July/August 2017 Newsletter

                                                                       Rains of Blessing                                        

 We are now 6 weeks along with the construction of our new school building. The foundation is in and the walls are up but there is still a long way to go. By the time you receive this letter the concrete roof will have been poured and the detail work starts. This is the most expensive and tedious part of the job. The electrical installations have to go in, the walls need to be plastered and the tile floor to be laid. Then there are the bathrooms to equip along with all the plumbing. We are still planning for this first phase to be finished by the 15^th of August so that the new building can be used to start this next school year. We were still short $18,000 dollars to meet our budget but as the Lord has been faithful until now we KNOW that this need will also be met on time. If the Lord lays it on your heart to be a part of this project it is because he wants to bless you through your obedience. As we send you this letter this need HAS BEEN MET.  Praise the Lord.

The rainy season has finally come to our State and is the case every year the change is dramatic. After 8 months of no rain, life has been brought back into our environment. Even though the grass looked dead and the trees wilted, within 3 days the change is incredible. The grass has sprouted, the trees look bright and the ground is drinking up the rain. Many times this same process happens in the church. We go through a time of spiritual drought and the services are dry and wilted. Then in His season the Lord pours out His Spirit and life is given back into the church body. This is why the book of Joel promises the former and the latter rain and it always comes at the right time.

The women´s group in our Xalisco church call themselves the Noemi ministries. Their focus is to make barren people fruitful and to bring life back into embittered people. In these last months they have taken to challenge to share their vision in the village churches and missions. Every month they are programming a special ladies´ meeting with the purpose of inviting new women to come and be part of an all ladies reunion. They have a time of sharing, a time of fellowship (with the food they bring) and a time of ministering. This has been a special blessing to the mission works and has brought new people into the missions. What a blessing it is when church members run with the vision that God has given them to bless others and also bless the church.

Dad (David Tolman) is doing fine. The 1^st of July he turned 85 and is still going forward. We are able to be close to him every day. Last month Stephen came down to visit with him for a couple of days that was a great blessing. We are learning really what the Bible means when it says to honor your parents. It is a blessing to be able to give back a little of what they gave to us.

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

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

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

March/April 2017 Newsletter

   THE GOD OF ISAAC

I had always wondered why God was known in the Old Testament as the God of Isaac or even why he was mentioned as one of the heroes’ faith in Hebrews 11. I could understand Abraham and Jacob but what did Isaac do that made him a hero? As I studied through Isaac´s life I think I have found 2 reasons why this is so. The first is that he had a steady constant walk with God ALL of his life. His faith never fluctuated even when he became blind. The second reason is that he made his son Jacob a stronger believer in his God than he was. I ask myself the question; Are my children stronger in their walk with God than I am? 

Often we look for “numbers”, great miracles or outstanding acts when I believe that the greatest act of faith is to have ones name written in the book of life.

It is the little things in life that make us great.

For the last 19 years we have been doing evangelism every week in the town of Santa aria de Oro. Even though we have started churches in other towns, here we have not made any notable progress. Through the years we have had converts and good gatherings but it hasn´t lasted. The situations have been different but the result always the same, the church is not established. We are currently holding children´s classes on the street once a week and I have children attending that their parents were in my classes. In this area of this town most girls are “married” between 13-17 years of age. I would love to have another church up and running but that is not my calling. I was called to be faithful to what God ahs called me to do and let him look after the results. It is not about being great. It is all about fulfilling your calling in life just as Isaac did.

