We've had visitors!!!

This week has been phonetic-ful. There are a few sounds that I'm not familiar with that are harder to form.
But what you'll be really excited to hear about are our visitors this past week. Thursday night we were sitting in our living room and kept hearing something hit the picture window. Each time we would get up and go outside, we couldn't see anything. I finally went out with the light off, and who did I find?
This huge thing was quite stunned and laid outside until the next day when our 2 year old neighbor boy found it in his bucket. I'm not sure which was more scared, but it brought quite a crowd!
Friday I went to WalMart with Noah, my 18 month old jungle camp neighbor. He was very amused in the fish aisle (more so with the lobsters in the sea food, but he's not old enough to understand that's food!) While we were there we bought a red beta fish. This is Mr. Wilson:

Saturday evening Sammy came over to visit with his mom. They made smoothies, and he got to watch The Polar Express. This is a picture of my roommate Sonya and Sammy eating their smoothies.

Please continue to pray for my classes in phonetics. My afternoon work detail this week is painting the trim in the lobby of the main office building. Yesterday we spackled, so today we're going to try to paint it all so it doesn't look like Dalmatian spots!

Love, Carrie

Why Phonetics?

I was asked many questions about this year of training, and I told many of you that I would study phonetics. I made attempts to explain this, but since I wasn't sure myself, how could I explain it to you?!
Well, a Biblical example of phonetics can be seen in Judges 12:6. Here the Gileadites would test the neighboring Ephramites to see if they were from Gilead or Ephraim. When the Ephraimites failed the test of "Shibboleth vs. Sibboleth", they were thrown into the Jordan River to drown. Just as one sound difference meant life or death for an Ephraimite, so will the importance be of learning the national and tribal languages of the country in which I will serve. My purpose for learning these two languages (seeing nationals and/or tribal people to come to a saving knowledge of Christ)is a matter of life and death.
Phonetics will assist me in learning to write an unwritten language. It will also assist me if I learn a written language. Once I learn the sounds and symbols on this chart, I will be able to reproduce them as needed.
As I study through this chart over the next few weeks, I will become familiar with sounds not found in the English language. I will also learn how to become more native in a language as I force my mouth to make these new strange sounds.
Amazingly enough, our curriculum takes us through that which we know first--sounds which are found in the English language. We have begun with the most simple sounds 'th','s', 'z', 'sh', and 'zh'. God saw fit for me to have take three years of speech therapy with these sounds as an elementary student. While these are actually some of my harder sounds to produce, God knew what was ahead of me and trained me ahead of time! Please pray for my patience during this class that I would heed the intructions of our teachers and absorb all that I can!

[This picture is NOT a copy of the Lake of the Ozarks, but of the "speech apparatus" or the areas of your throat, nose, and mouth that are used when making sounds.]

I thank you ahead of time for your prayers as I go through this class. Also this morning we took our Linguistics test to see if we qualify for the third semester of extensive linguistics training.

Praise: My friend Kimmie is home from the hospital from a staph infection. She is on bedrest for ten days, but she is not able to hold her new baby Esther for very long.

Love,
Carrie

My New Apartment

Welcome to my new apartment!
Don't worry, the open door is our apartment in the four-plex. Five girls live here, Carrie (that's me!), Sonya, Ginger, Amy, and Rachel. We're getting along well, and just finished our first meal together in our wonderful kitchen.

(Don't look now, but we actually have a DISHWASHER! What a blessing that is!)
We've spent quite a bit of time already in our living room that is attached to our kitchen.

Upstairs we have two bedrooms and a full bathroom for the five of us. My little corner of the room is mostly finished, except for a few piles of items searching for a home.


I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my new house.
Classes began today, and it proves to be an exciting year. We have around 35 students in our class and four main teachers for Culture/Language Acquisition training. When we practice training our tongues new tricks, we will be split up into groups with our teacher. I am in Verne Johnson's group along with 8 other classmates. Please pray for us as we begin this stage in the process.
Thanks!
Love,
Carrie

Summer is Over...

I'm "home" in Roach, MO at New Tribes Missionary Training Center. I'll put up pictures of my new apartment and roommates soon (we have to unpack first!) Here's a few pictures from this summer, since I couldn't put them up before. Enjoy!

Camp Bethany's pond in the morning

The tree house in my VBS room.

