We made it! A big thank you to everyone who was praying for us on our trek back to Peru! Happily, we arrived in Lima without a single glitch. We are all pretty glad to be back. Thursday we'll take an overnight bus to Trujillo where we'll be excited to see everyone here on the coast and to get in on the (IBEM) Bible Institute plans before we prepare for our move back to the jungle. [we're here now! bus trip went well!]
Yesterday we spent some time looking for a much needed vehicle. We've outgrown our good ol' faithful, yet tired 25yo Isuzu Trooper, lovingly referred to as the 'Tuttle Trooper' which has now broken down in the middle of nowhere on our last three trips from the jungle to the coast (17hr drive).
We mentioned our need of a new vehicle to a few people who specifically asked, and I want to share how really neat it has been to see how God has already begun to provide for this! Last Sunday just before I got up to preach, Uncle Dick from EBC in Portland, came to me and said "Someone has just given $1,000 for your car fund"... I thought, 'Wow, we don't even have a car fund!' When I finished preaching he said, "I just received another $1000 for your car!" Later, at lunch Dick called my parents' house to say, "$1,700 more!".... We are floored by the goodness of God through the generosity of His people! God provides!!!
Over the last few months we have set aside about $5,000 for a van. Added to the gifts from Eastgate Bible Chapel, we now have about $9,000. The van we're looking at is going to cost just under $20K. This is a LOT of money and we are not sure what God will do, but He continues to amaze and we want to praise Him for it! If you would like to help us buy a van, financial support can be sent to:
or you can also now give online!
Visit our page @ CMML.us
Praise Him with us?!He is the one you praise; He is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.
Lord willing, we will be traveling tomorrow night as planned, as a family!! Praises!
Just to keep you all posted on the excitement that is our life in Peru...
We talked with the embassy yesterday only to be informed that our passports have reportedly arrived in Lima, but were confiscated by Peruvian Customs and subsequently lost.
Oh. my.
We still have 2 WHOLE DAYS for them to find them.
Praying.
- Lord willing, tonight we travel by bus to Lima (8hrs).
- Tomorrow we'll go to the US embassy and find out the status of the passports.
- Wednesday we'll work on Micah's Peruvian document.
- Thursday we'll pick that up and fly to the US!
- Pray with us that all will go smoothly and that we will in fact be able to travel as a family...
- We've had some serious stomach sickness this last week, please pray that we'd be well for travel.
Will you pray with us?!
When we were in Lima earlier this week, we ran into a couple unforeseen problems with our travel documents. While these problems should be rather easily resolved, they may not necessarily be quickly resolved. Of course, the Lord can make it happen! We are asking that He would speed things along and that there would be no loss or expensive change of flights.
Wow. So much has happened since we last wrote... where to begin...?
We kept on thinking of writing an update, but alas thinking about writing is not the same as writing and even though you were all constantly in our thoughts, and though perhaps it is mostly true that it's the thought that counts, sitting down to write is actually quite helpful in the process and that's where we kept getting stuck... no time even to sit... until this week. So, here I am... sitting. rambling. um... right. on with the update already. :)
[feel free to omit the above portion of this correspondence when publishing in church prayer letters... ;) heheh]
December brought with it all the normal holiday busyness, in addition to a regional convention of river churches, and the packing of our entire household for storage, and tying up loose ends at church as we'll be away for a good number of months (here in Trujillo and Lord willing in the US), and in the midst of all the rest, entertaining visitors from the coast for a week (our beloved co-workers from IBEM in Trujillo & family),... well, surely you can imagine how much homeschooling we accomplished last month... uh huh. :)
We had to be out of the house we'd been renting, as well as arrive in Trujillo for classes by the end of the first week in January. After some car trouble, which did necessitate spending the night at a hotel practically in the middle of no where, we did eventually arrive in Trujillo safe and sound. Upon arrival, we made up for lost time by eating Papa John's pizza right away. :) of course.
That first week, Micah taught a class on how to preach for the students in Capacitacion Biblica, and will be teaching a class on parenting to the IBEM students this coming week. The first weekend in February, he'll be traveling back to the jungle for two weeks to participate in the Capacitacion Biblica in Yurimaguas as well as to take advantage of visiting the church in Tarapoto.
