What fun we've had over the last few days! Planning and scheming about how to love and serve Christ by sending food for the believers in Papa Playa, many of whom have lost whole crops in the recent flooding, has occupied much of our attention.


As we've worked out, we're hoping that the food in this truck is enough to sustain 50 families of four (complemented by their daily catch of fish) for at least a couple of weeks. There are about that many families represented at the village church, and we're making a gift of beans, oil and pasta for each family. Plus, the store where we bought most of the things was inspired and donated 10 boxes of panetones free of charge! Now, that doesn't happen every day!

Of course we couldn't take enough on this trip to give a gift to everyone in the village. But we have some really cool ideas for ways to use this opportunity to bring glory to God and hopefully the gospel to people, if we're able to send more later on this month. We're looking forward to it.


Our visitors, David and Joana, arrived yesterday from France, today assisted in loaded the truck, and will be with Micah until tomorrow finishing off the food drop; along with Miss Mya who is making her first river trip with Daddy!

Please pray that above all things the Lord would receive much glory from every aspect of this project: from how the items and the gospel are presented, to how the people receive them. Pray also that the people would see Christ and that the eyes of their hearts would be opened to His word and to His Spirit's working.


We are figuring on taking a truckload of rice within the next couple of weeks. But, I think we'll have to take a bigger truck! It is exciting it is to be part of a rescue project! Several of you have offered to send money to help. We consider ourselves lucky that we're the ones who actually get to deliver Christ's love into their kitchens. They are going to be SO excited! Oh, and those of you who have joined with us on this project by praying or sending, we too, want to THANK YOU!

May the Lord bless you as you continue to seek and serve Him.
Amy on behalf of the whole tribe.

This morning I preached from Revelation 22. It seemed that the Lord really used it. Praise Him for the work He does in our hearts through the hearing of His word!

At breakfast we had turtle eggs that were mostly raw! Yum! No kidding they are quite tasty :)

Throughout the day I was able to pretend that I was a medical doctor. People in these villages are constantly battling with parasites, ulcers, and malnutrition. Because of limited quantities, I tried to keep it quiet that I had anti-parasite pills, vitamins and antibiotics but when the brothers realized that I was giving out medicine word spread quickly and soon the lines started to form. It was great to help these needy people :)

This afternoon I preached from Genesis 3-5. People listened well but I felt powerless as the seed seemed to fall on many hard hearts. Later that evening we moved the meeting out in the street, where I got up on a chair and preached from Mark 8:34-38. This time many seemed to be convicted of sin and drawn to the Savior. Only God knows what happens in the hearts of men! We finished the day with a video of Bert and Colleen Elliot's memorial service.

There are a lot of fish in the river right now.  If you watch the shore at certain spots you can see literally hundreds of fish jumping out of the water at the same time.  We even had two fish jump right into our boat as we motored along.

    
To give you an idea of what the convention schedule is like... Today went like this:

From 5-6 a.m  Prayer and praise 
From 6-7  I preached on knowing God (Lucas 10:39) 
From 7-8  Breakfast
From 8-9  Brother Jairo taught on Daniel chapter 9.
From 9-10  Brother Neil taught against witch-craft.
From 10-11  We split into small groups, one of which I led (eschatology)
From 11-12  Question and answer panel
From 12-1  Lunch
From 1-3  Free-time (during which we played soccer and swam in the river) 
From 3-4  Brother Neil taught against witch-craft
From 4-5  Brother Jairo taught on Daniel chapter 9
From 5-7 Dinner
From 7-10  I preached at the evangelistic meeting (Ezekiel 7:8-9)

That is what the hour by hour plan looked like these last couple of days.  Pretty much every spare moment at free-time or meals was spent with individual brothers in mutual encouragement and council.  We must make the most of every day!  Praise God for these strategic moments with His key servants in this region!     

