November-December 2016 Newsletter

As we wind down another year we have celebrated Thanksgiving. Christmas is just around the corner and we come to the end of another year. Here we count days, months and years while in Heaven, time will be no more. Everything that we do should have a heavenly focus. The earth was given to us to work while Heaven is made to enjoy. As Christians our job is to do our work on earth so that more people can enjoy life on earth along with the joy they will have in Heaven.

Missions is a job for ALL Christians just as tithing is for all Christians. Whether we are rich or poor we ALL have that command to reach the lost. In Mexico we teach our churches to get involved in missions in two ways: The first is we tithe from all of our church offerings and this tithe is sent to missions. The second is to get people involved in the mission´s field. We believe in sending people out. Last year one of our men went to a “Youth with a Mission` school of missions and then took a trip with them into the Amazon region for a one month missions trip. This past summer two young girls from one of the churches in Guadalajara took separate missions trips. One went to Spain and Egypt while the other one went to Panama and Venezuela.

In September we had a special service we called a “Macedonia call” service. Our whole service was focused on missions. We shared about our missions effort in Pakistan. We talked about the culture, the food and the challenges of being a Christian there. We had some local pastors also attend, as the concept of being a giving church instead of a receiving church is new for a lot of churches in Mexico. What we sow becomes our harvest and there is no better place to sow than into the great commission of reaching the world with our gospel. We are working at getting more of the local Mexican churches involved in missions outside of Mexico. It is not only a concept of money but also a whole change of culture. Instead of being a receiving church you become a giving church and God becomes your supplier.

Our Christian school is now well into a new school year. We were not able to build our new school building this summer as we had planned to do. The finance that did come in we invested in steel and cement that we need for the new building. Once again our school is full to capacity for the buildings that we have. Our building plan has a double purpose. The first is to reach more students that come from non-Christian homes and teach them Christian values and a godly lifestyle. The second purpose is to make the school self sufficient so that it gets in enough money to cover it´s own expenses. We charge a monthly tuition of between $35 to $45 dollars per month for each student. With an enrollment of another 20 students our teacher´s salaries would be covered each month. We continue to raise support for our building project and we invite you to be part of it.

Our family has been through trying times these last years and we are glad to report that God has not only been with us but also he has brought us through them. Dad (David) Tolman is completely recovered from the ailments that he experienced this last year. Parkinsons disease still keeps him very limited in what he can do but it has not progressed and he is off of all other medications. Lucy has now been over a year and a half without a blood transfusion and is slowly getting her strength back as her liver is being restored. Vanessa is learning to live with the limitations of Lupus but she is also believing a prophetic word she received that she will be healed. We still believe in a God that heals and performs miracles.

We thank you for your prayers and offerings that make this work possible. May the Lord richly bless each of you as we once again come to the time of year where we celebrate His birth, which is the hope of ALL mankind.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman