May/June 2020 Newsletter

    IS THIS REAL?

March 2020 caught most of us off guard. Our regular schedule of activities were programmed and we were working hard to make them work. Our first line of ministry that was moved by COVID 19 was our Christian school. By the middle of March all classes were suspended and schooling went virtual. This was a big change for all of us as we use a hands-on teaching method to be able to mix Christian values in the daily teaching routine. Teaching primary students online is a challenge and more so when their parents haven’t learned online technology. Schooling continues online and hopefully we can be back in the classrooms by the beginning of June.

Our annual youth camp was the next big event we had lined up. After 30 years of just doing a camp for young people (and a separate one for children) we opened up last year to mixing our extreme youth camp with an extreme family camp weekend. It worked out fine and the second one was programmed for Easter week 2020. The week before camp started we had almost 40 youth signed up to attend camp but no families. That same week all meetings, churches and other "non essential" activities were suspended in our State. All the other churches in the city that had programmed camps canceled them but we decided to continue on. Two day before the camp started we had a visit from a government official asking us to cancel the camp. One has to understand that our camp is very extreme. We are up in the mountains where there is nothing but an open field and a spring of fresh water. Everyone that goes is isolated for the 6 days of the camp. We were able to pull some strings and we received written permission to have our camp 18 hours before we started. In all the years we have been having camp this was the best one ever. Over 80 people attended and aside from a scorpion sting the first day we had no one get sick all week, no problems with the campers and life went back to normal for all present. Our camp nurse had nothing to do but pray for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God`s presence touched everyone starting the first day and every night the majority of the campers were laid out on the grass as the presence of God touched them.

By the 3rd Sunday of April all our churches were closed as we went into Phase 3 of the lock down. We just multiplied our services in homes and behind closed doors. We cut back on the sound volume and returned to acoustic services with just a guitar and 8-10 people present. Sure we transmitted our online services trying to reach as many of the church members as we could but there is something special about being together. Our work load increased and the finances dropped. Only the churches where the majority of the members work in the fields were not so affected. We also started giving out more food to families that were in need. In Mexico there has been no help from the government for the people that have lost their jobs. Aside from the teachings, we were there to defeat FEAR. With all the supposed news and regulations it is very easy to get bound by fear. This is a real life session of putting faith into action and we are there to help our member do so.

We don’t know when things are going to open up so that we can return to a new type of normal life but until that happens we have our work cut out. The churches continue to minister to the needs of the people and new people are coming in as they look to be freed from fear and they see the peace that the people in the church have.

Thank you to each of you who have partnered with us in finance and prayers for this ministry. We know that a lot of you are struggling financially also but as we continue to give God will bless. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.


Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

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!

We Have Started- May/June 2017 Newsletter

 Ten months behind schedule but on time. That is the difference between our plans and God´s timing. On May 12^th we finally got started on the construction for our new school building. Our first step was to demolish one of our present buildings that would have taken a lot of work to bring it up to the new government standards. Our new building will be about 50% larger (ON THE FIRST FLOOR). This will give us 3 new classrooms and two bathrooms on our first phase of construction and 4 more on the next. We are lacking only $18,000 dollars to be able to finish this first phase. We still have 2 months to raise this amount. We have to have the building functional by the 15^th of August. God will supply.

Our annual camps in April this year were great as is always the case. Each year has different challenges and blessings as we move as nomads from one mountainside to another. In our youth camp we had right around 60 youth (plus the staff) and not one left without being ministered to by the Holy Spirit. We had many that were filled with the Holy Spirit speaking in other tongues. Our children´s camp, which we run in our school, had 23 children that once again were touched by the Holy Spirit in a mighty way. Many of them were slain out under God´s Spirit. It is real blessing that we are allowed to be vessels through which the Spirit moves to touch others.

Our church is the town in Compostela has been really blessed through our youth camp. We had 5 young people from the church attend the camps and God lit a fire in each of their hearts. One of the girls that attended was set free from drugs and prostitution. She comes from a Christian family that has not been very constant over the years. She started using drugs in High school and from there one thing led to the next. She had left home and she attended camp only after much convincing was done. At the end of camp she had been ‘clean’ for 5 days and she left with a decision to start serving God. She has enrolled in our Bible school to learn more of God´s Word. She has a long upward climb to get out of the hole she has dug for herself but at least now she is going in the right direction.

