The Road to Missions #5

After we decided that we were interested in New Tribes and that we would go to the Bible School, we talked with our Life Group and pastors about this decision. They were starting to have mission meetings with those interested in missions at our church, and we attended one. We learned there that they were trying to get a team together to join missionaries from our church in Tanzania with AIM (Africa Inland Mission). I can't say that I jumped up or got super excited about it... NTM was more interesting to me... but Ben liked the idea, and we wanted to be open to the way God could use our pastors in helping us as we looked into missions.

Even though Bible school was the part Ben liked least about New Tribes (because he doesn't like school), we actually decided that we should still go to NTBI even if we were going to go with AIM. So when we came to NTBI, Ben and I had taken a step back. We came here unsure of where we would end up... possibly we would go on with New Tribes, possibly we would go to Tanzania with a group from our church, possibly we'd go with another organization. We tried not to plan too far ahead. AIM never felt "right" to me, but I've also learned that Christianity and missions isn't all about feelings. If God could use me in Tanzania with AIM, I needed to be willing to go. And I had decided I would submit to my husband and our church in this area.

In the middle of our spring semester, we learned that some things had occurred which was not going to allow the Tanzania trip (which would have been at least a 2 year commitment) to be put together. Of course, we could still go with them if we wanted. Ben and I talked about it though and felt that the recent happenings with that team were for a reason, and we felt God leading us more in the direction of New Tribes Mission. We can strongly see our gifts and talents being used with this organization, and while it's not a perfect organization, they have a great desire to make Christ's name known to the nations and we are passionate about this.

So the timeline looks something like this:

Aug 2009: Decided to go to NTBI

Sept 2009: Started the application for NTBI

March 2010: FINALLY finished the application for NTBI

May 2010: Officially accepted

August 2010: Moved to Jackson and started at NTBI

February-ish 2011: Decided that we would pursue continuing with New Tribes after Bible School

May 2011: Finished our first year at NTBI

August 2011: Began our second and final year at NTBI

Future decisions we need to make which we would appreciate prayer for already:

We need to decide exactly what Missionary Training Center we are going to and in what semester (we are thinking Missouri in January of 2013, but we're still praying about this), we will need to choose a country, we will need to decide if we will do support work or work in the tribe... and if we work in the tribe, we will need to choose a team to work with and a tribe to go to.