We hope you all have had a great start to 2006 and a great winter! We have been having a great time. We are now in the hot season and it really is hot!! We wanted to share some things with you that we learned at the beginning of this year.
We started the year with the New Tribes Mission Philippine Field Conference. This year there where two guest speakers, one being the current NTM Chairman, Oli Jacobson and the other was a former NTM Philippine Field Chairman, Peter Baker. We had a great time of fellowship with them both. Peter and his wife Kathy are currently on staff at the Canadian training Institute in Durham, ON. They were a huge influence on us coming to serve in the Philippines. (Two weeks after conference we were able to have them in our home.)
Oli Jacobson shared with us what is happening around the world with NTM. Here are some things we learned:
-4 tribes heard the Gospel message for the first time in 2004
-11 tribes heard the Gospel message for the first time in 2005
-NTM has completed 42 New Testament translations and 70 are in progress
-the chronological teaching lessons are complete in 54 language groups and there are 88 others in progress
-the whole Bible has been translated into the Lawa language in Thailand
-NTM is working in 232 tribes around the world
-this year there are 524 students enrolled in New Tribes Bible Institutes around the world and 254 students are enrolled in the Missions/Language Institutes around the world
Isn’t it amazing to see how God is using people around the world to spread the Gospel? How many more tribes are left to be reached? It is estimated that there are about 2000 language groups that still need to hear.
As we have seen here in the Philippines it is hard to estimate what the needs are. Just recently a survey was done on Northern Luzon. While learning about the language group they were there to survey, it was learned that just a little further away there was another language group, one the missionaries had not heard of yet. They too would need their own translation of the Bible.
The task is enormous but with God all things are possible.
Please pray for all the missionaries that are learning national and tribal languages around the world. Pray for those who are or will be sharing the Gospel message for the first time this year. Pray for those that are discipling believers.
Thank you for your prayers, financial support and encouragement as we serve those that are doing all these things here in the Philippines.