Check out the new look of our Summer 2012 Newsletter HERE!
What it’s all about?…
What we desire to make clear is our motivation in this ministry. As we study scripture we see that God has a plan and vision for the world. This plan is the greatest calling to our lives. His plan is to reach every tribe, tongue, and nation with the Gospel and to make disciples. That is what we desire to be about. As we look to what God is doing, we believe He has given us an awareness into the fact that caring and supporting missionary families is vital and is part of our responsibilities as the body of Christ.
Support roles in the missions community are incredibly important. To keep a missionary family in a tribe, with the resources and time it takes to study and understand a language/culture enough to translate the bible, takes many hands. It typical takes 6 support missionaries to keep one missionary in the tribe. Support roles include pilots, teachers, doctors, accountants, supply buyers, trainers, IT techs, MK caregivers, and SO much more. I recently heard a story from a missionary pilot who explained how he fit into the puzzle. He flew supplies into a tribal village where there was a missionary team working on the bible translation.
As the pilot stopped into the hut “office” of one of the translators, the translator asked the pilot what he was up to today. “oh… just flying around making the delivery rounds” he said.
“Nope!” said the translator. “You are translating Romans 3:3 today!” How true! By doing what God has called him to do, that missionary pilot was part of the team that was bringing the gospel to a remote tribe. Praise God! That is what we want to be a part of and want to get others on board with.
Ministry Moment: Summer ’12
We have been incredibly encouraged as we watched God faithfully guide us this last year. The journey that He has placed us on has been very unconventional and has kept us out of our comfort zones. As we think back on the last three months, we are thankful that we had the opportunity to be a part of three different Missionary Kid (MK) retreat events; a college MK Winter Retreat in Indiana in which we brought 25 MKs from NTBI, a college MK Summer Retreat in Pennsylvania for New Tribes own MKs, and a MK Transition Seminar with Barnabas International at Biola University.
We had a blast at all three and are grateful for the opportunity. We were also very encouraged by great meetings and conversations with New Tribes leadership as to were we can fit into the mission after we finish training. The current vision and plans for this developing ministry excite us. There are many great ideas brewing and we cannot wait to see what God has in store.
Here are a few highlights:
Wayumi – Tribal Church-Planting
Bree and I were given the opportunity to take a tribal church-planting course called Wayumi in Pennsylvania this spring break. It is a program that New Tribes Mission (NTM) has created that allows college-aged students to get an inside look into what it takes to take the gospel into the unreached world. The fact is that out of the 6900+ languages in the world, there is still 2100+ that do not even have a single word of the bible translated into their own language. All while we in America have 200+ different English translations to choose from.
During our week-long training, we took classes on the different steps that NTM missionaries take when they reach a unreached people group such as: pre-field training (this is where Bree and I are now), moving to the country, National language and culture acquisition, moving into a tribe, tribal language and culture acquisition, literacy, translation, teaching/evangelism, church leadership, and finally establishing a self-sustaining church. This can take 10-25 years to take place. Along with the classes, we also had a blast sleeping in hammocks in jungle camp, preparing a traditional Papua New Guinea meal called a MuMu, and practicing phonetics in mock Venezuelan tribes. (Yanomamo and Joti)
All in all, this was a fantastic week in which we walked away completely refocused. I wish many others could take this course because you cannot take it and walk away the same.
If you are at all interested – check out their website or Facebook page.
See the rest of our trip pictures HERE!
Missionary Kid Caregiver Consultation 2012
I just wanted to bring to attention a great event called the Missionary Kids Caregiver Consultation (MKCC) that is happening this week in Kansas City, MO. Many of the folks involved in ministry to MKs in some way will be gathering to brainstorm and grapple with the advantages and difficulties typically faced by MKs today. PLEASE write this down and take a moment to pray during the week for the following:
- Please pray for great fellowship and networking of MK care leaders.
- Please pray for collaborations that result in breakthroughs and ideas!
- Please pray for workshops and training opportunities.
- Please pray for a new excitement and energy to burst forth and result in new passion and new leaders!
- Please pray for safe travels for all.
ALSO, don’t forget that there is a REALLY simple way to get involved in care to Missionary Kids! This great (and EASY) opportunity helps pave the way for MKs to attend a MK Transition Seminar this coming summer!
These MK Transition Retreats are held in the US in three different locations where they have the opportunity to learn to understand their story, share their story, and live their story.
By sending in $1 you can partner with Barnabas International and Mukappa in raising the $60,000 needed to fund these retreats.
simply…
1. place a dollar bill in an envelope.
2. address it to:
Buck & a Stamp
c/o Barnabas Int.
PO Box 11211
Rockford, IL 61126
3. stamp
4. send!
Send in your dollar anytime between now and July 1, 2012 to help raise money for transitioning MKs. (Check out the Facebook Event Page)
MK College Winter Retreat ’12
Bree and I had the opportunity to go with 28 other MKs from NTBI- Waukesha to an MK Winter Retreat in northern Indiana. It was quite the adventure as it started off with a BANG! We found ourselves in the middle of a mighty Midwest winter storm during our travels… it turned a 5 hour trip into a 12 hour trip!!! However, against the odds, we didn’t end up having to turn back and made it to the camp safe and sound at 3am!
The retreat focused on fellowship, fun, re-connection (with old friends from childhood), and rejuvenation. We had the chance to connect with 173 MKs from 18 colleges and representing 77 different countries! What a Blessing!
We played all kinds of games, gorged on GREAT food, celebrated what seemed like a never-ending collection of cultures, and were challenged by a great speaker named Toby Locke. However, if you were to ask most of us… what took the cake was the HUGE game of snow futbol in the foot-and-a-half feet of snow.
We loved getting to know so many great students from our school and hope to get to know them even better this year!
pete'n'bree 