September/October 2019 Newsletter

   Life is not a moment in time and is it more than what happens today. Life is made up of a lifetime of experiences and many years of living. There is a promise in the Bible that states that we ALL will reap what we sow. We cannot determine the quantity nor the time frame but the time of reaping will come.

   In the year 2013 we were offered support to help “high risk” children in our Secondary school. In the high sierra of our State of Nayarit the indigenous children fall into that category because of the drugs grown in the mountainous areas. We brought three students in from the sierra. It was a challenge since we had to arrange room and boarding as well as some one that was responsible to look after them and arrange weekend activities. We were able to get it all together and they started classes. About two months into the project we found out that the support for them was not going to come in. We had the option of paying for it ourselves or sending them home. We decided to make it work and they were with us for two years. There were two boys and one girl, her name is Fidelia, or as we called “Fide”. The children never became Christians and when they returned home we lost track of them.
Fast forward to 2018. Fide calls us and tells us that she, her husband and 2 children are moving to our town (the girls in that culture marry between 14-15 years of age). After moving here they went to church a couple of times and then stopped coming. At the beginning of this year they start coming to the church once again and Fide's husband Blas felt God's presence touch his life. That changed everything. They are now constant in church and they are preparing themselves for making a lifelong commitment to Christ. What we sowed in Fide's life years ago is staring to give fruit. This is just a beginning and we know that a lot more reaping is coming into our ministry.

Four siblings on the couch and one in the picture 

   As I am writing this letter my siblings who can come are joining us in Mexico to say “goodbye” to Dad. He slipped into semi consciousness this past Sunday, the 8th of September as he reached the final stretch of his race to be with the Lord. He converted to Christianity at the age of 17 along with his first convert, who later became his wife. Four years later he was on the missions field running in the front lines of God's army. He was raised hard-line holiness Pentecostal but he was able to break the chains of legalism and touch lives through many denominational lines. He carried many coats through his years of ministry; pastor, missionary, missions ambassador and teacher. His heart was in teaching and through his classes he formed many people. There are so many things that I could mention about him, as I really got to know him these last 16 years as I became his caregiver. Two things stand out in my mind above all. The first one is that he ran this race as a Christian for 70 years. His faith was strong and God honored his faith and his faithfulness. The second thing is that he made me the missionary that I am today. I am a living example of his calling and his vision to reach the lost. “Dad it is hard to say goodbye as I sit here and cry but I want to follow your example of being a faith warrior right up to the end. Thank you for making me the person that I am.”

   We want to thank all of you for your prayers for this ministry and your financial support. Thank you also to each one of you that have kept supporting Dad right up until the end. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.


Philip, Lucy, and Vanessa Tolman

July/August 2019 Newsletter

Prosperity really has nothing to do with money. Joseph as a slave in Potiphar’s house was prosperous. God's blessing was on his life as he fulfilled God's calling on his life. It is when we step outside of God's calling on our lives that we lose or true prosperity.

In the month of May we held a men's conference together with other pastors in the city. Our night speaker was a pastor from our city that I will just call David. David went to our Bible school after becoming a Christian and then worked full time as an evangelist under our ministry. He is a gifted evangelist. He got married after becoming a Christian to a dedicated Christian woman and had two children. As things happen, David had an invitation to minister in what appeared to be “greener fields”. In the next 15 years of his life we lost track of him and his family as they moved out of State. David and his family got sidetracked along the way. David never stopped preaching nor serving God but his wife and children did. A couple of years ago David came home a broken man san wife and children. The Lord has been good to him as he is now pastoring in the city of Tepic under our covering. His wife and children are back with him as they go though the hard process of restoration. David preached an excellent evangelistic message at the men's meeting and when he made an alter call at the close of the meeting almost every man in the building responded by coming forward for prayer. David came home with nothing in the physical sense but he is prospering in ministry once again.

Another school year has ended as we are coming up on twenty years of running a Christian school in a State where they don't exist. This year was our hardest year because of the small enrolment of students that we had. We ask you to pray with us that the Lord will open the door for a much larger enrolment (we need a minimum of 40 students). In March, though a church in the USA ,5 students now have scholarships for this next school year. This will help us to reach our enrolment goal in August.

On the home front, our youngest daughter Vanessa graduated from High School with a 9.9 average, (we are bragging) which is a 4.0 in the USA. She is going on to University and her goal is to study at least two years in the States. Her two older siblings both studied outside of Mexico. Foreign study permits are not as easily available as they used to be. Since Vanessa is not a US citizen we have to apply for her as a foreign student. Even though we started her application process in November we were not able to get her a visa for this school year so her first year in University will be done in Tepic.

