The Old and the New

JUNE 2012 Newsletter

The work of a missionary is not only about getting people introduced to the Gospel or leading them to a personal relationship with Christ. All of this is very good but equally important is the ongoing discipling and pastoring that continues until we finish the race. In this newsletter I want to share two stories with you, one that took place 25 years ago and one that has just started at our youth camp in April.

Adalberto was a 40-year-old musician with success as the world looks at it. He had a good government job, his own music group and a gift of being a successful composer. This was in the year 1987, exactly 25 years ago. The external signs of success were not the true story. Adalberto was hooked on drugs, losing his marriage and at the point of having a complete breakdown. That was the year he was saved at an outdoor crusade we were holding. Now, 25 years later, he is a pastor of a congregation in the town where he was saved. He has written more that 100 songs for the Lord, recorded albums and traveled extensively while sharing his testimony.

The road has not been easy. The first 5 years of being a convert, his wife was against him ‘tooth and nail’. Now his whole family is saved and his wife is his co-pastor. Economically, there was a time as a Christian that he sold subway sandwiches from a bicycle in his city just to make ends meet. Today he is retired from his job and lives comfortably with his pension and the small income that he receives from the church. The road has not been easy, but Adalberto has been strong and constant in his walk with God as he now reaps some of the crop that he sowed with many tears.

The new story starts with a boy in his early twenties who we will call Henry (It is not his real name). He also is an accomplished musician and comes from a family of musicians. Henry heard about our youth camp from some of the young people in his town. He was not invited and had never attended a Christian church in his life. He decided that he wanted to go and asked if he could be invited. Of course he was told yes. He asked for time off his job and on April 2nd was on the bus on his way to youth camp with 45 other young people. The presence of God was moving strongly from the first night and by the second day he was convinced that he needed the Lord Jesus in his life.

The enemy was not going to give him up so easily. Late Wednesday night, as the other campers were bedding down, the evil spirit that was hiding in Henry’s life manifest itself. I won’t describe the show the demon put on that night through Henry’s body but it is enough to say that it was almost 3 hours later when the last evil spirits were cast out of Henry’s life and he was free. The change was total.

Before leaving camp on Saturday Henry was baptized along with others and was ready to start his new life as a Christian. The first thing that he had to cut out of his life was his girl friend. When he explained to her the reason, she said that it was fine, but why didn’t he invite her to church first? At the church she was touched, transformed and born again. She has since been baptized and is attending the new believer’s classes. Needless to say they are still going out together. 

The second thing to go was the music. Henry knew that he couldn’t play music for the world and serve God. He is working himself out of the contract he has with the group that he plays with and he has already informed his family that he will not be playing with them in the future, as were his plans. Henry has a long road ahead of him but as I look back to Adalberto’s life I know that it is possible. The road will not be easy but the rewards are out of this world.

Please keep Adalberto and ‘Henry’ in your prayers as you continue to pray for the ministry that the Lord has given us and you stand with us with your offerings and your prayers. 

Blessings in Jesus name.

Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman

It's All About the Seed

 March 2012 Newsletter
 

            Once again the time comes for us to be in touch with you, our supporters and our prayer partners. Our schedule, probably as busy as any of yours, shows us the speed at which the end times are coming upon us and we have the urgency to continue to preach this gospel. 

At this time we are rushing to get ready for our yearly youth camp. Through our middle school we have contact with a lot of non-Christian students and we are expecting to take all of our school students as well as the church youth to camp. It is a week when we break with all the luxuries of life. There are no cell phones, internet, electricity or corner stores so we get alone with the presence of God in a real and powerful way.

In the churches we are working with new people who have been coming out to the services. In the town of El Ahualamo we have gone from 10 to 25 adults in service on Sunday mornings. Our Friday night service is the main service with over 50 people attending service. In the church of Xalisco we are in the process of purchasing more chairs as we have had only standing room the last couple of Sundays. With 20 more people coming out constantly we will be dividing the church to have two weekend services.

We are also thankful for God’s safety in our travels as we are on the roads every day traveling between churches. Last week Simri had an accident on his motorbike and the bike was totaled but Simri came out with only scrapes and bruises. We have now the expense of repairing the other vehicle that he hit since our bikes here do not have insurance. We are also replacing the engine in our 1998 Dodge van as I write this letter. The van’s motor reached 402,000 km before stopping.

