Last week Amy and I headed down river with five of our kids, four american girls and seven Peruvians. As we navigated the muddy waters of the Huallaga river we cruised through a torrential downpour and then into a furnace of thick humidity. Our river cuts through one of the eastern ranges of the Andes mountains and then flows into the lower Amazon basin. The scenery is breathtaking! Along the way it was as if God was unfolding a stunning canvas of His art-work with rainbow’s, waterfalls and vibrantly green foliage covering mountains that were shrouded in fog. All of creation screams of our God’s greatness!
That afternoon we finally arrived in the port of one of my favorite villages: “Callanayacu”. Immediately we were greeted by a small crowd of excited brothers and sisters. They had not received the message that we were coming and yet there was plenty of joyful backslapping, vigorous handshakes and bone crushing hugs. Before we knew it, one of the brothers was leading us down a beautiful jungle path so we could see an epic waterfall and enjoy a nice swim in one of the many hidden lakes in that area. It all looked like a stunning scene from the garden of Eden.
After an unforgettable afternoon in paradise we hiked back to the village square where there was a town meeting in process. The whole village was assembled and after they were done making some decisions about buying paint for the communal house I stood up and congratulated everyone on their village unity and work ethic….. from there I opened up the scriptures and I pointed to Christ as the only One that can give true and lasting unity. It was a really unique open door that the Lord provided. Many people were there that would never have come to our planned open air preaching (which we did a few hours later) nevertheless, everyone was “all-ears” for about 30 minutes and it resulted in several good one on one conversations.
After we had eaten dinner (coconuts and chicken and rice) everyone gathered, once again, in the main square and I preached on Malachi 3:16. Just as I began the electricity went out and it was immediately really dark, and really quiet…. No microphone, no lights, no moon, just a billion stars that were looking down on us from the heavens. As I preached into the darkness it seemed that my voice echoed out of the village and off into the jungle. You could see the faint silhouettes of men, women and children listening. Some were near, some were far, some were in the doorways of their houses and some stood on the edge of town. But all seemed to be listening intently and looking into the heavens as they considered the spiritual state of their soul.
We had a rather uncomfortable night of sleep in our tents which we set up on the boarded floor of the church building. Nevertheless, we were up early and began our new day with personal prayer and bible. Stephany, Gretty and Cesia are awesome with the village kids. Our young men, Javen, Eber and Fernando, are leading music and helping me preach. Jorge and Yuri are tending to the boat and do all the heavy lifting while Amy and Bria are translating for the american girls who are eager to help with evangelism and really anything they can do.
On this trip I preached three to five times a day and as a result I shredded my vocal chords. I need to always be careful to not lose my voice but it’s hard to hold back when you see lost and desperate souls sitting all around the main square hanging on every word of the message being preached. Most of the open air meetings on this trip left the listeners kinda stunned and contemplating their spiritual state. Praise the Lord for His work of conviction!
On the way the way to the next village we stopped at our favorite thermal hot springs for a scalding hot shower! Boiling water comes right out of the ground and then splits into two waterfalls. It’s a great place to rest, and refocus.... and get burned if you're not careful :/ Everyone loved the experience and the recharge it brought.
Tuttletidbits: "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing"
2 comments Posted by the tuttle tribe at 3/07/2024Going through some difficult times....
After a recent trip, I returned home with quite the stomachache. At times it feels like I'm on my death bed. When I finally went in for a check-up at the clinic here it was confirmed that I have two intestinal parasites..... Don't worry, I'm on meds now and the parasites should be gone soon :)
On a different front, we've been going through a very painful case of discipline for fornication in our local assembly here in Tarapoto. A brother that is very dear to our family and to the whole assembly fell hard and it has really shaken everyone. Moral failures like this always serve as a massive warning that any of us are capable of the worst of sins and we must keep our eyes on Jesus and our steps in conformity with the Spirit.
On yet a different level, and even more difficult, a separate brother that I led to the Lord years ago and who then went on to plant several churches has now apostatized. He's left the faith, left the church, left his wife, left his son and has completely embraced a lifestyle of wickedness. He refuses to be reasoned with…. HEARTBREAKING!
But, there's always incredible hope in Christ. There's an indomitable joy in the midst of suffering and sorrow. There really is so much to be encouraged about! Oh the joy in Christ even.... (especially)... in the midst of difficulties! "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything" (2Cor 6:10).
The spiritual battle can be felt on every side. "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day."
-After preaching in the market last week, several interested visitors showed up at church on Sunday morning... That was encouraging.
-About 100 indigenous natives came to a conference I was preaching at. Most of them traveled 2 or 3 days by foot. I taught for 6 hours a day, 10 days straight. Their hunger for God's word was incredible! That was encouraging.
-I’ve been trying to meet with a few guys most mornings at 5:30am to read and pray and work out together. The whole morning routine takes about two and a half hours. It's pretty cool to see a growing passion for the Lord in these guys! ......That's encouraging.
Bible verse for the day: "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing" (2 Cor 6:10)
Micah for the Tuttle's
BACK IN PERU!
Three weeks ago we arrived in our beloved Tarapoto Peru. It's so good to be back! We left Dubuque IA right in between two big snow storms and -10F temperatures..... When we arrived in Tarapoto it was +90F and super humid. I guess you could call us "snow-birds" :) The reality is that here in Peru school is out and these are the summer vacation months when most of the youth are available for camps and capacitation courses and missions trips. It's a strategic time to be here! We are pretty much settled in now and we've started to kick things into high gear. Please pray for us and the many opportunities we will have here during the next several months.
INTERNSHIP
Our oldest son Javen and his wife Autumn have accompanied us and they will be here for the duration of this trip (until early May). Autumn has been focusing on the intercultural studies major at Emmaus Bible College and to wrap up her four year degree she is required to do a missions internship outside of the USA. What better place to do it than in Peru?! She has been commended through CMML for the next four months and will be getting a first hand over-seas missions experience. Autumn is studying spanish, getting acquainted with the culture, accompanying Javen and I on pastoral visits, going on river trips and trying to employ her gifts in every way she can. We are so glad that Javen and Autumn are here with us! Please pray for them as they adapt to all the changes :)
OUR TARAPOTO CHURCH
Our church here in town is doing well! It used to be that whenever we left Tarapoto for a few months the church would really struggle. Happily, that is no longer the case! There are about eighty saints that are led by three elders who are doing a good job of preaching and teaching and shepherding the flock. We also have several older women who are discipling the younger women, while at the same time are carrying on a solid children's ministry. In addition to all of this, many of the youth have really stepped up and are eagerly taking on many ministry responsibilities. About half of the church is made up of young people (18-30 year-olds) for which we are praising the Lord!
EVANGELISM
Souls! Souls! While walking through the streets and markets and plazas and observing precious souls on every side it is hard to resist the urge to publicly proclaim the hope that is offered in Christ. Jesus said he saw the people "like sheep without a shepherd" Isn't it like that today... Isn't it like that everywhere? Open air preaching, one on one evangelism, house to house gospel work... just do something! There's nothing like jumping up on a table and preaching your heart out. Please pray for my vocal cords :) .... Every time I do this it produces amazing one on one conversations with interested individuals. You basically find three groups of people: Some mock, some want to hear more and some believe (see Acts 17:32-34). Oh how we long to see more in the "some believed" category!
MISSIONS QUOTE FOR THE DAY BY FRANCIS XAVIER:
"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ."
Micah for the Tuttle's
Happy New Year from the Tuttle-Tribe!
As the new year marches forward we are excited to get back to our jungle home! This year we will be there from January 10th until to May 2nd, thus we are in full preparation mode for our fast approaching journey. Please pray for us as we hope to be an encouragement to the river churches and a challenge to anyone who will listen to the gospel. We have many teaching and preaching and evangelism events on the schedule and we desire to take full advantage of every moment we’ll have with the Peruvians!
During the course of this last month we've been able to focus our energies on evangelism and preaching here in the midwest. Atlantic Iowa, Jefferson City MO, Cedar Rapids IA, Dubuque IA, Kenosha WI and Milwaukee WI were all on the schedule recently and it was exciting to see how the Lord worked in each place. My passion is to preach Gods word wherever I can, but one-on-one gospel conversations seem to always be a highlight for me. Out of my many evangelistic encounters that I've had recently, the following conversation with a taxi driver that was taking me to a conference stood out the most:
Me: "Hello, where are you from?"
