The Battle Ground

September/October 2007 Newsletter

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force, Matthew 11:12

In the Americas the concept of war, or going to battle, is foreign to most of us. Soldiers have gone to war in far away places and everyone has his own personal opinion on the value of these wars. When the Bible talks about us being at war, it is hard for us to grasp the reality of what war really is. Spiritual warfare is not just saying a few prayers and hoping that things will work out. It is about life and death. The Christians with the greatest risk, are those on the front lines of the battlefield.

This year in Nayarit we declared war on the principalities and powers that have ruled over our land for hundreds of years. We must not only win the battle, but we must destroy the kings of the enemy forces. King Ahab didn’t kill the king of Syria when he had the chance and it cost him his life (1 Kings 22:30-37). Gideon didn’t finish his battle with the Midianites until he had destroyed their four kings. In January of this year the Lord gave us a plan, not only to evangelize the city of Tepic and the surrounding area, but to saturate them with the presence of God. The work started immediately with the planning, the legal permits and the contacts we needed to arrange. The end of May we had a free breakfast for the pastors in the area to inform them of the project. Between the 9th of June and the end of July we presented 3 Christian open-air concerts.

Vanessa on Dad's motorbike at an activity

Did we get a reaction! The traditional church officials successfully cancelled our permit for the second concert 24 hours before the event. Unable to use the baseball stadium we had rented we closed off the main street outside the stadium, with police permission, and set up our 40’ platform on the street. We had a concert. The rains came and tried to wash us out but in war you don’t give an inch. Our causality rate has been high. In our main church we have seen our membership dwindle from over 100 members to fewer than 60 in 4 months. Economically we have felt the strain as we are $6,000 dollars short of our budget.

The biggest and final battle is yet to come. We have permits to hold a social benefit activity in the park in front of the State Government buildings on the 28^th and 29^th of September. This social event ends at 8 PM and at that time we have two Christian concerts and a musical depicting the salvation message. With over $20,000 in rented sound equipment, lights, fireworks and closed-circuit T.V. we will be heard everywhere. We are financing the activity through sponsors from large businesses in our city. We are going to let the world finance the preaching of the gospel. We are going to take the enemy’s money and use it in God’s kingdom. This is the promise that Jesus has given us.

Simri and Damara with music group

It has not been easy, but then, war is never easy. Casualties will be replaced by victors, sinners converted into saints. The kingdom of Satan will be destroyed in our State and replaced by the Kingdom of God. The battlefield, where there is no comfort or rest, is not a pleasant place. Our rest is in the knowledge that we shall be victors for we have been promised the land.

Please keep us in your prayers as we fight in the thick of the fray.

Philip, Lucy, Simri and Vanessa Tolman