EXTREMELY Exciting News to Share!

Hello Friends! 

We have some exciting news to share with you all!

As you may recall, in September the Missionary Training Center hosted a Field Fair. During this three-day event, representatives came from ten of the many countries in which New Tribes Mission works among which was Papua New Guinea. The students were given the opportunity to have the various representatives over for meal to talk further and answer specific questions. We automatically signed up for the Papua New Guinea representatives and, on a whim, decided to sign up for the Asia Pacific reps as well. Little did we know that this "whim" was God's faithful leading in our lives! After learning more about Asia Pacific and Papua New Guinea and having our questions answered, we strongly feel the Lord changing our direction and redirecting us to Asia Pacific! Below we have highlighted just some reasons we feel the Lord is leading us to Asia Pacific:

• First, a little bit about Asia Pacific. It is in the same region of the world as Papua New Guinea. If you've seen the NTM video "Awayo: Fear to Faith" that was a tribe in the Asia Pacific area. Also, because we desire to translate the Bible in its entirety, it was recommended to us that Asia Pacific may be a better fit. An entire Bible translation would seem most needed in Asia Pacific as many tribes are not influenced by the national language whereas, in Papua New Guinea, tribes do have access to the Pidgin Bible and are fluent enough in Melanesian Pidgin to read and understand the message. 

• We would love the opportunity to work alongside nationals as coworkers! In Asia Pacific, the highest nationality represented by NTM missionaries is the United States but the second highest represented are nationals themselves. Thus, we have a high probability in having national coworkers! We recognize that there will be issues to work through on a multi-cultural team but there will be issues regardless of the nationality and we feel that the benefits far out way any "costs" that may arise. Plus, what an example of Christ's church working together on a multi-cultural team that will be in the tribe!

• In New Tribes, we are not only required to learn the tribal language and culture before we can teach and translate, but the national language and culture as well and this process is referred to as e2. E2 encompasses the time from when you first step off the plane until you enter a tribe. For the e2 program in Papua New Guinea, the missionaries stay on one of the bases and go out to see the people in order to learn the language and culture. While living on a base has its pros and cons, we feel that it's very isolated and cuts you off from the national people. Because Melanesian Pidgin is simply a trade language, it takes an estimated 6months - 1yr to pass e2. In contrast there is no base in Asia Pacific so we will be living right in a neighborhood. This means that every time we walk out our door, we will be face to face with the national culture! The estimated time to complete e2 in Asia Pacific is 1.5yrs - 2yrs but we feel the extra time is well worth it as we can build real relationships with our neighbors during that time! 

• Another reason for the change in country is based upon you, our ministry partners! A round-trip ticket to Asia Pacific is only about $1,000 while for Papua New Guinea it's about triple that cost. Granted, it will probably be more depending on where exactly in the country we end up and whether you have to take a boat, helicopter or another plane to get there, but the base cost is so much lower. It is our hope that you may be able to come visit us while we are in Asia Pacific and this would make it so much more feasible! We really want you to feel a part of this ministry because it's truly our ministry - the Body of Christ working together! What better way for you to feel directly connected to what the Lord is doing than by actually coming and seeing for yourselves. 

• (Written by Caitlin) Another factor is the safety for women. In Papua New Guinea, women cannot go anywhere by themselves - there must always be a man with them. Stories of women being accosted in Papua New Guinea, sadly, are very common. Therefore, my ministry to ladies would be very limited. However, in Asia Pacific, there is no specific security concern for women. Just the basic cautions you would exercise here in the States like not walking around Chicago by yourself in the middle of the night. This means that I would have a greater opportunity to impact the lives of other ladies around me. 

• We wanted to include a short bit about the security in Asia Pacific as we realize that may be a concern for you. While there is indeed a high concentration of Muslims in that region of the world, the NTM contingency department has said that the risk of radical Islam is relatively low. However, that being said, for security reasons, we cannot share specifics publicly on the internet. Therefore, we are using the general term of the "Asia Pacific" region. If you would like to know where in Asia Pacific we are headed, just email us at cameron_neace@ntm.org.

We are so excited to have received the support of this change in direction from our two sending churches! We hope and pray that you will also support us in this redirection as well. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Your fellow laborers in Christ,

Cameron and Caitlin

cameron_neace@ntm.org 
caitlin_neace@ntm.org

End of Semester Classes

As the semester came to a close, we fell a bit behind in writing our class summaries and apologize for the lack of communication. We're now going to blitz through the last five classes of the semester all in one shot so hang on for a whirl-wind overview!

