MTC-Missionary Training Center

It’s hard to believe we are almost three weeks into our time here at New Tribes Training Center. Our first week was full of adjustments to a new system and routine. We soon settled in and were hard at work. We are very impressed with this training center and how well they equip their missionaries, as well as with how many young couples with young children are willing to work and sacrifice to take the message of Christ to a lost world. It is an encouraging place to be, we have been shown lots of hospitality and getting to know people and hearing how God is at work in them is great!!!  We are learning so much... this week we are a bit overwhelmed by it all. I will try to briefly summarize what we have done so far.

The first week was spent mainly in lecture session giving an introduction to the process of Culture and Language Acquisition that New Tribes uses, known as CLA (culture & LAnguage Acquisition), this step in the church planting process has been made much easier by a program called CLAware, designed for the purpose of filing and reviewing culture

information and language learning. Now that we are into class full swing, we spend much of our time doing “hands on” actives. We are actually spending time in a role play situation where we do specific tasks with a team to glean language and culture and then file it just as we would in “real” life. It has been a great way to work out some of the bugs that will happen as you attempt to learn so much information about another people group. At this point in our “role play” we are learning a few phrases and words of “Dobuniasion” (the language of the target group) and trying to understand a little bit about how this Dobu culture works and keep in mind relationship through it all. We know our situation in Alberta is a bit different than what most of our fellow students will face, but there are so many good principles and ideas that we can gain from this time. We are thankful to be here and yet excited to get back “home” and start applying.

As a family we are doing well, we are enjoying a “real” summer, and the joys of a lake with sand to play in. Abigail loves playing with Natalie, the girl who watches the girls while I’m in class, it’s been a bit harder on Ruth, but all in all she seems OK. Ruth is doing new stuff everyday, she can officially say “hi” and wave, and her aunt Maria (my sister) taught her how to give high fives. 

 She blesses us all with her kisses and cuddles. For those of you who caught what I said two sentences ago... yes we did have some visitors. My (Amanda’s) entire family drove down from Michigan over Labor Day weekend. We had a lot of fun all being together for the first time in almost two years....we couldn’t quite remember how long it had been, for some of them it was the first time meeting Ruth. God is so faithful in continuing His work in our lives and for that we are forever grateful!!!
We appreciate you and your care for our family!

Amanda for the Sewells