Just when we thought we had the next few years of our lives planned out, God stopped us in our tracks, and turned us in another direction. We know He has the perfect plan, and we are trusting Him!
As you know, after graduating from NTBI in May 2011 we were planning on heading to MTC as soon as we could get there. We now see that God has something different in store for us. Not that we will never go to MTC, because we both deeply desire to go, but as for now we are being led to something else. Alton was laid off from his job in January, and two days later had been hired for a company working in Anderson, South Carolina. The fact that he was plopped down in Anderson, SC was pretty astounding to us. We were not making any effort to try and move there, but unbeknownst to us, God had laid it on my (Grace) brother's heart to bring us to that exact city. He is on staff at Newspring Church, and he was praying that the Lord would bring us there to work, and get involved. This Friday we are making the move to SC. For the last 4 months Riah and I have been living with my folks, and Alton gets to come home on the weekends. We are SO thankful that we will finally get to be together again. We will be getting involved in ministry at Newspring, and we would really love it if Alton could get on staff there eventually. We still are completely missions focused, and are excited that Newspring has a big heart for missions as well.
I can't adequately express how much we desire to do WHATEVER it is that the Lord wants us to. We had hoped it was MTC, but He is guiding us in another direction...one that has lots of unknowns, and honestly is one that we didn't even see coming, but God has it figured out. We are clay in the Potter's hands, we are vessels for His use, we are holding our lives with open hands just asking Him to make known what He has for us.
Please pray for us, that the Lord would show us where He wants us to be, and what He wants us to be doing.
Thanks for your support as we have been on this journey of life! :)
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. (Proverbs 11:14)
It is not always easy to listen to wise counsel, especially when we don't see it the same way at first. Thankfully, after we take it to the Lord we see the wisdom in what was said and decided. A few weeks ago we met with the elders of our church, as well as a few of the men on the missions committee. To our disappointment we all came to the conclusion that heading to MTC in January still seems like a closed door. We have the support of our home church, and they are eager to see us get there, and then get to the mission field. We do not feel it is necessary to know where all of our financial support will come from while we are in training, but there is also an aspect of being responsible. At this time we do not have the financial support behind us that would be necessary to support our family as we finish our training with the mission. So, we are going to spend our time from now until August sharing our vision with people and churches in our area in hopes to find people passionate about the lost enough to do something about it. We want to dedicate our lives to the people in the world (there are still approx. 2500 people groups) who do not have the Bible in their language, and have never even heard of Jesus Christ...the one and only Savior of the world! We are willing to go, and even though we don't know how God is going to get us there, He does, and that's all that matters.
Please be in prayer for us. It's hard not to get discouraged when our plans don't come to fruition, but we always go back to the fact that God's plans are far greater than what we can imagine.
This summer has flown by! It seems like life has been busier than ever, and I am sure that has to do with why time seems to fly these days. As I mentioned in our last post, our goal has been to get involved in our church, until our time comes to go to the Missionary Training Center in MO. We have thoroughly been enjoying being a functioning part in the body of Christ. Since my last post we have moved thirty minutes away to be closer to Alton's work. He now has a 2 minute commute to work every morning, and this has been such a blessing! It has made juggling one car much more feasible, and it's given Alton the luxury of getting to come home for lunch everyday, which really helps break up our day.
Over the last couple of months we have been enjoying being part of a small group. Small groups really are such a wonderful way to get to know people in the church in a much more intimate way. We are currently reading through the book Radical together, and Alton and I love it! Alton will be leading our next small group discussion, so pray that the Lord would give him clarity of words. We are also co-leading our churches college and career group, which consists of mostly young college students. We are going through the video series The Truth Project. We hosted it three weeks ago, and we had 21 people packed into our tiny apartment, and it was great! :) I (Grace) am helping with the care ministry, which involves writing and sending letters to those sick or grieving a loss in the church. Alton meets once a week with a godly man in our church for accountability, and they are studying Ephesians together. I am meeting once a week with two other married ladies, and we are going through the book, The Excellent Wife. About a month ago we taught children's church, and we will be doing this every couple of months. So as you can see, we have our schedules pretty full most days, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. We are really loving investing in the peoples lives around us, and having others invest in us.
January is approaching quickly, and we are really hoping and praying that the funds would come in for us to head off to MO to finish our training with New Tribes Mission. We have to let our apartment managers know in November if we are leaving in January, so that we don't get charged a fee, and so we ask that you pray with us about knowing what to do. We want nothing more than to be able to go, but unless the Lord shows us how to pay for the training, we are not sure how to make it work.
Riah is growing so fast, and is adding such joy to our lives! We love watching her grow, develop, and learn new skills. She is attempting to repeat some words like duck, and dog, and she is cruising all over the place. She still does not have any teeth, but it looks like several are making their way in. She will be 10 months old on the 21st of this month, which is crazy to think about.