Events are important but even more so are the teachings we receive from the Lord that enrich our lives. About 8 years ago I started a learning process (unknown to myself) that has helped me understand better how the resurrection will be. Here is a small portion of it.

I have a hobby of collecting different types of fruit trees (on our property we have over 50 different types) and traveling years ago I saw a beautiful orange that I wanted to have on my property. It was an orangey-red sweet delicious orange. I picked some oranges off the tree and kept the seeds to grow my own trees. A couple of weeks later the seeds were planted and lo and behold my little orange trees sprouted. In do time the trees were planted in the ground and they continued to grow. As the years went on I noticed that the tree had large thorns that I hadn’t seen on the original tree. Finally one of the trees flowered (six years later) and I was excited since I was going to have my oranges. As the first two or three small oranges began to develop, they were odd shaped and lumpy, nothing compared the original oranges that I had cut. The tree produced the most bitter and the ugliest citrus fruit that one could imagine.

How was it that such a delicious orange could produce such a terrible fruit?

Then I found the answer. I had picked my orange from a tree that had been grafted. The seeds from a grafted tree will never reproduce the fruit of the tree. It only reproduces the root. Even though the fruit carries the seed, the seed has the genetics of the root.

The Bible says that we have been grafted into Christ, bad fruit into a good root. My fruit might not be the best but it is only temporal. The seed that is in me is the most important because the seed reproduces the root that is Christ. When I die and am ‘planted’ in the ground, and the resurrection comes, I will be raised to life PERFECT since the seed in me is Christ. The only way I can become perfect is being grafted into Christ Jesus for then my seed is not my own but Christ. There are people that never become part of Christ and in the resurrection they will not change. The reason is that the seed in them is not perfect and will thus be condemned. What is the seed in you?

Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman

Letting Go

January 2012 Newsletter

The only constant in life is change. Except for God everything around us changes and we have to be flexible to move with the changes. I was sent a presentation a while ago about comments that some people made in the year 1955 about change:

Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $1,000.00 will only buy a used one.

When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.

In the church we have experienced changes. I remember Sundays in church as a child with my suit and tie, the old hymns and the Sunday night revival services that went on well into the night. That is not found so easily now but what we have is good and blessed.

On the home front we are also experimenting change. For many years I was a one-man band, the music, the singing and all the extras well as the preaching. One gets comfortable with that but as growth comes so do changes. I seldom play music at a service now and often I find myself sitting to listen to others preach. My role now as a missionary is being an administrator, councilor, and an animator. Things are not necessarily done my way but I do believe that they are being done God’s way.

The church in Xalisco put on a Christmas musical using the Dr. Seuss story of the GRINCH to portray the real meaning of Christmas. It was presented in a local theater and was professionally done. The two-hour presentation was directed by Damara, with Simri doing the sound and music. Both Lucy and Vanessa were part of the cast and I was one of the fans. The musical was a resounding success and more than anything it made us all stretch to new heights. The most important result was the message that Christmas is not a time of Happy Holidays but a time of celebrating the birth of our blessed Redeemer.

Christmas is a time of parties and church gatherings. Since we oversee six different churches and centers, as a pastoral team, we had a lot fellowship and parties to attend. The food is delicious but the time of sharing and fellowshipping is even better. The Lord has blessed us with the six centers that we pastor, as well as two church plants in the city of Tepic that are functioning on their own. We also give pastoral covering to three other churches in the States of Jalisco and Michoacan. In the month of December,  Philip made a fast 24 hour bus trip to the church in Cuaracurio (it is situated on the border of the States of Michoacan and Guanajuato) to ordain the pastor’s son, Emmanuel, and install him as assistant pastor along side of his father. All of these events mark changes that give life its flavor and mark the continuity of the gospel 


In this year 2012 invite you to invest in change as you support this ministry as it moves forward.
We covet your prayers and your faithful offerings.


Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman

Team Work Works

December 2011 Newsletter

In each newsletter we try to inform you about the ministry in the areas where we are working. Activities are great and we always have many different things happening at the same time. In the last two months we have had a sports day with the city Pastor’s Alliance, a town parade where our school students participated, and weekly practices for our Christmas pageant, ¨The Grinch¨. In total on a regular basis we have 15 services per week. All these things don’t just happen. As a team we work together to help the church family be well and whole.