Lord willing, we anticipate being able to travel to the States towards the middle/end of March. We look forward to giving a report of what we've seen and experienced of the Lord's work here as well as catching up personally with many of you. If you're interested in letting us talk your ear off hearing more about our ministry in person, please be in contact with us about dates and times. It's gonna be great! ;)
Until then,
Micah & Amy Tuttle {and family}
Last week I (Micah) spent five days in the village of Huimbayoc [wim-bye-YOKE] where we had the bi-anual convention. About 300 believers came from the surrounding villages to worship the Lord and study His word together. This is always an exciting, yet exausting time for me as I try to maximize my time with the brothers. I taught from the scriptures for 5 hours each day, had many personal meetings with leaders of the different assemblies, marked out time for one-on-one evangelism, preached open air a few times and corrected about 75 Emmaus Bible courses that the brothers handed in.
The assembly here in Tarapoto is doing well and many were encouraged as we just recently baptized eight new believers. We have had many ups and downs in this new work over the last two years but recently we've been encouraged that some of the believers are showing signs of maturing, including taking more responsibility. The building project is progressing little by little and in the last few weeks we have advanced a lot with the wiring, finish work and painting. We thank the Lord for this provision.
Our entire family is doing wonderfully well and we've all enjoyed the special events surrounding Christmas. We want to send a special thank you to all of you that sent us Christmas presents or money this year!
Lord willing, the following are our plans for the next few months. Many of you know, that the owners of the house we've rented for the past two years, have need of their house. So, we are once again in the midst of packing up and preparing our things for storage. We plan to go to Trujillo where I will be teaching some classes in IBEM, and then in Februrary the family will stay in Trujillo while I travel back to this area to help at “Capacitacion Biblica” in Yurimaguas. Somewhere around mid-March we plan to travel to the States and hope to be able to visit many of YOU over the summer!! We will be posting a schedule of where we'll be and when in the coming months. Or, you can get in touch with us by sending us an e-mail - thetuttletribe (at) gmail (dot) com
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.)
To see all our ministry photos online click here.
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.
Arturo (the almost blind missionary with lots of the Bible memorized),
myself and Hildebrando (the elder in the church at Pelejo).
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.
Ever playing guitar in the boat, the next day.
Here's the video I got from across the street of the crazy bull.
I found a spot across the street and on the far side of a ditch where I hoped I'd be safe... :)
We hope you have enjoyed this series of posts :) Please keep us in your prayers!
Micah
(for the whole tribe)
Sinking boat
Monday, April 26, 2010
Today we were up at 4:30 a.m to pray with the believers and say goodbye. They gave me a chicken, 2 kilos of peanuts, 2 kilos of cocoa beans (unshelled), and 50 soles ($17). Wow! They gave out of their poverty! I was astounded! We headed down river. Amazing sunrise. 10 foot long snake crossed the river just ahead of our boat - very impressive! We read 1 & 2 Thessalonians out loud. We stopped in Huimbayoc to drop off a passenger and visit a brother. As we were about to leave, an angry bull romped through the street. They had a hold of it with some ropes but couldn't control it. It went wild and started taking out anything in it's path, including a motorcar... We got back in the boat and went on to Yarina where the road is. Upon arrival we ate lunch with the believers and then set up with a truck to take us back to Tarapoto. On the truck I found a brother that I hadn't seen since I'd met him nine years ago. I asked him how it was going and he told me the story of how he had walked away from the Lord. I spent the next three hours trying to encourage him and exhort him to draw near to the Lord. I realized that God had put us together. It was a good couple of hours. After his stop I prayed for him and then Samuel and Edy and I read 1 & 2 Timothy... We arrived home in Tarapoto at about 7 p.m. All the kids came running out and tackled me (Amy had left my arrival a surprise). We had a great time looking at my pictures and wrestling around. Got to take a real shower and shave. Amy and I went out for a romantic date. I ordered lasagna! We had a great time talking. It is great to be home.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
We hit the trail this morning at 4:30 a.m on our way back to San Jose. It is absolutely amazing to walk through the jungle as dawn breaks. We saw a few añuje cross the trail ahead of us. Very cool! After crossing the river twice (wary of stingrays, electric eels, alligators and boas) we came upon three houses (15 people or so) and gave out tracts and N.T's. The people listened to the gospel eagerly. We continued on to San Jose and as we reached the village we could hear the church joyfully singing to the Lord. I entered muddy, drenched in sweat, and half limping from a bloody toe. After lots of hugs, kisses and handshakes, the brethren explained that they were waiting for us and wanted to hear from God's word. I preached on Heb 12:2. Edinson and Samuel also preached. As we came out of the meeting, someone had just killed an anteater. Yum! They didn't want to share with us though and we had to settle for majáz. As we headed down to the river to load up in the canoe we came upon 4 guys skinning a 25 foot long boa. When they cut it open it had a deer inside! The guy that killed it said it was coming after him but luckily he had his shotgun... We headed back down river. Read Philippians and Colossians out loud together. Arrived in Santa Martha, cooled off in the river, ate dinner and went to the meeting. I preached on Judges 3:7-11. The Lord seemed to work in several hearts. Met with the leaders afterward and tried to help them to work out their differences. It went well. Got to bed* at 1:00 a.m.
