Off to Jail.... Ooops!

Yep, just as the title says, we went to jail. Not only that, but Cameron and I willingly go to jail every Thursday afternoon  on a regular basis. Don't worry, we are staying out of trouble. We go because this is our outreach ministry.

We've been going to the local jail since the beginning of October and it has been an awesome, albeit uncomfortable at times, growing experience for us.

The guys have been going through the book of Philippians with the male inmates and Cameron taught for the first time a few weeks ago. He did a great job and found that he really enjoyed teaching without notes! Jim, who is on staff here, had once told Cameron that if someone asked him a question about me he would (or at least should) be able to answer it without saying he needed to study and get back to them. Cameron took that example to heart and went through the first couple chapters of Philippians and just talked about our Lord.

The ladies have been going through the book King of Glory which is basically the seventy chronological Bible lessons condensed to one page each with an illustration. My first time teaching was a couple weeks ago and that was the first time I had ever taught a group of people over the age of ten. Not only that but the lesson that fell to me was the fall of Satan. Not going to lie I was pretty nervous. But it went sooooooo well! I was so pumped up afterward that I was ready to do it again!

The Lord is growing us so much through this ministry and really teaching us a lot about people. It's sometimes hard for us to reconcile that there are believers in jail but then we are reminded that we all still struggle with sin just some sin cross into the legal realm and others do not. Please continue to pray for us as we go to the jail and shine the Light of Christ.

Don't forget!  We have set up a fundraising account with Equal Exchange and they will send us 25% of all purchases! We only receive the 25% from the unique URL they have given to us so be sure to use the following link (our names are at the top of the site). http://fundraiser.equalexchange.coop/?fundraiser=NEAC001W   Please share the URL link with those you know!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

We invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us through regular monthly support or a one-time gift, as we prepare and train to go and share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
When designating which missionary you are supporting, indicate:
Cameron Neace Account #900458 *

*please note that your gift is not tax-deductible 

Christmas Gifts and Christmas Plans

Christmas Presents!

Shopping for Christmas presents? Do you know someone who loves coffee, tea and hot chocolate? Do you love those things things? Well what would you say if I told you that there was a way you could buy your gifts of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, snacks and more and also support Cameron and I here at the Missionary Training Center? You can! We have set up a fundraising account with Equal Exchange and they will send us 25% of all purchases! We only receive the 25% from the unique URL they have given to us so be sure to use the following link (our names are at the top of the site). http://fundraiser.equalexchange.coop/?fundraiser=NEAC001W   Please share the URL link with those you know! Support a missionary couple while drinking a cup of coffee - could you ask for anything better?! We're pretty excited about this and hope you are too!

Heading South

We are coming to Florida next month for Christmas break! We will be heading down in the wee hours of December 21st and plan to be there until January 11th after which point we will shoot back up to Union, Missouri until the 16th or so and be back in Roach in plenty of time for classes to resume January 19th which will also be our six month anniversary! So if you are near the Winter Park or Union area, we would love to get together with you during this time and share with you what the Lord has been teaching us and the desire He has placed on our hearts to serve Him in Papua New Guinea. Please email us at cameron_neace@ntm.org to set up a day and time. We can get together for coffee, a meal or whatever works for you.

Want to learn more about Equal Exchange? 

Below is some information from the Equal Exchange website that we hope will answer most of your questions. But feel free to check out their website for more information or just ask us.

"We were founded in 1986 as the first Fair Trade coffee company in the U.S. 

Our products are, and have always been, 100% Fair Trade. Equal Exchange trades only with democratically-run farmer co-operatives: businesses that are owned and governed democratically by the farmers - so that the benefits of trade can have a truly transformative effect on the lives of the farmers and their communities. Rather than supplying a commodity to a faceless buyer farther down the chain, farmers in the fair trade system develop long-term, direct relationships with fair trade organizations such as Equal Exchange. Fair traders are committed to buying from and supporting
their co-op partners year after year.

