Highlights: 2013 in Review

January:

* Transitions for Sophie: Moved her from a crib to a twin-size bed and took away her paci

* Spoke with churches and individuals about our incredible trip to Papua New Guinea

* Ben started working again at a construction company he had previously worked at

* I babysat

* Our Life Group threw me a beautiful baby shower

* We added sweet baby Brielle to our family on January 25

February:

* We adjusted to being a family of 4 while Sophie adjusted to being a big sister

* We were so, so blessed by friends and family who brought us many meals

* Sophie enjoyed the snow

* Sophie potty trained!

March:
* My grandma came to visit from Vermont!
* I resumed babysitting
* We took a weekend trip to Jackson, MI to visit Bible school friends
* Jason and Laken made a last minute trip to visit us over Easter
* We spent Easter break in Gull Lake, MI with the Miller family and Jason and Laken
* Sophie had her first Easter egg hunt
* Ben and I celebrated our 25th birthdays and Sophie turned 2!
* Ben started working at the RV factory again

April:
* We had Sophie's 2nd birthday party, Minnie Mouse style!
* Sophie puked for the first time on the way to her birthday party (should this be a highlight? haha)
* We celebrated my mom's birthday with the Walton family
* Enjoyed meeting weekly with Jessie to go through a book together
* We got our acceptance letter from New Tribe's MTC

May:
* We celebrated my sister Nikki's pregnancy with a baby shower
* Aunt Nanna came to visit lots
* It finally started warming up, so the girls and I and the boy I babysat spent lots of time outside!
* I enjoyed learning how to use my camera by taking outside pictures
* I was sad to say good-bye to friends from the two Mom's groups I was in
* We went camping over Memorial Day weekend with the Walton family and friends from church

June:

* I took a trip with my mom and the kiddos to the zoo

* We took a weekend trip to Columbus, OH so Ben could help my Uncle with work on his house

* We enjoyed fun summer things, like festivals and parades

* My best friend Abbey came to visit from California with her son, Wes!

* We did a fun pamper outing (nails, Granite City, and Debrands chocolate) with my Life Group ladies

* I got my wisdom teeth out

July:

* Brielle turned 6 months

* We had Walton family pictures taken by Carrie Weaver Photography

* We celebrated July 4 by honoring Ben's grandpa who is a war veteran

* My sister had her baby boy, Blake, and I got to her with her while she did!

* We went to the Whitley County 4H fair

* We had a day at the pool at our annual Moser-Walton pool party

* We said good-bye (and see you soon!) to our beloved Life Group

* My friend Jessica from NTBI came to visit!

* We did LOTS of packing!!

August:

* Spent a week with the Millers at Gull Lake Family Camp

* Moved to Roach, MO to begin our training at New Tribes Mission's MTC

* Enjoyed living by a lake (Sophie loves the water!)

* Started classes- SUCH good classes!

* Enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones

* Went camping with friends from school over Labor Day weekend

September:
* We enjoyed several campfires with good friends
* We grilled out lots! And had lots of people over for dinner
* Sophie and Brielle went to childcare- Sophie loved it; Brielle endured it
* Celebrated my new friend Asmara's newest baby with a baby shower
* Enjoyed free food from our food pantry and made Brielle some baby food!

October:
* We found out we were pregnant with BabyMill3!
* Dad and Mom Miller came to visit
* My mom and sisters came to visit
* For Halloween, the girls went Trick or Treating around campus
* We enjoyed starting to meet with two other couples for a Bible study each week

November:

* I had fun at a Ladies Retreat with women from my school

* I helped with my good friend, Laken's baby shower

* I enjoyed meeting with friends on Tuesday afternoon for a fellowship group

* Ben did plumbing each week on a new building at our school (this is his campus job)

* We attended Kyle and Val's beautiful wedding

* We enjoyed Thanksgiving with our families in Indiana

December:

* We got a dusting of snow and have a great hill outside our home

* We had lots of Christmas fun!