 

Here in Tarapoto, God has given us a tremendous opportunity to serve Him. In the chapter that He is currently writing of our lives, we're continuing the building of something that hopefully will be of great use in His service; not just the part that obviously won't last forever, but we're looking forward to figuring out ways for it to bear TONS of imperishable fruit. :)

We arrived late last Friday night. Since then Micah has been itching to get started on the MANY projects needed to be finished on the property before we can actually move in. We're hoping (somewhat wishfully), to be able to move over there in just a couple of weeks. We shall see. In order of priority, our current projects:

• filling the open outside walls in with brick so as to be more secure
• digging the septic TWO tanks (this will take a couple of weeks of pure grunt work - they will have a combined depth of 27 feet deep! oh yeah!)
• finishing up the window and door frames so that they can have doors and windows made for them
• windows with screen to keep out the bugs
• doors
• a toilet, sink and shower
• a basic kitchen counter and sink

...and with those basic necessities we'll be all set to move in!




We are constantly in awe at what the LORD is making possible here! Thank you for praying and for supporting the work! :)

The weekend before last, I was able to visit with and encourage the brethren in Tarapoto. Praise the Lord, the church is doing well! We had meetings to talk about the transitioning leadership (the brother the Lord sent to take our place last year will return to his hometown and our young men will be taking over), we discussed logistics of the youth meeting, and we broke bread together on Sunday.

The following Monday, myself and 3 young men headed out on a river trip to visit several different villages. The believers in each village were very excited to see us as our visit was unplanned and quite a surprise to all. It's been about nine months since I last visited these churches, so it was a real blessing to see these precious brothers and sisters and to note their growth in the Lord.

Ministry included dealing with church problems, doing lots of evangelism, preaching open air and taking medicine to the sick. The menu included broiled fish, corn on the cob, plantains cooked in the ashes and the famous jungle drink "mazato" (manioc spit juice). The motive was God's glory, including man's salvation and the church's edification.

Please pray for Jilmer, Delmith, Martha and Jaquelin who knelt and made professions of faith in the wet grass of Achinamisa, late Monday night after the open air meeting. It was exciting to preach and watch the Holy Spirit working on people's hearts, convicting them of sin and driving them to the Savior.   

-Micah for the Tuttle's


Missionary quote for the day:   

"It will not do to say that you have no "special call" to go.  With the facts before you and the command of our Lord Jesus, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a "special call" to stay at home."  -Hudson Taylor

Missions involves a lot of different things: it's preaching the gospel, it's making disciples, it's planting churches, it's strengthening the churches, it's helping the needy, and it's, above all things: MAKING GOD'S NAME GREAT AMONG THE NATIONS.

Missions last week, was leaving home at 3:00 a.m. It was preaching on the radio, it was visiting several remote villages , it was discipling three young men along the way, it was handing out tracts and giving away New Testaments, it was preaching in church buildings and it was preaching in the open air. It was defending the brothers from false doctrine and it was reading the Bible out loud for hours.

Missions last week was hunting a jungle pheasant for lunch. It was showering in a hot water spring, it was hiking for hours through the muggy jungle, it was eating smoked ocelot meat, it was using filthy outhouses, it was getting soaked in a torrential thunderstorm and it was sleeping on hard dirt floors.

Missions last week was praying with the believers, it was singing hymns in the canoe, it was having meetings with the elders until 1am, it was giving council to broken marriages, it was being mocked by a group of drunken men, it was giving out anti-parasite pills, it was preaching in schools and it was putting on evangelistic films by generator.

Missions last week was helping make bread in a mud oven. It was playing volleyball with a bunch of high-schoolers, it was living one whole day on just coconut milk, it was hearing stories of 30 meter long anacondas, it was watching incredible sunrises and sunsets, and it was a dusty, bumpy 5 hour drive back to town.

Missions last week was hearing squeals of joy when I knocked on the door, it was hugging my wife and my kids when I walked in the house. It was thanking God for His love and protection. It was MAKING GOD'S NAME GREAT IN OUR HOME.

Micah for the Tuttle's




Click the link below to see the photo album of highlights from the trip!

October. 2010

At 3:30 am this morning, Micah met up with the guys who were to accompany him on this current river trip starting today (10/12) until Saturday (10/16).  They had to wait while the car filled up with other passengers who will also go to the town near the river (Chazuta), where they will take a motorboat (way faster!) to the first village.  The plan is to visit another 4 villages before returning Saturday night. 

