By David Harrell, Executive Director

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is
written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
who bring glad tidings of good things!’" (Romans 10:14-15, NKJV).

Do you hear the insistence by the Apostle Paul that there is a necessary link between hearing the preached Word and salvation in Jesus Christ? We have a mandate to carry the gospel to all nations. That is the passion of the missionaries, board and staff of To Every Tribe Ministries (TETM). We think it should be the passion of every believer and every body of believers.

Does your church, as a body of believers, have a direct relationship with at least one mission endeavor? Do you frequently and purposefully invite missionaries to visit your church? Do the members of your church receive regular updates and information regarding a specific mission or about missions in general? If not, or if you simply wish to expand your efforts, please consider joining with TETM. Rod Conner, a member of our team, is currently traveling around the US and Canada promoting the TETM vision and mission. TETM and his home church have agreed to support him for a year in this endeavor. If you would like a visit from Rod, please contact him at the following email address: rconner@chilitech.net, or at the TETM email address given at the end of this article.

In this issue we want to introduce you to Steve and Robin Henry, a faithful and earnest missionary team from Winona Lake, Indiana. Steve and Robin have served churches over a wide area of the country. In their 25 years in the pastoral ministry, they served churches in Johnson City, TN and Pittsfield, IL. Their last pastoral ministry from 1992 through 2004 was at Christ’s Covenant Church (CCC) in Winona Lake. While still in the pastoral ministry Steve and Robin were able to visit and minister to churches in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Oklahoma. Many of those churches are now part of their support team.

Steve served on the pastoral team at CCC with primary responsibilities in missions and discipleship training. During those years he had opportunity to visit and work with missionaries in Tanzania, Mexico, Thailand, Ireland, and Italy. Over the years of working with missions and missionaries, God redirected their ministry focus toward cross-cultural ministry. Robin had earned her RN degree and became an integral part of medical missions teams as well as working with Steve on other missions endeavors. Having worked in Mexico with TETM on numerous occasions, Steve approached his fellow elders at CCC for their counsel in this ministry redeployment. After receiving the support of the elders and the church, the Henrys were commissioned by CCC as church planters and missionary trainers in June of 2004, and joined the TETM team the following month.

Steve and Robin sold their home (by God’s grace) in Indiana and moved into their new home in Brownsville, Texas. Ten days after moving in, they assisted David and Tommi Sitton in hosting a team of 94 people for a week of ministry in Mexico. So far the Henry’s and Sitton’s have visited La Barra de la Cruz, the Coicoyan tribe, Media Luna, La Posa, the Island of Men and the Port of Mezquital. In each instance, they made significant strides toward establishing friendship with the people and making the first steps toward the ultimate goal of planting churches.

On August 27, Steve and Robin left their new home in Brownsville, for another new home in Guadalajara, Mexico, where they are enrolled in a Spanish language school. They will complete their language studies in April this year.

The addition of the Henrys to the TETM team has been an exciting time for all of us. We feel blessed that God has provided two hardworking, competent workers in the ripened fields of Mexico and Papua New Guinea.

Mission Team Meets in December

The TETM missions team met after Christmas at the Henry’s new home in Brownsville. Our purpose in meeting was to get to know each other better and to map out our plans for the coming year. David Sitton and I have begun using a slogan to represent what we want to accomplish in missions: Preach the Gospel! Plant Churches! Prepare indigenous Leaders! Push on to the next unreached location!

The team decided that we really need to develop a model of what all this looks like. We see our foundation to be bringing the Glory of God to all peoples. This is our reason for being. This foundation sits upon four pillars:

Planting churches

Training missionaries

Leading short-term mission trips

Becoming a sending agency for missionaries to the world.

Our current target areas for planting churches are:

Papua New Guinea:

Changriman

Mali

Mile

Yimbi-yimbi

Peliagwe

Mexico:

Port of Mezquital Area

Helping current pastors in Mezquital

Island of Men, Media Luna, La Posa

La Barra de la Cruz, San Isidro Chacalapa, San Miguel Chonga

The Coicoyan Tribe.

I list these areas for two reasons. First, we will be hosting short-term mission trips to the Port of Mezquital area (four locations) for June 10-17, and July 29-August 5. If you would like to participate, please visit our website at www.toeverytribe.com, or contact us at the email or regular mail address given below. In the past ten years almost 2,000 people have joined on mission trips. These Mexico trips are limited to 60 people. They fill up rapidly, so you may want to get an early start. Our next mission trip to Papua New Guinea will be in February, 2006.

Second, we need your prayers. We at TETM feel very strongly our need for the "persevering, earnest, faith-filled prayers of God’s people"¹ to meet our goals for glorifying God in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. Therefore we ask you to pray with us and for us. Pray for the people in these villages and tribes and for those who will be taking the gospel message to them. Pray for David Sitton and Steve and Robin Henry that God will enable them to learn Spanish, and that they will be given the ability to speak fluently so that they can better share Christ with the people in Mexico. Pray for viable, vibrant indigenous churches to be planted for the glory of God and the spread of the gospel.

These are our target areas, but we have a lot of work to do to accomplish our goals. The Coicoyan tribe for example is very hardened against the gospel. They have strongly held beliefs that will not easily be shaken. They are animistic in their beliefs. They are a tribe of roughly 25,000 people and only one known believer. Reaching the Coicoyan requires a commitment of some years before a church will be planted among them.

We plan to begin training full-time missionaries in September of this year. To that end we need to identify individuals, couples and families who want to join us and begin their missionary adventure. We need a facility to conduct the training in the Brownsville/Los Fresnos area. Several options present themselves, but please pray for us that we will find the best means to provide housing and training spaces for our full-time missionaries and a staging area for the many people who join our short-term mission trips.

I saw a picture not long ago of two men struggling with a heavily-loaded, two-wheeled cart. They were pushing it up a steep, almost impossible incline. The cart contained helium bottles. The men were from South Korea. When the winds are from the right direction, they push their cart up a steep mountain and fill balloons with helium to which they attach scripture passages and release them so that they will blow into North Korea. Do we in America know anything of that sense of the preciousness of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

We at TETM yearn to plant the seeds of the love of Jesus Christ into hearts that have never heard the gospel. We believe that there are as yet undiscovered brothers and sisters in Mexico and Papua New Guinea whom the Holy Spirit will awaken at the preaching of Jesus Christ. We believe with Jonathan Edwards that God will be more glorified when more people not only see Him as He is, but rejoice in Him.

We hope that you will prayerfully consider becoming our partners in this endeavor. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Contact Information:

Email: David@toeverytribe.com

Website: www.toeverytribe.com

Regular mail: P.O. Box 1572, Los Fresnos, TX 78566

¹ John Piper, "Prayer the Work of Missions" 1998, see www.desiringgod.org. Online Library