VBS Tribal Council Family Night

Always teaching! :-)

Thanks for praying as I get situated here at the MTC.

Soon and Very Soon

I've come to the end of my summer partnership with Shreve City. I'm nearly finished with the last project I'm responsible for this summer. This weekend I'm singing at Montclair Nursing Home, and twice during Sunday morning service. Tuesday I'll begin packing all my things up and filling up the car. Wednesday night will be my last service here in Louisiana. I'll be leaving early Friday morning for the 8 hour drive through Arkansas to Missouri. It's a beautiful drive, partially on local roads and part on the highway.

I'll have three roommates at the Missionary Training Center. Ginger and Sonya were in my class in Jersey Shore, and Amy is in her third semester of linguistics training. I'm looking forward to seeing all my classmates again, and even some of our teachers who followed us!

Love,
Carrie

Camp Fuego

Youth camp was great. I was a little nervous about going as a counselor for the first time, especially with students who were in the youth group with me only four years ago. But God provided and was sufficient for me. The sixteen of us (four counselors and 12 kids) had a great week. The pastor took us through the Bible in four sessions, establishing God as Creator, teaching the kids the Old Testament in the summation of people running away from God and a broken-hearted God chasing after them, an evangelistic message, and the last night shared from Revelation 20 and 21 about the Great White Throne Judgment and the new heaven and new earth. He did a wonderful job, and all of our youth were challenged. Five decided to stop running from God, and they have made committments to hold each other accountable. Thank you so much for praying with me for the youth of Shreve City Baptist Church. Now the true challenge begins as they come back to their normal lifestyles and school begins in only two and a half weeks! Pray that they will continue to walk with the Lord after this awesome week of dwelling with Him.

Love, Carrie

Mid-summer in Louisiana

It's been a while since I've updated this, so here goes!...

June was a great month. I've been spending my weekdays at the church working. I've been able to fit into many different areas, such as speaking in meetings, deep cleaning areas of the church, and even a little gardening! I have begun working on a template for a booklet for the church that my pastor asked me to do.

This next week (July 17-21) I will be at Camp Bethany with our youth group. It's going to be a great time to get to know our youth, and hopefully to share with them my heart for missions.

The week after camp (July 24-28) is VBS. I'm so excited about VBS, and I am just about ready to teach about the Flood.

After VBS I'll be around Shreveport for another week and a half before heading to Missouri on August 11. Thankfully it's only a one day drive this time, so I'll be "home" only 8 hours after leaving Shreveport.

Thanks for your prayers this summer!

Love,
Carrie

Back in the South

Hi everyone!

I made it back to Louisiana uneventfully. Mom was able to travel with me from North Carolina over to Louisiana, so the trip went quicker with two drivers. She flew back Thursday morning. I have begun my summer partnership with the church. I'm looking forward to the summer here. Tonight (Friday) I will be sharing a few minutes during the Missions Jamboree about my year at NTMI. Next Tuesday I have a 30 minute meeting with the PrimeTimers (the retired people from our church) during their monthly luncheon. I am planning on sharing about the process of tribal church planting. I am looking forward to this opportunity to educate the members from my home church about what my future looks like within New Tribes Mission. I would appreciate your prayers as I prepare and share with the church. This is my first meeting to share this information, and I could have more opportunities this summer to share with other churches about my future ministry.

Love,
Carrie

Graduation

Tonight was our graduation from New Tribes Missions Institute. Our class graduated with 32 future missionaries. We are now spreading out across the nation to serve with our home churches this summer. How exciting to get to go back to where many of us were raised and shaped into the people we are today! Here is a picture of our entire class:

"Home" from Jungle Camp

Jungle camp was a great two weeks. It was very rainy and cold for us for the first week, and the second dried up and got warm. Here are a few pictures from Jungle Camp.

This is my bedroom at jungle camp. I spent most of my nights in the hammock rather than the bed. :-)

We made "skillet pizza" in a cast iron over the campfire. We burnt the outside 1/4" of crust...and the inside was like soup! But we loved it, and the experience was worth it. :-)

We had three days of 8 hour study days...as you can see, it drove me to the rafters of the house!

I got to kill a chicken and skin it one day. I made her into sweet and sour chicken! Cooking can even be fun at jungle camp.

After two weeks of many campfires, "mallows" were still a treat!