Lucy has recovered very well from her operation and is slowly feeling stronger as the days go by. Vanessa’s battle with Lupus continues but she is winning. God put people in our path that have shown her how a vegan diet can help her overcome the disease. After 6 months on the diet she is now only taking ¼ of the medicine that she was taking before just to control the symptoms. Dad (David Tolman) is doing fine and keeps up with all of you who post on Facebook even though he can’t reply.

 Thank you all for blessing our ministry through your offerings and monthly support. 

 Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

May/June 2016 Newsletter

   Life can be mundane or exciting. We decide how our life is with the way we live. If we live in our comfort zone life can become very boring. It is when we push out into the unknown that life becomes exciting. One of the best ways to do that is to take a step of faith to fulfill God´s purpose in your life even though it seems impossible. Walking into the impossible with God at your side is an experience that will never be forgotten.

Living here in our field of ministry we have decided to live this way every day of our lives. As we try to obey the direction that God has given us we are always extending ourselves beyond what our daily income and strength can cover. One of our goals this year is the construction of a new building for our Christian School. We thank each of you that have already sent us special offerings for this construction project. We are now at 14% of our goal. We need to have 100% by the 15^th of June to start building.

Our school was pleasantly surprised to receive a prize from the State School Board this year. All schools in Mexico have to be under the supervision of the State School Board as they check our hours of classes, the qualifications of our teachers and student achievement. This year we won 1^st place in student academic achievement. That included all the public and private primary schools in our zone. This shows us that we are not only installing Christian values into our students but we are also preparing them academically for the years to come. While other private schools in our zone charge over $170 dollars a month per student, we as a ministry only charge $47 dollars a month. Aside from that we have students with scholarships that pay much less.

Our camps this year were a success as they have been over the years. What makes them a success is the Holy Spirit that touches the lives of the campers that attend.

At our youth camp we had over 50 campers aside from staff. Most of them walked the last mile into camp as the place we chose this year wasn’t accessible by bus or car. Once arriving at camp nobody was leaving. From the first night the Holy Spirit moved bringing, conviction, laughter and spiritual drunkenness. Many of the youth had never been at a Christian camp nor experienced a physical move of God in their lives. As always, by the time Saturday rolled around many of the campers wanted to stay an extra week but that was not possible.

The next week was our children´s camp. This year was our smallest (large families are no longer part of our culture) but once again the children received a special touch from God. Oh that we all could have more of that childlike faith. They believe what they are told and the Lord responds fulfilling His promises. We were blessed to have good staff and teachers at both camps.

Our family has been blessed in this walk of faith. The trials and the testing only give us experiences that we can look back on to confirm our faith. Lucy is still struggling with an autoimmune sickness that has caused cirrhosis in her liver. Vanessa lives with Lupus knowing that she serves a God that is able to heal her. Philip has been blessed with health so that he can take up the extra load when the circumstances call for it. 

This June Vanessa turns 15, which in Mexico is a big event.  We are programming a church/family event to celebrate with her. Also she will be traveling with us to Canada this summer as we go to visit churches and family. The last time Vanessa was in Canada was 13 years ago.

Dad (David) has been through a difficult time these last through months. He was in hospital for 10 days and then at home with fulltime care. We are glad to say that right now he is doing better that he has all year, both mentally and physically. Thank you for your prayers for him.

We pray special blessings on you and may the Lord Jesus Christ let his face shine on you and fill you with peace.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

Feast of Tabernacles and More

May-June 2014

April was a month of work and fun. They say that work is not work as long as you are having fun. I don´t think that that is completely true but you can have fun as you work. As we have done for the last 26 years, the Easter holidays are spent having camps. We take advantage that Easter week is still a holiday in Mexico and also that we are in our dry season so there is no rain. Depending on how many churches we join with, we can have from 40 to 120 youth. This year´s camp we did on our own and we still had 58 young people attend. Up in the mountains we leave all comforts behind, nothing electric or electronic, no running water or gas, just the hard ground and a tent. Our focus is to saturate ourselves with the Word of God and his Presence. Every year it works and the singles keep coming back. The young married also want to come but until now we just work with the singles. Every year there is something different. Most years Monday is a lost day as everyone is clearing a space for their tent and helping set up the kitchen and the outhouses. This year from the first day the power of God poured down on the evening bonfire service and He never left us the whole week. What a joy it is to be part of this every year. Among the youth that made a decision to be baptized this year at camp was our daughter Vanessa. As parents this was a highlight of the camp

  The second week of holidays we host a children´s camp. This camp is a lot tamer in both size and place. We use our school facilities for the camp and we have smaller numbers of campers. The camp´s director this year was Damara and she was helped by a group of leaders and youth from the churches. The children had a blast and once again one of the main focuses is letting them enter into the presence of the Lord and feel a touch of His presence. Three days goes by too fast and then it is over for another year.

