Beautiful Dirt

As you know, the heart of the Lord is that "all would be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth." (1 Tim. 2.4) He also left some very simple instructions on how we are to participate in His heart/His 'mission': "Go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matt. 28.18-20)

This is where John Piper's quote comes in:

"Go, Send, or Disobey"

We heard some say, "I'm just not cut out for missions work", or "I don't have what it takes (to ___)." 

I think those are statements that should not surprise us! For surely not everyone can GO! If everyone was a "GO-er", there would be no senders and no support! If every part of the body was a 'foot', that would be a very strange, disfunctional "body" (if you could even call it that!)...

But at the same time, there is a tremendous problem among the Church (believers) today... there is a small percentage that GO, but an even smaller (and quite insufficient) number of those who SEND!

Where are the "SENDers??!" 

Naya and Jocellyn learned on Tuesday night about the importance of the SENDERS, the supporters.... (family, friends/encouragers, financial supporters, prayer warriors, business/logistical supporters, etc...)

We have been involved with some MKO (Missionary Kid Orientation) 'classes', led by some wonderful fellow 'GO-ers'. Through hands-on activities and stories, we have explored some elements of CULTURE with the girls... What might be the same about PNG? What might be different? What fears or excitements do you have about PNG?

And this week, we used the analogy of transplanting a plant to a new pot. 

The plant is our family. When removed from our culture, our roots are molded to our home culture and experience. 

The pot is the new country/culture- PNG. When we are 'transplanted' into PNG, it will not be a natural fit. We will have to stretch, grow, change... but even with our effort, there will be a lot of emptiness/empty space  that we are unable to fill in.

So we must add extra dirt... we must be surrounded and filled in and covered by extra dirt. Without a good amount of this dirt, it will be exceedingly difficult for us to be fruitful in our new 'life'. If we are not able to be fruitful, how effective can we be in planting a church? (And after all, what is the church? Is it not a body of believers with many different parts and roles?)

This is where YOU come in! YOU, as a "SENDer", are our extra dirt! YOU are beautiful dirt. YOU are essential! YOU are INVOLVED! YOU are a part of planting churches... YOU are participating in HIS heart, HIS mission! When you SEND, you are essentially coming WITH us! (As if we carried you with us overseas, and certainly we do in our hearts!)

(Did you ever wonder how valuable your financial gift was? Did you ever wonder if your prayers for a missionary were effective? Did you ever wonder if "merely" sending an email to say hello was worth the time?)

Instead of asking the above questions, I challenge you to ask what would happen if you did NOT participate. Imagine that plant, floundering in a new pot with little-no dirt/filler, little-no support.

Do you realize how valuable you are?

We hope you know how incredibly valuable you are and how tremendously thankful to the Lord we are for you!

Are you involved? We would love to add more dirt to our pot! (Okay, that sounded cheesy..)

If you would like to become dirt today (that's not right either...), please get in touch with us!

Pressing on, ALONG with you,

~the Martinez family

Many Much Moosen

Grammar. Is. Important.

It matters the way words are constructed. Like the example below:

It also matters the way sentences are put together and what order the words are placed, such as the examples below:

• “Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope."
• “Two Sisters Reunited After 18 Years in Checkout Counter”

By the time this semester is over, we will have analyzed close to 100 languages (!)- the phonemcs and/or the grammar. Currently our focus is SYNTAX, the order of words in a phrase, a clause, and a sentence. 

I find that the higher up in the hierarchy we go (the farther away from analyzing individual letters/sounds/phones we get, the better I am at the Linguistic process... yikes!). Perhaps they should start introducing phonemics in high school! Haha! Watch out, young people!!

Anyway, by God's grace, I am plugging away at this course and am thankful to be learning all of the principles. I am trusting that they will be an asset to me in language learning, helping to develop literacy materials in a couple/few years, and ultimately in translating His precious Word into a tribal language- for souls who have never heard His Word before!!

Please pray for me that I will finish the semester strong.

In other EXCITING NEWS- you may have heard already about Noe's upcoming trip to Papua New Guinea in July! He is finalizing plans with other men he plans to travel with, and hopes to spend 3-4 weeks in PNG.  When we have additional details, we will share them with you. Would you pray with us that the Lord will guide these men in planning and preparations for this trip? We are also thrilled the He has already provided half of Noe's cost for this trip!! If you are interested in helping him financially with this trip, please let us know soon! Click the link below if you'd like info on how to give:
http://blogs.ntm.org/noe-martinez/give/

In family news- Naya is about to lose about 3 more teeth... so we'll make sure she sings some real special songs this summer... :)

Walking together with you by His grace,

Noe, Lisa, Naya and Jocie