On May 30th, Alex’s widow and children will begin hearing the Bible’s message clearly presented in their own language for the first time. Many of you will remember hearing Ken speak of the trips he took helping missionaries move in to a village in the Uriay language group. His first tribal friend, Alex, was eager to hear the missionaries’ message; but shortly after they moved in he suffered a bad fall and died of the complications. This team of two families and two single women has diligently studied these people’s language and culture, developed an indigenous literacy program, and translated Scripture portions. Please pray that Satan would not succeed at keeping more of these tribal people from hearing the Gospel. You can read the missionaries’ most recent update at www.ntm.org/news/10922.
Stories like these keep reminding us of why we are here; the above missionaries are all graduates of New Tribes Bible Institutes in the US and England. Here at our center in Jackson, Michigan, graduation for forty-six seniors was held two weeks ago. One of the valedictorians, Cassie Bouska, shared that she came here to train for a new career as a missionary; she realized instead that through her two years studying the Bible, God was training her to live life. A high percentage of our graduates do go on to the Missionary Training Center in Missouri; all of them leave with the challenge to live out the Word of God, enabled by the Spirit of God.
On a more personal note, we have been challenged recently to see our ministry as more than just the work we do here. Those who pray and support us are part of the big picture of what God is doing to send out His people to the “uttermost parts of the earth;” and the churches who send their young adults to the Bible Institutes and then on to foreign fields are part of the big picture as well. We are thankful for a recent workshop where we were given tools to keep our supporters informed in a more organized fashion; please pray that we would use them effectively.