*Going to bed on these trips means... setting up a small tent inside someone's house or the church and then arranging my semi-damp clothes over the floor for a cushion and zipping myself inside. It's definitely hotter, but it's worth it for the privacy and protection from mosquitoes and rats.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
All 60 members of the church here in Santa Rocio showed up at the 4 a.m meeting today. This church is by far the most mature and thriving. I taught on the gifts of the Spirit and miracles (there is much confusion over this topic everywhere). After a good question & answer time, I asked to have a meeting with the elders. I tried to encourage them in what they are doing. After breakfast we read Galatians and Ephesians and then went out to visit some of the houses in the surrounding countryside. We gave out tracts and shared the gospel with many. We ate fariña* and dried deer meat for lunch. On the way back to the village, we got caught on the trail in a torrential downpour and ended up soaked to the bone. Later, we ate doncella (fish) for dinner. We then went to pray for two sick ladies (they were moaning and wailing in pain). I wished I had a doctor with me. When we set up to preach that night there were not as many people gathered because on the other side of the village there was a big fiesta going on (competition with God's word). Once I began to preach, everyone left the fiesta running over to hear the sermon. My sermon was on the first questions of the Old and New Testaments. The people were very attentive. When I gave an opportunity to repent, Damian our peke peke canoe driver came forward. I had hired him on Monday back in Yarina when he was half drunk. In tears, he told how he had now listened to 11 sermons in 6 days and how he had heard us reading the Bible in every spare moment. He said that now he wanted to experience the forgiveness and peace that Jesus gives to those who repent and trust in Him... I am so overjoyed!
*Yucca left to soak, then ground and toasted (dehydrated yucca). Mix it with water and it sort of expands like cream of wheat. Many people on the rivers take a bunch of this on their treks and it serves for a simple meal.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Despite bad testimonies among the believers here, there are about 30 brothers and sisters that meet regularly and they, like the other villages, asked us to have the early morning meeting (4-8 a.m). I preached on Revelation 22 “Christ's last 3 calls”. Afterward, we met with the leaders and begged them to live lives worthy of the calling with which we have been called. At 10 a.m. we left promptly for our twenty mile trek on foot for the next village (the river was too shallow to travel in our canoe). After about two hours of hard walking we were startled by a 7 foot long black and yellow poisonous snake that came across the trail just a few yards ahead of us. It stopped and looked at us for a second and then disappeared into the forest. An hour later we had to cross the river. The locals say that people are always stepping on stingrays when they wade through and you have to throw rocks ahead of you to scare them out of your path. Very exciting! After about 5 hours of trudging through mud and traversing spectacular jungle landscape we finally arrived in Santa Rocio. We jumped in the river to cool off and then we were off to supper. One of the brothers had just killed a huangana and his wife made hot chocolate from freshly ground and toasted cocoa beans. Yum! That night I preached Romans 1 in the open air to all 150 inhabitants. Afterward we were very sore and tired but managed to read all of 2 Corinthians together in our tents before going to sleep.
That's a baby-ish anteater... yes, sad. They eat EVERYTHING here.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
This morning our meeting with the church went from 8 to 12. I preached Philippians 2:1-4 and afterward Edy preached Acts 2:42. Two sermons wasn't enough for them so I then went through a Bible overview. To finish it all up we had a great time of questions and answers. The brothers were begging us to come back soon. Santa Martha is a very nice village. After lunch, once again we went back to the boat and back to the “Book”. We read 1 Corinthians out loud today. Arrived in San Jose and were served a second lunch (majàz, plantains and chicha). Prayed for a girl that was supposedly sick from a witchcraft curse. The girl is the grand daughter of the main elder in church here. Sadly, the elder was planning on taking the girl to a different witchdoctor to reverse the curse. The church here has a very bad testimony. Two of the other church leaders are drunks. I had to come down pretty hard on them. That night I preached open air 2 Kings 5:1-14. Lots of people (150) were there to listen and seemed quite moved but no one made a public profession of faith. It seems that in a lot of these villages (especially this one) a lot of people want the gospel but they don't want to have to be part of the existing church because of its bad testimony. Very sad....
