Saturday, July 10, 2010
“When these ladies finish up their time in Asunción and head out to work with tribal people here in our country, they are going as an arm of our church.” — Pastor Enrique
The “ladies” (Jenna Currey and Rebekah Huffman) have gotten settled into an apartment near their church, been able to purchase necessary appliances and some furniture, and are in what is called a “Warm-up Stage” of their studies. The Warm-up Stage lasts for a few weeks before moving on to more in-depth language and culture study. It involves a focus on informally visiting and starting to build relationships with people in the community and church, noting common events and daily routines, training the ear to distinguish the sounds in the language, memorizing practical expressions, etc.
Rebekah has some background in Spanish, so will be farther along in her language understanding than Jenna, but both will be involved in learning Paraguayan Spanish, Paraguayan culture, and how to effectively use various language/culture learning tools.
This time of orientation to Paraguay and of National Culture and Language Study (NCLA) is commonly referred to as e2, or Equipping Stage 2.
NTM training has three stages of equipping a missionary for his ministry that we call e1, e2, and e3. In each stage we desire that the missionary remember that being equipped to be an effective tool in God’s hands is a lifelong process… it never ends. Just because someone has been trained through their church and completed the course at NTM’s Missionary Training Center (e1), doesn’t mean they know all they need to know. We all continue to learn through our time in e2, and as we head into e3 and are involved in a tribal church planting ministry.
While I’m involved with connecting with Host Churches and getting housing for new missionaries, when it comes to the e2 portion of our involvement with the new missionaries, Ithie Jackson and I oversee that together. We each have different e2 missionaries that we are training and working with.
Currently, I meet weekly with three of the e2 missionary families at their houses to cover language/culture learning principles, how their language and culture study is going, disciple, etc. I start out with a time with the couple together to see how they are doing and cover anything that deals with both of them, adjustments to the country and culture, how the kids are doing, etc. My first question and concern isn’t “How are you doing in language and culture study?”, but “How are you doing?”. Areas of struggle and spiritual need, need to be addresses first. Then we can go on to other areas. It is a ministry of discipleship. Discipleship in areas spiritually, socially, linguistically, and culturally.
After a time with them together, I then split off for time with each missionary individually to focus on their individual language/culture needs.
On Fridays Ithie and I meet with all the e2 missionaries together, here at our field headquarters office, to cover other areas of language and culture learning and areas that relate to ministry here in Paraguay. This time includes such things as explaining how NTM Paraguay goes about choosing which tribal groups or areas we work in, MK education, support ministries, teamwork, etc.
Thanks for partnering with us. Your prayers are so very much appreciated. The lives we are able to touch for Christ, and the lives they in turn touch, are eternal results of your ministry.