Here in Watsonville California our team is committed to daily prayer meetings. We really feel that if we are going to see a fresh work of God in these last days we will need to seek Him in prayer. We pray that our great God would do great things for His great name and His great cause. Some days our prayer meetings are in one of our homes, some days they are through zoom and on Fridays they are in the park. It's amazing how praying in the park opens up doors to share the gospel with people that are passing by and wondering what we are doing. After about 30 minutes of prayer in the park I usually leave the group and go sit by someone on a bench at the playground and say: "You see those people over there gathered in a circle with their heads bowed?..... I'm with them and we are just praying for our community.... I was wondering if you had any specific prayer requests that we could pray for?" That almost always leads to an awesome gospel conversation.
One of those great evangelistic conversations took place a few Fridays ago when I went over to a guy named Daniel who was shooting baskets at the BB court adjacent to where we were praying. He had a big back-brace strapped around his waist and chest and spine. I had tried to talk to Daniel before but he was always distant and didn't really respond to spiritual conversation.... until this day.
I asked him my question about what we might be able to pray for and he told me that two weeks ago he had heard voices in his head telling him to jump off a high roof top and kill himself..... It was a long story but in the end he woke up in a hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses. He said that immediately he knew that God had spared his life for a reason, that he had been given a second chance and that he was hoping "Micah" would come back to talk to him more about the Jesus whom he had previously ignored..... For the next couple of days we met together and talked through the gospel for long periods of time. It is amazing to see how God has really shaken him into reality and now he's "all ears".
Another person who is "all ears" here is a woman named "Ernestina". She is a Mexican who makes a living picking strawberries in the fields around Wastsonville. Since the first day we arrived here in California she has been a good friend that Amy has poured into. She is not a believer yet but she seems to be very close. About two weeks ago Ernestina made a big dinner for 30 people at her house and when she gave a speech (which Amy translated) it was evident that the Lord is really working on her, even in the midst of some difficult circumstances. She has been struggling with some health problems, she is dealing with a few rebellious kids and to top it off her estranged husband recently died... Tough stuff! People need the Lord!
One of the best things that we can do in our ministry is to have a strong marriage. I love my wife! God has entrusted me with a certain daughter of His and I want to do my best to love and nurture and take care of her. We want to be continually working on our marriage and building our family. One of the ways that we want to invest in our relationship is to attend marriage retreats or conferences from time to time. Last weekend Amy and I went to a Focus On The Family marriage retreat in Branson Missouri. It was a great time to get away together and learn some tools that will help us communicate and work together better. I believe that a strong marriage and family life is one of the greatest evangelistic tools that we can have and it should reflect to the world the love that Christ has for His church.
Missions quote for the day by Robbert Moffat: "Oh that I had a thousand lives and bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals."
Micah for the Tuttle's
