Logistics Support

(Recap): We have been posting some special Support blog entries to specifically address the SIX main areas of support, any of which you are welcome to be a part of! We would only ask that you prayerfully consider each one, and let us know if there is a specific area you'd like to be involved in! (some of you are already involved in one or more areas, for which we are deeply thankful!) 

To view the previous entries on Communication Support, Prayer Support, and Moral Support, click on this link: Support Entries

Logistics Support


What is Logistics Support?

First of all, it is an opportunity for various members of the Body of Christ, who have different gifts, to come together and use those gifts with one united purpose: to see the Gospel preached to the nations! You may very well be gifted in an area that would make you an ideal part of this team!

This area of support is best described by four of its main elements:


1) Accountability

"Is ministry really happening with our missionaries overseas?" Too often, the answer is a simple 'I don't know!' But by purposing to have accountability with missionaries, there is both the joy of being involved, and an ongoing reminder of the main focus and purpose for life and ministry.

2) Confirming and Encouraging Spiritual Growth

"Spiritual drought" is a tragic reason why up to 50% of missionaries do not complete or return from their first term overseas. Imagine moving to a foreign country, surrounded at best by a handful of believers who do not know you well, and who you only see periodically- oh, and no weekly church services! Oh-- and no streaming internet (yep, that's right, no logging on to listen to your pastor preaching). This is why it will be important to have some committed individuals who are willing to step into this crucial area of ministry!

3) Managing Business Affairs

Many missionaries are "sent" by a mission organization. But the reality is not so- particularly for us! We are with NTM, whose vision/purpose statement reads:: "...NTM exists to assist the local church through the mobilization, equipping, and coordinating of missionaries..." We are being equipped by NTM, but we are truly in partnership with YOU, being sent out BY YOU! True, NTM helps with some of the logistics. But the role of the church is crucial. Areas included are:

• Money - helping missionaries determine budgets, to see how they're doing, and to help communicate with their financial support teams...
• Taxes - as quoted by Neal Pirolo in Serving as Senders, "Don't let your cross-cultural worker become a horror story of trouble with the government!" Taxes still must be filed every year...
• Health - do you know if your missionaries have health insurance? Also, have you considered safety issues for your missionaries when they are overseas? Your response to that?
• Death - does the church have a plan in place in case of a missionary's death? Also, if a missionary has a close relative (i.e., a parent) that dies, what has been planned ahead for the missionary in that regard?

4) Attending to Personal Details

There are also many "smaller" things that must be taken into account:

• Material Goods - what is left behind that needs taken care of? (Car, house, storage of belongings, help renewing licenses, etc.)
• Family Matters - looking after their parents, caring for their children, housing college-age children who've come back for school, homeschooling assistance, even representing them at their own family gatherings!
• Ministry Needs - mailing items they need, or even special items they request, researching and sending tech equipment

Diligent, Detail-oriented, Punctual, Good Record-keepers are what is needed for this area of support.

If you feel like this is an area you could/would like to commit to now or in the future, we strongly ask you to get in contact with us! Have you thought of another way to support us through Logistics? Tell us about it!

"I Want to Go to a Trumpet Call! Not a Siren!"

Our friend couldn't have said it better, as we all huddled in their back room. It was after 11pm, and Noe and I were watching a movie in the living room. The girls and one of their friends were asleep upstairs (for a sleepover), when suddenly the tornado siren blared. This was the first time we'd heard it here in Missouri! 
Our friends' apartment building (whose daughter we had at our house for the sleepover) was built into a hillside, so we grabbed the girls and ran to their apartment, watching forks of lightning strike the surrounding hillsides, and feeling the drizzle of rain and the warm air. As our next-door neighbors followed us, a staff member opened his door and shouted, "3 minutes! It's 3 minutes away!!" So they darted across, and about 4 families were gathered together where we waited, prayed, and watched the weather radar online.
As you know (since we had no important news to send your way), there was no tornado. But we are thankful for the technology to track storms, and to warn us of potential danger! We were talking with our friends about having peace in the midst of such events, and I (Lisa) said, "I just would rather not go THAT way (through a natural disaster)." And our friend commented, as the subject says, "Yeah, I want to go to a trumpet call! Not a siren!"

All of this just is a reminder and a challenge-- am I keeping my eyes fixed heavenward? On Christ? Or am I looking at the waves around me and saying, "It's ok, come on over here and drown me!" Circumstances and pain are real, but so is Christ!!

Friends and loved ones- that is a lot of what we are studying this semester. Preparation and equipping for some of the "what-ifs". For example, we will be starting a course on Field Health in a couple weeks. Do you suppose that it is pleasant for us to think intently about malaria and dengue fever and snake bites as we prepare to take our family into a remote location? (No way!) But like the theme of this blog- these things are real, and it is wise to be prepared for them... but who is in control? Amen, it is Christ! We are thankful for our studies at New Tribes Bible Institute, and for the missionary teaching staff there who longed for us to understand these very concepts- that God is indeed sufficient in everything.

The first step for every believer in becoming prepared for life's trials? Spiritual prepartion. Know the character of your God! And the second step is physical preparation, which we are doing now.

Missionary Technology Lab

The classes we are taking right now:

Soldering Lab- yep, the moms need to learn too!

Student Teaching  course

• Missionary Technology - the "what"s and "how"s and "why"s of living in a remote location. How to design a solar electric system, water filtration, batteries (what kind to buy and how to charge them...), refrigerators and freezers, and the list goes on... we could devote a whole blog just to this class! Hmm, maybe we will! :)
• New Testament Church Principles - what does a mature church (a mature body of believers) look like? What elements of church life are important to you? And considering those- which of those are Biblical principles, and which are cultural? These are questions and thought processes we have been working through in this important course. In the not-so-distant future, when we look into teaming up with other families/individuals, these are conversations that will need to take place so that we are all on the same page. And MORE importantly, when a new church is born, what happens next? So it is important to examine what the Bible says, what was modeled, what was cultural, etc.
• Student Teaching - both men and women share testimonies, and also share from the Word. The women will likely have opportunities to speak to women in the near future, so practice speaking in front of others is important!

Has this blog resonated with you? We would LOVE to hear what He is doing in your life. How has the Lord been showing you that He is greater than your circumstances?

Trusting in Him,

Noe, Lisa, Naya and Jocellyn