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Joash & Delia Tiarks
2006-01-01
Update from Tiarks on their blog..... dated Feb. 19, 2009....
http://joashndelia.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/week-3/#comment-113
Dear Friends and Family,
Greeting in the wonderful name of our risen Lord and Savior! We are in the midst of celebrating with our local church and remembering what the Lord Jesus went through on our behalf, taking our judgement upon Himself and showing Himself victorious over death and the grave!!!
I wanted to write again this week to apologize for last weeks message and how it was so scattered in the information it contained. We have been posting updates these last few months on our blog( http://joashndelia.wordpress.com/ ) but perhaps there are a significant number of our friends that do not regularly check that site. We got used to just sending out little thoughts and such and we forgot that we have not really sent out a regular update via email since January!!!
For a bit of a recap of these last two months, we left Illinois at the end of January and landed in the capital city of Mozambique on the 31st. The Lord blessed us with an uneventful journey and a safe arrival! We were met at the airport by a family on our team and also a family from the church we are working with. They helped us get our luggage to our new house and had prepared things for our arrival. We felt very welcomed and well taken care of and since that day this family, the family Fumo, has taken it upon themselves to make sure things go well for us. They have been a great help and encouragement to us.
Before we left the USA we did not know exactly what our house would look like here but we knew we would be living with a believing Mozambican family in the city. Well, God is wondrously faithful and delights to meet our needs even before we know really that we have them! He provided a small, cozy two bedroom house in a courtyard with two other houses of the family Fumo. There is space for the kids to run and play and there are several trees for shade and for climbing and also some fruit:-) Recently the Lord has brought along some neighborhood kids to play in the yard here with our children since it is better for ours not to roam the neighborhood streets! This is a real answer to prayer as it was getting difficult for our children to just play amongst each other:-)
During these first months back in Mozambique, we have been slowly getting adjusted and acclimated to the weather again, to the rhythm of life here and to the bugs! Our bodies are still in the process of learning how to fight the different bacteria here that we were not used to in the USA. Delia has suffered the worst in this adjustment time, since after taking antibiotics for so long here system is not used to fending for itself! Praise the Lord, since last Saturday she has been doing significantly better and has enjoyed a return of her strength and energy.
Also, we have enjoyed participating with our host church here in Maputo and seeing some of what God is doing here in Mozambique through the local church. I have had the opportunity to attend several funeral services as well as a wedding and other little ceremonies. I have had a couple chances to preach and this has given me a good opportunity to encourage and exhort the church as well as practice my Portuguese:-) They are very gracious with us and it seems the Lord allowed us to recall most of what we had learned before our long absence in the States. We are still in the process of reaching a higher level of fluency which is taking a lot of work! Please continue to pray for us in this!!!
We are now preparing to drive up to Nampula to participate in our team's yearly Conference. We plan to leave Monday morning and Lord willing we will arrive at our destination Tuesday evening. We will be gone for about two weeks and this will give us a chance to fellowship with the rest of our team as well as to visit the friends in the church and in the community we made last term. Please pray for a safe and enjoyable journey and that we will be a blessing to our team, as well as be able to rest and recuperate ourselves.
Update from McMasters
2006-01-01
Chris and Amanda are reaching unreached tribal people with New Tribes Mission. Their role in this task is to equip missionaries-in-training with a solid Biblical foundation in order to prepare them for a successful ministry. Their ministry takes place at New Tribes Bible Institute in Jackson, Michigan. NTBI is the first 2 years of a 3.5 year training program with NTM. Chris teaches Bible classes full-time. Some of his classes include- Hermeneutics I and II, Prophets, Ephesians, and Ecclesiology. Amanda works as a Dean. Her job includes being involved in the one-on-one discipleship of the single and married ladies at the school and using real life situations and struggles as an opportunity to direct these students toward what they are learning from God's Word. Chris and Amanda are fully convinced that knowing and living the Word of God is the most vital part of equipping every believer for an effective ministry.
Always Learning. I am so thankful that this is a truth that I see in my life. This semester especially has been packed with a huge amount of learning. Right knowledge and understanding is absolutely essential for every believer but that is not where it stops. Right knowledge should lead to a new way of thinking (in line with God’s way of thinking according to His word), and a new way of thinking will lead to a different way of living. If you aren’t thinking right, you won’t be living right. I am so thankful to be involved in a ministry that is not all about right knowledge, but instead it is about learning God’s Word and allowing that truth to change our lives. This morning I began a class by sharing what I have been learning from the Word and how it has been impacting my life right now. As I shared I began to tear up (I held them back of course J), and in my mind I thought, “This is what ministry is all about.” Life on life. One life walking with the Lord and being used by Him to impact another. Our desire here at NTBI is not to graduate scholars but believers who really know God and walk with Him. Without that foundation a missionary isn’t really a missionary. They may go out and do a few things that sound good, but in reality they are unable to truly have a ministry in the lives of others. We have a huge task here, but it is the greatest privilege I could imagine. I love it! Thanks for your partnership which enables us to be here investing in these lives. YES, YOU are impacting lives. In fact, I wish you could all see it for yourselves.
Keep praying for us and these missionaries in training! We need it more than you know.
1) As always, please pray for relationships with students. Pray for good time with them and real relationships that open the door for ministry.
2) Praise God with us for His provision. More people have been joining our team of financial partners, and we are sitting back in awe of how our needs are being met.
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Sager Creek Community Church is a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, that desires to see God glorified in our community and around the world.
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Integrating God’s Word into all areas of life, Sager Creek Community Church desires to journey with the Lord, that we may know Him, so that we might impart His life through grace to others. |
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Sager Creek Community Church
1600 Cheri Whitlock, Siloam Springs, AR 72761
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