Up at 4:00 a.m again to meet with the church. Sang, prayed, read the Bible. Good time. The believers let me know that they were a bit upset that my sermons were only a hour long.... Met with the elders and found many internal problems. Tried to encourage them to work in unity, humility and love for one another. I'll have to deal with this further upon my return. Ate breakfast and headed back up river four hours to the next village. Finished reading Acts and then all of Romans. In Leche the believers were excited to see us and Jorge Luis immediately went into the woods to hunt for lunch. In about an hour he was back with a zahino. Maybe the best meat I've ever tasted! After a bit of door to door evangelism we began our open air meeting. The whole village came out (200 people). Samuel gave his testimony. Edinson led the music and I preached Gen 6:5-13. Everyone listened well. One lady made a profession of faith, and it seemed that everyone was impacted. Praise the Lord.
Wow. SO much has happened in the last... well, the last 3 months really, that we have gotten all outta whack in regard to normal updates. We are WAY behind in updating! We are SO sorry about that.
I don't think we have ever before been SO busy. I think I always think that ;)
March
- 1st week - Micah occupied 24/7 with last minute preparations for his courses. Christ ever the subject.
- 2nd&3rd week - we had a harrowing trip but arrived whole at IBEM in Trujillo. The first week we had fewer students, which was altogether pleasant. Over the weekend, we all trudged 6hrs. up the road to Cajamarca to witness a very special wedding. Afterwards, we came back to a full final week of classes and enjoyed Pedro Torres from Bolivia who taught on church growth.
- 4th week - We then had a week of car repairs, good news publications, running here and there and everywhere, soaking in starbucks, sneaking in a solitary blazing day at the beach... and saying goodbye 14 times to our missionary family (because we did not leave when we said we were going to and had to keep saying goodbye - that was fun :) And the kids were happy, because we got to spend Easter with everyone.
- 1st week - celebrated a Risen Savior... all week long. If Christ didn't rise from the dead then we are above all men, most foolish.
- 2nd week - travelled back to Tarapoto; it went super smoothly :)
- 3rd week - Micah taught a homiletics (how-to preach) course each day from morning 'til the early afternoon.
- 4th week - we are plum in the middle of now...
Please pray for health & safety
(they are in an area with high incidence of malaria, and traveling by river is unpredictable)
Pray that the Lord would be glorified and that this work would bear fruit
Pray that He would be guiding each day's meetings, drawing the people who's hearts have been prepared.
Pray for us while he's gone - homeschool, joy, holding down the fort
Most of all pray that we would LOVE Him with our whole hearts, and be ever willing and usable in our Potter's steady hands.
Hey there everybody!
So here we are in Trujillo! hah! Normally, we like to write before we travel to take advantage of all those extra prayers that keep us on the road and healthy during the LONG trip between Tarapoto and Trujillo. This time it was not to be, however, since our computer seems to be giving up on us. We're really not sure what the problem is, but we're hoping maybe someone here in Trujillo can fix it? We shall see.
Regardless of our lack of communication, we trust that the Holy Spirit has been reminding you to pray for us! We know that our Father cares for us and will not forget us, even if you do, so don't worry!! heheheh. But we know that MANY of you do pray faithfully on our behalf and we are SO grateful! We are ever conscious of our utter dependence on the Him, the Living God, our Father.
This month is IBEM! Please be praying for the students and the professors. There is so much to tell, and so little time to write at the moment. I'm hoping to write again while we are here with a little more information (fuel for prayer and praise!). The Lord is at work as always and we can't wait to share with you some of His praises!
In the meantime, will you pray for us this week?
- IBEM - Students and professors. Micah is teaching Christ this week!
- Travel to Cajamarca for the wedding of the year (2 fantastic friends of ours) and back
- All the other thousand things we've got to do while here...
- Tarapoto meetings, that all will go smoothly while we are away.
You guys are the greatest!!
The Tuttle Tribe -
residing in Tarapoto, currently in Trujillo, looking forward to the celestial city