For the last 10 years our school has been blessed by having a lot of open space for the students to play but we have only had half a basketball court to play on. Last year we decided that it was time to finish the court and thus not only have a full concrete basketball court but also a fast soccer field and a tennis court. We had a group come down from ANM last year and give us a jumpstart on the second half (they also fixed up our kitchen in the school) along with an $800 offering. Well finally we contracted a local builder to finish the job. The concrete is now poured and next week they will be finishing up the details. Now the students can play instead of just shooting baskets. We are still lacking $2,400 dollars to pay off the rest of the court. We invite someone to take this as a project and help us pay off what still owes.

Please continue to pray for Lucy as she continues to battle with internal hemorrhaging. She has been in and out of hospital and on the 8^th of May she was operated on and she has now stabilized a little. We are praying that the 16 units of blood that she has had transfused are all that she is going to need. Dad (David Tolman) had a minor hernia operation on the 22^nd of April. He was just in hospital for 24 hours and came out with flying colors. Thank you to all that were praying for him at this time.

  Thank you for your prayers.  Your monthly support is much needed.  Blessings in Jesus name.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

The Old and the New

JUNE 2012 Newsletter

The work of a missionary is not only about getting people introduced to the Gospel or leading them to a personal relationship with Christ. All of this is very good but equally important is the ongoing discipling and pastoring that continues until we finish the race. In this newsletter I want to share two stories with you, one that took place 25 years ago and one that has just started at our youth camp in April.

Adalberto was a 40-year-old musician with success as the world looks at it. He had a good government job, his own music group and a gift of being a successful composer. This was in the year 1987, exactly 25 years ago. The external signs of success were not the true story. Adalberto was hooked on drugs, losing his marriage and at the point of having a complete breakdown. That was the year he was saved at an outdoor crusade we were holding. Now, 25 years later, he is a pastor of a congregation in the town where he was saved. He has written more that 100 songs for the Lord, recorded albums and traveled extensively while sharing his testimony.

The road has not been easy. The first 5 years of being a convert, his wife was against him ‘tooth and nail’. Now his whole family is saved and his wife is his co-pastor. Economically, there was a time as a Christian that he sold subway sandwiches from a bicycle in his city just to make ends meet. Today he is retired from his job and lives comfortably with his pension and the small income that he receives from the church. The road has not been easy, but Adalberto has been strong and constant in his walk with God as he now reaps some of the crop that he sowed with many tears.

The new story starts with a boy in his early twenties who we will call Henry (It is not his real name). He also is an accomplished musician and comes from a family of musicians. Henry heard about our youth camp from some of the young people in his town. He was not invited and had never attended a Christian church in his life. He decided that he wanted to go and asked if he could be invited. Of course he was told yes. He asked for time off his job and on April 2nd was on the bus on his way to youth camp with 45 other young people. The presence of God was moving strongly from the first night and by the second day he was convinced that he needed the Lord Jesus in his life.

The enemy was not going to give him up so easily. Late Wednesday night, as the other campers were bedding down, the evil spirit that was hiding in Henry’s life manifest itself. I won’t describe the show the demon put on that night through Henry’s body but it is enough to say that it was almost 3 hours later when the last evil spirits were cast out of Henry’s life and he was free. The change was total.

Before leaving camp on Saturday Henry was baptized along with others and was ready to start his new life as a Christian. The first thing that he had to cut out of his life was his girl friend. When he explained to her the reason, she said that it was fine, but why didn’t he invite her to church first? At the church she was touched, transformed and born again. She has since been baptized and is attending the new believer’s classes. Needless to say they are still going out together. 

The second thing to go was the music. Henry knew that he couldn’t play music for the world and serve God. He is working himself out of the contract he has with the group that he plays with and he has already informed his family that he will not be playing with them in the future, as were his plans. Henry has a long road ahead of him but as I look back to Adalberto’s life I know that it is possible. The road will not be easy but the rewards are out of this world.

Please keep Adalberto and ‘Henry’ in your prayers as you continue to pray for the ministry that the Lord has given us and you stand with us with your offerings and your prayers. 

Blessings in Jesus name.