Please join us in prayer for this trip! 

We are praying:

• that many brothers and sisters from the villages would be challenged to be reconciled to God or continue on in faith (as the case may be).  
• that those who purchase and commit to study the Emmaus courses would grow by leaps and bounds in their knowledge of Christ - and that this would be contagious!
• that the time Micah spends with the young guys from our assembly would be extremely profitable (this is one of the main focuses of these trips - mentoring these young guys).

Thank you for your prayers!

 preaching in Pucalpillo

Friday Sept 25, 2010
A big, bright, beautiful moon this morning at 4:45 a.m. Read Acts 1-7 until the sun fully came up. People started to come to the hut at about 6:30 so we started singing and then I preached on Joshua 1. Three people that had been convicted by the message last night made professions of faith this morning and we all rejoiced with them. We must pray that this fruit will be lasting. Two of the new believers and a few of the others were eager to start on the Emmaus discipleship courses. I'm really hoping that these courses will help establish the faith of the brothers in these villages.

After breakfast we packed out the house by putting on the movie Fireproof. This movie is great in these villages because fornication, unfaithfulness and broken relationships are rampant everywhere. Almost no one gets married and trading sex partners is commonplace. This is always the first area that we have to work on when someone comes to Christ. After lunch we played soccer with the men of the village (very rough) and then walked 45 minutes through the jungle to the next village.

When we arrived in Pucalpillo everyone was weaving palm leaves (Krisneja) for their roofs. They said that one week ago a “Huracán” came through, destroying many of the houses and ripping off their roofs (there were plenty of demolished homes). We tried to help one family with the palm weaving but we were doing more damage than good so we decided to go door to door and hand out tracts. It was encouraging to backtrack through the village an hour later and see that many small groups of 5 or 6 people had formed around someone with a tract who was reading it out loud to the others.

At the open air meeting I preached Mark 8:35-37. About 200 people gathered to listen as I preached at the top of my voice for an hour. It seemed that many were seriously reflecting on the state of their soul but in the end there was no outward sign of God working in anyone. Only time will tell. His word will not return void.



sunset over the Huallaga River

Thursday, September 23

Since the moment we arrived here in Ricardo Palma we've been harrassed by a very annoying drunk that follows us around everywhere. He went door to door with us, ate with us, and continually interrupted our times of singing and bible reading. I tried to be patient with him but it was very clear that he wasn't going to sober up and had no intention to sincerely turn to the Lord. At the open air meeting he kept trying to come forward and “repent” (in a mock sense) but I told him to sit back down. One time I even had to take him by the arm back to his seat. It was a tremendous distraction to all, and in the end, this village was the least responsive to the gospel.  It reminded me of Acts 16:17-18 (except I didn't cast out any demons).

At the open air meeting I preached Ezekiel 7:8-9 and then we put on the Fireproof DVD (I always take a few evangelistic movies to use whenever a generator and a T.V can be found). At about midnight we had a piping hot cup of chocolate milled from their own cocoa beans and then we were off to bed.

At 5:00 a.m the believers began to show up at the church building where we had slept on the hard ground. Thankfully they didn't catch us snoring away, we were up and ready to go. Eber started playing his guitar to lead us in worship and when he finished I preached on 1Thes 4 and Rev 20. The believers seemed to be very encouraged and had many questions. We finished up around 9:00 a.m and then had a scrumptious banana breakfast with coconut juice to wash it down.

Before we left, the three main brothers expressed a desire to start the Emaus corespondence courses but they didn't have any money to buy them (less than a dollar for course #1). I always insist that they pay for them because otherwise they just don't value the opportunity. One of the brothers offered to pay with his coa coa beans and just like that we struck a deal. Now they are happily studying their Bible courses and I'm happily drinking hot chocolate every day.

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Wednesday September 22

This morning I baptized the four people that placed their faith in Christ yesterday. Most of the village gathered around to watch and listen as I preached in the river. It was another good opportunity to preach the gospel. After the baptism we went back to the hut where we were staying and I preached from 1 John on four proofs of genuine Christianity. The believers were very attentive and we had a great question and answer time. Four of the men here bought the Emmaus correspondence courses that I've been pushing everywhere I go. They are showing a real desire to study and prepare themselves to lead this new work!

Three interesting things in this village are:

1. Good hunting: last night one of the men checked his “trampero” (Shotgun set up on a trip-wire) and found that he had shot a wild boar so we've been eating smoked “Sahino” meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yum! 
2. Interminable salt mines (click here, or see video below): The people harvest tons of salt and sell it down river in the “big cities” 
3. A pristine, crystal clear creek: the water cascades down a natural waterslide rock formation into a beautiful pool (just how I imagine the garden of Eden).

At about 3:00 p.m two of the brothers took us down river in their small paddle canoe. They guided us through a few difficult white water spots while Eber and I bailed the water that kept pouring in over the sides. After about an hour of sopping wet excitement we arrived in the next village (Ricardo Palma) where the believers were surprised, but, elated to see us. The message hadn't gotten through to them that we were coming but all the same they stopped everything to receive us. One brother went out to catch some fish for dinner, another went to mill some dried chocolate beans, the sisters got to work boiling plantains and cooking rice and the rest just gathered around as Eber and I sang hymns and read the Bible out loud. Praise the Lord for this opportunity to serve HIM.

What's new: 

Here and there and everywhere... pastoral visits are like a sprinkling of sweet water in a parched place. After a busy July and August, Micah has concentrated his energies on visiting church members and leaders to help carry the weight of their burdens and give them some life-giving Scripture to soak in. Personal visits seriously encourage the downhearted, sick and the heavy-laden. We know it to be true.

By August, attendance at church was considerably down after two months of extreme busy-ness, but after only a week of visits, we had the highest attended mid-week Bible study meeting EVER! And has maintained. Praise the Lord! Micah's gifting is admittedly NOT in the pastoral realm, but when there is NO one else, the LORD glories in showing HIS power through our weaknesses. He continues to wow us in this. :)

This week, Micah is off again on a river trip to visit four different villages along the Huallaga River. His goal is to try and visit four villages each trip of 5-6 days, rotating which villages he visits each month. This is such an encouragement to the believers in this region.

Prayer Requests:

• River Trip - that it would bear MUCH fruit.

• There are two young men that are very dependable and carry much responsibility at church (when we are here, and ESPECIALLY when Micah is away). Both of them have spoken of traveling/moving to other parts of Peru (one of them plans to buy tickets next week! He is our music man). We ask the LORD what will happen to the work if there are no men apart from Micah to carry the load. Pray with us that the LORD would prove Himself faithful to His work by providing in some way for this huge need.

• Our landlord advised us that he has need of the house we are living in by January of the coming year. Pray with us that the LORD would continue to lead and confirm the direction of steps we ought to take.

• Solidarity in our family - growth in love, peace and joy.

How is it possible that these months have already happened?  Oh my. 

Well, we are alive (albeit barely) after two VERY amazingly busy months.  Thank you to those of you who have reminded us that we are completely out of touch by not posting for two whole months!  Perhaps you all will understand when I get finished with this update :) 

July.
Basically we were in Trujillo for the entire month.  We left Tarapoto on the 2nd (right on the tail end of a river trip that last week of June) and arrived back here the 29th.  During that time, Micah was IBEM for the third week of classes (doing devotional, class on Psalms, eating lunch with the students, practical studies and fun nights in the evenings).  No internet during all this time.  The following week, we hosted a very good friend and co-worker from the US for 10 wonderful days.  Only a few days after saying goodbye, we received Amy's mom on the 21st just in time to pack up for heading back to Tarapoto.  We made the LONG drive basically in one long haul this time because of it being Peru's Independence day and there being no room at any of the inns.  We made it without issue even with another passenger in our already too small vehicle. 

