How we got to where we are today . . .<\/p>\n
Rick\u2019s Testimony<\/strong><\/p>\n Rick spent his early years in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 When he was a preteen, his parents decided to become missionaries with New Tribes Mission.\u00a0 As a 10 year old, Rick accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.\u00a0 Rick spent his teenage years with his family among the Mouk (rhymes with coke) tribe in Papua New Guinea.\u00a0 There he saw the need that the lost have for the Gospel and the amazing power that a relationship with Jesus Christ has to change lives.<\/p>\n Anji\u2019s Testimony<\/strong><\/p>\n Anji grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.\u00a0 As a young teenager she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior during a series of revival meetings in her\u00a0 home church.\u00a0 She was exposed to missions during short term mission trips.\u00a0\u00a0On NTM’s Interface program\u00a0she saw the need and discovered some interests and abilities that she might not have otherwise known about.<\/p>\n Their Testimony<\/strong><\/p>\n Rick & Anji met at Messiah College and were married in 1993.\u00a0 Over the intervening years Rick worked in the Used & Antiquarian Book business and Anji taught English at a public school.\u00a0 During this time they were active members in their home church and continued their strong interest in missions.<\/p>\n Training With NTM<\/strong><\/p>\n Both Rick & Anji graduated with bachelor degrees from Messiah College.\u00a0 They have also continued their training through a variety of courses offered through their home church.<\/p>\n In 2001, 10 days after Kira was born, they entered the training provided by New Tribes Mission.\u00a0 The first year focused on cross-cultural church planting and the next year and a half focused on the skills needed to learn and analyze an unwritten language and culture.\u00a0 During this time Keane joined their family as well.\u00a0 They graduated from New Tribes Language Institute in December 2003.\u00a0 During this time God had planted a desire in their hearts to help tribal people reach out to other tribes.<\/p>\n On the Field<\/strong><\/p>\n First Term:<\/strong> After 6 months of partnership development, the family headed to the Island\u2019s Region of Papua New Guinea.\u00a0 There they began field orientation and learning the national trade language.\u00a0 As they were finishing field orientation, the Mouk church elders asked NTM to send missionaries to help them in their outreach to the Lusi, particularly in the area of Bible translation.\u00a0 Rick, New Tribes leadership, and Mouk leaders participated in two surveys of the Lusi people. In May 2006 they moved into the tribe.\u00a0 In August 2006 they began language & culture learning.\u00a0 In July 2009 they passed their final language check and developed a literacy program for the Lusi.\u00a0 They also taught their Mouk co-workers to type.\u00a0 After a year of Home Assignment in 2010 they returned to the field in 2011.<\/p>\n Second Term:<\/strong> They\u00a0began working on translating the Bible into the Lusi language.\u00a0 They completed all passages needed for Phase 1, 2, and 3 of the Chronological Teaching Program.\u00a0 This includes portions of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Kings, Psalms, Isaiah (and other OT prophecies of the Messiah),\u00a0Jonah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and\u00a0Acts.\u00a0 Meanwhile their Mouk co-workers were writing the Lusi Bible Lessons, and in 2013 began the first outreaches to a small group of Lusi completely in\u00a0the Lusi language.\u00a0 After Rick & Anji\u00a0attended a workshop on translating the Epistles in fall of\u00a02013, they translated the book of Romans.\u00a0 There were further outreaches in 2014 resulting in the growth of the Lusi church.<\/p>\n One of the things\u00a0Rick & Anji\u00a0did not expect to do, but God had other plans, was the developing of a How to Learn A\u00a0Language and Culture Class<\/em> for Mouk believers who wanted more tools to help them reach out to other tribal groups where they didn’t already know the language or the culture.\u00a0\u00a0 The class began in\u00a02012 with 3 students and grew to 15.\u00a0 We developed 4 language and culture learning books in the trade language to\u00a0use with tribal language and culture learners.\u00a0\u00a0As a result today, there are 15 Mouk missionaries who have gone through the class, and are currently going to 3 language groups.<\/p>\n Objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n Long Term:<\/strong>\u00a0 Our desire is to assist the Mouk elders as they work to plant churches among the Lusi and other people groups\u00a0in Papua New Guinea.\u00a0 Because this is a Mouk outreach and we want them to retain ownership, we\u00a0 seek to assist them with training, technology, resources, and translation and by not taking over any of the work that they can do for themselves.<\/p>\n This Next Term of 4 years:\u00a0<\/strong> Two main goals \u2014 1) Continue translation of the\u00a0books of the Bible\u00a0that support the Chronological teaching program.\u00a0 2)\u00a0 Continue\u00a0training Mouk elders to type so that they are better equipped to write Bible Lessons, whether in Mouk or in other languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How we got to where we are today . . . Rick\u2019s Testimony Rick spent his early years in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 When he was a preteen, his parents decided to become missionaries with New Tribes Mission.\u00a0 As a 10 year old, Rick accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.\u00a0 Rick spent his teenage years with his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":799,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-2","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/799"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}