* I had a fun girls night out with my friends Rachel and Jill

* We said hard good-byes to friends we might never see again this side of heaven

* We were excited to meet baby Thatcher, Jason and Laken's son

* We enjoyed fun times with our e-linc (small group) at school

* We had good times with family in Indiana

* Christmas party with our Life Group in Indiana

* We celebrated Ben's sister Katie's pregnancy

* We had a scare with a threatened miscarriage but were so thankful to see a heartbeat

Twenty-Four and Many More

As most of you know, Ben and I desire to move overseas in a few years (most likely to Papua New Guinea) to work with a people group who has never heard about Jesus. We are not there yet, but here is what is amazing:

TWENTY FOUR PEOPLE have already had a part in getting the gospel to this people group.

Since June, twenty-three people (or couples in many cases and churches in two cases) have given financially to help us as we prepare and train to work among an unreached people group. So that makes twenty-three people/couples/churches plus us who are already excited and passionate about getting the gospel to these people. And we're not even there yet. Wow! Thank you! We are so grateful and amazed for the way God works in people's hearts to care for his people around the world who still need to hear.

And the exciting thing is that I believe there are more than just twenty-four. I know there are many more of you who have not financially given but are praying for us faithfully, and you are such a vital part in reaching this unreached people group as well. We know that God has heard and answered your prayers as he gives us health, wisdom, finances, energy, and perseverance.

As the end of our first semester of training comes to a close, we want to take time to say THANK YOU for your part in responding to God's command to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:18-20).

It Runs in the Family...

It runs in the family... 

that is, the third baby being a surprise.

Ben was the third baby in his family. He was a surprise for his parents, and he came just 15 months after his sister, Katie.

Nikki was the third baby in our family. She was born just 13 (!!!!) months after me. She was for sure a surprise to my parents.

And now we have been surprised by this little baby, our third child. If it's a competition to have the closest age gap, we lose, thankfully. Brielle and baby #3 will be about 17 months apart.

First Semester Classes

I haven't posted about the classes that we have been taking here at the MTC because we take A LOT. Some classes are short, some classes are long.

This semester, we will be taking a total of 17 classes:
1. Big Picture
2. Child Protection
3. CLA Intro
4. Communication Skills
5. CP1 Wrap-Up
6. e-linc
7. Form and Meaning
8. Foundation Bible Teaching
9. History of NTM
10. Learning Styles
11. Love and Respect
12. Ministry Partnership 1
13. Ministry Practicum
14. Phonetics
15. Stewarship
16. Teamwork
17. Worldview Analysis

We have taken or are in the middle of taking all but 2 of these courses, so I thought I was at a good point to share about these classes! For those of you who are interested, I have wrote more detailed descriptions of these classes below.

1. Big Picture:
I missed all of this class because of sick kids, but I did listen online. In this class, we looked at the way New Tribes works, from start to finish of a missionary's career. It's easier to show than explain, so I will show you a picture from my friend Lauren's blog:

2. Child Protection:
This is a two-day course, and we started it today. This stuff is HEAVY. We are being taught and discussing the topic of child abuse.

3. CLA Intro:
CLA = Culture Language Acquisition. When we move overseas, we will have to learn to adjust to the language and culture in order to truly minister to the people on all levels. In this class, we touched on the basics of this. One thing we did was consider how even in America we have to understand someone's culture and language when moving to a new place.

4. Communication Skills:
In this class, we considered different facets of communication and how to be good communicators ourselves. We talked about how to ask good questions and how to relate to different types of students. We considered how Jesus communicated with people as well.