August.
The first weekend Micah traveled all the way back to the coast to participate as one of the key speakers in a national youth convention in Chiclayo.  He was back for a few days before leaving to speak again at the bilingual church in Sisa's 14th anniversary the next weekend.  It was VERY nice to have Amy's mom here during all that time.  The day after Micah got back, Amy traveled with her mom to spend a few days in Lima together before her mom flew home.  While at-home-daddy, Micah was also working full bore on installing the bathrooms in the church preparing for a young people's retreat coming up this coming weekend.  Today, Micah left for a 5-day river trip.  He took Bria with him and Lord willing they will be back on Friday.  Saturday, the young people from Yurimaguas arrive for a three day 'retreat', but we're both pretty sure they'll go home wanting nothing but rest after the packed schedule he's lined up for them!  And then August will be over.

Phew!  So you may now understand why you haven't heard from us!  :)

Please keep praying!  We have some important decisions to make in the very near future, we are looking to the future and are dependent on the Lord's guidance.  Pray that the Lord would bless the work of our hands.  Pray that we would stay tightly knit to Him as well as to each other!

Pictures coming soon!  stay tuned :)

After 5 hours in the back of a 4x4 truck eating dust and getting burnt in the hot sun we finally arrived in Yarina where I promptly found tremendous relief by jumping into the river. Without delay our team of six believers headed down river in a canoe (two more hours) until we came to the village of Huimbayoc where our bi-anual convencion of river churches would take place for the next 4 days. About 350 brothers and sisters from 30 different villages showed up with great joy and anticipation (these conventions are a real highlight for the believers every six months).

Myself and two other expositors preached a total of 9 hours of meetings each day. It was an excellent time of fellowship and encouragement as everyone always comes with a real hunger to learn from God's word. I took with me 15 Bibles, 35 hymnals, 5 sistematic theology's, and 400 tracts to sell at a reduced prices and everything was sold out by the second day (the bretheren are always begging for Bibles, hymnals and any theological book that they can get their hands on).


At meal times we drank plenty of chicha and ate lots smoked majaz to go with our bananas that had been cooked in the ashes. On Sunday I had a great time preaching in the river and then baptizing 13 new believers. The whole time I was in the water there were schools of small piranas swarming me, all the while I could feel them nipping at my fingers and toes with their sharp teeth (if your not bleeding you have nothing to worry about, they just like to tickle you a bit). Thank you all who prayed for this event. It was a great time of learning and encouragement for all.

-Micah for the Tuttles


PS. Pray for us as we're leaving for our 2-day trip to Trujillo, right after I hit send! ;)

Micah returned Monday afternoon from June's river convention dirty and tired as is normal.  He got back early while the kids and I were out on one of our very rare outings, so he broke into our house and was able to get all cleaned and unpacked before we got back.  Surprise! 

I've put a slideshow up in the sidebar with a lot of pictures, but I thought I'd give you a link here to the pictures taken on this latest trip.  (Click here, or on the picture below to see the whole album.)

Micah is in Huimbayoc for the bi-annual convention of the river churches. He called me this evening to let me know that he was relieved to be finished with all six of his talks and that he felt that they all went well. He'll be excited to tell you all when he gets back of having spent time with a young man who trusted Christ at an open air meeting on one of his latest river trips.  We know that the Lord is under no obligation to make us aware of this fruit, but isn't it something that he chose to share it with us? What encouragement!

I also want to post a few pictures from Father's Day. After church in the morning, we ate our own chickens in inchicapi soup (peanut chicken soup) and escaveche de pollo (onions with chicken on rice). Then at the night meeting we had well advertised that we would be showing the movie Fireproof. It was excellent and very well received. The electricity went out actually just as the meeting was set to begin, so Micah just preached until the lights came back on.  The lights came on just in time and the movie played all the way through (which is sometimes a concern ;).  It worked out rather nicely.

Our four fathers, eating at the table of honor! :)

and this is about half of the kids...

Thanks for praying!

