God's Timing Is PERFECT!

God and His Timing

Oh how much we need to learn about God's timing in our lives! This is something that He is teaching us in ways we would rather not experience, but yet we know that there is no better thing than the perfect plan of God. In life there are so many things that we have to wait on: our favorite T.V. series to start, our dinner to be done, our spouse getting dressed, our test results to come back, and so on. Although most of those are very minor in comparison to other things we wait for. It is mind blowing to think of the fact that our God is Sovereign, and when we wait on Him there will be a wonderful result.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ^" He has made everything beautiful in its time."
Isaiah 40:31 "they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings ^like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

What God has us Waiting on Currently:

• God has Alton and I waiting on Him in many areas of our life. The biggest one that comes to mind while writing this is Alton's job situation. It is no news to many of you that Alton has been working out of town for the last several months. He is usually gone Monday-Thursday, and sometimes it's Monday-Saturday. This job HAS been a tremendous blessing however, because it is well paying, and has allowed for us to buy the things we need to settle into life here in NC. However, with a baby coming next month we are VERY anxious for him to find a job closer to home. We have been looking for a while now, and nothing has yet to open up. Please pray with us concerning this! We may think that now is the perfect time for another job to open up, but God may have something else in mind. 
• With the crazy schedule/location of Alton's job we have also not been able to get involved in churches in our area like we had hoped. Our goal is still to go to the New Tribes Missionary Training Center in Missouri this coming August. As we mentioned before, we are looking to be better supported financially for this to happen. We are really hoping that God's timing for us to go would be this August, but we don't know what He has in store. Please be praying with us concerning our support, and timing in going to MTC (missionary training center). 
• Last but not least, we are waiting on this little baby girl to arrive!! :) 9 months feels like an eternity on some days, and on others it feels like a blink of an eye. We have already been blessed with a wonderful baby shower recently, and one more will be taking place this weekend. God is certainly teaching me (Grace) patience through this pregnancy as there are many things I am waiting for. There are so many things that you need when having a baby, and I have been learning patience in waiting for the right time to get those things. November 21st is right around the corner, and I just KNOW that God will provide me with everything I need to be a mother! 

What About You?

I am sure we are not the only ones that God is teaching patience, and timing to! I hope that you are learning things about waiting on the Lord, because we certainly are. There is so much joy in waiting when you know that you have a God who wants nothing more than to bless your life! Keep that in mind friends, and we will do the same! 

Thank you for praying! 

Please feel free to let us know what we can be praying with you about! 

Because He said, "Go!"

         Alton, Grace, & soon-to-be Riah Cale! 

All settled in

HOME FOR NOW

We have been back in the good old state of North Carolina for just over a month now. Alton was able to start working with a construction company 2 weeks after we got back, and it has been such a blessing that he got work so quickly. This past week we started renting a little house of our own. We were very fortunate to be able to stay with Grace's parents for the past month, and even though we were welcome to stay longer, we decided to go ahead and get our own place. Alton's job is going to require him to be out of town for the whole week, and so it will work out nicely to have our own place to be together on the weekends! 

Baby Cale

Since we returned home, we were able to get Medicaid for Grace's pregnancy. She has found a good doctors office, and has decided on the hospital where she will have the baby. Last week Friday we got to see our baby make an on screen debut at Grace's 18 week ultrasound. We got the WONDERFUL news that we are having a precious baby girl (which is what we were both secretly hoping for). :) We also found out that Grace has something called Complete Placenta Previa. This means that the placenta (which is normally located towards the top of the uterus) is located at the bottom. Because of this, the way that the baby would naturally come out is blocked. A cesarean delivery will be necessary, unless the placenta moves out of the way. The percentage of it moving is very slim, but it IS possible! So if you would please be praying with us that it will move so that we can have a natural delivery. If it does not move, there are many potential complications later on in the pregnancy. We are going back for another ultrasound in August, and they will know more at that point. Despite this disheartening news, we are still very happy about this baby, and we know that God is in control, and that if it is His will for things to change then they will. We have already decided on her name, which we have had picked out for over a year and a half now. :) Riah Skye Cale is her name. 

Our goals for this next year                                                               We are still hoping to carry on with the missionary training with New Tribes Mission. Now that we have graduated from the Bible Institute we have another year and a half of training at the missionary training center. This next year we are planing on saving up as much money as possible, and building relationships with people in churches in our area. Since we will not be able to work during the next phase of training we will need to have the money saved up, or raised through support. We are excited to carry on with the training, and we are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us! 

Please continue praying for us! We know God has great things for us, and for you. 

Because He said "Go!", Alton & Grace Cale (+ Riah) :)  

The end is in sight!

It is crazy to think that in one month and 8 days we will be graduating from New Tribes Bible Institute! We are not entirely sure whether we should be rejoicing or feeling sorrowful about this, but we do know that whatever God has for us next will be amazing.

Alton & his friend dressed up for
Hollywood night as Gilligan & Skipper

Grace & her best friend Stephanie

As we have mentioned before, but now it is more official, we are moving back to North Carolina and will move directly into Grace's parents house. They are currently trying to sell their house, so we are not sure how long we will be able to stay there. As soon as we have jobs (which you can be praying for), then we will most likely be looking for an apartment to rent. We plan on attending Grace Bible Church (our home church) when we return, and would love to get as involved there as we possibly can. We are looking forward to what ministries the Lord has in store for us.

Grace's certificate of pregnancy-She is due November 28th

Hopefully you have all heard our AWESOME news that Grace is pregnant!! We could not be more excited, and would like to ask for prayers that this pregnancy will go well, and that the baby will continue to grow and be healthy through these next 8 months. Grace is only 7 weeks right now, so a lot can still happen in these early months, but we are praying for the Lord's hand to keep this tiny baby healthy.

We are looking forward to our senior trip to Wayumi starting on May 8th! When we return from that one week trip we will only have 4 days of class left. Those will be a very busy 4 days, as we will be rapping up class, packing, and readying ourselves for the big move back to NC. We have to be out of our apartment 2 days after graduation, because they are doing some work in the apartment, so we will definitely be in a time crunch.

Grace's last day of work will be May 4th, which is approaching quickly. Once again...we could not be more thankful for the way the Lord has provided for us through this job. It will be sad to leave Andrew, and the rest of the family that we work for. We have thoroughly enjoyed being part of those 6 kids lives, as well as getting to know the parents!

Our biggest prayer request at this time would be for financial provision. After doing our budget last night, we realized that we will not have enough money to make our final school bill, pay our 2 other monthly bills, and still have money for the gas home. That is even leaving out things such as groceries for this next month, as well as gas. We have seen the Lord provide in a miraculous way since we have been here, and we don't doubt He will continue to do this. Please be praying with us about the means in which God will provide!

We are so appreciative for the friendships, the learning, and the trials we have had here at NTBI the last 2 years! Thank you for praying and supporting us through this most amazing time of our lives!

Because HE said "Go!"

There is NO going back!

What the Lord is Teaching Us!
We are struggling for words in how to even begin to tell you all that is on our hearts today. The Lord has been tugging and pulling at our wrong thinking, and showing us how we have conformed to the thinking of this world, and have failed to have the ideals and goals that He wants for us. This has taken place not only from the daily studying of His word, but also from the amazing people that we have the privilege of being around. This past week we had a very special speaker named Brad Buser. He was sharing with us in our chapel time each day, and we cannot tell you how much it challenged us! Brad Buser has been a missionary with NTM for many many years, and has had the great honor of being used by God in a magnificent way. Him, his wife, and their very young children moved to a tribe in Papua New Guinea, one that had never heard the name of Jesus Christ, and they reached them with the gospel. They were there for 20 years, and now Brad is a representative for NTM. Take a couple minutes to watch this video about what the Buser family did in PNG. 

