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A Cry For Laborers

Posted on February 27, 2014 by admin Leave a comment

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” – Matthew 9:38

Matthew 9:38 is a verse that we often talk about, yet soon forget. We take it seriously when it involves us personally and when we need help. Many times however, we forget that there are people in this world crying out for the Gospel. Spiritually sick and destined to eternal suffering, they have little hope if someone does not get to them with the message of salvation.

This week was a great reminder of who God is and what He can do in the lives of people who believe in Him. I have seen both extremes. From extremely poor and remote people groups who have no idea what the Gospel message is, to the wealthy civilized people who have the Gospel and do not care to give it to those who need it, God is interested in every single person alive. He cares about the lost, but God also cares about how much we care about the lost.

Though I can rejoice about what God is doing in several tribes, it breaks my heart to see what is happening in the other tribes where there is no Gospel presentation. We are putting a plan in motion to help reach some of these tribes, but what about the others. Just this week we spoke with missionaries about at least 20 different tribes. About half of them have a missionary working with them. The others are “up for grabs”. Who will go? A “mission trip” will not solve this problem. We need missionaries, Bible translators, smiling faces, or anyone who is willing to give a portion of their life to reach the unreached. The main reason they are not reached is because no one is extending their arm.

I believe that reaching these Indians who are more civilized is the key to reaching the isolated Indians. We already know of accounts where one of these tribes sent missionaries to another tribe. The second tribe now has a church and many Christians in it. It is possible, but laborers are needed.

THE FIRST VILLAGE

68 people live in the village.
They are related to a few other tribes in the area.
Most of the adults speak Portuguese.
The tribe is very poor and unhealthy for various reasons.
At the moment, government projects to help them, are their only hope for improvement.
The tribe is around 40 miles from Vilhena a city of around 80,000 people.
They live only 20 miles off the main highway on a dirt road.
Our state is considered by many to be the most evangelized state in Brazil, yet these so close to the city do not have the Gospel.
Some missionaries have had contact with them in the past.
There is no missionary presence there at the present.
They want a missionary to work with them!

People eager to receive anything you give them.

THE SECOND VILLAGE

Is about 15 miles from the city of Ji-Paraná
There is presently a missionary working with this village.
There is a church in the village.
There is an Indian pastor in the village.

Four missionaries and the native Indian pastor.

THE THIRD VILLAGE

Is about 20 miles from Ji-Paraná.
There are several missionaries working with these people.
The Bible is being translated into their language.
There is a missionary living in the village.
There are three national pastors and several deacons also.
They are very modern and have electricity and running water in the village, though it may not be in every home.
Some of the people from this tribe have already taken the Gospel to other tribes.

Indian Pastor and his wife with Isaías and myself.

THE FOURTH VILLAGE

This village was from the same tribe as the third village.
About 1 mile from village three.
The men were all out fishing, so we did not stay.
Several families attend the church at the third village on Sunday mornings.

Young girl in the fourth village.

THE FIFTH VILLAGE

We were looking for a specific man in this village, but did not find him.
The people were very kind and gathered from every corner to come see us.
They attend church on Sunday mornings in village three.
We stayed for about 30 minutes in this village talking to the people.
This village was from the same tribe as village three and four.
It is about 1 mile from village four.
These Indians make jewelry out of small coconuts.
Some of the Indians in these tribes have inter-married. Because of this, we met a few from other tribes also.

People gathering to find out why we were there.

— Jeremy

Posted in Ministry, Old Blog, Work With Indians

A Summary of My Recent Trip

Posted on February 25, 2014 by admin Leave a comment

I will try to break this up over the next few weeks, but mainly, I wanted to let everyone know how much we appreciate your prayers. The Lord gave us much needed safety as we traveled on dangerous roads.

A young boy in the first village we visited.

It is difficult to even summarize what we have experienced over the past few days, but I will try.

Though there were a few delays, we arrived in Vilhena as planned on the 20th.
God gave us a contact in Vilhena that proved to be very helpful. After telling us everything he knew about the situation with the Indians in the area, he then took us to a missionary’s house. This New Tribes missionary was even more knowledgeable and gave us much more needed information.
We were asked to stay for three days in order to visit all the villages. Having only one day, they made some phone calls and found a way for us to get into a tribe that afternoon.
We visited a village about 20 miles off the main highway. It was a bit difficult to get to, but without our 4×4 vehicle it would have been impossible. We did get stuck, but God placed a big tractor about 25ft. away from where we were stuck. Five minutes later, the tractor would have been long gone.
From Vilhena we drove at night to Pimenta Bueno. It was raining very heavily and the interstate highway had more pot holes than could be counted. Yet, after all the trouble, we arrived safely at the Indian school at about 10:30pm.
We spent most of Saturday morning (22nd) interacting with the students and faculty, then began our trip back home. We stopped in a few cities just to learn more about them.
Sunday morning we spent in our church service. We drove around our city in the afternoon, then went to church in Ji-Paraná for the evening arriving home well after midnight.
By 8am on Monday the 24th we were already back in Ji-Paraná where we picked up a missionary from the New Tribes’ base. He was able to take us to four different villages belonging to two different tribes. Spending time with a missionary who has worked in this field for over 15 years was a great help.
We traveled around 1,000 miles on very dangerous roads, yet God protected us and blessed in many ways on this trip. Though the cost of fuel was a bit more than normal, we were not hindered by a lack of supply.