We are thankful to finally know some of what the Lord's plan is for us currently. After talking with our home church leaders we have come to the decision to wait until January, or at the latest, next August to head to the Missionary Training Center. With the pressures of moving, Alton working out of town for 6 months, having a child, and all the changes that have come our way, we have not been as involved in our home church (Grace Bible Church) as we would have liked. They are completely behind us, and are wanting us to head to MTC as soon as we can, but they also would like to have us around a little bit longer. Since we have been home we were getting involved in another church in our area, but it came to our attention that the people in our home church did not have much access to us, and were not getting to see the growth we had made while at Bible school.
Thank you all for your support in what we are doing. We appreciate the prayers and comments that we get on a regular basis concerning what the Lord is leading us to. We will spend our time here in NC with Alton continuing to work, Grace spending her time taking care of Riah, and we will be trying to spend our evenings involved in small group, helping lead the college and career group, and fellowshipping with our church body.
Please continue to pray for us as we get involved in ministry right here in our hometown. Also continue to seek the Lord about how you can partner with us so that we can get our missionary training done, and eventually make it overseas for missions work. We are aiming to head to Missoiri in January now, but of course we know the Lord can still change our plans. Thankfully our application is good for 2 years, so we will not have to do the application process again! That's good news :)
We have started the application process to begin our training at the Missionary Training Center in Missouri. Our goal is to start this August, and we are so excited at this possibility. "What would stop you?" you may ask, and the only thing at this moment that we can think of would be finances. However, no matter our financial situation, if the Lord is not wanting us to go this August then that of course would stop us. :)
What we need?
To start this August we need a LOT of prayer! Please pray with us that the Lord would make it possible for us. Some specifics that you could pray for would be: the application process to go smoothly, the money that we need to pay for the two years of training, the ability to focus on what God is wanting us to do, and the strength to once again leave our families and move far from home.
The Missionary Training Center
We understand that most of you don't know exactly what the missionary training is, and what we will do while we are there. We would like to ask you to click here to go to the NTM website to read about the academics that we will be participating in while we are there. You can also navigate around the website to find out any other details you might be wondering about. Thank you for taking your time to do that.
We are so glad to finally have our daughter with us and healthy!
Riah is named after the book of Zechariah, which means YHWH has remembered. Skye is after Grace's best friend in South Africa, and also goes along with the meaning of her first name (YHWH has remembered in the Heavens).
The Birth:
Wow! I am sure glad that part is over. :) For those of you who are interested in how the labor process went...here you go.
Towards the end of my pregnancy we found out that my placenta had moved out of the way of the cervix, so all your prayers concerning that were answered! I was so happy to be able to have a natural birth (natural as in no c-section NOT as in no medication! lol). Due to the fact that I had gestational diabetes my doctors thought it would be best to induce me one week before my due date, because the health risks at the end of a gestational diabetes pregnancy are a lot greater. Sunday November 20th Alton and I arrived to "check into" the hospital at 5 p.m. to begin the process. They planned to insert cervidil that night around 7 in order to ripen my cervix, and then start me on pitocin at 6 A.M. the next morning. It was very surreal checking into the hospital knowing that when we leave we would be parents to a little girl.
After the long checking in process, and getting all hooked up and poked and prodded for a couple of hours it was time to begin. The doctor came in at 7 p.m. and inserted the cervidil, which had to stay in for 12 hours (at this point I was already dilated 1 c.m.). Often times this alone can kick start labor...and that's exactly what happened. After taking some sleeping pills around 9 p.m., I was nice and groggy and ready for a good night of sleep, so that I would be ready for the big task ahead the next morning. Like that was gonna happen!!! lol. ;) At 9:30 p.m. the contractions started. Yikes! The pain was so sharp and mostly in my back. Back labor = NO FUN.
Here is how the rest of the night went:
@ 11 P.M. contractions were 2-3 minutes apart
@ 12 A.M. I was checked and was dilated 3 c.m.
@ 12:30 A.M. I was given Demerol to help with the pain
@ 2 A.M. I was given a second dose of Demerol
@ 5:30 A.M. I was checked and was still only dilated 3 c.m. :( Bummer! Cervidil was removed and contractions slowed to 3-7 minutes apart.
@ 5:30 I was able to get up and shower before they started the pitocin (the medicine that would bring on contractions and labor).
@ 6:30 pitocin drip was started, and I was dilated to 4 c.m.
@7:30 I got the epidural! Hallelujah!!!! What a relief.
