomorrow after class to spend Thanksgiving with my (Hannah’s) side of the family. We’re really excited to get to do this!

Both Hannah and I have the opportunity to work with high school students from the community each week. Hannah is involved in in one of the Alternative H.S. programs and helps tutor kids. I’ve been hanging out with and teaching Bible to some guys at a “boys home” (minimum security detention center). I just wanted to share a couple of really neat and encouraging things that have been happening as a result of getting to be with these guys.

I get to see them about twice a week, once just to hang out and build relationships, and the other is a time set aside specifically for teaching them God’s Word. I’ve been blown away at how “into it” these kids are. For some of them, this is the first time they’ve been involved in a Bible study, but most of them have had some exposure to the Bible but just never understood it.

One of the things we are learning here is how important it is to build a foundation upon which you can teach progressively God’s Word. Every analogy has it’s flaws, but I like to think of it like the game of Jenga. As the game progresses, you are USING the foundation to build further and further. We’ve been doing that with our Bible lessons. We started at the beginning by explaining what the Bible is, and what it says about God and who God is. We then progressed into what it says about man and our separation from God because of sin. By the time we taught about God’s solution, and His provision of a Savior one of the guys stood up and cut us off saying…

“Can I just say something? You see, I’ve been trying to figure this out for 3 weeks now, and I finally figured it out! We are all born sinners, because of what Adam and Eve did in the garden. None of us can live up to God’s standard of perfection, we are all separated from God and deserve death. BUT, God provided His Son Jesus to be the sacrifice that was needed on our behalf! All we have to do is believe that He did that for us!”

I can’t tell you how excited I was to see this guy stand up with such excitement and clarity share the Gospel message with everyone there. Pray for him as we disciple him teach him about his new identity in Christ, and for the other guys as they hear God’s Word and try to wrap their heads around who God is what He did for them.

Can you guess the occasion?  Shower time!  That’s right…we have a little routine of things we need to wear & have with us in order to take our showers.  There is a bath house just down the road a little ways where we go to get our hot shower each night.  Our apartments just have a sink & toilet.  It has taken some getting used to, but I can’t complain since there is plenty of HOT water! The walks over and back have begun to get a bit chilly, so I have a feeling our shower apparel will soon include more layers of clothes. Brr!!!  The rain boots Steve is sporting are helpful because the road we take to get to the shower house is a dirt road which lately has been a big muddy mess.  Flipping mud up on your legs after a clean shower just doesn’t leave you feeling so clean… I’m waiting for the women’s rain boots at Target to go on clearance so I can join him in this fashion statement!

Another helpful item we have found is a cutlery holder.  I found these at the dollar store & was thrilled that we could fit our little toiletries in there and avoid all the juggling of the bottles on our journey to and from the bath house.  Just thought you might enjoy another little peak into our everyday lives…

In case you were wondering how to read the title here, it starts with a voiceless labiodental fricative…which would have meant nothing to me a week ago. And I guess I should be honest that it still doesn’t mean that much to me unless I think about it really hard or look it up. We’ve started our Phonetics class, and both really love it. It has been a humbling experience trying to identify and hear sounds we don’t use in English…and attempting to mimic them to perfection always seems to bring about some laughter in class.

Our sweet, talented teacher

I’ve been blown away by how all these sounds have been studied, analyzed and categorized. It’s so neat to think of all the different sounds that are made using the various positions of the lips, teeth, tongue and throat as air passes through the mouth and nasal cavity. We are really beginning to see how helpful all of this is as we think about learning a new language and communicating clearly in that language.

Practicing dilligently...

Studying at home.