Thank you again for praying,

— Jeremy

Posted in Ministry, Old Blog, Work With Indians

A Quick Update on The Tylers

Posted on February 18, 2014 by admin Leave a comment

There is no way for me to put everything in a prayer letter, but here are a few things that we would like for you to know about, pray for, and keep up with in our ministry…

January and February were spent on many projects…
– Relationships… God has given us the opportunity to develop stronger relationships with several people locally, help pastors and missionaries all over the country, and connect churches or individuals to others with whom they can fellowship.
– Resources… Several new messages and booklets have been added on websites.
– Translation of tracts… We received the translation of our Haitian tract and are working on layout for printing.
– Other things… Bible distribution, counseling by email through our websites, etc…
January and February – Our family has had several exciting events… Josiah (10) finished reading his Bible through for the first time, Jonathan had his 9th birthday, and Judson (6) was just baptized. See pictures HERE.
Thursday, February 20th – I will be traveling with a national missionary to scope out the tribal areas in our state. We will be going to four specific areas of the state and visiting several Indian villages as well as an Indian school.
Friday, February 28th – Josiah along with a few friends will be going to camp about two hours from here. This will be during the very popular “carnaval” holiday.
March – I will be working on finishing up a new website that will provide dozens if not hundreds of new resources for independent Baptists here in Brazil.
March – I just received 8 very good books from a publishing company to prep as e-books and place online. Lord willing it will not take but a few weeks to get all of these online.
April – Possible trip into the jungle with another missionary and a few nationals for about a week.
April – Extend our outreach to the Haitians. Print, deliver, and distribute tracts in key locations as well as develop the website side of the ministry to better reach their needs.
May – John and Julie Kokenzie may be returning to the US. If they do, we will have some more responsibilities to care for while they are gone.
June – We are working with Wings Bearing Precious Seed, missionaries, national pastors, laypeople, and visitors from the US to organize a great outreach during the world cup soccer events. We hope to have churches involved in all 12 cities. 1 million pieces of literature have been prepared for this event.(Wings Bearing Precious Seed is raising the money to get all of the literature where it needs to be. Once it is here in Brazil, it will need to be distributed to all 12 event locations. Though I am not directly involved in that part of it, I hope you will pray that the funds would come in on both ends. If you know anyone interested in helping with any part of this effort, please send me an email HERE or visit the Wings Bearing Precious Seed website.
2014 – There are many other things on our hearts and minds that we would like to press toward this year. We are seeking the mind of God in each situation. Each one of these things are directly connected with winning souls, edifying those souls, and preparing more laborers to reproduce these same steps. It is our desire to reach the world through Brazil. This requires many things, but we ask that you help us specifically by praying. If the Lord places a burden on your heart to help or get involved, there is always a need for more laborers.

–Jeremy

Posted in Literature, Ministry, Old Blog, Websites, Work With Indians

A Training Center for Indian Tribes

Posted on May 31, 2013 by admin Leave a comment

Our First Contact with New Tribes

Since around September or October of 2012, we have had close contact with another missionary family in the city of Ji-Paraná about 30 miles from us. These missionaries are Sam and Annessa Rogers. They were on furlough when we arrived in Rondônia and did not return until closer to the end of 2012.

Bro. Sam is a go getter and soon after getting back wanted to conduct a vacation Bible school. It was while taking our children to VBS at their place that we met Wellington, a New Tribes missionary. We spoke briefly about their work, but knew we would be in contact again in the near future.

Shortly after this, Wellington’s wife Juliana gave birth to their second baby girl. Being in town not long after that, I had a chance to visit with them in their home for a few hours. We had a great time learning and finding out more about their work and where the Lord had called them.

I also met another New Tribes missionary while we were at their house. Though I did not remember this, I had previously been in contact with this missionary, Adilton. We had communicated by email nearly two years before this encounter.