Thanks so much for your prayers during my two weeks there! Now on to packing to drive to Louisiana!

Love,
Carrie

So what will we do at Jungle Camp?

Okay, so we won't really be picking lice out of each other's hair for two weeks. (Maybe only one!) We actually do have a "rain or shine" schedule that we will keep--and right now the 10 day forecast calls for rain nearly everyday. I won't have access to the internet or email after Monday afternoon, so I wanted to give you a heads up as to what we will be doing each day.

Monday afternoon: Move up to Jungle Camp
Tuesday: Settling in
1/2 the camp goes on a canoe trip
Wednesday: Hair Cutting Class
1/2 the camp goes on a canoe trip (my day to go!)
Thursday: Maps/Compass Class
Mens' over night hike
Friday: All camp hike
Saturday: free
Sunday: Individual Base "Church"
Monday: Study Day
Tuesday: Study Day
Wednesday: Study Day
Thursday: Gun safety/Maintenance
Shooting contest
Friday: Pig Roast/Game day
Saturday: Open House
Sunday: Open House
Monday: Move down

As you can see, we will be kept busy! This is going to be an exciting time, but stretching also. I don't enjoy water very much, so I'm not too sure about the canoe trip. The hike will be fun--as long as I don't get lost again! During the three study days we are required to log 24 hours of study time and preparation for future meetings. The pig roast...well, this little piggy didn't go to market. We're getting it straight from the farm. Open House is two days that anyone can come visit Jungle Camp to see us or our houses. This is also the first time we'll have "outside food" such as pizza or ice cream.

Thanks so much for being in prayer with me for jungle camp. I truly am looking forward to it, and knowing you will be praying me through it is encouraging!

Love,
Carrie

CEF Bible Club

Today was our last day to teach at Robb Elementary School. It was sad to say good-bye to all our kids we've grown so close to this semester, but it has been great to see them grow in their knowledge of the Lord! We were able to teach through Child Evangelism Fellowship's curriculum in coordination with NTM's Building on Firm Foundation lessons. This was a great time for my classmate Elisabeth and I to get to know each other. Please pray for the fourteen kids that went through our lives during the past ten weeks and that God would place Bible teachers in their lives. Many of them do not go to church regularly, if it all, and had very little knowledge about God before club started in February. Thank you for praying with me
for these kids!

Yesterday we worked on putting a roof back on the Jungle Camp house I'll be living in. We only got one half done in about 2 1/2 hours. It took us quite a while to figure out how we wanted to do it. Here's a picture of what our house looks like today.

Jungle Camp Preparations

Well, I am in full swing getting ready for Jungle Camp. It's hard to believe I am at this time of the year already! Seems like I just drove onto the campus...
Each Jungle Camp team was given five trees to slab and rip down to the size we needed to construct one jungle camp house. We are now at the point of "shipping" all our items up to Jungle Camp on the Farmall tractor. Each team (of roughly 7 people) is allowed six flights, each weighing 728 lbs--as a Cessna holds that weight. This includes wood, contruction materials and tools, electrical, plumbing, food, clothing, and toiletries for the two weeks. As you can see, we are being forced to plan ahead as will be necessary when flying into a tribe. This is such a fun time for me, though I am realizing the need for planning ahead! We will soon be finishing our houses, retarping the roofs of the ones already built, and putting on the walls and roof of the new house. Please pray for safety and patience as I learn how to do this! This is a picture of me ripping the old hole-y roof off!

Spring Break

Over the past year while in training at New Tribes Missions Institute, I have learned so much about what I will be doing in the future. As I continue in my third of four years of training, I learn more each day about what the rest of my life will look like.

After graduating from New Tribes Language Institute in June 2007, I am anticipating being overseas in six to twelve months. Once arriving there, I will begin learning the national language. When I have reached a fluent level of that, I will be able to enter a tribal location with a church planting team.

Once in a tribe, I will begin language/culture acquisition in an animistic culture. I will be learning the language of a people group that has no form of written language. This may take as few as two years, but often lasts much longer. When fluent in this language and culture, our team will be able to begin teaching Bible lessons. These lessons will begin in Genesis and work through key Old Testament passages to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

This only scratches the surface of tribal church planting as our team teaches our new brothers and sisters in Christ about their new relationship with God and each other.

Thank you for your prayers as I venture on this path!