Last Day of September

I've survived an entire month away from home... wow! There are definitely times when I wish I could somehow beam myself back (ok, so that was a bit sci-fi there), but at the same time, I'm loving things here.

Highlights from September

• Labor Day hike to Ha Ha Tonka State Park
• Incredible classes (including, but not limited to:)
  • Communication Skills: Learning how to effectively communicate
  • Worldview Analysis: Learning about a worldview, which is how people view life, and its importance
  • Learning Styles: Learning how people learn and how to work with differences
• Playing Ultimate Frisbee every Friday afternoon
• Starting my ministry at Green Gables
• Learning lessons such as:
• Trust and confidence in God
• Importance of prayer at all times
• Playing with babies :-)
• Making lots of really close friends (we feel like a big family, especially all of us singles since we hang out together all the time)
• Eating lunch outside at the picnic tables
• Enjoying the beautiful weather and the gorgeous scenery

Classes this Week

The main classroom for the first semester students

Classes are still interesting (for the most part). This week, we have Foundational Bible Teaching and Love and Respect. In our Foundational Bible Teaching class (abbreivated FBT), we're just starting to hear the chronological lessons. The teachers are going to model the first 6 lessons for us, and that will take us from "What is the Bible and why is it important?" up to Noah and the Flood. Then, we will be broken into smaller groups so we can take turns teaching the remaining lessons, which go from Noah and the Flood to Jesus' Death, Burial and Resurrection. This is really cool hands-on experience for the field, and it's in a safe environment where we can learn from our mistakes and receive feedback from our teachers, most of whom are former missionaries who have used this material several times! It's exciting to see it all start coming together!

Worldview Analysis Class with George Walker

The Love and Respect class is also fairly interesting. We were warned by a second semester student that all of the singles in our class will either be married or engaged by the end of the class (thankfully, that hasn't happened to anyone yet... but we still have a week left... lol). Seriously, though, the class has been pretty cool. It's all about how men and women can relate better, whether they are in a marriage relationship or just working with each other in a team or whatever. In any relationship, men need respect and women need love (both need both, but this is an inherent need in each of them that is pretty deep). This is why Paul is always telling men to love their wives and women to respect their husbands. It's been pretty interesting to see the differences and how to relate better. We're actually watching a video series. So far, the speaker has been very engaging and the information is very helpful. I'd definitely recommend it to everyone to see, even singles (and no, you won't be married by the end. I am walking proof) :-)

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Yup, you know I'm having fun when I start holding babies all the time :-)

Dinner with Phil

Dinner with Phil

Last night, a bunch of the singles had Phil Sutton over for dinner. He works at the Sanford, FL office, but he and a few other staff are here until Friday for some meetings and stuff. So we decided to have him over since he is the one who processed most of our applications. It was pretty funny because only one of the single girls signed up on the sign-up sheet to host him, so when he arrived, there were like eight people and more kept coming. At one point in the conversation, one of the guys (who is pretty crazy) said "This might come out wrong" (here I warned Phil, "Brian speaks his mind, so don't be offended!") "But you look a LOT younger than you sound on the phone." Poor guy, I think we scared him a bit. :-)

Ministry Life

"Did you know that Satan has a brother?"

I was pretty stumped. Rapidly, I searched my brain for an answer. "Um, no I didn’t," I replied carefully. "Where’d you hear that?"

Not noticing my obvious discomfort, the fifteen-year-old rattled off a lengthy description of the supposed character from Native American legends that left my head spinning. How anyone could come up with such a crazy story? And he claimed he heard it from a pastor? There was a brief pause as I scrambled to get my thoughts together and come up with an intellectual reply to his slightly humorous (and false) story. But, as I looked at this kid, Byron, a hurting boy who had been placed at Green Gables Boys Home, tears suddenly filled my eyes. Who was I to judge his ideas as crazy? Byron had never had anyone who loved him enough to teach him the truth.

Byron is just one of several boys at Green Gables. Most of them are from troubled families, and all of them are still unsaved. For my community outreach ministry, I am privileged to go with a small team of seven people from MTC to work with the boys twice each week. On Sundays, we share a Bible lesson in a chronological format and discuss it with them. We talked about Creation this last Sunday, and the boys really got into the story. They were pulling out some things that I hadn't even seen before! On Thursdays, we spend time getting to know the boys, teaching them skills, and working on projects with them. This last Thursday, we worked on car maintenance with the boys. That was fun, and I actually learned quite a bit! :-)

I’m so excited to be able to share the love of Christ (and the truth of who God is) with these guys! Please be praying that they will be responsive to God's Word as we continue to teach them over this semester!

Day in the Life of an MTC Student

I'm sure many of you probably wonder what we do all day here at MTC. Well, here's the basic run-down (with my typical day for an example, of course, since that's the main one I go by) 

7:15am-8:00am—wake up, eat break-fast, have devotions

8:00am-9:45am—classes start. (on Mondays and Fridays, we have chapel from 8-8:45). We normally have two classes with a ten-minute break in between.

9:45am-10:00am—break



Me with the other four single girls in my E-linc group.
They call us the Fabulous Five! :-)



10:00am-10:20am—prayer time. We pray as a class, and on Mondays, we pray with our outreach ministry teams

10:20am-12:00pm—classes resume (on Fridays, we have E-linc group from 10:45-12:00). We have two more classes with another ten-minute break

12:00pm-1:30pm—lunch (on Wednesdays, my E-linc group meets for lunch and a meeting until 2:20)! Everyone makes their own at their own apartments, but a lot of the singles on my road end up eating together outside at the picnic tables. 