6. e-linc:
This is a small group that we were placed in and meet with twice a week. Our leaders are two staff couples, and then there are three other couples and two single guys in our group. We really have enjoyed getting to know our group! I'll have to get a better picture of our group since this is the only one I have :)

7. Form and Meaning:
In this class, we discussed and compared different versions of the Bible (NIV, ESV, NLT, NASB, KJV, etc). If you've grown up in the church, you've probably heard others talk about one version is better than others. This class was really eye-opening because we discovered that ALL versions have some word-for-word translation and some meaning-based translation. There is no pure translation. At the same time, we can trust that God has worked in the translators to give them as much wisdom as humanly possible, and we can trust the version we have. Our teacher (who wrote a book on this topic if you want to learn more) suggested we spend time in different versions, perhaps doing our devotions in a different version each year. And while you're still debating in your head whether one version is best, PRAY FOR US... in the future, we will have the huge task of being a part of translating a Bible into a new language, Lord willing!

8. Foundational Bible Teaching
NTM has a curriculum that they use to teach overseas. It's called Foundational Bible Teaching (FBT), and in it, we teach from Creation (Genesis 1) to Christ, covering 72 different lessons. In this class, we had the opportunity to teach through a lesson ourselves (with a couple of other people) as well as to listen to our classmates teach other lessons. It was so neat to see the Bible in this way. It really helped me to understand attributes of God and to see his overall purpose in history. There's a book called The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus as well as a similar version that's intended more for our younger post-modern generation called By His Name that take this curriculum and put it into a book version for American readers :)

9. History of NTM:
We looked at the history of NTM, from its start in 1942 until now. It's incredible to learn how God has worked in this mission from the start.

10. Learning Styles
We all learn differently. We all perceive the world differently. This class focused on this and allowed us to identify the way we learn and the way we perceive the world. It was rather fascinating and helpful. If you want to learn more about the Mind Styles, you can look at the chart below!

11. Love and Respect
There's a good chance if you run in Christian circles that you have heard of the book Love and Respect before. Ben and I read this book while we were engaged, but it was good to learn this information again (this time, in video form), five years into marriage. It's easy how quickly we adjust back to being selfish individuals who want the best for me, myself, and I.

13. Ministry Practicum:
As the name suggests, this one isn't a class. Rather, we are encouraged as moms and expected as men to be involved in a ministry during our time here. There are a number of different ones to be involved in, but Ben and I are focusing on ministering at our church, by getting to know the people there and being involved in a small group. It's nice to be able to minister together. Ben is also ministering by helping with sound during chapel and he is planning to help with a small discipleship group of teenage guys.

14. Phonetics:
We are currently in this class. There is something called the Phonetic Alphabet, and we have to learn it. This will help us to transcribe new words we learn overseas. We also have to learn the sounds of each phonetic letter, which is fine when it's a sound we say all of the time in English. It's rather humbling/scary/hard/exciting/funny when it's a sound that does not exist in English, and we have to try to say it! Who knew how hard it could be to make our mouths say a sound that they are unfamiliar with! Just incase you're wondering what the letters in the Phonetic Alphabet look like (and each of these letters has a sound that go with them), here they are:

15. Stewardship:
We look at both how to best use our time and our finances in this class. Certainly important topics for anyone, but especially for missionaries!

16. Teamwork:
When we work with NTM, there's no way to escape working with a team. When we move overseas, we will be working with a team of people in the tribe (around 4 other people, marrieds or singles, American or non). We also will be working with a team of people who help to keep us in the tribe (leadership, supply buyer, pilot, guest house, medical, etc). We better know how to work with other people! This class is here to prepare us. We are sinful people, and we are going to encounter other sinful people, and this working in teams thing will not always be easy. We appreciate your prayers NOW in this area as this will greatly affect our ministry overseas. Pray that God will work in our hearts to be good team players.

17. Worldview Analysis:
I've already talked some about this class in a previous post, but it was fascinating! I was amazed to truly realize how deeply everything we believe, do, and say is impacted by our worldview which is impacted by all of the things around us (family, media, friends, culture, school). Equally important is to realize how deeply the tribal people are affected by their world views. This is why it is so important for us to commit long-term to taking the gospel to these people! We will be penetrating values and beliefs that are DEEPLY saturated in these people. Pray for us!