 Agustin and Damara just came on part time into the ministry. Damara has been with us almost all her life. After getting married as a couple they spent two years helping out in another church in the city. A year ago they felt that it was time to come back home. They are in charge of the praise and worship teams as well as ministering in one of the smaller town churches. They are also the directors of our Christmas pageant. Damara continues to teach in our Christian schools, where she has been working for the last 5 years

Gibrán and Rosi are the newest members of the team. They have wanted to be on the team for some time now and have been working hard with us. They took charge of one of our oldest village churches that has been established for over 25 years. They are in charge of visitation, evangelism and church maintenance, both in the physical as well as the spiritual. Both were saved under our ministry, although Gibran spent several years out of State working a secular job.

Marcela, Lucy’s sister, is still single and works as a youth leader. She has grown up under our ministry and directs her ministry under the guidance of Agustin and Damara. Our main church is over 50% single youth and they are the life of the church. Many of them have been saved even though their parents are not Christians. We don’t have to motivate them to come; they want to be in church.
Rossy, Lucy’s niece has just come home from spending 3 months in Spain working on her Master’s degree. Even from there (thanks to internet) she kept the children’s ministry working. She is not one of the teachers but she makes sure that the teachers are in classes and she gets their material ready for each class. For me, the children’s ministry is the most important in the church. Psalm 1 places a special blessing on people that have never walked in the ways of the world. This is the way to bless the children in our churches.

Simri will be coming on the team this next year in the area of massive outreaches and the music ministry. He has been now been home for almost two months after spending two years in Bible School in Australia. He is full of ideas and he has a desire to serve in the kingdom of God. As parents we are proud to see our children walking in our footprints and dedicating their lives to the preaching of the gospel.

Lucy is my right hand and a true helpmeet. Together we minister, teach and work. The vision is something we both carry, and even more the burden of the work that the Lord has placed before us. We are blessed to be able to work in harmony even with our differences in ministries and natures.

 Just as the apostle Paul when he wrote mentioning his co-laborers, we have taken time to let you know that it is not just us but the team is growing. It all started with the calling the Lord put in my parents’ hearts that brought them to Mexico in 1976. From there we have branched out into new areas of ministry, and as we plant and water God gives the increase.

We invite you to sow in this fertile ground as we pray rich blessings upon all you who support and pray for this ministry. We covet your prayers and your faithful offerings.
Have a blessed CHRISTMAS and even a more blessed year 2012 is our declaration over your lives

Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman

News from David and Elizabeth Tolman- Autumn 2011

My mouth will tell of thy righteous acts, of thy deeds of salvation all the day,

for their number is past my knowledge. 

Psa 71:15 RSV

Dear Friends and Family;

We wish to thank you for your prayers and encouraging words to us in these times of critical physical challenges.

It has been 6 weeks since I last wrote asking for urgent prayer for our son Stephen who had a ruptured appendix, and is now recovering after the 2 emergency surgeries 5 days apart. The 1st surgery removed much of the infection but too much still remained for healing. Stephen called and asked if Philip could be with him for the 2nd surgery. Philip left the same day from Tepic and arrived by bus in Torreon 16 hours later. Just before surgery the doctors asked Stephen if he had something to say before the anesthetic.

Stephen replied, “Yes, I want to pray for this medical team.”  He prayed for their hands to be skillful, their eyes to be observant to see the unusual and the team to work in unity.

After the surgery the doctors affirmed that all that he prayed for came to pass.  Please continue to pray for him as he still has several months of recovery.

Philip had been without a car for several months. When he left Tepic, he heard from the Lord that before he returned home he would find the good used vehicle for which he was searching. This came to pass and he was able to drive home.

Four weeks ago Elizabeth had numerous tests and all were conclusive that there was no trace of cancer in her body.

We are enjoying teaching in the Bible School as we have a class of mature adults who are anxious to learn. We are seeing also that the church is growing and in the main church there have been baptisms almost every other week.

We wish to thank you again for your prayers and financial support. These are so important to us.

November 2011                                                                                   David & Elizabeth Tolman

Back to Classes

October 2011 Newsletter

From the 15th of August through the end of September are very busy times for us. During the summertime we dedicate our time to the local churches almost exclusively. Since it is our rainy season, special outdoor activities are very difficult to program and school is out for summer holidays but then:
   
SCHOOL STARTED on the 22nd of August. One week before this the work started; cleaning, painting, and getting everything ready to start classes. This year we opened our NEW primary school. With two teachers full time and 12 students we are off to a good start. Our secondary school also continues, starting classes at 7 AM every weekday. Even with the good team we have, the extra work is taxing.
    Once again we offered full scholarships to 3 indigenous children. Juan Carlos, Ernesto and Fidelia.  They have come over 6 hours in bus from their homes in the mountain villages to live and study at the school. Through the generosity of some of you over half of their scholarships are now covered.
   