Thank you for your prayers for the ministry and your financial support make you part of what is happing here in Mexico. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

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A Tribute to my dad, John David Tolman

Dad is in his last stages of life as he struggles with the demons of Parkinson's disease and dementia. He is walking an uncharted path that could last days, months or years. Much of his life he followed an uncharted path. He used to be in charge of his decisions, but disease has now taken choices away from him. A physically frail version of him still exists but the man that I knew as Dad has left us.

He was born July 1^st 1932 (Canada Day) in Toronto, Canada to Siemon and Eveline Tolman, the second of four children. Dad met Mom, Mary Elizabeth Devins in High School in the town of Aurora just north of Toronto. Mom's parents were town doctors, her mom being one of the first woman doctors in Canada. Dad witnessed to Mom and she was saved when she was 17 years old. Four years later on April 4^th, 1953 they were married and remained so for the next 60 years.

The adventurer spirit in them, along with the calling of God on their lives led them to South Africa for two four year seasons between 1954 and 1962. Their three eldest children were born in South Africa. After returning to Canada, Dad and Mom worked, studied and raised 5 children while continuing his missions calling by promoting missions in various churches for the next 14 years. On June 30^th 1976 Dad and Mom started a new adventure along with their three youngest children. They moved to Guadalajara, Mexico where they would minister for more that 30 years as Bible teachers in the churches. My brother Stephen and myself still work under of the covering of Seedtime and Harvest Ministries, which was started by Dad and Mom.

Dad and Mom semi-retired in Tepic and lived next door to my wife Lucy and me for 12 years before Mom died in 2013. Months before Moms homecoming, Dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Dad was never the same after Mom left and we all thought that he would follow soon after her in death. That was not the case, however and over these past 6+ years, I have been able to serve my Dad and to be with him in his time of solitude. I know that any one of his 5 children would have gladly done the same but I was chosen to be the caregiver. These last months have been especially hard as Dad is slipping away and it is frustrating that I cannot be part of the world that he know lives in. Gone are the conversations in the car as we drove together, the times of taking him out to eat or just sitting with him at home and talking. His body is still here as we bathe him, dress him and feed him every day, but that Dad I knew and loved in my own special way is gone.

He and Mom touched many lives, helped untold numbers of people and more than anything they taught me what living by faith is all about. Dad and I were at odds for many years but now I can truly say “Dad I love you and I miss you even though physically you are right beside me.”

May/June 2019 Newsletter

   The longevity of a project or a ministry is based mainly on its ability to be constant. There are lots of things that we start that we do not continue doing. Sometimes it is because the project just didn´t get up and go. Sometimes it is because we get tired and we cannot continue on. One of the blessings of life is to be able to see a project run its course and impact peoples' lives.

This year was our 31^st year of holding our Easter week youth camp. There have seen lots of changes over the years and what we called normal has now become extreme. I remember 30 years ago, our second camp was held on an island just off land in the Pacific Ocean. There was no problem with anyone leaving the camp without permission but I still remember that the mosquitos and the No-See-Ums that ate us up.

This year we had 42 campers at our youth camp up in the mountains. Some things have not changed such as sleeping in tents, no electricity and cooking over open fires. Also God´s sovereign move on each camper that opens his or her heart has not changed. This year we made another change. Some of the couples in the church were saying that it was not fair that only unmarried youth could attend so we opened the last 3 days of camp up to everyone. The youth continued with their activities and we also had classes and activities for adults and children. All together we had over 80 people attend camp.

The week after Easter we held our annual 3-day children´s camp. At this camp we have different churches that work with us run the camp at our school facilities. This year a new church ran the camp and they did an excellent job. Almost 50 children between the ages of 6-13 years old attended. The comment of the children was that they couldn’t stop crying when the presence of God touched their lives. That alone is worth the whole effort.

We learn from our mistakes or at least we hope we do. Over 20 years ago I was offered a property to build a church on. It wasn’t very expensive but it was in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t take up the offer. Today that property has a large Catholic church built on it and it is in the centre of a very highly built up subdivision of the town of Xalisco where we have a church. As I look back I see that I lacked vision. 

A couple of months ago we were offered another property to build a church on in the middle of nowhere and we took up the offer. The new subdivision just outside of Tepic is programmed to build just over 9,000 homes in the next 5 years. Half of our State population lives in Metropolitan Tepic. The cost for the property was just under $12,000 and we have already had one church that sent us a $3,700 offering for the down payment. Our plan is in 4-5 years to start a building project, plant a pastor there and have him raise-up a new church. We have 4 churches that we have planted in the city of Tepic from our church and only one of them has its own building. They have it only because years ago we did exactly what we are doing this year. We purchased a property to build a church on. The only difference there was that we personally started that church.