Romans 12 - 14  

This was a phenomenal class! While it was only a week long, it was certainly one of our favorites and impactful this semester. These chapters of Romans really spoke into living out the Christian life. We discussed topics such as worship, exercising spiritual gifts, generosity, preferring one another (weak and strong believers), submission to the government, loving the unlovable, judging other believers, and living in the light of the Gospel. Honestly, Cameron and I both wished this class extended through the entire semester because of how much we were learning!

Semantics and Translation

This two-week class was about the translation process. We learned how to break down the form of passages in order to get to the meaning and then taking the meaning and rewriting the form in such a way that the target audience would understand. Sound complicated and time-consuming? It is. We practiced this process ourselves with Mark 2:1 - 12. Since no one in our class knows a tribal language and culture, we got to pick a narrow subculture found here in America. Therefore, our "target audience" was unchurched teens in a low economic level. Little did we realize how involved a process it was until we spent hours just trying to translate the first twelves verse of Mark 2 with a team of six! In a tribe, the translation team will just be the translator and the consultant who comes in to check the accuracy of the translation. There may be other team members who will occasionally help, but it will never be every member of the team. The only reason this practice team had six members, was to give us all some experience applying the principles. It was definitely rewarding at the end when we polished off our final draft! We can't wait one day translate the entire Bible for a people who have never read God's Word!

Christian Life

Just one week of Christian Life but what a great week it was! The tagline of this class was "Trials, Hardships, and Suffering - Instruments of Transformation" and that pretty much sums it up! Given the topic, it was a sober class but certainly an great one. We began by discussing how God never redefines evil because evil is evil and the importance of having a biblical worldview and a biblical hope. We talked about God's character and who He is as our loving and faithful Creator and Savior. Also the value in learning from one another, hope in doubt, and growing through trials rather than circumventing them by looking at examples found in the Old and New Testaments. Suffering is a part of life in this fallen world. Praise the Lord that He is good and He can bring joy and hope out of the most horrible of circumstances.

Evangelism Through Developing Church

During the last three weeks of the semester, we had this class and "Families and Education." The purpose of this class was to discuss the period in the Church Planting process when you go from evangelism, teaching through the Bible foundationally, there are believers, and a church is born. There were many different aspects that were discussed and considerations that must be made when it comes to when to introduce various Biblical truths and practices such as baptism and the Lord's supper. We eagerly await and pray that God may bless us and give us the privilege to one day see nationals come to know the Lord and become our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Families and Education

This was the other class we had during the last three weeks of the semester. Pretty self-explanatory, this class focused on exactly what it is entitled, families and education. We discussed various options when it comes to educating children. These include homeschooling, boarding schools, national schools, distance learning and others. We also were introduced to several homeschooling curriculum that are popular with New Tribes' families. There were panels featuring different couples on staff here at the Missionary Training Center where we heard about why families chose the educational options they did, what it was like to bring their children through several transitions (to the tribe, to the States, entering college and so on), and the realities of being a homeschooling mom and a church planter at the same time.

With that...

Friday was the last day of class of our THIRD semester! Classes start up again on January 18th and we are so excited to start our FOURTH semester here at the MTC! To wrap up this rather lengthy update, we wanted to share this quote from class: "We aren't just on the front lines but we are deep behind enemy lines." What a great perspective and a reminder of the reality of the world in which we live.

United in Christ

Caitlin and Cameron

We invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us through regular monthly support or a special 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

We'll Be Home for Christmas

Just wanted to take a minute to share with you all our plans for the winter break from December 18th until January 18th - a whole month!

The title tells the truth as we've decided to spend Christmas break at our home this year! This will enable Cameron to increase and maximize his hours at Taco Bell over the break as he'll be able to work during the week rather than just the weekend.

While we're staying in Roach for the majority of the break, we will still be doing some traveling. The weekend of December 19th, we'll shoot up to Union, Missouri to see both of our sending churches in that area as we haven't been able to do that all semester. Then from the 25th - 30th, we will be traveling down to Fort Polk, Louisiana with Cameron's family. On December 31st - January 1st, we will then be taking a much needed getaway as just the two of us! This will be our first time going somewhere where the destination wasn't family. We'll be going down to Branson, Missouri and seeing the Dixie Stampede dinner show thanks to a gift from family! We are so excited to spend some time away just the two of us and what a fun way to kick off the year!

We're packing in quite a bit in just a month's break! Please pray that:

• Our many hours on the road will be safe
• The two days in Union, though brief, will be well spent and that we'll be able to reconnect with our churches, friends and ministry partners
• We will have a great time with family making new memories
• The break will be restful and that we'll be refreshed and re-energized when classes start up again.
• That we will make the most of every opportunity to represent Christ well to everyone with whom we speak

Thank you all for praying!

United in Christ,

Caitlin and Cameron