1:30ish pm-5:00pm (Monday-Wednesday)—work detail, (Thursday)—outreach ministry, (Friday)—more of a free day, homework, Ultimate Frisbee, etc

5:00pm-whenever—homework, dinner, hanging out, swimming, whatever until bedtime (Thursday evenings, I have worship practice at church)

So, as you can see, we have super full schedules here. It's quite a bit different than home, but God is teaching me so much, and the friendships I am making will definitely last a lifetime!



Friday night singles game night... fun times!



What It Really Takes

In one of our classes today, we learned what kind of person it takes to be a tribal church planter. It really put things into perspective for everyone here, and I thought it might be interesting to share with you guys as well (excuse the lame grammar at times... I concentrate on taking notes, so sometimes my grammar suffers as a result :D)

What kind of person does it take to create a tribal church (not that we will be perfect in this, obviously, but we should be growing in each of these areas)?

• Spiritual Qualities
• Humility, compassion, patience, faithfulness, perseverance, dependence on God, longsuffering, commitment, joy of the Lord, love, forgiveness, diligence, wisdom, self-control, peace, kindness, discernment, teachable, willingness, courage, stamina, prayerfulness, generosity, teamwork, loves God’s Word, passion
• Ministry Capabilities
• Be able to read, continue learning, time management, teaching, empathy, physical fitness, able to hear and reproduce sounds you hear (for language study), organization, studying, flexibility, leadership, able to work well with others (on a team), technology skills, be able to feed yourself, cook, cook from scratch, healthy diet, linguistics, weapon safety, health care, ability to laugh (at yourself when you make mistakes), carpentry/plumbing skills, money management, partnership development, self-grooming, cleanliness, navigation skills, hard work, communication skills, traveling skills

Wow, I had never really sat down and thought through all of those things!

Our teachers were saying today, you can't just go into a people group, preach the Gospel, and start a church the next day. It takes a lot of time and effort. Here's a summary of how long the process will probably take:

1. ? years = Trained by Local Church in the United States
2. 4-5 years = Trained by New Tribes Mission (this includes Bible school and MTC training)
3. 1-2 years = Partnership development (connecting with churches and others as a support team)
4. 1-3 years = National Culture and Language Acquisition (learning the language and culture of the country)
5. 3-4 years = Tribal Culture and Language Acquisition (learning the language and culture of the specific tribe that I will be in)
6. 1 year = Evangelism (teaching the people from Creation through Christ; includes Literacy programs)
7. 10 years = Beginning of a Maturing Church (from first converts through Bible translation)
8. Mature New Testament Church

This is a rough estimate; some works are longer and some shorter, depending on how things work. However, God's been teaching me that when I start to think about how much it will "cost", I should to stop and think about those people. If I were in their shoes, wouldn't I want someone to give their life so that I wouldn't have to spend eternity in Hell? God's been really emphasizing to me through the classes that people matter. Nothing else does. Who cares if I "waste my life" out in the jungle somewhere? I'm investing in the only thing that really matters in life, and that is such a cool thing! I am so blessed to have all of you guys back home supporting me through this! I would never be able to go if it weren't for you all sending, and that is such an awesome blessing! I thank you, but I know that the people group that I will be influencing someday will thank you even more!

Labor Day Adventures

This past weekend was fun since we had a long weekend with Labor Day. A few of us went over to Ha Ha Tonka State Park on Monday afternoon, and it was pretty cool! There's a ruined castle up there that some guy built back in the early 1900s. There's also a spring, some caves, a natural bridge, and a bunch of neat hiking trails. Pretty neat!

Announcing the New Addition!

I would like to announce the new addition to our small 67C family. She doesn't have a name yet, but she just arrived today. She's not the cutest thing in the world, but she's ours, and we are very proud!

And here's a picture for you...






Ok, so maybe we're not as proud as it sounds, but it's a cute turtle .We're going to get her a bigger box, and I think we might keep her at least for a bit. At any rate, thought y'all might be interested! :-)

Wow, this week has totally flown by! It's been pretty full and busy, which is why I haven't had much of a chance to write. I'm starting to build some close friendships with people. That has been a real blessing! In my E-linc group (about which I mentioned in my last post), there are three student couples and five single girls (including myself), and we have an absolute blast!!! I've been connecting a lot with the other four girls. The two staff couples that are leading the group, the Hazens and the Tureks, are also really awesome! They are sort of our advisors and mentors for the entire time we are at MTC, and their desire is to help us grow spiritually and to invest in our lives. They are both former missionaries, so it's been cool to hear their stories! We meet as a group every Wednesday and Friday for about an hour and a half to connect and share what God is teaching us throughout the week.

This weekend has been pretty nice so far. Because of Labor Day, we don't have any classes on Monday, so we are all pretty happy about that! ;-) I hung out with some friends today at a "Things Party" (yeah, I never heard of it either until I went). Apparently, you bring whatever "things" you are working on (reading, homework, etc) and just hang out as a group while you work on your stuff hahaha. It was pretty fun! And then we ended up playing games for a few hours and eating tacos together. Yum! :-)

Tomorrow, I'm going to be helping with worship again at church. I'm super excited, but I REALLY miss MVAC! Love you guys!!!

For classes this next week, we are going to have Culture and Language Acquisition (which is a class that teaches you how to go about learning a culture and language that has NEVER been learned before!! o.O), Communication Skills (clearly, this class teaching you how to communicate better ;-) ), and Foundational Bible Teaching (which will take us through all of the main stories in the Bible from Creation to Christ, laying a foundation for why man needs a Savior). The last class will go through the end of October, and it is one of the most important ones that we will take this semester. I am pretty excited about that, because, even though I know the Bible, it is so cool to see how it all makes sense together. Can't wait!