The rest of the day was much much better! After a whole night of no sleep and terrible back and stomach contractions I was able to rest. I started to dilate relatively fast for someone having their first baby. By 3 o clock I was dilated to 9 c.m.! One more to go. At this point Alton and I made bets as to when she would be born. I optimistically said she would be born at 4 p.m.. Oh boy was I wrong! I was, however, able to start pushing at 4. After an hour of pushing the nurse said that the baby had not come down at all. :( What a disappointment. I was EXHAUSTED!!! The doctor decided to let me "labor down" for a while...which means rest and just let the contractions bring the baby down the birth canal some more. At this point I was given a top off on my epidural because it's effects were wearing off. At 7:00 they finally decided it was time for me to start pushing again! I was so ready for it all to be over. I remember praying "Lord, please let this be quick!". Alton and I made bets again, and I bet that she would be born at 8:00, Alton said 8:16. Much to my utter delight and relief Riah Skye was born at 8:01 p.m.
The plan was for the doctor to place her right onto my stomach, and Alton would cut the cord. The policy at this hospital is that they would leave the baby on your chest for the first hour of it's life, and then they would take it to be weighed and cleaned off (and by take it I mean take it to the station that was set up right in the room with me. This hospital never takes the baby out of the room with the mother. Unless the mother requests it...they don't even take it to the nursery. EVERYTHING is done in the room with the mother). Sadly, during the final pushes, Riah's shoulders got stuck, and then when she came out she was in shock. They had Alton cut the cord quickly and then took her immediately to the station in the room to be checked. After what seemed like forever I finally heard her cry. She was ok! I told them to go ahead and weigh her, and clean her off. While that was all going on, the doctor was working hard to try and stop my bleeding. I was hemorrhaging bad! The nurse and the doctor were getting worried that they wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding. Just when I thought the painful part was over (and by this time my epidural was not working very well), the most painful part of the whole process was yet to come. In order to stop the bleeding there were two nurses and the doctor that were pushing as hard as they could on my abdomen. They were pushing on the clots in my stomach to try and stop the bleeding. This was the first time (since I got the epidural) that I cried from pain. It took approximately an hour for them to finally get the bleeding to stop. Yes, it was an hour before I finally got to hold my little girl. But the wait was WELL worth it! She was a beauty.
Total hours in labor = 23 1/2
Thanks to everyone who prayed for her and I during this time!
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!
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) :)
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!
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.
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.
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!
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
Four more days and counting! Our third semester at New Tribes Bible Institute is coming to a quick and steady ending. We will be done with classes on Thursday, and are so glad we can see the end in sight. We are currently taking Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit), Ephesians, and Soteriology (the study of salvation). They have been absolutely phenomenal classes, and we are learning so much. There is a class of seniors that will be graduating this coming Saturday, and Sunday we will leave for North Carolina. This time we will only be home for one week, seeing as Grace has a job here in MI. Our plan is to stay here and work as much as possible in order to save the money we need for our final semester here.
we have snow!
Christian Evangelism Cookie Exchange!
Yesterday, Grace hosted a cookie exchange party. Her motive in this was to give the women here a chance to invite unsaved girls into the school in order to get to know them more personally, in hopes that they will eventually get the chance to share the gospel. Please be in prayer for Grace's friend Jesse. We are not sure if she is saved, but we can tell that she is not presently walking with the Lord. She came to Grace's cookie exchange, and a great relationship is starting to form. Pray for wisdom, as Grace looks for the right words and questions to cause Jesse to question what she is putting her trust in.
look at all those cookies!
girls enjoying a little snack
Prayer!
It is so encouraging for us to know that there are many of you praying for us on a regular basis. We appreciate it so much, and are so thankful for our family in Christ that we have all over the world. We would like to specifically ask for prayer about some specifics.
Strength to finish out this last week. It will consist of lots of homework and a test for each class.
Provision for the $2,100 we need by January 1st in order to come back for our last semester.
Safe travels to and from NC
A job for Alton
Guidance for after we graduate. We desire to carry on with our training at the Missionary Training Center, but we have no idea how we are going to pay for it. Pray for provision.
Have a wonderful Christmas!!! We hope we get to see you :)
October:This has been a wonderful month for us. Although, it has been one of the busiest months we have had since we have been here, it has been one of growing in God, growing in friendships, and growing in our marriage. We have been learning more than we could have ever imagined!
