Ministry Prayer Request

Next month NTM is implementing a new “Grant Process” which I am responsible to oversee. Please pray that it will be implemented as smoothly as possible. The different aspects of the process are requirements by the U.S. Government, but the main idea of it is for NTM to exhibit control over the funds that are sent overseas (to fund those ministries). It requires getting background information about the organizations & its leaders, as well as any individuals that are receiving (or being ‘granted’) this funding. It also requires that NTM verifies that no individual or no one associated with all the other NTM organizations have ties to terrorism. It also requires reporting that the funds were used in the manner that they should have been. On top of that, there are numerous things that are changing in the way that NTM processes the funds, but will affect these other organizations & individuals. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom & insight about any potential problems and that we will be able to fix potential issues so that this process can be implemented by the end of September.

Since the majority of my time has been spent on the Grant Process the last six months, I am behind with the annual budget process. Normally I have the budget worksheets out to the different departments & locations by the beginning of July. I still need to work through projecting income & expenses for about 45 departments & locations. Please pray that the Lord will give wisdom & time to complete this so that I can concentrate on the Grant Process implementation. 

We are thankful knowing that you will uphold us in prayer!

“I stayed up most of the night reading my new Bible”

 

This is the reason why we do what we do here in Sanford, to be part of the ministry of reaching people in remote locations of the world with the Gospel. In July, the missionaries working with the Dinangat people in Papua New Guinea were able to put all the translated Scriptures together that they have been working on since 2006. The published scriptures included major portions of Genesis & Exodus in the Old Testament with major portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans & Ephesians; roughly 1,700 verses altogether.

The Dinangat believers couldn’t stop shaking the missionary’s hands and thanking them for giving them God’s Word in their own language. One believer told them, “When we got those Bibles, I was so happy that I wanted to cry.” Another believer, Jaspa declared the next day, “I’m really tired because I stayed up most of the night reading my new Bible. It was just so sweet I couldn’t stop.”

It is exciting to see the excitement that new believers have for the Word of God. How precious it is to them that they will stay up most of the night reading it. They have been without God’s Word & realize how treasured it is to have and be able to read it.

 “Now that the believers have at least part of God’s Word in their own language,” Ralf Schlegal, one of the missionaries explains, “they can feed on it anytime that they want to and hopefully by doing that, they will live more and more according to truth and will grow in their love for their Savior and in doing so, will glorify God through their lives.”

Please pray for the translation team as they are finishing up the books of Mark and 1st Corinthians, and starting to just begin translating 1st Timothy. Please pray that the believers will continue to be excited about God’s Word & strive to know Him better.

 

A New Beginning

We are starting this blog so that you can stay connected with us & our ministry. But we also want to help others understand the great need there is to reach people in these remote locations of the world that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to hear about salvation through Christ.  Unless someone goes to these remote locations, learns the language & culture and then translates & teaches from God’s Word; these people won’t have the opportunity to believe or accept the gift of salvation found in Jesus.
 

We also want to share the testimonies of what God is doing in the lives where the Gospel has been taught. To be able to see the excitement of new believers when they understand truth from the Word, or the over whelming joy they have when they have the Word of God in their own ‘heart’ language that they can understand and can read. 

 

Our prayer is also that we will be used as an encouragement to those that the Lord may want to go overseas and be used to reach a language group with the Good News. What a privilege it would be to be used of the Lord to get His Word into the hands of one of the ‘people groups’ that hadn’t yet heard. When we are standing before the Lord in heaven and see “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev. 6:9) we will be thankful that the He would use us to tell others the Good News.

 

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14)