Taxi driver: "India"
Me: "Wow India! I've got a lot of Indian friends. What part of India are you from?
Taxi driver: "The north"
Me: "Oh, most of my friends are from the south... Whenever I meet people that are from places that I'm not too familiar with I like to ask: How's the gospel doing in your part of the world?"
The taxi driver looked at me through the rear view mirror and inquisitively asked in his indian accent: "What is the gospel? I don't understand this word..."
I replied: "Oh I'm sure you've heard the message of the Bible.... it's the good news that God who is Light and Life and Love has come down from heaven to solve our problem of darkness and death and disconnection."
At this point the taxi driver said (in his unmistakeable accent): "I don't think this 'gospel' is doing too well in India.... I have not heard this message... please tell me more."
After an hour long ride and an epic gospel conversation we arrived at the conference hotel where there were hundreds of Christian Indians. When my taxi driver helped me out of the car I asked if I could pray for him to which he enthusiastically said "yes". I called several of the nearby Indian brothers and together we prayed for my new friend. When we finished praying, the taxi driver said: "Maybe this 'gospel' is doing better in India than I thought.... I believe God has sent you to speak to me today."
We need to meet sinners where they're at, and then engage their greatest need. We must pray and look for those divine appointments. We must try to see their darkness and their disconnection and then try to present the only answer... Jesus Christ crucified and risen again. Every evangelistic conversation must be centered around that truth. We are speaking to real people with real struggles and they need real answers. I am confident that if we are praying for divine appointments with needy sinners God will set them up for us. If only we were on the lookout for them.......
Quote for the day paraphrased from C.T Studd: "Don't go into your study to prepare a sermon... that's nonsense! Go into your study to meet with God... doing that you'll catch fire for Him. Soon your tongue will become a burning coal... soon you'll be weary of holding it back and soon you'll have no choice but to preach a sermon."
Micah for the Tuttle's
ANNIVERSARY
This month Amy and I are celebrating 27 years of marriage! Over the course of those 27 years the Lord has blessed us soooo much and we are thankful! God has taken us on quite an amazing journey as we have tried to follow Him every step of the way. We met on the first day of 8th grade in 1990...... 6 years later we were married..... and now we've got kids that are getting married!
TWO WEDDINGS
The Lord has blessed us with two new daughters! In January Javen married Autumn and in August Cullen married Emma! We are so excited to have them both as a part of our Tuttle-Tribe! Javen and Autumn are living and working in Dubuque while Cullen and Emma are living and working in Chicago. We are so encouraged by both couples as they are serving the Lord and thriving right where He has put them. It will be fun to watch how the Lord uses each of these new Tuttle families :)
MINISTRY
The last few months have been very busy as ministry has taken us all over the country. We have been attempting great things for our great God while trying to encourage His people in the areas of discipleship, church planting and missions. It has been quite a whirlwind of travel and preaching and evangelism everywhere we've been. As 2023 comes to an end we can see "light at the end of the tunnel" but we still have a few commitments in and around the midwest before we get to go back to Peru for the first five months of the coming year. We can't wait to visit the village churches along the banks of the Huallaga river in the San Martin region of the Peruvian jungle!
A PASSION FOR THE GOSPEL!
Perhaps the Bible’s clearest verse on evangelism is 1Peter 3:15. Here the apostle tells us to “be prepared to give an answer”. How can we prepare ourselves? Of course, we need to study and know what we believe and why we believe it. But even more importantly, we need to “sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts”. How can we do this? Well, by being passionate about Jesus.
Too many of us simply lack passion for the gospel. If you have sanctified Christ as Lord in your heart, your passion and your reverence for Him will communicate much more than your eloquence ever could. Someone has said, “That which captures the heart controls the tongue.” Think of the sports fan, proudly wearing his team’s jersey, walking up to the home team’s stadium. He’s elated to be where he is,and he’s not afraid to share with anyone and everyone who will listen about the unsearchable riches of his team. He doesn't care what others think because, in his heart, he has set apart his team as something special…even sacred.
