Happy New Year!
Amy and I and our kids have all had a great holiday season here in Dubuque Iowa. Christmas this year was quite different for us. It snowed on Christmas Eve and then the temperatures plummeted below zero.... -13 F, frozen pipes and snow is a drastic change from Tarapoto where it's usually 95 F and very muggy. It was a new experience for us as we wrapped ourselves in blankets, sat around our cozy and well stoked wood-stove and sang Christmas carols.
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Evangelism
In spite of the cold, I'm trying to start off the new year with the goal of having at least one good gospel conversation each day: Here's how my first evangelism experience for 2018 went: While at the gas station yesterday, I approached an African-american man and offered him a tract saying: "This is a little something about the bible. Read it when you have a chance." He said: "Thanks" and lingered a moment with a curious look on his face. I said: "What's your opinion about God and the Bible?" He said: "Oh, I believe that everything we see had to come from a higher power." I replied: "Do you think we can have a personal relationship with that higher power?" He said: "I think that you just got to be faithful to your religion whether that's Islam or Buddhism or Christianity." I said: "So you think all religions lead to God?" he replied: "Yeah, just pick a religion and be faithful to it." I said: "What do you think about Jesus' words: “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me."? He was dumbfounded... and then said "Whoa, I get it... fist-bump." After we fist-bumped I went into some of the 10 commandments.... He agreed that he had broken many of them and on judgment day he would be guilty. Then I asked: "Where do you think the guilty will spend eternity?.. He hesitated and said: "Well, I've heard the Bible talks about Hell." I nodded and then I showed him our need for Jesus as our perfect substitute who paid the price that we should have had to pay. He said “Woa, I've never understood that before.... give me another fist-bump man...." After that second fist-bump he said: "People in this world need to hear what you're talking about... Our world is so messed up with gangs and violence and racism and here you are a white guy sharing the love of God with a black guy." I said: "The Bible teaches that all human beings are created in God's image, and really, there are only two races in this world: Believers and Unbelievers...." He said: "Dood! Lets skip the fist-bump... give me a hug man." ........ Please pray for fist-bumping Don!
Upcoming Peru trip
While evangelism is exciting anywhere and anytime, I'm extra excited to announce that I'll be doing evangelism and giving fist-bumps and hugs in Peru within just a few days!! I fly to the land of the Incas on January 4th and a busy month of Peruvian ministry will begin as soon as I arrive. I'll be teaching through the book of Genesis for a week at "Capacitation Biblica" which takes place every year in the coastal town of Trujillo. After that event I hope to pick up a few disciples to take along as I go preaching from village to village in the mountains and in the jungle. Amy will join me when I arrive in Tarapoto where we will finally see the saints in whom we invested so much time and energy and love over a span of about 9 years. We look forward to this with great anticipation as we haven't seen any of them for about 13 months! After a week on our old stomping grounds, Amy and I will head to Lima to meet with some of the churches there and to do some unfinished work in the immigration offices. Then on February 1st we will fly back to our kids in Dubuque who should be having a great time with Amy's mom playing in the snow and stoking the fire :) Please pray for us during this packed month of preaching, teaching and evangelism in Peru!
2018 Schedule
We continue to plan and prepare and pray about how we can impact churches and young people in the USA. We are very excited about our "Spark" weekend conferences that lead to a "Light" week-long conference which, in turn, leads to the "Blaze" summer-long discipleship program. Apart from those events we have many other engagements on our 2018 schedule. Please pray for all of these opportunities and the many preparations that need to be made. Here is a run-down of some of the things that we have on our calendar for this coming year:
January 4-31 In Peru (Trujillo, Cajamarca, Tarapoto, Lima)
February 10-11 Amy speaks at a Women's retreat in Des Moines, IA
February 19 Chapel at Emmaus Bible College
March 5-9 "Light" conference in Dubuque, IA
March 23-24 "Spark" conference in Orlando, FL
April 14-15 NW Iowa Missions Conference in George, IA
April 17 Frontier School of the Bible Chapel in La Grange, WY.
April 20-22 Lakeside Bible Camp in Seattle, WA with Northgate Bible Chapel
April 29 Eastgate Bible Chapel in Portland, OR.
May 1-11 Emmaus Correspondence School conference in Bogota, Colombia
May 25-28 Youth conference in San Fransisco, CA
June 4 "Blaze discipleship" begins its 77 day marathon in Dubuque, IA.
June 24-30 High school camp at Camp Horizon in Orlando, FL
July 20 Flight to Peru for a super awesome missions trip with "Blaze" students
August 3-5 I escape from Peru to Dallas, TX to speak at the FIBA conference
August 6 Back to the super awesome Blaze team in Peru
August 13 Blaze team comes back from Peru
August 18-19 "Torch" weekend event to close out our first summer of "Blaze discipleship"
September 1-3 Youth conference at Camp Hope in Dahlonega GA
September 21-23 Family Camp at Dayspring Bible Camp in St. Louis, MO.
October 6-7 Youth Conference in Baltimore, MD.
October 13-14 CMML Missions conference at Believers Bible Chapel in Augusta, GA.
Micah for the Tuttle's
Missions quote for the day by John Wesley: “Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God?”
― John Wesley
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