The princess baby Ellia and Queen Amy are doing great! The two other beautiful princesses, Bria and Mya are great helpers, and Amy's mom has also come to be a help for a couple of weeks. With things settled at home, I figured the time had come for the warriors of the family to go out and slay dragons.

Last week, Javen, Cullen, Josiah and I with a few other young men from the church set out on a long and dangerous jungle trek. We walked for 7 hours slogging through the mud, crossing streams, traversing mountains to arrive at the lake 25 kilometers on the other side. It was hot and it was humid. Lots of sweat. Lots of blisters. Lots of perseverance. We ran out of water. We ran out of food. We ran out of energy. But we toughed it out. This was a "man trip". We were out to conquer the jungle - to do hard things - and we were victorious.

When David heard the words: "Give me a man," (1 Sam 17:10) he RAN to fight the giant. (17:51)

Please pray for us as God helps us to raise boys who will become men who RUN to the Lord's battles, slay today's dragons, and through Christ are victorious!

Micah for the Tuttles

Yesterday, being Father's Day, was a great opportunity to thank God for the neat kids that He has given to Amy and I.  Our five kids are a tremendous blessing!  I'm not sure if it's wrong to feel this way but I can't help thinking that we have the ultimate family.  Praise God for his blessings!      

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth.  Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them" (Psalm 127:3-4)

Javen is 15 years old.  He is a fun guy to be with, great on the jungle trail, eager to help, musical, very involved in the youth group, likes to read and write, shaves, is learning how to drive,  is a big encouragement to me and is growing in the Lord.  The ideal first son.  Very manly.



Cullen is 14 years old.  He is a natural leader, good with people, athletic, shaves, plays the guitar, good at math, likes to visit the villages, very involved in the youth group, a great personality and growing in the Lord.  God placed him perfectly as second-born in our family.  Very manly.



Bria is 10 years old.  She is a precious princess girl, very pretty, very resilient, willing to take risks in the jungle, likes to help in ministry, reads her Bible all the time, loves to be with friends, brings joy to everyone around her, not allowed to talk to boys until she turns 40.


Josiah is 8 years old.  He is the kindest young man you will ever meet, very good at soccer, tough on the trail, quiet, fun, joyful, can catch almost any small animal with his bare hands, very smart, serious about reading his bible, memorized Romans 12:1-10 without being told to.  Very manly.


Mya is 5 years old.  She is a precious princess, very pretty, we call her "sunshine", likes to drink coconut water, likes attention, learning how to read, natural born ability to color-coordinate, willing to face the jungle if her dad is with her, prays, wants and try's to trust in the Lord.  Not allowed to talk to boys until she is 40 years old.

Family quote of the day: “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”

-Mother Teresa

Everywhere we go people gawk at our family. Yes, we stick out like sore thumbs because we are white and blond (sort of) but it's mostly because there are so many of us. People just can't believe that we have FIVE kids, and that we actually go places together... all of us!

Last week I was preaching in a church and mentioned that "we need preachers and evangelists and pastors to minister in the most difficult places." As I looked across the room at the approving wide eyes and nodding heads I said "Others of you may be called to have large families and train your 5 or 6 kids in righteousness." Immediately faces changed and even contorted. It was as if I was no longer speaking Spanish but Martian..... It seems that not many want the "curse" of several kids.

Doesn't the Bible say that children are a blessing? As a big family we feel that we have a tremendous opportunity to shine that much more in a dark and lost world. Yes, we have all kinds of flaws and imperfections but we desperately want to be different in an anti-christian, anti-family society that is full of broken and dysfunctional homes. Families everywhere need the Lord and they need to see Him where the rubber meets the road, in my family and in yours.

-Micah for the Tuttle's

I thought it would be funny to include this silly song that Amy and the kids put together. This was part of their folk song study (not too spiritual but very fun:)

This is some video taken on the last trip. [see previous post]
Micah took Bria for 5 days as he visited four of the villages on the Huallaga River.

On Monday morning Bria embarked on a four day trip with me down the Huallaga river to visit four different villages. It was her first time going on a trip like this and so she was extremely excited even while Amy and I were a bit nervous. Two Peruvian brothers accompanied us and were very careful to help me watch over Bria's every move. She had lots of fun being the jungle princess with her three knights in shining armor, they being ready to fight off the snakes, jaguars and tarantulas at any given moment.

There was quite a commotion in each village when they saw this white American princess enter into their forgotten corner of the world. Bria handed out tracts, showed the evange-cube to everyone and sang with me at the church meetings. Each night I preached open air and all kinds of people came out to listen (I'm not sure if they came out to listen to the gospel or to see Bria... :).



In one village there was some kind of an epidemic of eye infections, as lots of the kids had puss in their eyes. When Bria saw the disease, disorder and dirtiness in this village she was quite alarmed thinking that she too might get sick. It was a good opportunity for me to explain to her that we need to try to love the people, be willing to do hard things for the Lord, persevere in difficult moments and trust God that he will take care of us. After having prayed together she felt better and in the end we made it out of that village without any eye problems.



In all it was a great trip. We were able to preach the gospel and encourage the brethren in each village. Bria was able to experience what life is like in the amazonian villages and we thank the Lord that we came through relatively healthy. We are suffering from numerous bug bites and chiggers but I'm confident that we'll heal quickly. Thank you for your prayers.

Micah for the Tuttle's

Hello Friends,

This is just a quick note to let you all know that Micah made it to
Tarapoto! He met the moving truck there and has been working hard to
get the house in order. What a guy! While we were away, rainwater had
flooded the house multiple times, and the plants were all way overgrown
as the young guys who were supposed to stay there while we were gone
lost their keys at some point :S However, Micah got the phone hooked
back up and has everything pretty much under control now. Yay, Micah!

The girls and I are scheduled to fly back to Peru tomorrow, Wednesday
morning at 5:30am and will be traveling/layovering until Friday 9:30pm.
That's 63 hours LONG! But all is not sorrow and sadness as my mom is
traveling back with me :) Please pray that all the details of the trip
will fall together and that we would actually be able to enjoy our time
together.

I will mention a big sadness that our family is experiencing. We just
lost a good friend. On the way to Tarapoto, our family dog Sam died.
He was having trouble breathing for several hours and then died in the
night. He was a very sweet dog and we all love him very much. Please
pray for our family (especially the kids) as this was a difficult blow
in the midst of such big life change.

Please keep holding us and our new ministry endeavor up in prayer. We
have exciting yet difficult days ahead.

Thank you for praying,
In Him,
Amy for all

Just a quick note, as we know that you all are busy people...

Protests:
The mototaxistas have let up on their strike giving the government a week or so to resolve the problem! The natives continue to be restless, but we've heard there's a meeting in Lima today hopefully with a resolution coming in the next days. Chicken prices are still through the roof! And we were SO glad to get out of the house today for the first time in 5 days!! :)

Health:
With open roads, we were able to take Micah to the hospital to confirm that he does have Dengue. The doctor said that was good news because the alternative was something that has a tendency to go on for a longer time. My dizziness seems to have disappeared for the time being! Yay! Praise the Lord!

Travel:
The airport is now open and flights are available if we end up needing to go with that option... just so costly. But preferably, this week the road will clear, and we'll jump at the first chance to drive to Trujillo. We're hoping the car won't complain. We have things that we need to get in order there... particularly, Sam, our poor orphan dog. Though we've heard from friends that he is doing just fine ;) After a week or two in Trujillo, we hope to be back here again until July (IBEM in Trujillo).

So there you have it, your prayers have been effective, and we are super thankful for the reprieve!

the Tuttles

PS. Below are some pictures of a trip we took to Laguna Azul on our family day last week... probably where Micah got sick?!


Our contact information:
e-mail: majctuttle@yahoo.com
phone: 011 42 527401
mailing address:
Centro Biblico Trujillo
c/o Stephen Twinem - (Tuttles)
Av. Larco 1069
Trujillo, Peru