The more astonished we are at God’s glory, the more we will boldly speak about Him. We need to pray,“Lord, please let the fire in my heart melt the lead in my boots.” You might not be eloquent or fluent or an impressive communicator, but you can be genuine and passionate. Just as Matthew 12:34 says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Someone has said, “The gospel is not just taught; it’s also caught.”
My mission is to help other Christians “catch the gospel”, to catch fire with a passion for heaven’s greatest gift. I’m always amazed when Christians talk fervently to almost anyone about movies, sports, or the stock market, but when it comes to sharing the gospel, they are practically mute!
David Platt’s words should cause us to reflect: “A soft-drink company in Atlanta has done a better job of getting brown sugar water into every nation on earth than the church of Jesus Christ has done in getting the gospel to them.”
I’ve heard many a brother say, “evangelism is not my gift.” Well, Is your gift movies? Is your gift the Los Angeles Lakers? Evangelism doesn't have to be your gift in order to speak about Christ passionately! Set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, and out of that abundance and fullness and glory,your mouth will begin to speak. Evangelism is a heart issue! Jesus said: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Mt 6:21. Do you treasure Jesus? Do you treasure the message of the cross?
Evangelism quote for the day by Henry MartÃn: “The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, the nearer we get to him the more intensely missionary we become.”
Micah for the Tuttle's
The summer pandemonium has begun! After a few weeks of prayer and preparation we have officially kicked things into high gear…. Last Sunday, after preaching in Greenfield Iowa, I traveled to Kansas Bible Camp near Hutchinson where I gave 10 messages at their Leadership Training Week. About 165 young people came and that put the camp right at maximum capacity. It was fun to preach to a totally packed out auditorium full of souls that were eager to hear from Gods word. It seemed like every square inch of camp was put to good use as each bed in the dorms was occupied, and every seat in the dining room was accounted for.
After each meeting there were broken and repentant teens to deal with. The Lord really seemed to be working in the hearts of many of these high-schoolers and throughout the course of the week there were several professions of faith. This was a week of training for leaders and yet many found that they weren't saved yet.... so I decided to major on the gospel and as a result the Lord brought about great blessings! Many of these young people were in tears as they related to me their struggles with anxiety, identity and various besetting sins.... More often than not, I wasn't sure what to tell them, other than: “Go get alone with God” which they usually did and then often times came running back with great joy on their faces saying that the Lord had given them a major breakthrough.
In each of my messages I put an emphasis on biblical manhood.… and there was a tremendous response! We live in a day and age in which there is so much confusion about gender and identity and roles and biblical men are becoming more and more of an endangered species.… Many of the young men that I was preaching to acknowledged the problem and could see where it’s taking our culture. Numerous times I was in a conversation with a young man and soon several other young men would gather around with great interest as I tried to field their questions about manhood. Right from the beginning of the week I started inviting some of the guys to come exercise with me in the mornings. So each day a bunch of guys met me at the gym at 5:30 am to do an epic workout (such as: run 2 miles, do 200 push-ups, 200 sit-ups and 200 air squats). We wrapped up each workout with prayer and when we finally got up off our knees the cement floor would be soaked with sweat…. A reminder that prayer is work. Prayer is battle…. Prayer is wrestling with God.
Working out and pushing yourself physically has very little to do with biblical manhood but it does teach discipline and endurance and perseverance which I pray will carry over into the spiritual lives of these young men.
Biblical manhood quote of the day by Elizabeth Elliot: "The steel of manly character is forged in the fires of self control and discipline."
In other news...... Please pray for us as we have a very full calendar coming up!
June 16-29 (Oregon)
July 1-8 (Missouri)
July 9-23 (California)
July 25-30 (Pennsylvania)
August 1-5 (Illinois)
August 6-10 (Iowa)
August 10-20 (Washington)
August 23-28 (Colorado)
August 23-Sept 10 (Oregon)
September 11-15 (Utah)
September 15-18 (Iowa)
October 7-8 (Texas)
October 10-15 (North Carolina)
Micah for the Tuttle's
Yesterday I was awakened at 4 am by one of the brothers in Nuevo San Juan. This man owns the loud speaker in the town…. each village has one of these for the purpose of communicating the latest news to everyone within earshot (up to a mile away) and I usually use it whenever we arrive in any given pueblo…… but not at 4 am….. As I began to come out of my deep slumber I was able to decipher that he wanted me to wake the whole town with an early morning gospel message…. I thought, "well, I can’t really say no to that" :)
My American self says: "this would be a really rude awaking for everyone", but my jungle Peruvian self says: "The roosters are about to wake everyone up anyway and the people here are usually okay with all kinds of interruptions… Why not interrupt their sleep with a little bit of Jesus? An hour later, when I was done preaching many people were up and out in the streets wanting to talk with me about their spiritual condition. We live in exciting times!
The night before we had piqued their interest with an epic children's meeting and then an open air in the main square (as is our custom everywhere we go). Many of the villagers had come out to listen…. To add to the excitement there were also several souls that came from the neighboring towns because they had heard that we were in the area.
Our open air meeting started with a few songs and then brother Mayer preached message #1. After that Josiah and Mya and Megan and a few others from our team did a skit which was followed by message #2 by brother Anderson. When we had sung several more songs I wrapped everything up with message #3.…. That is the basic order of things in most of our open airs and even though there are three messages, the attendance usually just keeps growing throughout the duration of the meeting.
These days there seems to be more of a hunger and interest in spiritual things than is normal. Please pray for lasting fruit in these villages!
Missions quote for the day by David Platt: “A soft-drink company in Atlanta has done a better job of getting brown sugar water into ever nation on earth than the church of Jesus Christ has done in getting the gospel to them.”
Micah for the Tuttle's
Saturday, April 8th
CULLEN AND EMMA ARE ENGAGED!
We are excited to announce that our son Cullen has proposed to Emma Twinem…. And she said YES! Emma is one of the daughters of missionary friends that we have know since our early days in Peru. The Twinems worked on the coast of Peru for many years and every time we traveled to Trujillo it was great to see them. Little did we know that Cullen would one day propose to their youngest daughter! About ten days ago Cullen and Emma traveled to visit us here in Tarapoto. Coming to visit us was very nice of them…. But there was an ulterior motive :) They felt that it would be fitting to make their engagement happen in the land of the Incas where both of them were raised. So in an absolutely spectacular and remote setting Cullen got down on one knee at the famous Gocta falls and asked Emma to marry him. They are perfect for each other and we couldn’t be happier! We look forward to how the Lord will use them to His glory!
IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK IN PERU!
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, we are back in the jungles of Peru! We have been here for about a month now and it has been fantastic to, once again, be with our church family in Tarapoto. We have been greatly encouraged to see so many of the young people here stepping up and using their gifts to serve the body. Many of the youth that are now in their mid-twenties, were little kids when we first met them. Some of them we personally led to the Lord and then invested into their discipleship as new Christians. What a joy it is to see them continuing on for Jesus! In the coming months we look forward to doing as much as we can to help and encourage the saints in these regions, so please pray for us as we attempt great things for our great God and His great Son and His great cause.
DITP VISIT!
In February several students from the Discipleship Intern Training Program came from Lubbock Texas to visit us. We enjoyed a fantastic two weeks of ministry, both in town and also in the villages along the river. As we went, I taught through the book of Acts and then we basically lived that narrative out as we preached the gospel from town to town. I think the team encouraged us more than we encouraged them! Everywhere we went we had open air meetings, children's meetings, and church meetings. We preached to, prayed for, and sang with everyone we could. We tried to help, love, encourage and exhort the people in each pueblo. Most of all, we just tried to reflect Christ to anyone and everyone we met.
EVANGELISM
Over the course of the last month there have been plenty of opportunities for evangelism. No matter where we are in the world the Lord seems to set up divine appointments to share the truth of the gospel with spiritually needy souls. We have had many great one on one gospel conversations but there have also been many opportunities to do open air evangelism too. I've been preaching my heart out wherever we go. I've preached at the indoor market, in the outdoor market, down by the river, on the streets and in the main square of several villages. There is nothing more exciting than sounding forth heavens last and costliest gift to men, trying to win them to the Savior, turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God.
