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