Because of their knowledge about the Indian tribes and my curiosity and desire to learn more about them, we began conversations of how we could get more involved and visit some of these tribes. Adilton told us about a training center for Indian tribes that had just started in our state. He volunteered to take us to the training center when road conditions were better.

Friendships From the Lord

Being right in the middle of the rainy season, we put off our trip until after the rains would slow down quite a bit. We also had plans for traveling set up in June and my parents began talking about a visit in May. So, about the best time we found to go was right around the middle of May before my parents arrived. The date was set and we were excited about the trip.

The training center was in the city of Pimenta Bueno. This city has hit our radar several times as we have taken an interest in different cities around the state. It is a city of about 30,000 people. A few months ago I wrote about getting in contact with a missionary family in India who’s family members lived in our state. They were from this city.

We also learned through this family that there is a good Baptist church in that city. It is a Regular Baptist Church whose pastor was acquainted with many of the pastors and missionaries that we know. He was raised in the state of Amazonas, but recently came to Rondônia to pastor this church. His name is Pr. Dino. Since we had never met personally, we decided that it would be good to meet this pastor on our trip to the training center.

The Training Center

Now, let me try to connect all of these pieces for you! When the trip finally came, I drove down to Ji-Paraná and picked up Sam Rogers and the two New Tribes missionaries, Adilton and Wellington. We then drove the four hours to Pimenta Bueno. This trip under good road conditions would have taken about two and a half hours. Due to more holes than pavement and sometimes no pavement at all, delays were expected.

Our first stop was Pr. Dino’s small house behind the church. We went in and had a little breakfast snack before heading over to the training center. Pastor Dino though living in the same city had never heard about the training center and did not even know it existed. He was eager to go with us for a visit.

Immediately upon our arrival to the training center we met Pr. Mario. He and his wife live there and direct the ministry. I guess you could imagine it something like a year-round camp.

At the present, there are around 35 Indians living there. They come from several different places around the area and represent eight or nine different ethnic groups. Most of these are from 16-30 years old. Among this group there are two married couples.

This training center is set up for one main reason, but kills several birds at one time. The main purpose of the center is to train the Indians to become evangelists to their own people. It is a simplified Bible institute for the indigenous people.

Each morning these students sit in Bible classes and practical classes in which they learn how to share the Gospel with other people. They are taught how to draw their own stories in order to illustrate Bible truths to people who have no Bibles and in some cases, no written language at all.

In the afternoons all the students are put to work. The men work on construction of dormitory buildings, gardening, and are also taught a variety of other skills that will be very useful to them in the future. The ladies are taught how to cook and also take care of cleaning all the buildings and houses.

At night all of these students study in the public schools to increase their knowledge of Portuguese, Math, Science and other such subjects.

Transportation is very difficult, but the leadership is trying to get these students into different churches around the area for ministry on the weekends. They want them to get hands on training before they are sent back to their tribes.

Keeping in mind who these people are and the need to get the Gospel back into the tribes, the goal is to do what you can while you have them. Most of these students do not even have an elementary education. Therefore, this is only a two year program that attempts to give them a high school level Bible teaching enough to help them return to their tribes and share the good news of the Gospel.

One of the most interesting things to me was meeting a young man who calls himself “Phillip”. He comes from very far away. As a matter of fact, he is the one that came from the furthest distance. Yet, he knew other Indians that I have met before. I have met some of his relatives and also some of his friends. He knows other missionary friends of ours also.

It is amazing that even being hundreds of miles away from home in a place where no one speaks your native tongue, you can meet people that know your family. God is doing a work in this young man’s life. Though his family is somewhat against him, he knows that God has a great purpose for him. Since he has arrived at the training center, he has been notified that he would be next in line to be tribal chief and needs to return to help his family. However, he knows the Lord wants him to be trained and wishes to learn more before he goes back to his tribe.

Please pray for these students! This is one of the dreams I had before coming to Brazil – training the Indians to send them back to their own people to share the Gospel. God is at work answering prayers! Though these people may not be exactly like us in every way, we are able to encourage and help them in some ways. Who knows what the Lord may do through this.

To see more pictures CLICK HERE

–Jeremy

Posted in Ministry, Old Blog, Work With Indians

On the Other Side of the Boat

Posted on July 31, 2011 by admin Leave a comment

In John 21:6 Jesus told His disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Here in Brazil the Lord has also told us to cast our net on the other side of the boat with praying that we will catch a great many fish.

Though the details of the story are not the same we are pressing for the same results because here we are fishing for men.

This is good news from the northern side of Brazil. Many of you have prayed and some have given financially to Isaías, a Brazilian missionary up in a remote area of the Amazon River

He has been given a great opportunity to reach an Indian tribe that, as of yet, does not even have a written language. However, for him to reach this tribe he needed his own boat. It was vital to the ministry for him to enter by means of his own transportation.