MISSIONS QUOTE FOR THE DAY
"No sound system, No band, No guitar, No entertainment, No cushioned chairs, No heating, No Air-conditioning. Nothing but the people of God and the word of God... and strangely that's enough. Gods word is enough for millions of believers who gather in thatched roof huts in the jungles, in the mountains, in deserts and in the most inhospitable of places.... But the question is: Is the word of God enough for us?" -David Platt
Micah for the Tuttle's
Peru
Now that we have made these difficult decisions about California we can resume with our original plans of spending a greater portion of the year in the jungles of Peru. We are very excited to be back in the rainforest in just a few weeks! Our plan is to be back in Tarpoto from mid February through May. Those months will be full of preaching and teaching, travel from village to village and helping to encourage the jungle churches in the Tarapoto area. Amy and I will be traveling with our three younger kids (Josiah, Mya and Ellia) and two disciples (Dallas Goff and Megan Smith from the USA). During our time there we will have a few teams (one form Texas and one from Iowa) coming to visit and help with the work. We are excited to see what the Lord will do and to reconnect with our beloved brothers and sisters there in Peru! Please pray for the upcoming work in the jungle!
Wedding!
December and January were full months for us as a family. We traveled from California to Lubbock Texas where I was teaching a block of classes at the DITP institute there. After that we continued on to Dubuque Iowa where I’ve been doing a lot of preaching, evangelism and…… preparation for Peru Aside from the usual pandemonium that comes with our itinerant ministry schedule, we added a wedding! At the beginning of January we all drove to Augusta Georgia where Javen, our oldest son, married his college sweetheart Autumn! It feels a bit strange that we are at the stage in life when our kids can get married.. but here we are and we couldn't be happier. Javen and Autumn met at Emmaus a few years ago and it was evident early on that they are a perfect match. We are very excited to have added another daughter to our family! I had the great honor of performing the wedding and preaching the message as my own son stood before me with his wonderful bride. It was a truly special and unforgettable moment. Please pray for Javen and Autumn as they embark upon a life together in service to our great King!
Amy and I were sitting at a coffee shop enjoying a date together when a rather angry and imposing young man walked up to the table next to ours, slapped down a breakfast burrito and then asked if he could sit with us. We said: “Sure” (a bit strange but.…) “Sure”. When he sat down Amy noticed that his hand was wrapped up in ice and so she asked: “What happened to your hand?” The man asked if we really wanted to know? Amy said: “Yes” and then he proceeded to relate a rather shocking story of road rage that he had just committed about 15 minutes earlier. Somebody had cut him off, So he yelled at them and when the other guy stopped and yelled back, our new friend jumped out of his truck and Hammer-fisted the other guys side mirror clean off…. I’m sure that if we had seen this whole thing transpire we would not have liked this guy very much… But as we listened to this outrageous story we both knew right away that the Lord had set this up as a divine appointment…. Amy jumped in almost immediately and said: “I don't think its by random chance that our paths have crossed, we are Christians and I think that God has a reason that you are sharing your story with us today.’’
Right then his cell phone rang…. He answered and it was his wife saying that the police were at his house and were looking for him. After they talked for a minute or two he hung up and asked us what he should do? Should he turn himself in? Should he track that other car down and really mess that guy up? I said: “Have you ever thought of asking God for help?” Just then his cell phone rang again… He answered and it was the police… After talking with them for a few minutes he hung up again and said “You’re right, I need to ask God for help…. this is actually about the tenth time I’ve done this sort of thing… I just can’t control my temper…” After about 30 minutes of speaking with him about righteousness, self control, the judgement to come and hope in Jesus we prayed together…. In the end he commented: “Maybe God brought me to you guys because He wanted to give me a wake-up call….. I think I better just turn myself in.” I said: “That would probably be the right thing to do… But not just to the police, turn yourself over to Jesus… He’s the only way you're going to find real hope and forgiveness and victory.” Please pray for James
Missions quote for the day by John Bunyan: "We esteem things according to the price paid for them. The soul has been purchased by a price that the Son and wisdom of God thought appropriate to pay for its redemption. What a thing, then, must be a soul!"
Micah for the Tuttle's