Co-ops benefit farmers in many ways:

* Small farmers can gain access to the international market directly, with a voice in the process and the ability to negotiate their own contracts and partnerships
* Cooperatives receive fair trade social premiums, which farmers-members can determine how to use. They know best what the community needs most and now they can afford to get it. (For example: health clinics, schools, offices, warehouses, processing plants for their crops.) Only by pooling community resources, in the form of these premiums, can large projects like these be successful.
* Cooperatives provide long-term stability for farmers by changing the way trade is done. Trading with individual farmers does not have this same capacity for broad social change.

Special challenges facing coffee / chocolate / tea producer

Small farmers have no direct access to the market, making them reliant on the predatory middlemen. Every middleman on the chain gets paid a bit more, with the farmer, who did all the work, being paid the least.

For Coffee:

* Volatile market prices may not meet the costs of growing coffee
* Because coffee is an annual harvest, most coffee farmers have to make their annual harvest payment last an entire year. Because conventional farmers don't receive a fair price, they often take out loans to cover their expenses in the lean months, keeping them in chronic debt.
* 25 million people grow coffee worldwide
*70% of the world's coffee is grown by small-scale coffee farmers with just 5 - 8 acres each

For Chocolate:

* 70% of the world's chocolate comes from West Africa, where forced child labor in the cocoa industry is rampant

For Tea:

Most of the world's tea is grown in large plantations, a relic of the colonial era in Asia

All of Equal Exchange's cocoa products and teas are certified organic

A small percentage of our coffee is not, but comes from farms that are transitioning to organic certification. And fair trade standards require minimal use of harmful chemicals and destructive farming practices, even in 'conventional' (non-organic-certified) products.

Why coffee, tea and cocoa? 

None of these foods can be grown in the U.S., so all are imported. Also coffee is the largest food import in the U.S. and we consume over 20% of the world's coffee. As a result, we are particularly disconnected from the sources of these staples of our 21st century diet and the farmers who grew them, many of whom face real challenges."

Linguistics Test Tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning Caitlin and I will be taking the linguistics aptitude test. While this test does not decide our future by any means, it will give us an understanding of our natural abilities in this area. We are both desiring to take the linguistics course that is offered as an optional fifth semester which would be the fall of 2016. However, this test should indicate how much head-banging-on-the-table will  be involved during that time so we can invest in padded placemats if necessary!

What is linguistics?  Linguistics is the scientific study of languages and their structure.  The test we will be taking tomorrow will consist of a fictional language in order to see if we have an aptitude for finding specific patterns within the language and are able to "solve the puzzle." This test will be timed in order to gain as accurate result as possible and we've been told that it is divided into four sections.

You may be asking, "Why is this so important?" You see, there are well over 7,000 languages in our world today.  Sadly, only 7% of have the full Bible in their own language. This leaves 93% of the languages lacking the full Word of God.  Worse yet, there are more than 2,000 languages, comprising 30%, that do not even have a single verse of Scripture written in their language!

Our desire is to create more orange in this chart by presenting a tribe in Papua New Guinea with the entire revelation of God's Word in their own language. While linguistics is not necessarily essential, it would be beneficial in assisting us in attaining this goal.

We've heard stories of people who completely bombed the linguistics test but took the course anyways and turned out to be some of the best students. Teachers tell us that it really comes down to a matter of discipline, persistence and determination. This is not to discount that aptitude in this area is certainly a help but, even if we fail, there is still hope!

The test is scheduled for the last two class periods Tuesday morning from 10:25am - 12:05pm central time. If you could pray for us during that time, it would mean a lot to us!

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

United in Christ,

Cameron and Caitlin 

** Read the update on the results of our test here

Foundational Bible Teaching - It takes TOO long! Or does it?

Here at the Missionary Training Center we have been going through a class entitled "Foundational Bible Teaching." Foundational Bible teaching is the method that New Tribes Mission uses to teach in a tribal context. This tool allows the missionaries to lay a solid biblical foundation for those who have never heard His message. We begin with God creating everything in Genesis and go all the way through to the ascension of Jesus Christ highlighting key passages and important themes that revolve around the character of God, who Satan is, and the condition of man. While the foundational Bible lessons to do not go through the entire Old Testament it does involve seventy lessons. Sometimes, depending on the culture that the missionaries are in, they may add or remove some of the lessons but the standard is seventy. Because of this some have said that foundational Bible teaching takes too long. 

Some may ask why don't we just share the Gospel? The problem with simply sharing the Gospel without laying a biblical foundation first is that the nationals may come to an incorrect understanding of who Jesus is and why He came. They may simply combine the Gospel with their current religious system (this is called syncretism) and not realize that there is only one God and what Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross means for them. As one of our teachers said in class, the tribal people are not a blank slate, they are not an empty vessel waiting to be filled with Truth. On the contrary, Satan has prepared them against the Gospel. Therefore, it is even more important to start at the beginning so that they can see the character of God and who He is and who they are.

But does foundational Bible teaching really take that long? Wouldn't it be worth taking the extra time so that the people can come to a full understanding of the biblical truth we are seeking to share with them? Yes, they only need Jesus to be saved, but how much of "Jesus" do they need to correctly understand in order to have true salvation? Is believing He is another spirit good enough? I would rather not take any chances in such an important matter and make sure they have a full understanding of who He is.

* Used with permission

In our "Foundational Bible Teaching" class, FBT for short, we were shown this chart depicting just

how much time it takes to go through the teaching compared to an average 70-year lifespan. I was blown away by the results! If you click on the picture to the right, you should be able to see the numbers magnified.

Basically, if you teach all 70 lessons at two hours each and do this 40 times it will take just over 33 weeks which is less than 2% of your awake weeks in your 70-year lifespan! It is still a ten to twenty year process to plant a self-sustaining tribal church with language and culture acquisition, literacy teaching, translation, lesson development and so on but the actual time to it takes to teach foundationally is a very small percentage of your life.

This just really struck me that it does not take as long as we may think. Yes, there is urgency in the need; there is no question about that. People are dying around the world and around the missionaries without the Good News and they are heading for an eternity separated from God forever. But we need to be careful when we allow the urgency to circumvent the necessity of communicating God's Word with clarity. There is a tension between the urgency and the clarity of the Message and this is a tension that we will have to rely on the Lord's leading for because there is no easy way to reconcile the two.

We hope you found this challenging! Thank you for your prayers and support as we continue to prepare and train to serve the Lord overseas. If you are interested in supporting us financially, please check out the support tab of our blog.

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

Bible Stories? Biblical Accounts? Does it matter?

We've often heard it said that the Bible contains some amazing stories. Most of us have been blessed to be tucked into bed after our parents read us a Bible story. I'm sure you've heard many sermons on the stories of "David and Goliath," "Daniel in the Lion's Den," and "Jonah and the Whale." Last month, during WebFast, our class was posed this question: Why do you think churches do not focus so much on the Old Testament stories as they do on the New Testament? Several excellent possibilities were suggested. One said that it could be just the sheer size of the Old Testament compared to the more easily manageable small New Testament. Another offered that it was because the New Testament is directed to the church. Still another said it could be because the New Testament is very explicit as a whole while the Old Testament is rather implicit and can be more challenging to draw principles from.

I didn't speak in class (this is a standard occurrence) but upon returning home for lunch that day Cameron and I talked about it while washing dishes. I think those three and the others that were suggested as options are possible but I think a lot of it has to do with the connotations of the words we choose to use. I remember reading something from Answers in Genesis that talked about this very issue. They suggested that the reason people do not spend as much time on the Old Testament is because of the fact that we refer to it as Old Testament stories. For example, stories are something that children read. They are often cute little tales that teach some moral principle that can be based in reality but are usually a fable. Stories are fairy tales. Therefore, when we say Old Testament stories what we could be communicating is that, "the Old Testament is just a collection of stories we read when we were children. Now the New Testament, that contains letters that were written to to the church and so that really applies to us today because it's been written to us."

