Last week I had the privilege of taking fifteen brothers on a 9 day mission trip. Each of these brothers are key men who live and work with the assemblies along the Huallaga river. They are hungry to learn more from God's word and apply what they are learning as pastors, preachers and evangelists. Every morning I taught for about 7 hours as I tried to give a general overview of each book in the New Testament. Our daily schedule was: classes in the morning, journey to the next village in the afternoon, open air preaching in the evening, sleep at night, then do it all over again the next day.

Some of the villages received us with joy while others weren't quite as hospitable, but in the end we always found a spot to set up our mosquito nets for the night. We had to skip a few meals because of a lack of food, but whenever someone was able to hunt or fish something we had a real feast :) Mazato, plantains and majaz meat were the main items on the menu. Yum!

On one section of the journey we had to walk for about 6 hours slogging through mud and swimming several blown out creeks. The latter half of that trek was after sunset so the journey became a “night-hike” where we had to feel our way along the jungle trail in the dark. It was great when we finally arrived at our planned destination point. After being warmly welcomed by the church there, we immediately went to the main square and preached our hearts out. The crowd seemed to be sort of stunned as the Holy Spirit used the message to convict many souls.

One man, “Carlos” wanted to follow the Lord but felt that he can't because he's been living in fornication for many years with two women (biological sisters). He has 6 kids, 3 with each woman and they all live under one roof forming one big not-so-happy family. What's the solution? I told him that he needs to repent and trust in Christ immediately. Secondly, he needs to stop living in this double fornication and start praying about which woman he should legally marry. Thirdly, he needs to give the other woman and her kids a separate house and continual financial support... We'll see if he takes my advice... Please pray for Carlos!

On the last day of our trip one of the believers in that village was bit by a poisonous viper. These snake bites will kill you if you don't get treatment right away so we thank God that there was an anti-venom shot in the village and she was able to receive it immediately. The big worry now is her baby. She was 5 months pregnant. We were able to get her to Tarapoto where the doctors are now trying to save the baby. Please pray for “Heidi”.

It was a great trip but it seems that the hours of preaching, the lack of food, lack of clean water and lack of sleep have all taken their toll. Now I have no voice my body aches and I'm sick with a high fever. I'm sure I'll recover soon but please pray for me too.

Micah for the Tuttle's   

Missions quote for the week:  "The biggest hindrance to the missionary task is self. Self that refuses to die. Self that refuses to sacrifice. Self that refuses to give. Self that refuses to go."

- Thomas Hale – missionary to Nepal