It's a Thing of the Heart

May/June 2007 Newsletter

The Lord offers us a choice of life and good or death and evil. Conscientiously we choose the good but our actions do not always suit our choice. The Word is in our mouth and in our heart but if we try to decide with our mind we have problems. The Holy Spirit works through our heart but never though our mind. As we are learning to practice this principle, the Lord has opened new doors to share the good news with the youth in our State.

Even though the daily work in the church is necessary to bring stability to the members, our calling is also to reach the lost with the gospel. This is not done in the church but on the street. It can be done one on one or in larger groups. At this time we are working on various activities of mass evangelism in our area.

On June 9, we are presenting an open air concert that equals the best the world can give in the technical area, but our advantage is the help of the Holy Spirit. On June 29 and July 20, we will be directing another 2 concerts together with other ministries that are working in Mexico to reach students. Our goal is to have over 2,000 non-Christian youth in this last concert. Please pray with us for this undertaking so that we can reach the goal that He has put before us.

Philip teaching at a Conference

At the end of September we will be having a 4th activity, a mega presentation, to reach thousands of youth in the downtown area of Tepic. We are thankful to have all of our family participating in all these activities.

Aside from our special activities, most of the local churches are experimenting a time of growth. The youth are still burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit they received at Youth Camp and are letting it extend through the churches. Our goal is still to lead people to a heart experience in Jesus. We are reaching out to attain one of the goals that the Lord has placed in our heart, to place a Christian church in each of the 20 townships in our State. We are only lacking 2 townships, Ahuacatlan and the Yesca. Please pray for us as we reach out into these areas. Both of these townships have their own special challenges.

Pastors’ breakfast and meeting

In Ahuacatlan we have had missionaries living there for the last 6 years and there is still no church. The Yesca, high in the Sierra Madres, is a 10 hour drive from Tepic. The town still doesn’t have electricity which makes life very primitive and difficult.

Last weekend in the town of Compostela, we had a gathering of some of our churches. It was a time of fellowship, sharing and ministry. Every three months we try and have this type of meeting so that the smaller village churches can participate with a worship team and feel the emotion of being among a large group of people worshiping the Lord. Many of these small works don’t have musicians or people that can lead in singing. We were also able to host a breakfast for local pastors and leaders to invite them to participate in the different outreaches we have planned. More than 65 leaders attended.

With all these activities on this summer we will not be able to itinerate and visit your church to raise the extra finances needed to live here on the mission field. Please plan special prayer and offerings to help us as partners in these efforts. You can designate your offering for our personal support or to cover the extra expenses that will strain our budget. At the same time we also want to thank each one of you that stand with us with your prayers and faithful monthly support.

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.

Resigned But Not Down

January 2007

There are lots of circumstances that happen in our lives that we can’t control or change. We can decide to flow with the circumstances or try to fight against them. Some things that happen in our lives are natural while others are caused through spiritual dealings as in the case of Job in the Bible. These past two weeks we had group of situations that taught us resignation without being defeated.
The adventure started actually the end of December when we took our ‘new’ Toyota van (a demonstrator model) into the shop to get the heater and defrost to work as without them it was impossible to use the van in cold weather. To our surprise the van was built without a heater/defrost system and the Toyota agency would not take responsibility for the error. We would have to go to court against Toyota but in the mean time we could not use the van to make a missions trip into Texas as the temperature was below freezing. We readied our old Dodge van that had a newly repaired motor and set out on our trip, Lucy, Simri, Vanessa and myself.
The first day was great and even though we started the trip in the early afternoon we made good time. The next morning, a Friday, we were on the road at dawn, hoping to be in San Antonio Texas by mid afternoon. Two hours down the road an engine valve jammed and the van came to a screeching halt. We managed to limp the van into the next small village where at the side of the highway we lifted the head off of the engine to replace the valve. THE Valve! A three hour bus ride was the closest place to get it and as it turned out the valve stem was too thin but it would have to do. By the time I got back to the van, seven hours later, it was too dark to start putting the engine back together.
By noon the next day we were finally on our way, at least partly. The oil had water in it from the work we had done and the partial engine job was leaking oil terribly. It was after midnight, now Sunday morning when we finally arrived at our destination, grimy and exhausted.
The mission’s conference at our home church, Destiny Church was well worth the effort made to arrive. It was the best conference we have been at because the word that we needed from the Lord was given to us there. We left for home early Friday morning, blessed and refreshed in our spirits. Our adventures were not over. Two hours out of San Antonio one of our rear tires blew to pieces. We had a good spare and in 15 minutes we were back on the road. We stopped at a Walmart up the way to buy a new tire and they said that they could do our work right away as there was no one ahead of us. Well it took them two and a half hours to get the tire on the van. I would of hated to be there when they were busy.
The story continues but I will spare you the details. Our head lights went out and we traveled for two hours with intermittent headlights and a spot light for driving. There was a major accident that closed the highway for three hours. The rad hose started leaking and the oil pressure gage went out. We were 35 km. from home and it didn’t look like we were going to make it back. It was then that we did a very spiritual thing and it wasn’t prayer because that’s what had gotten us this far. We stopped to eat! After a good hearty meal of lamb we got back in the van and it drove like a charm all the way home. Imagine, even the headlights are working again.
After a trip like this it is easy to get down. We could have blamed God for the things that happened but no. We have learned that there are a lot of things in life that we can not change. The important thing is to make sure that the things that you can not change do not change you. Many things can happen in my life that I don’t agree with but not one of them will defeat me or keep me down, I will just learn another lesson from the Lord.