Perhaps I'm reading way to much into this but I do think there is something to be said for referring to the recorded history in the Bible as stories when it may be better to reference them as biblical accounts. Just something to consider when talking to unbelievers and believers. But I digress.

Another topic we discussed along this same line was realizing who we were highlighting as the focal point or hero in the biblical accounts by the titles we refer to them by. For instance, in "Daniel in the Lion's Den" we are signifying in our title that Daniel is the focal point when in reality it should be "God Delivers Daniel from the Lion's Den." See how God becomes the central focus? In all our teachings of these narratives, we cannot lose sight of the fact that God is the focal point. I really appreciated that discussion because I realized that I was focusing more on the individuals God used than on God Himself. For example, I was focusing on Noah and the ark more than on God's provision for Noah through the Ark.

I realize that this posting is a little heavier and some might say dryer than the others but I really enjoyed learning about this and wanted to share!

Thank you for your prayers and support as we continue studying in preparation for serving the Lord overseas! If you are interested in supporting us financially, we invite you to review our Support tab.

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron

We Survived!

The WebFast ended on October 24th and we survived our month of no internet, movies, and texting just fine. Not going to lie, a couple days before that Friday, Cameron started getting the "shakes" and suddenly had the urge to Google something just for the sake of Googling. But he resisted this random temptation and now can Google to his heart's content. Of course, during the WebFast we were unable to give you mid-month updates on our lives here at the Missionary Training Center. Therefore, we have highlighted some of our fun happenings during the past month below!

On September 28th, we decided our car was overdue for a bath since we still had all our "Just Married" decorations. We hosed it down, scrubbed and scrubbed and got it sparkling clean!

Cameron surprised me with breakfast for our 75th anniversary on October 1st! You may be asking yourself, "How can you have a 75th anniversary when you were married in July?" It was our 75-day anniversary! He went out to McDonald's while I was still sleeping and when he woke me up I found a feast waiting for us.

On October 4th, Cameron helped our church put in a new window. It was an all-day event on a rather chilly Saturday but he enjoyed it and they did a great job!

Do we look cold and wet in this picture? That's because we were! On October 10th, we participated in a construction activity in which we assisted in building a platform out in the woods that the class ahead of us would use in the coming weeks for some of their different classes. It rained the entire three and half hours we were out there but, after a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, all was right in the world again.

During the middle of October, we went through brief course entitled "Sustainable Integrity." The guys and girls had separate classes during this time so we could talk about issues that related to both of us. One of the guys in the class made up this poster because, after all, Aragorn is the epitome of manliness as he is a king, warrior, friend and mentor.

Saturday the 18th we went to a fall craft show that was held in the Camden County Museum. We loved walking around the museum and seeing all the old artifacts. We found this old bank teller station and Cameron jumped behind it to pose because he said it looked like the one from It's a Wonderful Life!

On Sunday, October 19th we celebrated our three month anniversary by cooking a brunch fit for a king! We made cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, french toast and juice! It was delicious and I'm pretty sure we skipped dinner! These first three months have certainly flown by!


October 22nd was an exciting day indeed because on that day we mailed the last of our thank-you cards from our wedding! We felt quite accomplished at completing such an immense task.

Eric came over on Tuesday night to show me how to cut Cameron's hair. It was really neat to learn and the best part is that we paid him in sugar cookies! Next time I'll try cutting his hair while Eric watches and we'll see how that goes!




There you go! You are now all up to date with what happened during the month of October. We'll be posting more about what we've learned in some of our classes over the next several days but wanted to start with this fun update first.

Hope you enjoyed!

Caitlin and Cameron

We invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us through regular monthly support or a one-time gift, as we prepare and train to go and share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
When designating which missionary you are supporting, indicate:
Cameron Neace Account #900458