Stephen went through a very trying time this last month as his appendix burst and it was days before the doctors found out what was wrong. In one week he was in the operating room twice for major surgery. Just as Stephen was going into his second surgery Philip jumped on a bus and made the 14 hour trip to be with Stephen and his family. God has done the work that the doctors couldn’t do and in response to the churches’ prayers Stephen is now well on the road to recovery. As we know that ALL things work together for good when we walk with God and this was seen in Philip’s trip to San Pedro. While with Stephen in the hospital Philip found on-line a 2006 Chevy Malibu in good condition and $1,500 dollars cheaper than the same type of car in his State. Needless to say Philip drove home instead of taking the bus.
   

We are really excited about the growth that we are experiencing in the Xalisco church. Even though we are going through a time of change in the leadership, the church is growing and we have new people in almost every service. In the month of September alone we have had 7 baptisms and we have more lined up for the month of October. We are believing that the same fire that has swept into the Xalisco church will also ignite the other smaller churches we minister in each week. The work is the Lord’s, we are only his servants trying to do His will.
   
We are also excited about Simri’s coming home from Bible school. He left Australia the first part of September and decided to make his trip home a lifetime adventure. With money that he had saved up while working at school he traveled to Malaysia, through South Africa and on to South America. His plans are to be home by the 9th of October and his goal is to work with us in the churches

We thank all of you who responded to our financial requests last newsletter and we pray rich blessings upon all you who support this ministry with your prayers and your giving. We covet your prayers and your faithful giving.


Philip, Lucy, Simri and Vanessa Tolman

Thank you Lord Always!

The month of June was an extremely busy time for us. We were trying to tie loose ends up in various areas of ministry before we took a trip outside of Mexico including:

The schools: We finished our 10th year of classes in our Secondary school. We had a total of twelve students in the school with the majority of them being non-Christians. We start every morning with a devotional and we have two bible classes a week. As a result one of the students and all of her family were converted and now attend one of our churches

The church: Construction has been the word for the last couple of months as we have seen growth in the number of people attending church and we need more room to fit everyone in. In our main church we are seeing new people come to the church every week and we are working to establish them in the Word and in the Church as the two go hand in hand.

The pastors’ alliance: As of the first of this year Philip was voted in as the president of the Statewide Pastors’ alliance. The State is divided into 5 sectors and each one has it’s own meetings but Philip’s job is to oversee all that goes on and also to program different activities among the churches. In this month of July we are organizing and participating in a pastors’ get together and also a week of outdoor evangelism among the churches.

The trip: At the end of June we drove to the States to sell our car (as it is now very difficult to use an American plated car in our area of Mexico) and then head on to a conference in Sydney, Australia. A family in San Antonio, TX took care of selling our vehicle leaving us free to travel. Our son Simri was graduating from two years of Bible school in Sydney and we had promised to visit him. Lucy at the last minute was not able to go with us as her Australian visa did not arrive. Vanessa and Philip spent 10 days with Simri and were able to be part of the church conference there as well as seeing the different areas where Simri has been ministering these last couple of years.

Seldom do we make specific requests in newsletters since we feel that they are praise reports but we are making an exception. We have two needs that we would like to give you the opportunity to supply. The first is support for 3 indigenous children that we brought into our school this year. They lived on the property and we had the privilege of helping them get away from a drug related background as well having them in church for the whole school year. We covered the cost of their studies this last year but for them to come back for another year we need your help. The monthly cost for each student is approximately $200 a month. This includes room and board, uniforms and school tuition. For a total of $600 a month for 12 months we can have all three of them back for next school year.

Our second request is our need of a new (used) vehicle for our use. Some of you have already sent offerings to help us purchase a new vehicle but we are still short. This month our old car was sold for $1,000 as it had almost 200,000 miles on it. The church vehicles that we are using at present will not stand up to long trips. We need to purchase something that can get us safely around Mexico. The amount of money we raise will determine what type of vehicle we can purchase.

We thank you for your support that makes this ministry possible.

Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman