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!
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| Our best friends |
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| Jessica is a missionary kid from Thailand, and is such an uplifting person to be around. |
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| Birthday party in our apartment |
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| Alton enjoying a meal out :) |
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| 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
