California
Greetings from the golden state of California! For almost two years now we have been helping (when our schedule permits) with a church plant here in Watsonville. We love the team here and we love everything that God is doing for His great name and His great Son and His great cause in this part of the world. In our last blog post we commented about how living in a campground with a big family isn't ideal (especially when it cost $2000 a month… TO CAMP!). For that reason we had been exploring the possibility of renting something with more space than our travel trailer. Soon, we were able to find a good house that we were hoping to secure… it was ours for the taking at $4,000 a month… I’m sure that the Lord would have provided that money somehow and we were ready to pull the trigger. But the more and more we thought and prayed about it, the more and more we felt like the Lord was saying no to that possibility…. at least for now… When we look at our itinerant schedule, our continuing ministry in Peru, the stage of life of our kids, and our call to encourage the Lords people in many lands, it just didn't seem right to settle into an expensive rental house in Watsonville at this time. It was a heart breaking decision for us but we feel that the Lord has led us in this way. We still hope to help with the work here when we can and to take up our camping spot from time to time, but as far as renting a house goes… thats no longer on our radar.
Peru
Now that we have made these difficult decisions about California we can resume with our original plans of spending a greater portion of the year in the jungles of Peru. We are very excited to be back in the rainforest in just a few weeks! Our plan is to be back in Tarpoto from mid February through May. Those months will be full of preaching and teaching, travel from village to village and helping to encourage the jungle churches in the Tarapoto area. Amy and I will be traveling with our three younger kids (Josiah, Mya and Ellia) and two disciples (Dallas Goff and Megan Smith from the USA). During our time there we will have a few teams (one form Texas and one from Iowa) coming to visit and help with the work. We are excited to see what the Lord will do and to reconnect with our beloved brothers and sisters there in Peru! Please pray for the upcoming work in the jungle!
Wedding!
December and January were full months for us as a family. We traveled from California to Lubbock Texas where I was teaching a block of classes at the DITP institute there. After that we continued on to Dubuque Iowa where I’ve been doing a lot of preaching, evangelism and…… preparation for Peru Aside from the usual pandemonium that comes with our itinerant ministry schedule, we added a wedding! At the beginning of January we all drove to Augusta Georgia where Javen, our oldest son, married his college sweetheart Autumn! It feels a bit strange that we are at the stage in life when our kids can get married.. but here we are and we couldn't be happier. Javen and Autumn met at Emmaus a few years ago and it was evident early on that they are a perfect match. We are very excited to have added another daughter to our family! I had the great honor of performing the wedding and preaching the message as my own son stood before me with his wonderful bride. It was a truly special and unforgettable moment. Please pray for Javen and Autumn as they embark upon a life together in service to our great King!
Amy and I were sitting at a coffee shop enjoying a date together when a rather angry and imposing young man walked up to the table next to ours, slapped down a breakfast burrito and then asked if he could sit with us. We said: “Sure” (a bit strange but.…) “Sure”. When he sat down Amy noticed that his hand was wrapped up in ice and so she asked: “What happened to your hand?” The man asked if we really wanted to know? Amy said: “Yes” and then he proceeded to relate a rather shocking story of road rage that he had just committed about 15 minutes earlier. Somebody had cut him off, So he yelled at them and when the other guy stopped and yelled back, our new friend jumped out of his truck and Hammer-fisted the other guys side mirror clean off…. I’m sure that if we had seen this whole thing transpire we would not have liked this guy very much… But as we listened to this outrageous story we both knew right away that the Lord had set this up as a divine appointment…. Amy jumped in almost immediately and said: “I don't think its by random chance that our paths have crossed, we are Christians and I think that God has a reason that you are sharing your story with us today.’’
Right then his cell phone rang…. He answered and it was his wife saying that the police were at his house and were looking for him. After they talked for a minute or two he hung up and asked us what he should do? Should he turn himself in? Should he track that other car down and really mess that guy up? I said: “Have you ever thought of asking God for help?” Just then his cell phone rang again… He answered and it was the police… After talking with them for a few minutes he hung up again and said “You’re right, I need to ask God for help…. this is actually about the tenth time I’ve done this sort of thing… I just can’t control my temper…” After about 30 minutes of speaking with him about righteousness, self control, the judgement to come and hope in Jesus we prayed together…. In the end he commented: “Maybe God brought me to you guys because He wanted to give me a wake-up call….. I think I better just turn myself in.” I said: “That would probably be the right thing to do… But not just to the police, turn yourself over to Jesus… He’s the only way you're going to find real hope and forgiveness and victory.” Please pray for James
Missions quote for the day by John Bunyan: "We esteem things according to the price paid for them. The soul has been purchased by a price that the Son and wisdom of God thought appropriate to pay for its redemption. What a thing, then, must be a soul!"
Micah for the Tuttle's
1 comments:
- At February 7, 2023 at 11:41 AM Unknown said...
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Praise God for the many ways He works in and through you!
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