Our Desire: To Establish a Mature and Thriving Church Among an Unreached People Group.
This update will be a little bit longer than normal just to fill you all in on what our day to day looks like. I high-lighted key information. OUR WEEKLY SCHEDULE (ROUGHLY) Monday - Thursday: Hold the Ropes (Prayer) 8-8:25 am;
Classes are from 8:30 - 12: 00 pm Friday: In the morning, we have a speaker that comes and the kids stay with us until 8:45 in order to help them learn to sit in this setting. After this, we take the kids to childcare and resume classes until 10:35. At this point, we meet up with our mentoring group until 12:00.
Monday and Thurday: Spencer goes to the basketball outreach ministry he is involved in. Outside of this, we meet with our mentors, do normal life and ministry like we would anywhere else, as well as continue to fellowship with other students here. Iron sharpens iron, so we are all trying to help spur one another on to love and good works as we seek God in order that we may excel in whatever ministry capacity the Lord would have us serving in. We have homework and extra reading in the evenings. Neither of us feel overwhelmed, and are finding a good pace for life here. Our desire is to be careful to be fully invested in this training and those God has placed in our lives for this time.
Outside of classes we are and will be involved in ministry.
Spencer: I have joined a basketball ministry that meets up twice a week. Before playing on Monday there is a student led Bible study which is currently going through the book of John. The goal of the group is to use basketball as a gateway into the lives of the 15-20 local guys that play, to teach them the Bible, and to deepen friendships off the court to the point where Christ centered conversations can be had.
Kayla: We are in the process of joining a church here in Missouri. This church will be where I focus in ministry during this time. I am looking, hoping and praying for someone to disciple within the community while here at the training center.
Please pray for opportunities and wisdom in these things.
CLASSES
Introduction to Global Partners
Ethnos360 is under the umbrella of Global Partners
We have been reading a book called "Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility" by Duane Elmer. We are really loving this book! It has been challenging us to look at the way we serve others. In short-not simply serving others how we would assume they need to be served but taking time to learn what is actually best for them. Highly recommend if you are looking for a practical challenge.
We have been asked to read 1 & 2 Timothy throughout the duration of the class. 1 Timothy 4:12-16; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; 2 Timothy 3:10-11 are some key verses that have been pulled out. It is God's Word, so of course there are so many things God draws out as we are reading through this. We were encouraged specifically just in the way Paul cared for and walked with Timothy through real life. We appreciated the insight brought out by our teacher from "do not let anyone look down on your youth." Going into church planting, we do not have the wisdom of an eighty-year-old man, but we can rest in knowing that God is excited to use us and grow us throughout this process. Also, how God through Paul does not leave us with just that snippet, but in being younger gives us specific instructions in how to act. (1 Timothy 4:11-16 "... set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.")
We were walked through the history of the mission. Formerly New Tribes Mission, now Ethnos360. It is sweet to see the hearts and minds that were dedicated to walking with the Lord and bringing the unreached - and really anyone in their path-to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
We took time and made up our own Core Values, Missions Statement, and a Vision Statement for life as well as our time here to help us stay focused. (We found this to be really encouraging, and we would love to share with you on how to do this and why if you are interested).
Hold the Ropes
This is a time we have every morning to pray for and learn about other missionaries and works that the Lord is doing. At times we will have missionary speakers that will come to speak to us to share and encourage all of us.
On Fridays, the kids get the opportunity to join us in this time which is super exciting! We are anticipating more and more good and fruitful conversations with Brennan and one day Ava because of these times. This will also help the kids in the ability to sit and be quiet for about an hour without causing disruptions-which many cross-cultural national churches have found frustration with. (Since we, in America, typically send our kids to Sunday school and many of them do not).
We also have been assigned some prayer partners. Ours is a couple in the Philippines. We just started correspondence with them but are pretty excited to be partnering with them in this way. If you would pray for the people, they are reaching that would be great! (Gene and Carol are working with the Manubu' people who have had some hard times in volatile situations. That is all we know for now.)
Practical Spirituality
We are focusing on core gospel truths and appropriating them without muddying the waters. This is not only for cross-cultural work, but here and in our personal lives. The goal is to challenge and stretch our thinking as believers in and followers of Jesus. This course just started and will go throughout our time here at the training center. We are currently diving into cultural studies of America such as "Critical Theory" and how it is affecting our culture today to include believers and what they believe or do not believe. (Very interesting and super relevant).
Worldview
We are learning how to get past the "do this because the Bible says so," to reach the heart of those we serve as well as in our own lives. Figuring out what people believe and why they believe what they believe at a core level in order that we are not unintentionally laying the groundwork for short term change. Our goal, and God's (Matthew 28:18-20) is to see people become mature believers who are continually becoming more and more like Jesus.
