Over the last month and a half we have traveled through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Ontario, New York, Delaware, Maryland, D.C, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. We have stayed with some wonderful brothers and sisters and we have seen some amazing places! It has been a huge privilege to preach God's word and share the gospel all along the way! Our schedule has been crazy as I have preached an average of about 5 times a week. There have been missions conferences, youth conferences, evangelistic meetings, church meetings, home meetings and.... lots of other meetings :) We thank the Lord for the open doors to preach His word, encourage His people, inspire missions and do evangelism everywhere we go. It is exciting to see God working in different places and in different ways.
Our travels
As I mentioned in our last update the Lord has greatly blessed us with a 12 passenger van and a travel trailer that sleeps our whole family. The TT has been very helpful, and so far, hauling it has gone smoothly. Sometimes we feel kind of like a traveling circus but we have had a tremendous time together as a family and it's been a great way to do homeschool and ministry together. In a few places our kids have had opportunities to teach in Sunday-schools and share about their experiences growing up on the mission field. We are thankful for how the Lord is working in each of our kids and using them in different ways. Our family is far from perfect but we want to try to, in some way, give an example of what it looks like to serve the Lord together.
The work in Tarapoto
Our Bible Institute back in Peru seems to be going well under the guidance of Jesse and Janel Mattix. We are so thankful for the good work that they are doing! For the past two weeks the students have been studying a course on "The defense of the book of Genesis". Prior to that they went out on a ministry trip to Yurimaguas to do evangelism and children's work in some of the surrounding villages. We were also encouraged to hear that our assembly in Tarapoto baptized a few new believers last month. We praise the Lord that He is continuing to do great things. It is exciting to hear of the work there in the jungle but at the same time it makes me miss it all the more. I feel like my heart is being torn out and I wish I could be there helping in whatever ways I can.... but we know that the Lord has us here in the USA for a time.
Peru Flooding
Many people have asked us about the flooding in Peru. In the jungle everyone is prepared for rain and this year isn't any different than others for the jungle people. The problems have mostly been confined to the coast where it almost never rains. They aren't at all prepared for this sort of thing and they were hit hard by the "el niño" rains and landslides which have killed about 100 people. Many people are missing, about 15,000 homes have collapsed, another 15,000 homes are not able to be lived in, about 200,000 homes have been damaged in some way, about 14,000 kilometers of roads have been destroyed, another 14,000 kilometers of roads have been damaged, around 230 bridges have been destroyed, while 400 more bridges have been damaged. Many places still need drinking water, food and tents. Where there is great disaster there is great opportunity. Many brothers and sisters who live on the coast are helping the needy and showing the love of Christ in the midst of very hard times. Please pray for the coast of Peru.
Missions quote of the day by K.P Yohannan: "Believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story."
Micah for the Tuttle's