Philip, Lucy, Simri & Vanessa Tolman

A Place of Blessing

Last week, during Easter vacation, we held our 20^th annual youth camp. We hold it during Easter week for two reasons: one being that it is a week that all businesses, schools, and government offices are closed for at least 3 days; the other being that there is no probability of rain. In the summer rainy season it rains every day, and this makes camping difficult, if not impossible.

This year we chose a place up in the mountains away from civilization for our campsite. Each youth had to walk over a mile down a mountainside to get to the spring of water where we held our camp, and the same distance UP to get out. The general consensus among the exhausted young people who arrived was that the place was terrible, full of rocks and dust. By the second day, the opinion had changed due to two facts. The less important of the two was the fact that the over 110 young people had slowly made the place livable. The kitchen was made and bathrooms were installed. The land was cleared with large machetes and then leveled so that the tents could be erected.

What really changed everything, though, was the moving of the Holy Spirit. By the second night the power of God was so strong that almost no one could stand in His presence. Even the people who knew nothing about the moving of the Holy Spirit were moved. The signs of change were immediate. The men removed their jewelry and earrings, and the women began to dress much more modestly. We had a wonderful 5 days in the presence of the Lord. No cell phones, radios, T.V.s, video games or other distractions - only the Bible and the Holy Spirit moving in people’s lives. God’s hand was even on the poisonous animals - the scorpions and the snakes that were in the area didn’t bother anyone. The Bible is true; the desert place continues to be the best way to get in communion with the Lord.

Youth camp, although exhausting, is only one area of ministry that we are participating in. Camps held without the support of the local church would have no meaning. The local church is the life-breath of the Christian. During our years of ministry here, Lord has let us raise up 7 churches that continue to this day, as well as some centers that are still in the process of growing into churches. The daily ministry at the local churches is what makes life interesting as we deal with different areas of difficulties in the lives of the members and look for the guidance of the Holy Spirit on how to deal with each one. At times we get discouraged, as we do not win every battle, but each victory makes us shout for joy.

Please pray with us as we continue to focus on our ministry to the young people. In the next two months we still have our children’s camp, a church get-together for all our churches in the area, and an outdoor concert for over 1,000 youth. We thank you for remembering us, as it is your prayers and your financial support of the ministry that make this all possible.

Looking for a place

Each year, during Holy week or Easter week (for those that are not from Latin countries), we hold a youth camp in the Sierra Madre. There are many special things about this camp both in the physical and in the spiritual aspects. Each year we change the location of the camp, looking for places that have lots of spring water (for drinking and bathing), no electricity, a flat area to camp at and fire wood for cooking and light at night.

On the spiritual side we don't allow the use of electronic equipment (cell phones, radios etc) or any other type of distractions. Each youth that attends comes into a personal encounter with the
Lord Jesus Christ because there is simply nothing else to do.
Looking for a place the fills all of these requisite is not easy and especially now that water is in such high demand. The pumping of deep artisan wells has reduces the flow of water in many natural springs or completely dried them up. Other water holes have been dammed up making the water putrid and only good for agricultural use. As the years go by (this is number 20) we have had to delve deeper into the sierra into areas that are more isolated and as such, more
dangerous. As we have combed the country side these last three months looking for a place for this year's camp I have learned two truths.


The first is that life is full of changes and if we don't change with life we become obsolete. The command that God gave Israel to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and spend one week in a tent to remember the goodness of God will never become old. How we do that will have to change. The liberties that we had in an open, unpopulated world are quickly being lost. If we don't find a place where we can get alone with the Lord Jesus we will get lost in the preoccupations of this world. Next year our way of doing camp will have to change radically as we look to obtain the same results in a different way. Even outside of the camping experience we need to find places where we can get alone with God.


The second truth is that man is not only destroying the natural environment but also his spiritual environment. Things that we took for granted for many years are being lost. Our spiritual life spring is being contaminated by man-made 'improvements'. The time is measured and the environment now has to be comfortable and perfect. Crying out to God or letting His Spirit move on you for 2 or 3 hours is a thing of the past. Waiting in His presence no longer fits into our schedule. The same difficulty that we are having to find an adequate place for our youth camp is the same problem that many spiritually hungry people are having to find a church that will let them bathe in God's presence.

I know that change is necessary and that it is not easy. The problem is not that we have to change but the reason why we have to change. The destruction of our environment, be it natural or spiritual will eventually catch up with us and what used to exist will only be a memory in books or picture. What we need today are spiritual environmentalist who will fight against the tide and protect our spiritual heritage.