Feliz Navidad

I Watch My Heart

They are taking our liberties away
This seems to be the worry of the day
Christmas is now Happy Holidays
And marriages now can be gay

Is it really important the day that baby Jesus was born
In the bible we don’t know the time, evening, night or morn
If it really were so important the time would be spoken
So that the celebration of His birth would never be broken

The time, the day, the hour, or the season
Really don’t change what truly is the reason
His birth and his death, are really quite a story
Impossible to believe if you’ve never been sorry

It’s the sin that I have left that makes the old man die
Not the Christmas time story that many think is a lie
What the world needs to celebrate is not another familyget together
Rather on our knees we really need to get our act together

Let them make Christmas a holiday and Easter a spring break
That won’t make the least little change in what really it takes
To make the new birth come true, right down in your heart
Soon you will know that this is more than a story made for art

It’s Christmas, it’s Noel, Navidad or Bonart
It’s not a name that places it down in my heart
It’s an experience that only a Savior can bring
In knowing that my life is now fresher than spring

The birth of my Jesus isn’t really my worry
It’s my new birth that day that I really, really was sorry
Now every day I have to die, to make it really worthwhile
Knowing that Jesus can bring me much more that a smile

The day that they take this belief from my heart
Is the day when the worrying really should start
All the laws in the land and the police there could be
Will never let the Christmas story be lost to me

It’s not a story, a play or a special holiday
Not a tree or a manger where the little Jesus lay
It’s my belief, it’s an experience, it’s really my life
Though they change it all, I still know that my Jesus is alive

Philip Tolman
12-21-06

I Work Because I Serve - Nov/Dec 2006 newsletter

The other day a young man came to one of our outdoor meetings and when asked if he was serving Jesus, he said: “I am really close to God”. As we continued to talk, I found out that he didn’t know the Lord Jesus nor was he serving Him. In his mind he was O.K. but as he saw that what he was doing - his works, were not in accordance with true Christianity, he had to admit that he wasn’t serving Jesus. It is easy to see errors in others but as we turn the microscope around we must ask ourselves the question: Are my works a sign that I am serving our Lord and Savior?
This last month we have focused on promoting special activities to help each sector of the church family to focus on their areas of service and to analysis the areas of their lives that need attention.
 In the month of October, 13 men from two of our churches traveled 10 hours to participate in a Promise Keeper’s (Hombre a Hombre) conference that had over 4,000 men in attendance. We were not only edified by the teaching and the testimonies, but we also had a good time together to talk, form friendships, and even share hotel rooms together.
The women had to work harder. Lucy did an excellent job in organizing and carrying out a great Ladies Conference, with the help of Destiny Church, our home church, sending two ladies to minister at the conference. Friday evening through Sunday proved to be a short time to answer all the needs that were presented.
On the 18th’ of November we had our church get together or what we call a ‘convivio’ in one of the ranch churches. After many years of following the same format for the activities we made major changes in this one and it worked out really well. Normally our convivios have been an all day activity with praise and worship, teachings and preaching. This time we started in the early afternoon, taking into account that many people have to work Saturday morning. Instead of our times of teaching we created a time of sharing with special questions
The people responded well and we all had a really edifying time. The only problem we had was on the way home our old Dodge van that we are trying to sell blew it’s engine and it finally arrived home on a tow truck at 3 AM .
As Christmas time approaches we want to make sure that Christ is the center of this holiday time. Each church has a Christmas party and a time of fellowship. Without the birth and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas wouldn’t exist. We tell the church family that this is the most important time to be together because this is our opportunity to exalt the Lord.
Also on the 23rd of December we will be celebrating Damara and Agustin’s wedding that` is a first in our family. We will also have a time together as an extended family as some of my brothers and their families will be here for the wedding. Please remember Damara and Agustin in your prayers as they start this new stage of their lives together.
Again we thank you for standing with us so faithfully in prayer and giving during 2006. If you would like to send a special offering at this time to help us to give each child in the different churches a few candies and a small gift, please designate your offering to this cause. For many of the children it is the only gift they will receive.
May you and your families enjoying all the blessings of this season and may you continue to serve with us in the ministry here in 2007 is our prayer.


Philip, Lucy, Damara, Simri & Vanessa Tolman

Seedtime & Harvest Ministries

8635 Callaghan Rd, San Antonio TX 78230 or
APDO 351, 63000 Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico
E-mail: philip@s-h-ministries.org

Volume 1, Issue 1

Convivio

Yesterday we had our quarterly “Convivio”, a reunion of all of the churches that have been begun through the church arm of our Mexican association, the Christian Churches of Mexico.The location was in El Ahualamo, about 50 km from Tepic. We arrived in the small village about 3 PM and turned off the highway on a cobblestone road a little way from the church.
The church people had wet down the earthen floor to control dust and the sun was brightly shining through the large space between the roof and the partly completed walls. As the 2 vanloads of people from our immediate area arrived, we set up the musical instruments as other groups came in from neighbouring towns and villages.There was an excellent turnout and soon we were singing and worshiping God. Instead of afternoon messages many of the people were glad to participate in answering one of three questions.

What is your favorite verse in the Bible and why?
How did you come to know Jesus Christ as your Saviour?
What promise have you received from God and how was it completed?

After another time of worship we moved the chairs around and lined up for the supper they had prepared. It was so good and was typical what the poorer people are able to serve. It was ‘pozole’ boiled parched corn with chicken, vegetables and mild seasonings. It is served in a bowl with chopped raw onions and raw cabbage on top. They also had a fruit drink. The large cooking pots were brought from the homes close to the church as there are no cooking facilities there. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and soon all were really full. We gathered together for more singing and a message from the Word. An invitation was given to those who had special needs and Jesus met so many as they were prayed for.This reunion was a real encouragement to the people of the village for they are used to just a few people rather than the large crowd that gathered. Their pastor was in hospital very ill but they also prayed in the service for him and he returned to his home early the next morning. It was a wonderful time and all look forward to the next gathering of the churches in three more months..