Our Bible School “Rios de Agua Viva” was started in 1988. We would have between 10-15 students every year that were full time students and we were able to graduate well over 130 students. Today the Bible school continues but only as a Saturday afternoon, 2-year course. We currently have 5 students enrolled in classes. I would love to have the full time students once again but God has other plans. Our facilities are being used Monday through Friday as a Christian School and we are lacking classroom space. With the change of our focus we have not lost our purpose. We are still preparing people to base their lives on the Bible and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are pleased to report that Dad (David Tolman) is doing very well physically as we have the privilege of looking after him every day. Even with his limitation he is very active in keeping up to date with the world news and his friends that are on Facebook. Lucy still needs your prayers. She continues to battle with internal bleeding. She had an operation to remove 2 abscesses from her neck last month and it was a lot more extended than what we had imagined. We are thankful that when her lab reports came back the abscesses were neither cancerous nor infectious. 

 Thank you all for your offerings and monthly support that blesses our ministry. 

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

Newsletter- January/February 2017

 Another year has come and gone. It is always good to do a reflection over the victories, losses, advances and hindrances of the last year. The year that has gone will not return but we have another 12 months to plan, work and achieve the goals that are before us. I like so much the Lord´s words to Moses in front of the burning bush. He told Moses that he would know that God had sent him because he would return to that same mountain but in completely different circumstances. Sometimes we have to complete the circle but the circumstances will have changed.

Christmas is a big event in the churches. Each church has to have its own Christmas party. A side from that, the youth have theirs, the leaders have another and each family programs something special for the 24^th in the evening. I think in one week we attended 8 different Christmas parties. We really enjoy this time, not for the parties but as an opportunity to share Christ. While the world wants to take CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS and give us only Happy Holidays, in the church we have the privilege of making CHRIST the centre of our holidays. We get to share His birth at each party. The Bible and the plan of salvation is the centre of it all. 

Part of the Youth Group

In one of the Christmas plays that they did in one of the churches, ¨Santa¨ and ¨Christ¨ came on stage. Santa Claus spoke out that he was just as important as Jesus. But wait… Santa didn't die for our sins, he doesn't heal our infirmities, he doesn't live in us nor does he give us his spirit. Christmas without Christ is just nothing.

The dream of most young ladies is their wedding day but that doesn’t always happen. One of the reasons is the custom of just living together without a marriage covenant. Once a couple gets saved there is the job of making their lives line up with the Word of God. This was the case with Raymundo and Edelmira. Their lives together had not been easy. This was one of the reasons that they started to seek God. On the 9^th of January we had the honor of marrying them in a simple church ceremony. The blessing is twofold. In first place they now have a covenant that will help make their marriage strong. Secondly they have brought God into their marriage. We all know that a threefold cord does not break easily.

Aside from our weekly routine of services, school and visitation, we are starting to gear up for our annual youth camp. We always have it on Easter week because of the school holidays at that time. This year Easter comes early so we will be starting camp on the 21^st of March. There are a lot of young people already asking us where camp will be this year (we change location almost every year) and how much it will cost. The work is not only the logistics of setting up a camp in the middle of nowhere but also being sure that the Spirit is God is present before we arrive and continues there until camp ends. Camp without a special move of the Holy Spirit would not be camp.

Local pastors we work with

This year we are getting funds together to build new classrooms at our Christian school. With our 45 students we are almost at our limit. We need new classrooms to be able to make our primary school grow. We are planning to build in two stages, the first being 3 classrooms and two bathrooms on the first floor. Our next stage will be another 4 classroom on the second floor. Our goal is to raise $78,000 dollars for this first stage by July of this year. We invite you to invest in this project and as you do, you will be investing in children´s lives.

My dad (David Tolman) continues with us. We learn that often life is a struggle until the end. Dad continues firm in his faith and in his sound mind.

 Thank you for your offerings and prayers. 

Philip, Lucy, and Vanessa Tolman

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

Learning from God's Silence

September/October 2016 Newsletter

We look for the emotional side of life. We like excitement, fun emotions and movement. If we analyze life we will find that a very small percentage of our life contains these elements. Life, both in the physical and the spiritual aspect, is a chain of mundane, constant plodding that brings us fulfillment in all we do. It is the three meals a day, the washing and cleaning, the reading of the Word and a lot of other things that make life tick. It in these times of calm and silence that we learn to hear the voice of God.