Thank you for your prayers for the ministry and your financial support make you part of what is happing here in Mexico. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

Camp Photos!

March/April 2019 Newsletter

 Life has its ups and its downs as we see it but God sees it in a different way. As we look at God's way, for those who are in Christ Jesus, life has its ups and its times of preparation for the good times, If there is no preparation, the good times will pull us down. There are times of action and there are times of preparation for action.

On the home front, the last two months have been times of preparation. In the month of January we were able to attend and be part of two missions conferences that were blessings to us as we hope we were a blessing to the churches. The churches here have continued with their regular activities (we have services or church activities seven days a week) as we work with our leadership team in their abilities to work with the church family. On February 14th we held a special dinner for the couples of our Xalisco church and had evangelist Ronnie Casillas here to speak to them.

For the following 10 days, Brother Ronnie ministered over 12 times in our different churches, blessing the people and praying for the sick and needy. The people were blessed through his ministry and we were blessed to have him stay in our home. We were able to fellowship with him and share our life experiences together.

Now that the month of March is here we are gearing up for our annual camps that are held over the Easter holidays. Here in Mexico they are held during Easter and are not just a Spring break. This year we are doing something different. Aside from our usual youth and children's camps we are also going to have a mini family camp for 3 days. We have never done this before but a number of the parents are envious that their children get to spend a week in God's presence and they don't. Actually they have never had this type of experience since the majority of our church members are first generation Christians. In our next newsletter we will be giving you a report of our experiences at these camps.

Life is full of stories, some sad and others joyful. Both are needed to give life a balance. This next month we will be celebrating the wedding of a young lady from our church. She was saved under our ministry when she was 15 years old, the only Christian in her family. In her late teens she left the church and got involved in what we call a “toxic” relationship that left her devastated. About 4 years ago (she was 24 by then) she returned to Christ and the church and made a 100% commitment to serve. We sent her to Bible School in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she spent 2 ½ years preparing for ministry. This last year she became part of our leadership and ministry team and is very active in the church. Once she gets married she will be leaving us. Her future husband is a fantastic Christian from another church and they will be attending and ministering there. We hate to see her go but this is where we understand that we are raising up Kingdom workers and not just church workers.

Thank you for your prayers for the ministry and your financial support make you part of what is happing here in Mexico. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.


Philip, Lucy and Vanessa Tolman

January/February 2019 Newsletter

Christmas is a joyful time in Mexico. The Mexican society has been taught some biblical principals and holidays such as Christmas and Easter are very important. In the churches we continue with these cultural customs since they give us an opportunity to share the gospel. During the month of December every church and every group in the church has to have their own “posada” (Christmas party). That makes life very lively when you have to participle in more than 12 parties in one month aside from the regular service schedule and workload. It also takes a little chunk out of the pocket book.

One of the main reasons that we try to keep this up is to keep Christ as the center focus of the season. In Mexico, as in other parts of the world the word, “Navidad” (Christmas) is rapidly being replaced by the phrase “Felices Fiestas” (Happy Holidays). What is a party without a person to celebrate, or what is Christmas without Christ? Soon we will find ourselves with holidays just to have holidays and parties just to party. We are a purpose driven church and our purpose is to exalt our Lord Jesus Christ. I have the church well taught, I don't want to hear anyone saying “Felices Fiestas” in the church and I think that they understand why.

One of our church anniversaries last year was very special in that we were able to see continuity in our ministry efforts here in Mexico. One of the families that grew up in the church we have in the town of Compostela came to minister in our anniversary service. Of the 3 children that were literally born in the church, one is now a pastor in another city and his 2 sisters are professionals that are strongly planted in their local congregations. Now their children are growing up in church with the start of a third generation. A church is made up of strong families.

And speaking of families, we had the opportunity to take a 3- day local trip with of our family and grandchildren the beginning of 2019. We were able to visit a part of Mexico that we had never visited before. I believe my first church is my family and through them I build the rest of the ministry. Up until now we have been blessed to have our 3 children to work with us and be part of what God has called us to do. Simri works with us in the business and ministers in a church in Tepic on the worship team. Damara, along with her husband Agustin pastor a church that is under the covering of our Mexican association. Vanessa is still at home with us as she finishes High School this year and looks to move on to college. Lucy and Philip are the ones who need to keep everything flowing. Dad is no longer able to make trips like these any more and we all share the load of making his life comfortable as possible.

Thank you for your prayers for the ministry and your financial support make you part of what is happing here in Mexico. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philip, Lucy and Vanessa Tolman