Dear Friends and Supporters,
Greetings from Sanford, Florida. We are so thankful to pass another month here without a hurricane. It is with great joy that we watch the news and see one after another of the named storms turn northeast and head out to sea without touching land. Of course with each passing month, also, comes our time to thank you for prayers and support as we minister here at New Tribes Mission headquarters. Even though we are Stateside to take care of Jackie’s mom, we are glad to still be involved in reaching Tribal people with the Gospel. Your interest in our lives through your prayers and financial support makes you partners with us to that end. We appreciate your part in this endeavor.
Being at the mission headquarters we hear of groups around the world hearing the Gospel for the first time. This month we wanted to share with you about one such group in Papua New Guinea, the Tobo. Here is an excerpt from one of the missionary prayer letters sent in August:
We’ve seen 21 Tobo men and women graduate from our first two literacy classes this spring, and then 12 of those graduates were trained as teachers in May. Shortly thereafter, a small class of 7 in another village started up, and is being capably taught by one of our best students, a young man named Sondik. Well, it seemed to take a little longer than we’d expected, but we finally have a second Tobo-taught literacy class, which was kicked off this week. We’ll be taking turns helping support the teachers in this new class, which are being held early weekday mornings in another village. This is where we hope to begin teaching through the Bible in October, and so we are understandably encouraged to see a large turnout of 15 students so far. We have set a date-October 16th to begin teaching through Phase One (teaching the Bible from Creation through to the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ) in the village, Monday through Friday in the morning for a good 3 ½ to 4 months (there will be about 70 lessons to teach).
October 16th was just the beginning of this week so hope this will encourage you to pray this month for the Tobo and the missionaries working with them, Chad and Janeene Mankins!!
As we wrote last month, Jackie’s mom gave us a scare and ended up in the hospital with congestive heart failure. After draining fluid off her heart and lungs, Mrs. Jackson improved rapidly and the doctors released her after five days in the hospital. She is doing better, but does not have a lot of stamina. At least she is able to walk short distances with the help of her walker. Please pray that Jackie will have wisdom in caring for her mom, especially in preparing food for the family that will also be good for her mom’s health.
As cooler temperatures move towards Florida, we always think forward to January when many volunteer "snowbirds" head south and land here in Sanford to help us with many of the maintenance projects that we have in the mission’s buildings. One of the ongoing projects each year has been to upgrade kitchen cabinets in mission apartments. After almost thirty years, the original cabinets made of particle board that were installed when the building was converted from hotel rooms to apartments are falling apart. Each year we choose six or seven sets of the worst ones to replace. We ran out of wood last year, and it looked like this would be the first year that we would have to buy wood for face frames, drawer fronts and doors. When we checked on prices, we found that the local lumber company had stacks of lumber that they wanted to donate to the mission. We picked up seven truckloads. Much of it had been sitting out in the weather and had turned gray or worse, was starting to rot. Much of it looked doubtful, but after one or two passes through the planner it cleaned up like new oak boards. There were very few boards that we had to throw away. We praise the Lord for His provision. As you may have guessed I spent many hours planning boards and stacking them so they could dry before the volunteers arrive.
This school year Jackie has taken on teaching another math class because of a shortage of teachers at the mission school. She is teaching a 4th grade math class (very small – only 2 students) now, along with the 8th grade pre-Algebra class that she taught last year. This has added more preparation and grading time to her schedule which has meant a little less time working in the Field Ministries office.
Please keep praying for Bolivia. There are so many problems and little solution for any of them. We are hoping to have a full missionary course at the national training center. These Bolivian Christians may be the ones who finish the job of tribal missions should the situation deteriorate to the point that foreigners have to leave.
Again, thank you for your interest in our ministry here in Sanford. May God bless you.
Love in Christ,
Phil for the Burns Bunch
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