Exciting Youth For the Gospel Event in Eaton, OH!
On Saturday we held a Y4tG in Eaton, OH. We had 60 present from the three churches that participated (First Baptist, Grace Baptist, and Cornerstone Baptist). Great young people who seemed very attentive to the need of more laborers. We sowed with preaching and influencing these young people, praying God will give us future students and missionaries from this group.
World's Cheapest Mission Trip #1 is On!
Space is still available for the World’s Cheapest Missions Trip! Three dates are available. Join us for a great time of seeing world cultures and the need for the Gospel. visionmissions.com/wcmt
New Construction Project Started!
We began construction on the guy’s dorm, which is upstairs of the Hudson Taylor building. Full capacity will be 12 guys, and we are thrilled to have them on campus as opposed to renting another building off campus. With the guys moving on campus, we will have a couple living on the campus as well to be available for any needed issues.
Step #2 of summer building is new classrooms in the Carey Center. We believe God will send us new students, so we are pushing forward by faith.
Arriving from Turkey!
Brady and Sarah V. arrived from Turkey and stopped by campus. What a blessing to see them here with us in the States.
Anna Austin, Intern in Bolivia!
Anna Austin just arrived to Bolivia. Grateful to Kevin and Beth White, and to Courtney Mathos, for hosting and helping Anna.
“Learning the Language” by Mindy Bush
(This article is written by a missionary wife and mother to other missionaries. If you are not a missionary, please continue reading. It will better help you understand how to care and pray for all your missionary partners.)
Many of you ladies are trying to currently balance language school, being a wife, raising kids and taking care of a home. My heart goes out to you because I know it’s tough. I know you’d rather get it over with and be able to start ministry and be able to be home with your kiddos more. But I want to encourage you to keep pushing through! It is so worth it in the end to be able to speak with the people you are working with. This time of language learning is so important – don’t waste it! I wanted to give you some practical tips and fun ways to keep practicing. Some of these I did, some I asked other missionary ladies to share with me and I thought they were helpful.
- Go to church! Go to every service and activity that is held by the church you are attending while in language school. Go on retreats and camps, sing in the choir, serve in the nursery, go on visitation, or help the church secretary. Do everything you can to immerse yourself in the language!
- Carry a notebook around with you everywhere you go. Write down words you see in the market, on the street, in the grocery store, and on signs. In the church services, write down every word you understand in the message. Pretty soon you will find that you are understanding so much you can’t keep up with writing them all down. At this point, write down every word you don’t understand. The next day ask your teacher what these words mean.
- Invite a friend to go with you to the market or store and have them help you with the pronunciation and meanings of different things. The first question you should learn in any language should be, “What is this?”
- Watch movies with subtitles in the language you are learning. I would say watch movies in that language but I personally couldn’t relax enough to enjoy this! So having the subtitles on was better for me!
- Hang out at the park (especially if you have children) and listen to the children yelling things at each other. Listen to mothers giving instructions or commands to their children. Write them down!
- Read your Bible in the national language. At first it may take you an hour to get through one chapter. Look up each word in the dictionary so you are understanding it. Be careful to not let this substitute your daily walk with the Lord. If you aren’t understanding anything you aren’t being spiritually filled. This also will be difficult in languages that do not use the Roman alphabet until you learn the characters that make up your alphabet.
- Read the Bible to anyone who will listen to you. Memorize Bible verses.
- Learn to cook the food in the country where you are living. Ask another woman to go with you to the market, buy everything you need to cook the national food, go home and prepare an entire meal from start to finish. Invite national friends for dinner and you have just spent a few hours “learning the language” and having fun, not to mention learning LOTS about culture!
- Use technology to learn the language, but don’t depend on it all the time! There are apps that can translate everything you want to say from English to the language you are learning. This can be detrimental to your language learning. Uber Eats can order a pizza for you without speaking a word to anyone! Be careful to not rely so much on these methods! I remember when I wrote down word for word how to order something on the phone and I practiced it many times!
- Memorize their national anthem and the songs that you will be singing in church, as well as Bible verses and the books of the Bible! If you are in a secular language school, you will need to implement these things for your own good. How would it look to people if you can’t say a book of the Bible properly?
- Switch up your conversation buddy! People you talk to and spend time with learn your way of talking and they stop correcting you. After a while those who know you well will understand you whether you say it correctly or not, and you will think you are getting good in the language even though you’re not. I am not a talker by nature so I gravitated towards ladies that talked more than me. Listening to them helped me so much!
- Lastly, never stop learning! Keep pushing yourself! I remember after speaking Spanish for almost 10 years a lady in our church made fun of the way I asked, “What time is it?” I was embarrassed that after all those years, I still wasn’t saying it correctly, but it made me think not to get lazy and to keep asking people to correct me – even if it’s been 10 years! So don’t settle! Give God the best you’ve got and keep learning!
Missionary Highlight - Tracy Paver, Chile
This section is so you can learn more about (or be reminded of) VBM missionaries serving around the world. We will be working in alphabetical order, and the next missionary is Tracy Paver.
I am a product of missions. Because of an American missionary that came to the Philippines, my dad got saved, and I had the blessing of growing up in a Christian home and getting saved at the age of seven. God later moved my family to Singapore and Indonesia and used my years there to open my eyes to the world’s great need for the gospel.
After high school, I attended Pensacola Christian College to pursue a nursing degree. Even in college and graduate school, the Lord continued to stir my heart for the need around the world. I got involved in Mission Prayer Band, took medical missions trips, and led a girls Bible Study at the local Juvenile Justice Center. It was also during this time that I attended the Our Generation missions camp that challenged the plans I had for my life. Romans 12:1 was preached there, and I realized that surrendering my life to serve Jesus was nothing but my reasonable service. At that camp, I gave my life to serve the Lord as a missionary. God would later use a missions trip to Latin America to confirm that desire. I have now been serving as a missionary in Chile for almost 2 years!