NTM

My wife and I are missionaries with NTM because NTM missionaries took the time to invest in our lives. Dave and Carolyn Meyers’ challenged us to help in this battle to bring the Gospel to places it has never been. They stood by us through 4 years of Bible college and proudly posed for pictures with us at our graduation from New Tribes Bible Institute.

This past summer we were able to work together representing NTM as the key note speakers for a week at Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Michigan. It was great to be able to share the stage with our mentors, Dave and Carolyn.

We’re now begining to understand their excitment about our ministry…

We picked up a friend for lunch the other day. JJ is a student at New Tribes Bible Institute. He’s set to graduate soon, and it seems like only yesterday that we drove him up to Michigan to enroll. JJ wants to go on and finish the training, become an NTM missionary, and eventually help reach a tribe for Christ. This is especially exciting for us as we were able to see the Lord work in his life while he was in high school.

He’s full of questions about his future; questions like the ones we had ourselves a few years ago, and not unlike the questions we have today as we prepare to leave in 9 months. He’s worried about raising financial support, unsure of how that will all work. We encouraged him as much as we could, letting him know that we have the same concerns and unanswered questions about our own future. We talked about walking by faith, trusting God, and we explained some of the nuts and bolts of missionary life, passing on the things that we’ve learned from others.

He’s just one of the many young people whose lives Joan and I have been privileged to have a part in through years of youth ministry,  young people all over the country in different stages of life. In fact we’ve been able to see 3 other young people attend NTBI in the past few years. We love them all and are proud of them.

We don’t know what the Lord would have for JJ’s life, but we’re grateful to have been able to play a part in it. We look forward to seeing how the next few years go.

Pray for others to take up the challenge of expanding the reach of the Gospel.

We’re hoping that we won’t be spending Christmas with our relatives for the next few years. In fact we’re praying that God will help see that happen.

I know, it sounds horrible. Some of you may be imagining loud arguments and hatetful words. You may be thinking about hurt feelings or short tempers. But before you debate whether our families are dysfunctional or not, let me assure you that we love each other very much.

Ours is a unique situation. While we would love to be with Grandmas and Grandpas, Aunts Uncles and Cousins next year, we want to be in Papua New Guinea even more.

So this was a bittersweet time for us; wanting to be excited about presents, songs, and  all that is Christmas, but not being able to forget that it may be our last for a long time. It was easy to feel a little melancholy.

And then in the midst of feeling low, the Lord helped me see things in a new light.

My son Jonas was to read the Christmas story from Luke at a big family gathering this year. I remembered reading it in front of everyone as a boy, and could empathize with him. So I typed out a copy of the passage with large easy to read letters. Looking back and forth from Bible to computer screen I slowly transcribed the story of Luke 2.

But I stopped after typing that the angel brought "good news of great joy which shall be for all the people" It was to be for ALL THE PEOPLE.

It had never hit me before, at least I’d never noticed it. Here was God’s plan for redeeming the world, His Son wrapped in human flesh and lying in a manger. That was the good news. But who was the good news for? All the people. God’s heart, His promise to Abraham, His plan to bring glory to Himself, His Great Commandment.

I sat there thinking about the words of that angel. I thought about shepherds and wise men from other lands. I thought about how that good news of great joy had been spread throughout the world. And I thought about how our little family might one day be able to share that good news with a people who have yet to hear.

And that made this a very good Christmas.

No matter how many times we’ve done it , we’ve never really gotten used to bringing our son Jonas in to see the doctor. But we’ve made so many office visits this past year that we’d gotten used to the routine. So much so that it was a big surprise to hear that our little Jonas was going to be hospitalized. Jonas has trouble breathing sometimes, and needs medicine and breathing treatments every day. But this time Doc didn’t like what he heard and we ended up spending 4 days in the hospital.

This was not what we or Jonas had in mind for Thanksgiving at all. It meant long, boring days and sleepless nights next to his bed. For Jonas it was 4 days of I.V.’s, bad food,strange people in masks, and not being able to go home or even leave his room.

So how is it that we were able to praise God and give Him thanks through this? How can you be thankful when your child is crying to go home and wanting to take out his IV?

You thank God that you are only there for a few days. You thank Him that for the most part you’re healthy. You thank Him that you’re not having to worry about a white blood cell count, or waiting on a donor. We prayed with Jonas for the little kids down the hall who wouldn’t go home for a very long time.

We were thankful for how God provides. As a family we’ve not had insurance since leaving our jobs to attend Bible College. To some that means 5 years without health care, but to us it’s been 5 years of being looked after by the Great Physician’s health care plan.

We’ve been thankful for is the bill from the hospital. You see, we applied some months ago for a State program that would cover our kids’ health care. After explaining our situation the State of Illinois was not only going to cover our kid’s but Joan and I as well.

After months of waiting for our promised Medicare card, it came the week before our hospital stay. Right on time.

So with one less worry, and one more lesson learned, and a steadily improving patient, and an ever-caring Heavenly Father, we found plenty to be thankful for in that hospital room.

We are having an incredible week relaxing, refreshing and ministering at Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Muskegon, MI. 

We were invited by our good friends, Dave and Carolyn Meyers, who are also missionaries with New Tribes Mission.  Dave was instrumental in us joining NTM as we sensed God’s leading into tribal missions as junior high students when he spoke to our church many years ago- Grace Baptist Church in Kankakee, IL. 

Who would of thought that after all of these years we would be ministering together!

Pray for our week together here – July 22-28.