God Created All We Are

Newsletter July/August 2008

The Church has many aspects of life that it has to cover. A person’s walk with God not only involves getting saved and baptized. It involves the transformation of our lives as we take on the character of Christ in our lives. Mission work is not only getting people to recognize the need of having Jesus Christ in their lives but it is also walking hand in hand with them as they continue down salvation’s path. As a ministry we are working in the three areas of this process.

The Church: This is the spiritual side of the ministry. Every week we are ministering in 7 different churches or centers as we bring in new converts and help them as they grow in The Way. We also supervise 4 other churches that are directly under our covering. There are sermons to prepare, classes for the Bible School and many people to minister to. The needs of the people are so diverse as we minister to a wide spectrum of society, from the unschooled to professional people and from children through to octogenarians. The spiritual growth of the church is an exciting challenge.

The People: The church family is a small part of ministry. Just as Jesus ministered to many people that weren’t his disciples, we are called to reach out to all men. Much of our day is spent ministering to people that perhaps will never darken our church door but they need a touch from the Master’s hand. In our Secondary School, during street ministry or just with people we meet every day, we need to let them touch the Jesus in us.

Just the other day a young man that is a professing atheist stopped to talk with me. We have known him and his family for years. He described an event in his life where anger took control of his actions and when all was said and done he mentioned two thought came to his mind - what would Philip (I’m not brother Philip to him) have done in this situation and how would Jesus have reacted.

We really don’t know how much we influence other people’s lives.

The Social: The church has to be involved in the social aspect of people’s lives. Our main thrust in this area is a youth activity we call ‘El Punto’ which reaches out to thousands of youth in each event. Our budget this year for 4 events is over $200,000 dollars. Since it is social we look to the world to finance these events. Our focus is drug abuse prevention and youth expressions in a positive way. We are working hand in hand with different government agencies and private foundations to make these events a reality.

In this Summer time we pray rich blessings upon all you who support this ministry. We covet your prayers as we will be traveling extensively to meet our financial obligations We appreciate your faithful offerings that help us to continue moving forward.

Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman