Roles in Missions

What do you think of when you picture "MISSIONS"?

Do you see...
...VBS?
...David Livingstone, whose heart belonged to Africa?
...inner-city ministries?
...a few weeks in another country?
...or someone you know personally?

This week on campus, there is a conference being held: Field Ministries Week. This is a chance for the students, staff, and visitors to hear first hand about New Tribes' mission work around the world. Since I'm in childcare during the mornings, I'm not able to go to most of the meetings, but this afternoon I was able to attend a one hour session. It was great to hear about the work God is doing in Africa and Latin America. I wanted to share two quotes with you from this afternoon.

"You are not Muslims, and you are not Christians--you are men of God!"

-Islamic Leader in Africa

This really struck me, because the leader was speaking to NTM missionaries. I'll let you decide for yourself if it is a good thing or not to be identified as men of God rather than Christians. I thought it was pretty neat, because the leader's impression of a Christian was a Roman Catholic priest who brought religion to Africa. The NTM missionary he spoke to has made it clear that his purpose for being there is to "share the sacred writings with him". The people are trusting this missionary because of his presentation towards them--he has even grown out his beard, because in their culture, teachers and respected men have long beards. Hope this gives you some food for thought--do you want to be identified as men of God?

The second quote has more to do with the roles of missionaries. The list above includes many different types of missions. There is no "correct" answer, so long as all on the list are guided by God. Here is one more aspect to mission work:

"We need finishers. In some cases, the New Testament has been translated. The plea is for fledgling groups to be brought to maturity. They have been taught enough [scripture] to survive, but not enough to thrive."

-Missionary from Latin America

Missions work is not solely about tribal missions, VBS, inner-city kids, translating scripture (the list is long!) Missions work is about bringing people to the point where they can thrive in their relationship with the Lord, which is so much more than just the Gospel presentation.

How can you help people to thrive in their relationship with the Lord? Start praying now about how God wants to use YOU!

With a Sad Heart

Please pray fervently for the victims of child abuse in NTM. Pray for healing for them and pray for justice. The horror of the abuse and the failure of NTM to act when this came to light has brought me to tears.

“At the request of NTM and with the consent of the former students of the NTM school for missionary children in Senegal, GRACE conducted a review of the situation at the school in the 1980s. They presented their report to NTM and the former students on Monday [August 23, 2010].

Individuals in our organization abused children. People in leadership at the time were culpable through inadequate screening and training, creating an atmosphere of legalism and autocracy, and not addressing the abuse properly. This means that we as an organization are responsible and have sinned against these students.

True repentance, as the GRACE report points out, will be seen in our actions, and we pledge to act. Our current leaders are reviewing the recommendations in the report, and will meet with GRACE this week so we can fully understand them and move forward in the right way.” -NTM

Please pray for the victims of the abuse, the people in GRACE who have conducted this report so thoroughly, and the leaders and members of NTM. Thank you for your prayers.

Thomas & Didymus

Readers, meet Thomas. Our toddler class goes outside each morning for about 20 minutes, and today we found a little friend! We live near Lake of the Ozarks (a pretty big lake), but we were quite surprised to find a baby snapper no where near the lake. The kids all enjoyed looking at him for the 30 minutes we "owned" him.

After about 5-10 minutes, the kids moved one of our outside toys and found Didymus ("Twin"). So now were were doubly surprised! We scavenged for more, and moved all the toys, but didn't find anymore turtles. My new neighbors told me the turtles still had their umbilical cords attached, so they were likely a week or so old.

After class I took Thomas & Didymus on a walk, and we ended up at a creek that feeds into the lake.

Thomas & Didymus appreciated the clean(ish) water, and decided to stay for the duration.

The Toddler Room

This semester I'm in the Toddler room again. Some of my co-workers and I worked over the past few weeks to get our room ready. We went from the walls looking like this:

To looking like this!I'm really excited about how the room turned out. We moved some of the things around, and I think it worked really well today.

This morning was our first day in class. We had 9 kids show up, ranging from 1 year & 9 months up to 3 years old. It's quite an age range when you see them in person! They all did great, we hardly had any tears, and some of the kids weren't ready to go home when their parents showed up!

Thank you for your prayers for them!

Mr. Amazing Turns 1

Cooper the Nephew turned one at the end of July--here are a few pictures I've gotten so far!

"They pray to cows"

What is the importance of language and culture study in a country or tribe?

This question is one of the main ideas that are confronted at NTM's Missionary Training Center (MTC). During the three semesters here, students learn that you cannot merely learn the language of a people group without learning the culture. This is why we struggle in a "classroom" type language study in high school. It becomes even more apparent when you are learning the language.
For example, when I was in Mexico, I had much more to do than learn the language. I could easily learn the words--that is simply memorization and pronunciation. But in order to communicate--which is much deeper than speaking words!--I had to know the culture of the person I was talking with. I had to learn how to talk to the waitress at the restaurant: in the U.S. we rarely raise our hand to signal the waitress to come to us for help, we may make eye contact or nod in her direction, subtly "asking" for her to come to our table. In contrast, the Mexican waitress may not revisit you (as you take the biggest bite off your plate like so often happens here) unless you signal to her with your hand. Neither waitress is correct or wrong--it is just a difference. One way that we simulate this experience here at the MTC is through a class called "Dobu." A handful of our staff on campus dress up like the Dobu people of Papua New Guinea simulating their language and culture. This week I had the opportunity to guide some youth from a local youth retreat through the Dobu village. It was fun to see students who, though they have a language and culture of their own, felt so strange in another culture that they were speechless for a few moments. Their manner of greeting was obviously not the correct way--in fact, none of the students in my groups tried to shake hands with the Dobu men. Each group had around twenty minutes to build a relationship with our tribal person, and to try to learn some of their thoughts on gods, prayer, and good versus evil.Afterward, we debriefed together in a classroom. One of the girls said, "They pray to cows!" Those of us on staff were confused, because we knew that was not a part of the culture! Through talking with her, we realized that she had heard the name "Tau" and heard "cow." One of many mistakes that would be made in a real cultural experience!

Please pray for the many missionaries heading overseas for the first time this summer. They will be hit on the tarmac by waves of heat, humidity, smells, and culture. They struggle often on a daily basis with these changes that are so different from their own customs.

Did You Know?

By clicking the "Follow" button on the right side of the page, you can follow this blog? You'll have a few choices (Google, Twitter, Yahoo, etc) of how you would like to follow the blog. It should show up on whatever page you choose--then you'll always know when I've updated!

...which I'm planning to be much more frequent in the coming year!

This Old House

When I came home from Pennsylvania, this is what I found where my old house used to be.
Don't worry! It's my house from 2007:

There are a lot of changes being made on campus, and one of them was to tear down the 500-600 row of student housing. The main reason is to make room for a larger, all-purpose building. The maintenance team on campus is in charge of leveling out the ground, and changing the infrastructure to allow for a larger building. They've been hard at work this summer. Please keep them in your prayers as they are working in hot weather to get th

En Casa

I made it home to Missouri last night, 4 days later than planned! Monday while driving to my cousins', I realized I was only 7 hours from my best friend in Wisconsin. I hadn't seen her in a few months, and the more I thought about it...she and her husband are heading overseas in one month! So I thought for about 30 seconds, and called her to tell her I was coming the next day. It was great to spend time with them for a few days.

Now that I'm home, it's unpacking & hitting the ground running. I still have paperwork to "translate" from one phonetic alphabet to another for the Linguistics Department. I need to choose a paint & paint the Toddler Room. And then just the little things around the house (like cleaning it up after 4 weeks of sitting!)

Thank you for your prayers as I traveled around the eastern U.S. I'll send a better update soon!

How Far Behind Am I?

The past three weeks contained a lot of visiting & driving. I saw cousins in Indiana, family & friends in central Pennsylvania, family in southern Pennsylvania, and friends in West Virginia. I saw elk, exploded a soda-Mentos (above), & shared in three churches.

I'm now on my way to Wisconsin to see friends. It will be over four years until I see them again, because they are heading to Asia to serve & I am heading to Paraguay. It could be a long time before I see them!

Thank you for your continued prayers during this trip!

Heading to PA

In the morning I'll begin the drive to PA. Please pray for a safe drive. I'll try to update on the road, but don't really know when I'll have internet access. I'll put up pictures when I can!

Task 1

Post-mowing. Who knew it was so warm at 7:30am?!

This weekend is very full. Thursday morning I started out mowing a playground on campus. By 11am I was cleaned up & helping at the NTM-Crossover registration tent on campus. I finished there at 7 :30pm, and went to see Caleb Rowden, Finding Bethel, and heard Gracia Burnham speak. Home at 9pm & in bed shortly after!!

Friday morning registration started at 8am, and I left at 1:30pm to head to the chiropractor. Picked up some oil & a filter to have my oil changed tomorrow. For dinner I'll be eating with a friend and her mom. They're from Korea, and I will be having my first real Korean meal!

Saturday holds another 8am-3pm registration time and getting a friend to change the oil in my car. Sunday holds church, and packing up for 3 weeks in Pennsylvania. Monday morning I begin the 16 hour drive to Jersey Shore!

I hope you have a great grace-filled weekend!

"The Zoo"

Yesterday Holly and I embarked on a trip to St. Louis to go to the zoo for a few hours, and pick up YuJong and her mom from the airport. The good news is, YuJong and her mom are now on campus. The other news technically isn't bad, it just didn't go as planned. We happily started off at 10:45am, for a 3 hour drive. This would give us a good 2+ hours at the zoo. You see, this would be exciting, because THIS zoo is FREE. Parking only costs $11. Doesn't this sound like a good way to spend a few hours in St. Louis? We thought so, too. Things went well until shortly after hitting I-44 (a mere hour into the trip), when it started to rain. Not just a little rain, but rain so hard that people were pulling off the road or driving with their hazards on. I figure, hey we can make it to the next exit at least--I don't want to sit on the side of the road. We get to the next exit, and sit in the parking lot of a gas station for about 5 minutes. The rain let up, and following the que of a work truck, decided to head back on the highway. We soon caught back up with the storm (which was obviously not moving over 50mph like we were!) I drove a while in the storm, then decided, this really isn't smart, so I pulled over again. Traffic passes, and there soon seems to be enough of a break in traffic that I'm comfortable driving again. See, I'm not afraid of the rain--it's those other people out there! We decide to stop at Panera in Rolla, since it's just off the highway, and we both like it. We eat there, taking about an hour, since we keep catching up with the rain. A man gives me a mocha drink instead of mango (I'm now standing in lining saying outloud "mocha, mango, mocha, mango: I think I differentiate pretty well, and I know I said 'mango.'" Back on the road, not many miles down the road, our traffic starts stopping. We've already seen 2 vehicles in ditches at this point, and I'm thinking we've another. But no. We crest the hill to discover that we're only rubbernecking. The damage is on the other side of the highway: an 18-wheeler had rolled on it's side, the cab appeared to have jack-knifed, and it was blocking the lanes and shoulders both 100%. There was no way the mile of parked vehicles were going anywhere soon. Traffic was being diverted on that side to the service road, and some traffic was still able to move. Things were less exciting from there on out; we soon came into St. Louis and found the airport. We had realized we weren't going to make it to the zoo, and while disappointed, looked forward to people watching at the St. Louis Airport. That did not disappoint! We saw: a group of about 30 future National Guardsmen (they had all the backpacks, but didn't know how to stand in formation; on the way to bootcamp maybe?), a soldier walking with his very happy 2 year old daughter, a friend's doppleganger (look-alike), a daddy-less family that had just said goodbye, a friendly walking Samoan bobblehead, and YuJong and her mom! We packed up the car and headed home, round trip it took over 9 hours. Sadly, it took us 5 hours to get to St. Louis, and 3 to get home. We had the foresight to start counting the animals we saw early in our trip, with a grand total of 11: Beta fish, dogs, buzzards, dead skunk, dead armadillo, deer, buffalo, cows, horses, rabbits, and a turtle.
Next time, we'll leave earlier for the zoo!!!
(And maybe go on a non-rainy day.)

Vacation in Louisiana

This week I had the chance to go to Louisiana. My home church, Shreve City Baptist, had revival for four days. It was great to join my church family for those meetings. Cooper's in town this week, so I've been getting in a lot of time with him! He's a true joy.

Cooper flying

Isabelle, Zoe, and I had a mani-pedi afternoon. Zoe did my nails, I did hers, and Isabelle did her own. It was fun--and VERY colorful!

Cooper has two bottom teeth, and is working on the top ones!

And we all just had a great time cutting up!

Christ's Ascension: With Two-Year Olds

Setting the scene: Today was my day to be the main teacher at toddlers. We had just walked over a "bridge" (balance beam) over "water" (a blue cloth) and toy alligators, frogs, and snakes. The kids are very good at this! Next is Bible time. As I start to set out the kids' mats they sit on, I realize, too many mats are too wet to use. So, we'll go without mats today. Wonder how this will work:

Me: "Girls, do you need to take your shoes off before Bible time?"

Kids: "No, keep on."

"Okay, who remembers what we talked about yesterday? We talked about how Jesus came to see his friends after he died."

"On the cross!"
"Jesus died on the cwoss!:
"My mommy and my sister..."

"Okay, we'll talk about them later, okay? What was that?!"

"I threw my shoe!"

"Don't throw your shoe. Let's get back to Jesus. Jesus told his disciples, 'I gave my life for you so that you could be with me in heaven. I am going there to prepare a wonderful new home for you.'"

"We're going to go to a new home & live with (cousin's name.)"

"Yes, you are. Honey, keep your shirt on. What was that?"

"I threw my sock at you!"

"Don't throw anything. Leave your shoes alone. Jesus said, 'When I come back the next time, I will take you with me. But now it was time for Jesus to leave."

"Where's Ms. Heather?" (Side note: she does the Bible story 4/5 days.)

"She's at home today, because she's going to go to school with her son. Put your shirt down. Give me your shoes."

"At a different school?"

"Yea. So, Jesus said he could come back for them."

"Is he coming here?"

"No--wait are you talking about Ms. Heather's son or Jesus?"

"Ms. Heather's son."

"No, he's not coming here, but Jesus will. Jesus said, 'God has given me complete power over heaven and earth. Go and tell all people about the good news. Make disciples. Baptize them in my name. Don't forget that I will always be with you...Then Jesus went up toward heaven in a cloud. His disciples stared at the sky for a long time. I would have stared at the sky, too, because he just said he'll come back for them."

"I'm going with Mommy and Daddy to fly..."
"I'm going to my cousin's house!"

"Yes, I know. Let's keep talking about the Bible story; we'll talk about them later. All of a sudden, two angels appeared. They asked, 'Why are you standing here looking at the sky? Jesus will return the same way you saw him go.' Jesus will come back on a cloud, because that's the way he went up into heaven."

"Is it snack time?"

"No, it's craft time."

Thanks for praying for patience & grace as the kids & parents are wrapping up a semester!

A Blessing From God

This week has been busy in childcare! Between a rainy weekend, a full moon, and an upcoming rainy weekend, the kids have been very stir-crazy! We try to do different activities with the kids, and one of their favorite games is to pull out the "parachute" (a bedsheet!) We all hold onto it, waving it up and down and bouncing the balls we place on it. To finish off parachute time, they all get to lay on the floor and feel the wind from the sheet--they love it!

Last night I had a special surprise--my nephew was traveling & would be only 10 miles away from where I live! I got to go spend an hour with him!
Here are a few of his Easter pictures:

The Crazy Carnival

Elijah & I at the carnival

Last night my friend Melissa & I took her two boys to the carnival in town. We had a good time & wore out both boys! You can click here to check out more pictures!

Spring Break

This past week was Spring Break for the Missionary Training Center. I had high hopes of traveling with friends to Manitowoc, Wisconsin to visit my best friend and her family. But last Monday I got knocked down by two ear infections! Tuesday I went to the doctor for antibiotics, and Wednesday (the original date for driving to WI) I decided not to go on the trip. Which was a very good plan, because I'm just now back to normal!

Yesterday I went with some good friends to the capitol of Missouri: Jefferson City. My friend Nate needed to write a paper on the capitol building for his college course, so his parents and I drove up there in the afternoon. Jonathan and Lisa have been in my life nearly as long as I can remember (they were the leaders of the mission trip I went on to Brasil in 2001.) Nate, Meg, and Nicole, and my brother and I all grew up together/apart. Since they were missionaries to Brasil, we would reconnect every time they were in town. So, we're pretty much like cousins now!

JC Fast Facts:
Jefferson City is the 2nd city for the MO State capitol, and the current building is the fourth building.
Jefferson City was built as a city BECAUSE they wanted to make it the capitol!
The capitol building is completely made out of stone (minus the occasional wooden door and desk.)
The building is four stories high.
Walt Disney lived in MO for 4 years of his childhood.

This is actually remnants of a flag from the Civil War. Much of the flag has decomposed, and the remains are set on a print of the former flag.

The "genuine" Liberty Bell--right in Missouri!

Did You Know....

I have a gorgeous nephew?!


Days old with Daddy (Tim's "Mini-Me"!)

2 Months Old

4 Months Old

5 Months Old

6 Months Old

7 Months old with Tia Carrie

8 Months old with Daddy/Cooper's "Big"

March: Friends Month!

For the past two weeks I've been blessed with friends visiting from out of state! We were all in the training together here at the Missionary Training Center; it was so nice to be able to visit again here on the campus!

This is the view from one of my favorite places on campus! (The boat house on the other side of the lake--it takes a nice hike to get there.)

The first day we were all here, Autumn, Sonya, & I went for a walk--this is a photo of all three of us.

The girls even agreed to my type of a boat ride--on DRY land! I even offered to row for us!

Me & Autumn

Sonya got a picture of me with some friends from our local church.

Grant & Alana were our mentors while we were in the training here--and very much still are! We were able to spend some great time with them while Sonya was here.

Saturday morning Melissa, Sonya, and I went to Panera then conquered the outlets in Osage Beach. We were all in Jersey Shore, PA together in 2005-'06.

This is Hoss. He's a new friend, and lives up the road at a friend's house. He's a twin, and his mom didn't want him--so he even has his umbilical cord attached still! He was very hungry and not interested in playing.

Thanks so much for your prayers while I'm serving in childcare & linguistics here at the Training Center. Your prayers mean more to me than I can tell you in words!