Special Emphasis-
Chris Lujan (second from the left) with Siar people
This past week was special emphasis week. We have this once a semester, and it entails having a special missionary speaker leading all of our chapels for the week, and then on Friday we don't have classes and he gets the day to share some more with us. The special emphasis speaker this past week was Chris Lujan. He and his family are missionaries in Papua New Guinea, working with the Siar people in a remote tribal setting. We were able to learn so much about the work they are doing there, and also were challenged immensely in the Word of God. One of the biggest things we took from our time with him was the fact that in order to make disciples we must first be one! He took us to Luke14:25-35 which talks about the cost of being a disciple. We strongly encourage you to read this passage for yourself...TODAY! It will challenge your heart, like it did ours. One of the costs that Luke talks about in this passage is the giving up of EVERYTHING in your life. Out of all the challenges in this part of scripture, we know that this is the hardest thing for an average American to understand. The #1 reason Christians do not go to the field is because of their stuff. We have so many possessions in this culture of ours that to leave it all behind for the sake of the Gospel is just too much to handle. Be careful that this is not where you are at in your life...you will be highly disappointed when you reach Heaven and all your possessions burn, and you are left standing before the Lord of Lords and King of Kings with just a pile of ash. Let your loyalty to God reign supreme in your life!!!!
Please pray for missionaries Chris and Erin Lujan! (if you are interested in reading a wonderful story about the Siar tribe CLICK HERE)
Grace & Andrew- We are so incredibly thankful to our Lord for being our provider. With every month a new school bill arrives, not to mention other financial responsibilities that come our way, and the Lord finds a way to make it possible for us to have the money every time. One of the biggest provisions for finances has been Grace's job as a caregiver for a 13 year old boy named Andrew. This job sort of just fell in her lap the first day we arrived back in Michigan, after the summer break. We had done a lot of babysitting for Andrews family last year, and so they knew we would be interested in working with Andrew more consistently. Andrew was adopted by a wonderful family that graduated from New Tribes Bible Institute 2 years ago. They have made their mission field Spring Arbor, Michigan. They serve the Lord by helping children through fostering and adoption. Currently they have 6 children. Two are their own, two are adopted (Andrew being one of them), and two are foster boys. This family has grown so dear to our hearts, and we have loved getting to know them. Andrew has a condition called Cerebral Palsy (if you do not know much about this condition I encourage you to look it up). He, as I mentioned above, is 13 years old, yet he only has a mind/physical capacity of a 9 month baby. Which essentially makes him completely dependent on others for all his needs. Grace has been working anywhere from 18-20 hours a week with him, and has been loving the experience to work with this precious child of God. There has been some changes taking place with her work hours, and she will only be getting around 8 hours a week, this will make it difficult to meet our financial needs, so please pray about that with us. Please take a moment and pray for the Fannin's, as well as all their 6 children. There are many struggles that come along with their ministry, and I know they would appreciate your prayers.
Grace & Andrew
Andrew smiling :)
Marriage- This past month seems to have been one of tremendous growth in our marriage. It seems like with every new principle we are learning we can practice more of it in our marriage. An example of one of these areas is the principle of having a grace perspective. We studied through the book of 2 Corinthians, and it seems like Paul's biggest emphasis in that letter to the Corinthians, was that they needed to have more of an outlook of grace toward others. Our relationships should never be based on performance. Christ did not die for us because we were worthy of it, but he died because He loved us. Therefore, we should practice this same element in our relationships. This grace perspective must be a way we govern our marriage. We are learning that we should not treat our spouse a certain way because they did something, or didn't do something. Love and respect should be constant in our marriages, as well as in our friendships. Grace is giving/treating someone in a way that they might not deserve. Christ did this for us! Grace in relation to Christ and us can also mean G-God's R-righteousness A-at C-Christ's E-expense. Start having a grace perspective towards your spouse, and I promise you that it will make a huge difference in your relationship.
Closing Remarks- We just want to thank you for taking the time to read this, for praying for us, the Lujan's, and the Fannin's, and for your love & support. We hope that you are seeking to know God with your whole heart by learning about Him through His Word. It has been the biggest joy in our life to get to have a living relationship, with our living Savior, through His living Word!
WOW!! That is truly the word that comes to our minds when we think of what has happened in our lives and hearts so far this semester. The Lord has been revealing some wonderful things to us, and we are just soaking it all in. Thank you all for praying for us!
Classes
So far this semester we have taken: 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, James/Jude, Missions in Church History, Islam, Catholicism, Prayer Module.
Currently we are taking: Romans, Angelology, Family Relations, Foundations for Learning, and we are starting Christian Apologetics this week.
We will be taking:Galatians, Ephesians, 1&2 Peter, Soteriology, Pneumatology, and Intro to New Tribes Missions
Michigan
We have just LOVED living in Michigan this past year. It really is a beautiful state. However, Jackson can be a little ruff around the edges, but once you drive out into the country it is just amazing to see God's beautiful creation. The sky always seems to be so robust with clouds...
The leaves are changing fast!
We got a pumpkin to carve!
Sunny cold day
We are SO thankful to be here! And we really do appreciate your prayers and support! Please take a look at our other pages above. Find out more about us by clicking on the"about us" section!