Part of this is evaluating the way we think. We are examining our own worldview to see where we are believing lies. The goal is to help us notice and get to the heart of things so we can allow God's word to continue to transform our thinking at a deeper level. How are we going to share a Biblical worldview if ours, as church planters/disciples is not in alignment.
One super cool thing is we have mentors, Matt and Starr Arnold, who will be walking with us through our time here to help prepare us in this way among many. Their goal is our goal. We all desire to see people believe in Jesus and come to maturity in Him. We are desiring that "iron sharpens iron" relationship, so we are very excited for this!
Learning Styles
We read the book "The Way They Learn," and took the learning style tests within the book. Nobody really fits nice and tight into a certain box, but it does help to identify strengths and weaknesses. With this we had a video assignment with some (random to us) classmates. It was really cool to see some 1 Corinthians 12 body principles played out in this. By ourselves, the video would have taken a lot more mental energy, but we had such cool creative and wonderfully different minds on our team. It was a cool experience to learn to appreciate different talents and outlooks on things better! (I am not just saying that to sound good-it really was awesome!)
Foundational Bible Teaching (in Depth) September 17-November 5th (A Key Part of Training / Ethnos 360)
"This course addresses the rationale for Foundational Bible Teaching and affords the students an opportunity to become familiar with the Building on Firm Foundation Bible Teaching program (BoFF) by preparing and presenting key BoFF Phase One lessons contextualized for the North American Culture." (48 hours).
The goals are to (1) Understand why Global Partners (over Ethnos360) utilizes the principles, products (BoFF) and presentation of Foundational Bible teaching as the most effective method for presenting God's Word. (2) To experience contextualizing, presenting, and evaluating a Building of Firm Foundations Phase 1 Bible lesson.
TEAMs/Mentoring
This training team goal is to help each other grow closerr to the Lord and to work on that iron sharpens iron relationship. The point is to help one another succeed in ministry and to help spur one another toward doing so.
We have training leaders that will be leading us initially, but they will phase out more and more so that we are doing these groups with their supervision so to speak. This is to help us with our ability to work in teams as well as character development. This is a huge part of the training here and something we have high hopes for. We meet every Friday.
Toward the end of this year we will do something called "jungle camp" where we live in the woods with them for 18 days that will help develop our team further and us as a family. (More information will come in later updates).
We went on a hike one Sunday afternoon at a place nearby with some friends at the Bible school who are here at training with us. (The guys all came too).
Ava and Brennan in Childcare
Brennan:
Preschool: He has adjusted well! We had been praying quite a bit about this adjustment, and it has been cool to see how God has answered. I asked Brennan the other day what his favorite thing about school was, and he started listing friends off. We are grateful that he is getting along well with his classmates! Usually after school when we ask him about his day or how school was his response is "Groovy!" Haha pretty cute.
Spiritually: He has been asking some really good questions as we read the Bible and walk through life with him. He is starting to get more understanding of his need for Jesus in light of his sin-awesome! Praises and prayers for that and so much more! As a side note, one of his friends (who is 4) here has been heard sharing parts of the gospel with Brennan!
Ava
Nursery: She has done well with the adjustment. There were the normal transitional bumps there, but she seems to be thriving there. I am able to see and feed her at our second break and that seems to be working well.
Development: She is starting to "talk" a lot more and has such a sweet little personality. She can wave "hello" and clap her hands. We just started feeding her foods recently, and she really enjoys eating! She just turned seven months old October 11th and is hitting her developmental milestones so far. She has been an easy-going little girl and is such a joy to be with. Brennan and Ava really love being around each other, so we are continually praying for their relationship and that they would be lifelong friends.
We would love if you would keep our family in your prayers as we continue our training.
Please pray that we will keep our eyes and heart focused first and foremost on the Lord, and that we would have wisdom and discernment for navigating our responsibilities.
Please pray for Brennan as he is starting to understand and know more of the Bible of who Jesus is. He is asking some really good questions. (Pretty cool!). Also, please pray for us that we would be wise in the way we teach him.
Also, Ava is a baby, but these things come so quickly. Pray that both Brennan's heart and Ava's heart will be open and soft to God's Word as well. Specifically, that the seeds of truth we plant would land in good soil and be fruitful not only for believing the gospel but for developing into mature believers who follow Jesus.
What we are planning to do/Why We are in Training:
We are desiring to, Lord willing, be missionaries to an unreached people group. To take the gospel where it has never been, and to bring light to those walking in darkness. After two years of training at the MTC, then we will spend some time with partnership development so we can go and stay on the field. After that, we will be leaving for the first stage of reaching an unreached people group.
What is an unreached people group?
An "unreached" or "least-reached" people is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.
Contact us:
spencer_ewert@hotmail.com
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