Brad challenged us straight from the Word of God with a reality that has just smacked us right upside the head! To see God's desire for how we should live our lives compared to how we really do live is far to much of a contrast. It is so easy to become comfortable with living an "average" life, and using the excuse such as "I faithfully serve in the church", or "I am a good Christian", instead of looking at scripture and realizing that God has said He wishes that NONE should perish. Jesus spent the last minutes with His disciples telling them to go into ALL the world and peach the gospel. Brad reminded us that, yes, there are unsaved people in America, but they have the Word of God that they can go to...in over 2,000 different forms (big print, small print, leather, hard cover, KJV,NKJV,NIV,ESV....etc). There are churches on every corner, and there are Christians who are not physically able to go live in a remote place...so there are still plenty of opportunities for unbelievers in America to be led to Christ. According to Paul in Romans 15, a missionary is someone that takes the gospel where it has never been. Somewhere he did not have to build on someone else's foundation. There are still over 2,100 unreached groups (that we KNOW of) throughout the world. These people have no hope of ever hearing the gospel, unless God's people finally step up to the plate, and have the same heart that God has towards them. NONE SHOULD PERISH, when they could have EVERLASTING life in HEAVEN! We all deserve hell, but God has made another way...the only way. This does not mean that the Church is not important, but the Church is what should be facilitating those that are willing to get out there, and reach the unreached! The first semester here we decided that tribal church planting was what we should do, but now we realize it's not what we should do because we feel bad for these people, or because that sounds like a good idea, but because this is what I must do to obey God. 

"No one has the right to hear the Gospel twice while there remains someone who has not heard it once." -Oswald J. Smith-

Please be in prayer with us, as we have yet to find out how God is going to get us to the field. There are so many questions, and so much to figure out, but there is nothing else we would rather be doing with our time. We are sent people, who were bought with a price! We no longer have the right to pursue our dreams, comforts, and goals. 2 Timothy 2:3-4 says,  "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer." We have been given a mission, and we must obey! 

The Life of a Senior!

This semester has been a GREAT one so far. We have had a very reasonable amount of homework, so that has made a little more time for social life. It's sad to think of the short time we have left here at NTBI (just under 3 months to be exact), and we are so thankful for the friendships we have here. They are the ones that last a lifetime! 

Our best friends

Jessica is a missionary kid from Thailand,
and is such an uplifting person to be around. 

Birthday party in our apartment

Alton enjoying a meal out :) 

Alisha and Grace enjoying the warmth of their snuggies :) 

We are so blessed to have friends that have the same desire to serve the Lord as we do. There is no other relationship in the world like this bond we have! 

Prayer Requests & Praises

• pray for our last three months here, as we have much still to do, and much still to figure out.
• praise for a job that has been a tremendous blessing!
• pray for moving plans to work out (ex. trailer, gas money, where we will live, jobs when we get back to NC) 
• praise that we have officially been referred on to the Missionary Training Center. Through our time here we have been evaluated in everything we do. If they do not see us as prepared to carry on with the training they would ask us to take some time off. We have been given the green light, and are free to apply to MTC whenever we are ready (money is the only thing stopping us right now).
• pray for us to stay focused on the task that God has set before us. 

Thank you all for you love, support, prayers, and friendships! We are SO blessed.

Because He said "Go",

Alton & Grace Cale

Senior Semester Begins!

The Final Semester Has Begun:

• Today we completed the first full week of classes. It is so wonderful to be back into the in-depth study of the Word of God. This semester started with us diving into the books of Daniel & Revelation (although we already studied through the Old Testament, we did not study Daniel because it goes along with Revelation), as well as Philippians. Today we are starting 1 Thessalonian's, and the ball keeps rolling after that. 
• Towards the end of this semester our entire senior class will be taking a trip to Jersey Shore, PA. There, we will attend Wayumi, which is a retreat that New Tribes has set up in order to get a feel for what Tribal Missions is like. We will be there for a week, and will take a class while we are there as well. We are SO excited for this, and can't wait to get a better understanding of what we might be doing in the future. 

