We are thankful for the many opportunities that the Lord has given us in our ministry here at the New Tribes Missionary Training Center on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We are grateful to be part of a team of five people; each of us comes from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences.
We, John & Melanie, along with our 4 children, served the Lord in Brazil for twenty years, thirteen of which were at the MK school, teaching and serving in administration. Here now John is our department coordinator and teaches some classes for the missionary candidates. Melanie handles the finances for our department.
Melanie Tanner, along with her husband and 3 children, served the Lord in Papua New Guinea for nineteen years, teaching, serving as homeschool consultant, and specializing in learning differences. Now Melanie is the main resource person for learning differences with our department.
Terri Harmon, along with her husband and 4 children, served the Lord in West Africa for seven years, teaching and serving as homeschool consultant. Now Terri trains our education consultants, gathers MK education information for NTM, and is the main homeschool resource person for our department.
Heather Garton, along with her husband and 3 children, served the Lord at the missionary training center in England for ten years, working in child care. After several years working in and coordinating the child care program here at our training center, Heather recently joined our team and is the main person for MK orientation.
This past December we hosted a Missionary Kid (MK) Summit for our mission. We had about twenty coworkers come from across the United States and Canada whose ministries involve MK issues. We spent three full days looking at how we are currently caring for and educating our MKs. As a result of our time together, we were able to produce some good recommendations for our mission and some action points for those working with MKs. Overall it was encouraging to sense the caring heart of each one that was present.
Looking forward to 2015, our department is excited as we will continue to:
• Formulate educational policy for our mission.
• Train education consultants who will go overseas to assist homeschooling families. Our mission would like to see these qualified teachers who receive 100 hours of instruction from us be on each field.
• Equip missionary candidates for homeschooling in remote places.
• Consult missionary candidates, and offer learning differences therapies and intervention support.
• Orientate MKs for life in a new country, preparing them to experience new customs, languages, foods, etc.
Thank you so much for your continued vision, prayers and support! We value your partnership as together we impact this world for Christ. Without your help we would not be able to do any of these things.
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