During the first week of July he was able to purchase the boat! What a blessing. Most of the money from the boat came from churches here in Brazil. This is exciting because it shows that the Lord is able to accomplish many great things here in Brazil through the nationals themselves.

Please keep praying for Isaías and his wife Rachel. Though they still need to purchase the motor and transport the boat over a stretch of over 700 kilometers, the Lord has already provided most if not all of the money for this. However, they stand in need of more support to be able to pay the expensive fuel charges to get them in and out of the tribe. In order to go and come back from the tribe, it will probably cost them nearly $2000 in fuel and other expenses.

We are excited about this work. There are many challenges, but we want to do our best to encourage Isaías, provide some needed supplies, and help this tribe receive their first Bible in their own language. More than anything we want to see many of them come to Christ. What a wonderful day it will be when we get to Heaven and meet some of these precious souls!

This tribe is the key to entering even back into the most remote and uncontacted tribes on the face of the earth.

Please help us pray for Isaías!

— Jeremy

Posted in Ministry, Old Blog, Work With Indians

Reaching the Uttermost From Brazil

Posted on December 20, 2010 by admin Leave a comment

For years we prayed that the Lord would help us get to Brazil. One of our biggest goals in Brazil is to mobilize the Brazilians to reach the world. Oh, what joy is in our hearts when already we see the Lord using us to see this accomplished.

In August I took a trip which put in my heart a desire to help a young Brazilian missionary. Through weeks and even months of prayer about what could be done to help him, the Lord has opened doors. Please continue reading his story…

Isaiah, has always been an enthusiastic young man. Everyone expects something out of the ordinary to happen when he is around. He was raised in a missionary family until problems arose which brought them off the field. He gave his life to the Lord and soon the Lord called him to be a missionary to people which had never before heard the Gospel.

He began to raise his support as a missionary to the people of the Amazon. Still seeking God’s perfect will for his life, he sought to learn about the people and opportunities to reach the indigenous people of Brazil. With around 35% of his support raised, the Lord opened up an opportunity for him to enter into one of the remote people groups in the Amazon. Jumping at the opportunity, he left for the field completely trusting in the promises of God.

His faith was tested when the door was closed and he was left in the Amazon without any means to return home. His wife was also with him in this endeavor supporting his decisions. They were told by different governing agencies that they could still get in, but the trip had been delayed for a month. When he went to inquire the second time, his hopes were crushed as they told him they canceled the trip and the door was completely closed.

Time after time he tried to work on different avenues of entrance into this remote people group. Finally, he gave up. He did not give up hope, but he gave up seeking an entrance. Deciding to wait on the Lord and use his time wisely he began to take some college courses. It was only then, that the Lord opened the door.

One of his teachers is a representative of all the isolated people groups in the Amazon. After sharing his heart with her, she was moved by his compassion for the people and appointed him as a representative to a certain people group giving him access into their land. Hallelujah! How our wonderful Lord works in mysterious ways.

As he made his first attempt to enter, the devil was also working. He arrived at the gateway into the region making a stop to prove his authorization to enter the region. He was granted the permission, but another man was denied the privilege. This man then turned around and said some things despitefully, trying his best to destroy the whole endeavor.

After a long discussion, he was not denied entrance, but was denied transportation. However, he was told that should he have his own transportation, he could proceed. The Lord is putting him through trials, but yet his heart is hopeful and he remains excited about the possibilities the Lord has given him.

We have been encouraging this man and his wife. He is doing the Lord’s work in a very difficult place in this world. He has remained faithful to the Lord even through many disappointments and trials. He is living by faith on the cutting edge of missions.

Now, you may ask what we have to do with him. We have been encouraging him, providing some resources for him, praying, and encouraging churches to stand behind him. He has been granted full access to a people group who have never heard the name of Jesus. This is an opportunity that not many people have. Yet, he is lacking his own means of transportation to get there. This means of transportation is a boat.

Several Brazilian churches have taken up special offerings to help with this need. Brazilians in the US are getting a burden for their own people and getting involved.

Would you please join us in praying for this young man? Pray the the Lord would keep the door open for him to get in. He has been appointed as an educational representative which would help develop the written language for these people. What an opportunity this is to reach these people and provide for them the first portion of God’s Word in their own language.

While most Christians are sitting around on their hands waiting for the second coming of Christ, these people have yet to hear that there is a Creator God who loves them and gave his son to die on the cross in their place giving them eternal redemption. Please join us in praying!

— Jeremy

Posted in Ministry, Old Blog, Work With Indians