Micah and Amy Tuttle

Early this morning, I read Psalms 1-30 with the guys.  We walked 2 miles to Pelejo, talking.  Once in Pelejo, visited the main church leader, who gave us breakfast of plantains with HOT chile sauce.  During the day we visited many houses, sharing the gospel and inviting them to the meeting in the night.  In the evening, the verdant greens faded, the sun set, the stars began to glow.  Preached Isaiah 55, in the dark to a good crowd in the plaza de armas (town square).  I couldn't see anyone, until later when the light came on and sure enough I'd been preaching to a good sized group of people.  Many were shaken and wanted to talk afterward.  It seems like many people were interested in the message, but once again, we kept hearing the same sad story, people don't want church because of the bad testimony of a handful of leaders in the church.  We NEED leaders.

Up at 5 a.m to pray and read with the guys.  We read from Psalms 119 thru 150.  Awesome God!  After breakfast we went to pray for sister Patricia, she was in a lot of pain (everyone thinks it is appendicitis).  I could only urge the family to get her to the hospital in Tarapoto as soon as possible.

At about 10 a.m we headed up river in a peke peke (boat with a motor, the sound the motor makes sounds like 'peke-peke') to the next village.  Along the way, the propeller shaft hit a submerged log and the whole motor came flying out of its socket, flipped over and landed on Pablo's leg.  He had a pretty good gash and lost plenty of blood.  In the end he was alright, but the peke peke was busted and we were stranded on the banks of the river a few miles from the village.  There was nothing else to do but to set out hacking through the jungle with machetes until we found a trail.

After an exciting trek slogging through mud, eating a variety of jungle fruits and avoiding the many poisonous critters we finally made it to Puerto Mercedes, where we promptly began our regular hut to hut evangelistic visits.  After giving out N.T's and tracts to a lot of people one family gave us a fine dinner of rice, beans and majaz which was muy rico (very yummy).  That night the normally abandoned church building was so packed out I thought the elevated rotting wood floor was going to cave in (by some miracle it didn't).  I preached from Mark 14:66-72 and everyone was very attentive.  I was able to deal with several souls for a good amount of time afterward and I think the Lord was really working.  Many people begged us to return and help resurrect this church that no longer meets together at all.  If only there were 40 dedicated available men to serve in 40 different villages that all have a similar story.

At about midnight we said our good-byes, got into our canoe (the motor had been re-secured and brought up to the village by that time) and we headed into the pitch dark to sail the mighty Huallaga river.  Despite the tremendous darkness, Pablo our peke peke driver, had no problems guiding us back to Papa Playa where we happily retired to our tents (in the company of rats).            

This is a series of posts from Micah's journal that he kept on last weeks' river trip.  
The dates of the trip were June 2nd - 5th.  He plans to make at least one week long trip each month.

Here's part one:

6-2-10
Today I left Tarapoto at about 5:30 a.m with Edinson, Ever and Jerlin.  As we headed over the 'seja de selva' [mountain sloping down into jungle plain] in a rented 4X4, we read 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews out loud.  Each time the truck had to make a stop, we got out and sang, gave away tracts and shared the gospel to whoever would gather to listen.  When we arrived in Papa Playa a group of brothers and sisters were waiting to greet us.  This village has the healthiest assembly of all of the river towns along the Haullaga due to the presence of long time Peruvian missionary Arturo Napuchi.  He is almost blind, has very limited resources, but regardless is a great preacher.  He also has nearly the whole N.T memorized!  It was a great joy to give him and his family a 110 lb sack of rice, some money and some corrugated metal sheets for his leaky roof.

We spent the afternoon going from hut to hut sharing the gospel, praying for the sick and inviting people to the evening gospel meeting.  After a fine dinner of fish, banana juice, banana chips, boiled banana, and fried banana we hurried off to the meeting.  Many people came out.  Edinson and Jerlin led the music, Ever and I preached (you can't just have one sermon in these villages, they always ask for at least two).  It was a good time and I think that many were encouraged. When everybody had left we set up our tents in the church building and drifted off to sleep to the sound of rats scurrying up and down the tent poles.      

Micah left this morning for the river with 3 of the guys... you can pray for us. As always ;)

He'll be gone 'til Saturday.
He'll be visiting churches, encouraging believers, meeting with elders, and preaching open air.

Thanks for praying.

Amy for all.