The Camp

To see more click here!

• We are still getting about 20 hours a week of work with Andrew. This is helping in keeping up with our phone, and car insurance bills, as well as our monthly $475 school payment. It is always a real challenge to get the initial down payment for the semester, and we are still trying to play catch up. Please pray with us about the outstanding $250 we still owe by February 1st. After that we will have 3 more payments of $475 through the rest of this semester. We are so thankful for the job that we have, but it has put more of a strain on us with getting the homework done. 
• As we mentioned previously, we are student leaders this semester. Our time in training before the semester started was phenomenal! We are on the Campus Life team, which means we are involved in planning events and socials for the student body. It is a lot of fun, but it is going to consist of a good bit of time too. We never realized how much time and effort really goes into everything that the school does for us. 
• Continue to be in prayer with us about where God wants us to be next. There are many possibilities, and everyday it seems like another option would be better than the previous. We know, however, that wherever we end up, we want to serve God with our whole hearts, souls, and minds! 

Thank you friends for your prayers, support, and encouraging words!

Because He said "Go!", 

Alton & Grace Cale

What's now? What's next?

What are the Cale's doing now?
Hey Everyone!! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. We surely did. After a wonderful week at home in NC, we returned to NTBI with a full work schedule ahead of us, in order to make our January 1st down payment for this semester. The Lord is so amazing, and He is always finding new ways to surprise us in the way that He provides. We are still a little short on our bill, but within the next couple weeks we hope to be back in the black! Nothing is on our schedule (except for working), until the 13th, which is the day we will begin our training to be student leaders. We were asked to consider being student leaders this semester, which we are so excited about. This basically means that we will have some more responsibilities on our shoulders, which we consider a great honor. Classes begin again on the 19th, and we will be into our final semester here at New Tribes Bible Institute. It is rather sad to think about at times, seeing as this is the only home we have shared together as a married couple, and considering how much the Lord has taught us within these walls. What a privilege it has been, and we couldn't have made it through without the Lord working through you all to provide financially, spiritually, and emotionally for us this past year and a half. Thank you!

Grace's family together for Christmas

Alton's family together for Christmas Eve

What's next for the Cale's?
This question is much more complicated than we would like it to be, but what fun would life be without God teaching us to be patient and trust Him? As we have shared with many of you before, our goal is to be Tribal Missionaries with New Tribes Mission. In order for this to happen we still need more training. The next step would be heading to the Missionary Training Center in Roach, Missouri. It is there that we would complete the last year and a half of what New Tribes Mission requires for us to go on. Essentially, we would love to go straight there after graduating from NTBI in May, and although we know that the Lord is more than capable to provide the finances to make this happen, we also know that there is a possibility that He wants to do something else with us first. Unlike it is here, once we start there, we are not allowed to work permanent jobs. They do allow some part time work on weekends, but essentially we will be committed to the training full time, everyday of the week. Due to this fact we would love to see more support come in from the Church body. In the event that we do not have the finances we need to carry on with the training right away, then our plan is to move back to NC, and work for a year, as well as spend as much time as we can with our home church, Grace Bible. Through working, we could hopefully save enough money for our training period, and hopefully we will gain some supporters along the way. We know that whatever path the Lord leads us down will be filled with growing, learning, leading, and trials, but we are willing to accept whatever the Lord has in store for us.

*We would truly appreciate your prayers at this time, as we know that the decisions we make are going to require absolute faith in God to lead us where He wants us to be. 
*We would also appreciate any advice you may have for us concerning these issues, or anything else you have on your heart. 

From the two of us, here at New Tribes Bible Institute

with love & appreciation,

Alton & Grace Cale