Missionary work is not an exciting life in the sense of being highly emotional. Missionary work is exciting because you have a chance to mix 3 or more cultures and choose the best of them. There is my culture from my home country, the culture of the country where I am working and then there is a church culture that I live in and try to teach. All three of these cultures are imperfect and adaptable. Each culture adapts to the area where it is used. As we teach the Word of God we have to understand that the Bible also contains culture. Abraham sent his servant to look for a wife for his son Isaac. That just won´t work in the western culture we live in. 

Here in Mexico we are challenged with letting the Spirit of God change people without trying to make them part of my culture. In teaching I have to ask myself once and again: “Is this biblical or is it only culture”. A missionary has to learn to teach the Bible without teaching his or her home culture. After being on the mission field for over 35 years I find that I have lost my culture. I don´t fit in neither in Canada nor in Mexico. My prayer is that I will fit in in Heaven.

The 16^th of September is Mexico´s independence day, a national holiday. It is the season that there is fresh corn, vegetables and fruit. This year we decided to have a corn get together at the school. We take fresh tender corn that is still covered with its leaves and cook it over hot coals. It sizzles in it´s own juices and has a flavor all of it’s own. Then we cut 50 or more avocados and make a big guacamole salad. The drinks made from fresh limes; guavas and nanchi´s are a delight. All this together with good Christian fellowship, a little soccer and other sports makes it a delightful day. You may ask: “Is it spiritual” and I would answer YES. It is neither a church service nor a teaching session. It is a time of joining together as a family, creating unity and fulfilling the Bible where it says: “ …But on God who has given us all things to enjoy them”.

We thank you for your prayers and offerings that make this work possible. Dad (David Tolman) is doing great and is adapting to life as a widower. Changes are not always easy, but they are necessary. Please continue to believe with us for the fund that we need for the construction of our new school building. We are still lacking about 65% of the $42,000 dollars that we need for the first floor construction.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman

July-August 2016 Newsletter

Church Anniversary

   Last month in the churches we shared about the seasons of God. In the natural we have four different seasons each year. In the spiritual there are also seasons and times. There is a time to plant and a time to harvest. We all want to be part of the harvest but few want to be the planters. One of the jobs that we were commissioned with here in Mexico is to be planters. We are not planting for ourselves but for the Lord. We don't know who has been commissioned to harvest but we continue with our job of planting.

On the 9^th of July we had our graduation exercises for our primary and secondary schools. We opened our doors in 2001 and now 14 years later we continue to grow. Our plan this year is to construct a new building for our primary school. With the offerings that we have received we have purchased the steel and concrete we need but we are still lacking funds to start with the actual construction. We know that God will supply in His time and we are waiting on His timing.

 The months of June and July are being spent on a special time for door-to-door evangelism. We have marked 4 subdivisions in which we are going to leave a tract in each home as well as personally meeting all the people that we can. One of the subdivisions is an area of Tepic where we want to plant our 4^th church in the city. We personally do not pastor a church in the city of Tepic. We raise-up pastors and plant them in a new work under the support of one of the churches that we pastor. Once ago we have been called to plant so that others can bring in the harvest.

After Church Fellowship

 As we look to the coming months we are working on a State- wide meeting of pastors from the 5 pastor alliances that exist in our State. On the 13^th of August we will be joining together for a day of fellowship and teaching. On the 27^th of August we have our national reunion of pastors and churches that work under our covering. This year we will be meeting in the city of Guadalajara. Unity brings strength to all we do and also produces longevity. We are not only planting for ourselves but also for the future generations as we waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you for your prayers and offerings that make this work possible. As we work together we all become part of the harvest. My dad (David Tolman) physically has been doing much better. On July 1^st we celebrated his 84^th birthday when only months before all indicated that he wasn't going to live to that date. Once again thank you for your prayers for him.

Vanessa's 15th Birthday

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman