Missions

Jon and Ruth Sonoda Update Jan 2012

2012-01-27T19:51:00.001-08:00

Tuttle Update January 2012 #4

2012-01-26T15:45:00.001-08:00

donkey meat and smoke bombs

0 comments Posted by amy in peru at 1/26/2012

Friends and Family,

Last week I packed 12 brothers into our big and awesome van and went up the pan-american highway dropping off small missions teams in different villages along the way. Each team did lots of evangelism, visitation, and bible teaching. My team went furthest north to a little town called “Pacanga”. For two days we passed out tracts, preached and tried to encourage the brethren. It was a great time of fellowship, ministry and interesting experiences.

After a long day of evangelism and then a long evening meeting with the church we were happy to sit down to a late supper of savory donkey meat and rice. Finally at about 1 a.m we got to bed and were hoping to get some quality rest but we found that the mosquitos were unbearable to sleep with. The brother with whom we were staying decided to take care of the problem by lighting off a smoke bomb in our bedroom. The thick cloud of smoke got rid of the mosquitos real quick..... but I'm not sure that the burning sensation we had in our throats and consequent coughs all night was much better than the pesky blood suckers.... At any rate, it was a memorable experience.

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Missionary quote of the week: "God gave me a message and a horse. I've taken that message and in the process killed the horse" -Robert Murray McCheynne

Eric Schrag Jan 26th

2012-01-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

Hello from the future Sunrise!

I'm pretty sure that I am 15 hours ahead of all of you on PST. I finally got internet service, so I am able to email everyone about how things are going in Mongolia. My apartment is much bigger and way nicer than I thought it would be...definitely worth the $750 a month :-) It is super hot inside the apartment though, and I actually have to open the door to let some cold air in (there is o way to control the heat...it is just ON. It is incredibly cold outside, so cold that the hairs in my nose feel like they turn to ice every time I step outside. And, today as I was walking to the school, I actually got some icicles on my eyelashes! It's kind of a weird phenomenon! It is also very smoky in the entire city (a lot of people use coal for heat, and it causes a ton of smoke in the air...sometimes it's hard to breathe, both due to the cold, and because of the smoke). Despite the seemingly negative things, I do love it here, and discovered that a few of the teachers that I taught last summer are teaching at the same school as me, and another affiliated school right down the road!
I got to see my school yesterday, it is also really nice! I am excited to start teaching. The way it sounds is that I will be helping the Mongolian teachers in all three subjects: Math, Physics, and English. Then, having one-on-one conversations with each of the teachers throughout the week to help expand their English. I don't officially start until Feb.1st, but yesterday, I helped grade a few essays (which took a lot more time than I thought). I am at the school today just to sit in on some of the classes, to see how they operate, and to look over the syllabi for those three classes I'll be helping with :-) I will send more updates soon. Hope to hear from you as well!

Eric

Scott and Leslie Walt - Austria - Jan 2012

2012-01-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

23 January 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

2012 is already here and with it we look forward to what we hope and expect
will be another year blessed and led by the Lord as in years past. At the same
time it is also our hope and prayer that the upcoming year is a year of rest,
refreshment, and re-energizing. But more about that later.

2011 was a year of tremendous growth in all areas of church leadership. As an
outworking of this, Scott is in the process of transitioning his responsibilities
within our church to younger, qualified leaders. This transition will allow him
to focus more and more on training leaders in all areas of ministry both at our
church here in Baden as well as in other churches and ministries in Austria and
in Central Europe.

For two weeks in October, Scott taught his practical pastoral issues class to a
large group of Russian and Ukrainian pastors at TCMi here in Heiligenkreuz.
The time went exceptionally well and confirmed again the door God has opened
for a broader scope of ministry.

Along the same lines, on the 5th of this month, we flew to Varna, Bulgaria for
a week of teaching and training in the church led by Luci and Dani Mantschev.
The Mantschevs were formally from Bulgaria but were saved and transformed
by the Lord here in Austria and eventually returned to Bulgaria as missionaries.
This is another aspect of the work God has given us in the area of training
church leaders. We as a couple have the privilege of being the Mantschev’s
mentors and field directors.

During our time in Varna, we were able to continue to spend intensive time
not only with the Mantschevs but also with many of the families from the
church. God has opened doors for us to minister to them, especially those
who are involved in leadership in the church there. Added to that, the church
of Varna has sent out it’s own missionaries. They are actively supporting
a Turkish gypsy missionary couple who are working in the Turkish gypsy
quarter of Varna. Nichat and Revi have started a church and a school in their
neighborhood and God is giving them consistent fruit even though the ministry
is difficult and even dangerous. We had the wonderful opportunity to be closely
involved with this lovely couple and their two daughters while we were in
Bulgaria.

Currently, our ministry involves active, life changing mentoring of the young
adults in our college/career group. We have about 12 young men and 4 young
women who have committed to separate men’s and women’s groups in order to

concentrate on maturity and ministry issues in their own personal lives.

In February, Scott will again be the speaker for our Winter Camp. Last year,
during Winter Camp, our friend Warren was killed in a skiing accident and from
that point on, the year felt emotionally draining. Pray for the Spirit to work
powerfully during Winter Camp (4-11 Feb) and pray for protection for us all
physically and emotionally.

The one area of ministry that we will not be able to set aside these next few
months is the International Christian School of Vienna, formerly Vienna
Christian School. Scott is now the school board chairman and Leslie is his #1
assistant! But we are happy to say that the school, with 250 students and visas
for all our teachers and their families, is in a very stable and satisfying phase.
Our biggest needs at this time are in the area of recruitment of teachers. i.e. We
need a secondary principal, and teachers for ELL (English Language Learning)
and special education among others.

On to rest, refreshment and re-energizing. After over 22 years of intensive
ministry, we have come to a place where we can take some much needed time
for a sabbatical starting after Easter for a 6 month period. During this time we
will be giving up most of our responsibilities in order to focus on personal study
of the scriptures, meditation and prayer. We are asking the Lord to refresh us
physically, emotionally and spiritually. We do not plan to ever retire from the
ministry, Lord willing. Instead, we are asking God to re-charge us for the next
20 years.

In Him together,

Scott and Leslie

Tuttle Update January 2012 #3

2012-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

Bert Elliot

0 comments Posted by amy in peru at 1/20/2012

Dear friends and family,

Bert Elliot's life on earth is coming to an end. Some might see that as "bad news" but with him, I see it differently. He's someone that has run well … I mean REALLY well! ….. This life was not normal! Bert didn't waste any of it! And now, after 87 years of perseverance for God's glory,...... he's almost to the finish line! It's an amazing thing to see one of God's extraordinarily faithful servants arrive at home! (“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints!”). This long and full life has been all about victory! Soon he will hear those great words: “Well done good and faithful servant!”

The crowd went wild in Denver when Tim Tebow threw that overtime TD to beat the Steelers two weeks ago..... but with Bert we're talking about a whole other level. We're not talking about a game.... This is the real life and the real death of one of God's hero's! What will the crowd in heaven do when Bert Elliot bursts through those “the gates of splendor”?

I was able to have the great honor of spending a few nights with Bert this week. He was awake and restless for most of the time both of the nights that I was there. When he talked he strained hard to get out his whispered requests. He repeatedly wanted to stand up and then to sit back down. Several times he asked to have one of his legs moved, and then to have it put back. Often he begged us to take his clothes off and then to put them back on again. It was difficult to see him struggling with the pain and confusion but at the same time it was amazing to see him look to Christ in the midst of this trail. A few times he started to cry saying: “it hurts”. Then he'd whisper: “but God is so good”.

I prayed and read from the scriptures for long periods of time and every once in a while Bert would force a whispered: “Amen brother!” He would nod and almost smile when I reminded him about precious people and places in Oregon, in the Amazon, and in the Andes mountains. It was a really special time for me as he kept taking my hand and putting it on his head and then on his shoulder and then his head again. Praise the Lord for this man who is such an encouragement to many even in his last days.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” -Jim Elliot (Bert's brother)

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Tuttle Update January 2012 #2

2012-01-18T22:22:00.001-08:00

Open air meeting

0 comments Posted by amy in peru at 1/17/2012

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Last night a group of us from “Capacitacion Biblica” went out to preach in the main square of Trujillo. At first the police tried to kick us out but when I presented the official paper work and permission that I got from the municipality they let us proceed. It worked out great to have the police involved because they drew a lot of attention and people started coming from everywhere to see what was going on. Myself and three other brothers preached, one group performed a drama and all the while we did some intermittent singing. We were also able to give out lots of tracts and N.T's to those that wanted them. It was an exciting time that ended with many great one on one conversations about Christ's love for sinners.

C.H Spurgeon said: “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned and un-prayed for.”

Please pray that God would give us boldness and that as His word continues to spread many people would “become obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

Micah for the Tuttle's

Tuttle Update January 2012

2012-01-12T18:29:00.001-08:00

Eleven years

Posted by amy in peru at 1/11/2012

Dear friends and family,

It is January 11^th! Eleven years ago yesterday we arrived in Peru! Amy and I were 23 and 24 years old, we had 2 little kids, we knew very little Spanish and knew nothing about missions. Now we are slightly older, we have a few more kids, we've picked up a bit of Spanish and we have learned a tad more about missions. We have lived and worked in the mountains, on the coast and in the jungle regions of Peru. God has taught us many things through many experiences as we have tried to be a witness for Christ in this great land of the Incas.

We have been so blessed by the many unique opportunities that God has given us. Over the years I have been able to preach the gospel in our home, in churches, in jails, in orphanages, in hospitals, in universities, in buses, in primitive villages, in the inner city, on the streets, on the trails, on boats, on the radio, standing in rivers, and standing on mountain tops. There is nothing more exciting than trying to win souls and make God's name great among the nations!

While my life these past 11 years has been full of public ministry Amy has been behind the scenes supporting me and keeping our family sane:) She has, and continues to, nurture and educate our big family while investing immeasurably in the next generation. I am so blessed to have married a woman that has embraced the high calling and ministry of being a wife and mother! There aren't many of those left today.

God has blessed us and provided for us in so many ways. We are so thankful to Him for the life that He has given us and we want to make the most of it for His glory. “Only one life to live, soon twill pass, only what's done for Christ will last.”

Micah, for the Tuttle's

Tuttle Update December 2011

2012-01-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas evangelism

2 comments Posted by the tuttle tribe at 12/23/2011

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The other day a brother and I decided we would celebrate the Christmas season by giving away some 2012 calender-tracts in the main square. After giving away about fifty or so calenders I stopped and shared some Christmas verses with a couple that was seated on one of the benches. Soon the people from the next bench over came to see what was going on and then, much to my delight, a few passer-by's stopped to listen also.

A crowd draws a crowd and we had a open air meeting in the making! After preaching for about a half of an hour to an ever-growing group we gave out a bunch of New Testaments and the last of our tracts. There were a lot of interested people with sincere questions and a desire to hear more about the "reason for the season". We praise God for this Christmas evangelism opportunity. Please pray for those that heard the message.

The quote for the day is: "Wise men still seek Him"
I don't know who originally said it but I learned it from a friend and brother, Luke Goff, from Seattle Washington who wrote it on the nativity scene that their family has put out this year.

Merry Christmas!

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Ben and Elena Kerns Christmas Update 2011

2011-12-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

Sonoda Update of time in Spokane :)

2011-12-08T13:49:00.001-08:00

I was enjoying reading the Sonoda's blog and saw they had updated a note about their time here with us in Spokane. Thought you would all enjoy :)

Spokane

Posted on November 19, 2011 by jrsonoda1

We drove to Spokane after our time in Yakima. We got to see and stay with friends from the church we were a part of in our college days. It was a very special and encouraging time. James and Yohan had a great time. We stayed with the Schneiders, where there was an abundance of toys and fun kids to play with. One of the boys, Alek, was very sweet and patient with James, causing James to latch onto him. It took James a while to learn his name, and tended to simply call him, “the boy.”

The leaves were beautiful and the Schneider kids taught the boys how to play in them. They got so dirty and had a blast. While the kids played in leaves we had a “get to know you” time with the church. We hadn’t realized it would mostly be a “get to know us” time. They all asked great questions and it was fun to share with them.

On Sunday Jonathan shared at the church. It’s always overwhelming to meet complete strangers and find out they’ve actually been praying for us. James and Yohan were not interested in staying in the nursery. But after church James was quite taken with the “nursery girl.” He kept looking for “abla” (older sister) and wanting to hang out with her.

After church Jonathan played football with the kids and some young people from church. Its exciting for him to get to play football, even if it’s just in a backyard. He’s tried to teach our youth how to play football, and it’s not that successful.

The kids watched Finding Nemo in the afternoon.

Spokane was a very refreshing time.

Jonathan’s grandparents are in Boise now. We had seen them in Oregon and they had traveled around with us quite a bit (I call them our groupies). The boys have gotten used to them and James calls them Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma (even if it is a mouthful). When they arrived yesterday Yohan yelled and ran to them to give them hugs. It was pretty cute.

Tuttle Update November 2011

2011-12-06T19:14:00.001-08:00

Jungle Journals: Trip Details

1 comments Posted by amy in peru at 11/28/2011

The weekend before last, I was able to visit with and encourage the brethren in Tarapoto. Praise the Lord, the church is doing well! We had meetings to talk about the transitioning leadership (the brother the Lord sent to take our place last year will return to his hometown and our young men will be taking over), we discussed logistics of the youth meeting, and we broke bread together on Sunday.

The following Monday, myself and 3 young men headed out on a river trip to visit several different villages. The believers in each village were very excited to see us as our visit was unplanned and quite a surprise to all. It's been about nine months since I last visited these churches, so it was a real blessing to see these precious brothers and sisters and to note their growth in the Lord.

Ministry included dealing with church problems, doing lots of evangelism, preaching open air and taking medicine to the sick. The menu included broiled fish, corn on the cob, plantains cooked in the ashes and the famous jungle drink "mazato" (manioc spit juice). The motive was God's glory, including man's salvation and the church's edification.

Please pray for Jilmer, Delmith, Martha and Jaquelin who knelt and made professions of faith in the wet grass of Achinamisa, late Monday night after the open air meeting. It was exciting to preach and watch the Holy Spirit working on people's hearts, convicting them of sin and driving them to the Savior.

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Missionary quote for the day:

"It will not do to say that you have no "special call" to go. With the facts before you and the command of our Lord Jesus, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a "special call" to stay at home." -Hudson Taylor

John Corey Update November 2011

2011-11-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

Dear family, friends including supporters,

It has been about 6 weeks since I last updated you, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge, or maybe the roller coaster ride caught my breath for a while. The last you knew I was going through radiation for a Myeloma tumor that had formed on my clavicle with a resulting pathological fracture of my left clavicle. For a month or more up till then I was having some breathing problems at night and I though I was developing breathing apnea, where at times I would gasp for air. I don't remember the exact date but early October I started feeling not so well and started having a low grade fever. I went to the emergency room, as it happened on the weekend. They checked me out and sent me home. During the next week I continued to have increased fever and then went into my regular oncology clinic, and was immediately admitted to the hospital for 2 weeks. Later my oncologist was rather livid because the emergency room hadn't contacted him about my case. Well, I was coming down with another heavy case of pneumonia, I think my 5th during this past 10 year journey with Myeloma, but the first time it didn't follow a cold. Praise the Lord that He again brought me through, though for a while I and my family wondered if it was going to be my upward call. Poor Jeanette, and my kids as well, who have faced that possibility on a number of occasions. It has made us somewhat more free to talk about this reality. How wonderful is the living hope that God has given us.

But I cannot write this without giving much praise to the Lord. I had opportunities to witness to several nurses how God had met me through all this sickness. I could see tears in the eyes of two or three of them as they listened intently. May the Lord bring them to Himself. Pray for them. One is Rachael.

But there is something much closer to me that God did as well. I will quote part of a little write up of Josiah Dudley (Melodie's and Curt's oldest son, soon to be 21).

"For all my life I have never known anyone close to me to have been close to death. At least until just a couple weeks ago. I had this attitude in the back of my head that life here was eternal, that nothing could really harm me, and that I could do whatever I wanted, without true consequence. Even though I knew this wasn't really the case. I knew mentally what God had to say about (it) and to me and how I should live, but it wasn't fully understood or made real in my heart. But when I heard that Grandpa's condition had worsened and that he might not even live out the next day, I was shaken to a reality that not only death was real, but that all God had done was also real. That we live this life completely for Him, because some day we will pass on and all We’ve done on this world will be taken with us (of course I’m not speaking of earthly things but of our salvation). So why live this life for my own pleasures when the only thing that matters is to please Him? Grandpa had me read out of 2 Corinthians as he was lying on his what seemed to be “death bed”, and stopped me at 2 Corinthians 5:9 which says “So we make it our goal to please him, weather we are at home in the body or away from it.” He turned to me with tears in his eyes to say “Now this is the whole point, in this life, or the next, it is to please him……keep reading.” I have had more meaningful conversations with Grandpa the past couple weeks than I have had with anyone. I would like to continue to tell you story after story of what God's done for me through Grandpa. But I actually have to be going, and don’t have the time right now. Just know that I thank God for my grandpa, and what he has had to go through recently, because God has drawn me and many others toward Him through it. I pray for him and that he would get well soon and that God would give him rest. I thank him for what He has done for me through the past couple weeks. His grace amazes me every day.

I have more desire to know Him now than I think I ever had before. God has drawn me close to Him and I am forever changed. My brother Michael, cousin Nathan, and I have a drive to not be lazy in our faith and that in everything we do to do it to our best ability for Christ’s sake. Grandpa is doing better now every day, and I thank Him for that.

Josiah Dudley"

This has made a dramatic change in Josiah, in the music he now listens to, his hunger for God's Word, his purpose to serve the Lord with his whole life, and to be much more intentional in doing God's will. I told him that what I saw God do as a result of my illness made it fully worth going through. Did not Jesus go to the cross on my behalf. Like Josiah said, this has also impacted some of the other grandkids and others in the family as well. How wonderful to serve a faithful Creator who always does everything perfectly. The promise He gave me at the onset of this battle over 10 years ago, has continued to bear me up, Isa 41:13 "For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.'" Recently one night when I was struggling a bit, I prayed, "Lord help me." Immediately the last phrase of that verse came to mind, and I thanked the Lord that He was in fact doing that and again rested.

I am quite slow in regaining strength during the last 3 weeks since coming from the hospital because of the intestinal affects of all of the antibiotics. As soon as I am able to tolerate it, I need to again go on chemo treatment as my counts are again on the increase. I will likely start in two weeks after Thanksgiving as the main chemo is also a bit hard on the digestive system.

Thanks for your prayers on Jeanette's, our family, and my behalf. I am overwhelmed with how many tell me they are praying for us. How great the body of Christ is!!

Held by His right hand,

John

PS Rick Calenberg and Gary Dozier (Associate Senior Pastor at SW Bible) just returned from 3 weeks in Nigeria with much encouragement and enthusiasm from how the churches are embracing the Romans Project. Since the project is just beginning in some places they distributed 135 players but hundreds more have signed up to start the project. Rick, at the last minute, was able to also add Ghana to his itinerary. He found the churches and some other support groups very enthusiastic to become involved in the project. We expect a dynamic expansion of the project there. Likewise our national coordinator in Liberia, Momoh, has been traveling through much of the country in expanding the project and many church groups and denominations are embracing it. Let me give one testimony from Nigeria which Rich sent out:

"The Book of Romans is very rich and full of doctrinal issues that address the Christian life. It helps in developing my spiritual muscles. . .It teaches about our position in Christ and I now have assurance of salvation and how I should live a life worthy of my calling. I learned to use the copy of the notebook [in which he copied Romans] for evangelism among the Ms (Muslims) without holding the whole Bible in my hands, as they like privacy. It is a good strategy to adopt in reaching the Ms as it helps them to study the passages as if they are reading a school notebook [so it does not draw attention to the fact they are reading a Bible]".

Jon and Ruth Sonoda Update Oct 2011

2011-11-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest Sonoda update. These leaves are the Faris' leaves :) It is kind of fun to see a picture of them in which we share a memory.

Here is the

John Corey - Liberia Update

2011-10-09T19:08:00.001-07:00

LIBERIA:

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was awarded the Nobel Peace

Prize this week for her leading Liberia out of the chaos of so many years

of war and in her defense of women in the country. This is great in the

face of a general election for a new president for Liberia this coming

Tuesday the 11th. The election is highly contested with about a dozen

candidates for president, and whether President Sirleaf will win or not

is definitely uncertain. There are some others who are seeking the

presidency totally for selfish desires to enrich themselves. I don't know

much about the others running, but there is opposition to President

Sirleaf claiming that she has not done as much as she should of during

these past 6 years. Basically she has been a good president and has

brought a lot of help to the country. There are threats of violence and

claims of corruption by some challenging her if she does win.

Pray the God will keep this country in peace and open to the advancement

of the gospel. These past 8 years since Charles Taylor left the country

have opened many doors for the advance of the gospel. May the Lord

continue to keep these doors open. Pray that God will lead in this

election.

John

John Corey

16911 S Manor Dr.

Oregon City, OR 97045

503 631 7889 jwcorey@juno.com

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift."

Jon and Ruth Sonoda Update Oct 2011

2011-10-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

John Corey Update

2011-09-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings Friends,

Health Issues:

In August I reported a significant drop in my cancer counts which was very positive after being on chemo for one month. During the following month there was a big reversal, and a tumor began to form on my left clavicle, which now measures about 3" in diameter and 1" high. I didn't notice it for about 3 weeks, but some of our grandkids remarked, "Grandpa, you have had that for at least 2 weeks. There are other lesions that also show up in my back and pelvis with a PET scan. My shoulder began to hurt a lot and the scan revealed a pathological fracture of my clavicle in the region of the tumor. My oncologist was out of town for a week, and with other delays, I was able to begin a series of 8 radiations on the tumor on my clavicle today, Sept 29th. With the lesions the Myeloma counts have again risen quite significantly and rapidly. The radiation should help in stabilizing these counts, but I am also off of the chemo so other lesions will not be being treated during this time. By the way, as far as I can remember I was diagnosed with Myeloma 10 years ago today. Praise the Lord for all His grace and goodness during these years.

There are two new Myeloma chemo treatments that are coming on the market. My oncologist is trying to get me approved to start me on one of them when the radiation is completed. One is approved for another type of cancer, but is generally effective for Myeloma and is being used in Europe for it, but he isn't sure that Medicare will agree to cover it. The other is due to become available about January, and he is seeing if the company will allow him to receive it for me prior to that. So far he hasn't heard from the company, though earlier in the year he was expecting it would be available to him by October. Since, basically I have been treated with the other chemo treatments that are available, they no longer will be effective in my treatment, and the chemo I have been on is no longer effective. Thanks for your prayers for Jeanette as she carries her part in all of this. Also pray with us that the Lord will open the right door of treatment for me.

We are otherwise doing fine, and find the Lord to be our sufficiency in all of these things. He promised His strength for the day and grace for every circumstance and He hasn't let up His side of the bargain. We just need to continue our trust and rest of faith in Him.

Romans Project:

"Our sessions were well received and the highlight for us was hearing the testimony of those who had completed the Project requirements and whose lives and ministries had been transformed as a result. One pastor actually came to trust Christ alone for his salvation and was truly saved, realizing he had been trusting his good works," so Rick Calenberg, our Overseas Coordinator for the Romans Project, wrote after his recent conference in Liberia. Rick and Mark Sherman were expecting maybe 300 pastors and ended up with a very dedicated group of 139 pastors who had to fight heavy rains and flooding to attend. The church building became an island totally surrounded by water and those attending had to wade in knee deep water for a long distance to reach the building.

Going on to Sierra Leone Rick wrote, "Today we had one of the best meetings I have ever had with young African church leaders who have promoted the Romans Project here and really grasp its purpose and potential to empower the church in this part of Africa. They are sharp and understand that they must embrace, own and promote the Project." (Highlights from Rick) 159 pastors attended the conference that followed.

As Mark returned to the US Rick went on to Nigeria where God opened many doors related to the Romans Project, not the least of which was to present this project in a conference of 3000 pastors from ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All), which is associated with SIM. Many pastors among them were trained by Rick during the years that he taught at the JETS seminary in Jos Nigeria. Rick reported that he expects that thousands of pastors in Nigeria will embrace this project and apply themselves to the book of Romans. Rick and Gary Dozier, Associate Senior Pastor of our church, will be returning to Nigeria late October, likely carrying with them another thousand players and holding several pastors conferences related to the Romans Project. Already we have 2100 players in Africa though not all have been distributed. I am so thrilled to see how God is using this in so many pastors lives and their churches. God is truly doing much during these days in building His Church.

John for both of us.

John Corey
16911 S Manor Dr.
Oregon City, OR 97045
503 631 7889 jwcorey@juno.com
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift."

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update - August 2011

2011-09-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sonodas are coming in October 2011!

2011-08-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Pray for the Sonodas as they prepare to come home to the states this fall and they will be visiting Sunrise in October.

John and Jeanette Corey Update 2011

2011-08-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Thanks for so many of you who have been praying for me. I have up and down times each week, but because of the schedule the doctor has had me on, Sundays has been one of my down days, keeping me home. I would like to change the timing a bit so Sundays are available to me. The new chemo treatment I have been on for the past 5 weeks is so far producing the right results. There is a count of what is called M protein which is a byproduct of Myeloma. Over the past few years it was kept at a minimum at 0.1 but began rising over a year ago. 5 weeks ago it reached 3.3 and was rising rapidly at which time I began a newly developed and very expensive oral chemo treatment, ($8,000 for 21 pills) Praise the Lord for insurance. I received the results of last week's test after 4 weeks of treatment and the count has reduced to 2.0. The doctor is very encouraged with this result, but because the chemo is taking a toll on my white count and immunity, he plans to cut me back on my dosages. We rejoice in the good news and God continues to show me and my family his mercies. The next lab results will be about 4 weeks from now. We walk by faith, knowing that God has all these things and us in His hands. How wonderful to walk with Him and to have a living hope, knowing it won't be long for any of us that we will be like Jesus when we see Him face to face.

I just talked with Daniel Turay, our Romans Project coordinator in Sierra Leone, where the team had a conference last Friday. He was very enthusiastic about the conference that was held and said that the 157 in attendance much appreciated it. He said that now he sees pastors and leaders who have received the player walking down the street listing to Scott. All were impressed at how well and clearly Scott teaches the Word and mentioned that this project is really helping many pastors and teachers learn how to study the Word and to teach it. They also took a great lesson from how Rick expounded the Scripture. They had never thought of the benefit of reading a book over and over again. He mentioned that today from the district of Bo, where only one pastor came to the conference, he received the list of 150 pastors and leaders who have gone through the project and now desire to receive their player. I anticipate that this project will continue to grow. We will soon need to find the way to send more players. Praise the Lord.

John Corey
16911 S Manor Dr.
Oregon City, OR 97045
503 631 7889 jwcorey@juno.com
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift."

Romans Project Africa Update August 2011

2011-08-16T15:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,

Pastor's Conference
It is very exciting to me that Rick Calenberg, our NW SIM regional director, but now also our Romans Project Overseas Coordinator, and Mark Sherman, SW Bible Church Missions Coordinator left today, Thursday, for Liberia, Sierra Leone, with Rick going on to Nigeria returning the 30th. They will be holding a 6 hour pastors conference in Monrovia this Saturday. 300 pastors and leaders, who are involved in the Romans Project, are expected for that conference. They then travel by Landcruizer to E Sierra Leone next week for another similar conference with maybe 200 pastors on the 19th, though I haven't heard the number for sure. Rick will hold a third conference related to the project in Nigeria following that. Rick and Gary Dozier, SW Bible Church Associate Senior Pastor, will be making another trip to Nigeria related to this project in November as well, as we are expecting rapid expansion of the project there.

Distribution of Players
Over 1000 players have been previously distributed, and Rick and Mark are carrying with them 600 more for Liberia, 300 for Sierra Leone and 189 for Nigeria. They will be presenting many of these players during the conferences to pastors and leaders who have qualified themselves by reading the book of Romans 20 times and copying it out. (Each player contains over 800 expository messages by Pastor Scott Gilchrist, with 109 on the book of Romans) Pray that God will bless these conferences and that this project will have deep and long lasting impact on these pastors and their churches. I feel it is not uncommon for some pastors, Christian workers, missionaries included, to become basically lazy, not doing the work of the Lord with passion and diligence. Pray that these leaders will be intentional and committed in their study and leading their congregations.

I talked with Timothy today, a brother whom I have been discipling in Liberia for several years. He told me as he traveled to the Kolahun district this past week, where Jeanette and I served, that this project has made a deep impact on many pastors, and as a result, he relayed, that churches are being much strengthened and growing. He is presently reading and copying the book of John as he studies it with Pastor Scott.

Family and Health
We, as a family, 29 of the 30 of us, had a good camping weekend near the coast last weekend. I had to stick mostly to my recliner chair because of the challenge of the chemo I am on. I just completed the first 21 days of taking a daily chemo pill, and have a week off before I begin the next course. It has certainly stolen my energy. Along with it I have a weekly heavy dose of Dexamethazone steroid that clobbers me as well. The doctor hasn't projected how many courses of the chemo I will need. It no doubt will depend on how I respond to the treatment. Prior to going on the chemo, my Myeloma counts began to rapidly spike, and went up from 2.5 to 3.3 in just 4 weeks. In 2001 when I was first diagnosed it was at 4.2. But it has been almost 5 years now since I went through the last chemo series and stem cell transplant, which is about the max they ever anticipate. But I am not in nearly the good physical condition I was in on previous rounds of treatment. Thanks so much for so many of you who you continue to pray for Jeanette and me.

I am so thankful for the many promises of God. I have been meditating again through Romans 8 the last couple days. I need to come back and back again to God's great assurance He gives in His Word. A favorite is: "If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" In all these things meeting Jesus face to face becomes more and more attractive, though I trust God has counted and ordained yet many more days here for me. There have been a few days when I didn't feel like reading or even praying much. I'm so glad that when we feel to weak to hold on we have One Who has promise that He holds us by the hand. He never lets go. "He is our refuge and strength, very present help in trouble." By the way, the case of shingles that I came down with in May was another of those scourges, but I got over that a couple weeks ago. I'm glad that no matter what we face God is faithful and He, who ordained all these things, is good, and He makes all these things work for the good of those whom He has called and who love Him. God is good and worthy of all our praise no matter our circumstances. I admit that sometimes I forget to worship and praise Him, but there is such a great encouragement and release as I remember. Again in Romans 8 I'm glad we read that He helps our weaknesses. Don't you just love our God?

Jesus is coming soon!

John and Jeanette

Romans Project Blog http://mp3project-mp3.blogspot.com/

Official Web page http://downtownbible.org/files/romansproject.pdf

John Corey
16911 S Manor Dr.
Oregon City, OR 97045
503 631 7889 jwcorey@juno.com
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift."

Update from Ben and Elena Kerns, June/July 2011, Spain

2011-08-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

www.benelenakerns.com

Username: kernsinspain

Password: pray4us

Tuttle Update June 2011

2011-07-27T21:55:00.001-07:00

The work continues!

0 comments Posted by the tuttle tribe at 6/20/2011 Dear friends and family,

We continue to enjoy our time here in the States seeing friends and family and sharing about what the Lord is doing in Peru. I have been in contact with the brothers in Tarapoto and we were excited to hear that the church is doing well. There are several new believers that have joined the body since we left (Praise the Lord!). They also tell me that we no longer have a dirt floor. The brothers spent about $1000 of their money to pour concrete and put in a much needed "piso".

The brothers on the river will be having their biannual conference this Thursday through Monday. This is one of those conferences where brothers and sisters come from the 30 different villages and have meetings from 4:30 a.m till 11:59 p.m every day. Please pray for this conference, specifically that the believers would be encouraged and that many others would come to Christ through the preaching of the gospel.

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Walt's Update July 2011

2011-07-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sonodas in Turkey June 2011

2011-07-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

John and Jeanette Corey Update - June Update 2011

2011-06-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Romans Project

Imagine pastors throughout Africa reading the book of Romans 20 times, copying it into a notebook, and then listening to a clear, accurate exposition of Romans in 109 messages. Then think of them doing that with many other books of the Bible. And imagine them learning to expound the Word clearly to their congregations.

-- I can visualize pastors, 10,000 or 30,000 and more, in English speaking churches in Africa and beyond, doing exactly that. This is already beginning to happen in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

John Corey

See link
http://mp3project-mp3.blogspot.com/

Please continue to pray for John's health. He has been hit with a heavy case of Shingles.

Update from Ben and Elena Kerns, May 2011, Spain

2011-06-20T18:07:00.001-07:00

Hi,

We trust this email finds you well.

Attached in the Kerns in Spain May 2011 Newsletter

Video Update

Click here to see the May 2011 Video Update

Thanks for reading, watching, & praying

In Christ,
Ben

Sonodas in Turkey May 2011

2011-06-08T21:37:00.001-07:00

Tuttle Update visit to Sunrise

2011-05-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to Amy's blog which highlights their time here with us in Spokane as well as their travels across the United States for the past 2 months.

Sunrise Retreat

Tuttle Updates in Travels

John and Jeanette Corey Update - May Update 2011

2011-05-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings
Let me bring you up to date on a few things.

As the trees are leafing out and a very picturesque gnarly old oak tree out our back window begins to shoot out its new growth, we have been meditating on a verse Jeanette has on her kitchen counter, "God's people will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor." (Isa 61:3) O may His splendor be seen in us!

Romans Project (MP3)
It is great to see how the Lord is blessing this Romans Project and expanding it. To date we have sent over 1000 players to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Though we slowed the project down for some months while we were searching for the right player, it is now starting to mushroom. We have ordered another 1000 players and will get them ready to ship as the demand arises and as we find someone traveling to the various countries.

We now have an overseas coordinator for the project who will be traveling to the above three countries in August to help work out details of the project, to facilitate the expansion of it, and to hold, where possible, one day training conferences for pastors and leaders who are involved in the project.

There is quite a bit of interest developing in some other countries for this, and we will keep you posted as things come together.

Momo, our coordinator in Liberia recently wrote. "(This project) has helped them (pastors) to get deeper in studying God’s Word. It has also given them book focus instead of just going from place to place in the Bible. They also told me that this project has made their preaching and teaching more efficient and effective. According to them their congregations are spending more time in God’s Word than before. They told me that from the answers and questions given in Sunday school and Bible studies, you can know that the people are keeping time in the Word. We are excited from the various testimonies we have collected. This project has also impacted me a lot, now I spend more time studying at night." Do you want to know more? Check out the official web sight www.romansproject.com and you can go on to my blog from that sight.

My health:
From my Myeloma labs taken last week, my counts have risen from 1.0 to 1.8 over the last 2 months. They had remained at 0.1-0.3 for 4 years, which was good. In consultation with my oncologist today, the 11th, it is time for me to go on a chemo treatment again beginning in 3 weeks. I will be going back on the steroid, Dexamethazone - 20 mg weekly, and taking the chemo, Revelimid, weekly. The doctor told me that normally it doesn't have severe side affects, though I will need to increase my aspirin intake to counter blood clotting.

Though these challenges are not always pleasant, God always draws me closer to Himself when I face them. It's all part of my growing process to become more like Jesus. I know I need to, and He definitely knows it. But what encouragement to know He is our shield and protector and He holds us by the hand. The doctor is quite optimistic about this treatment, and he says there is a new and likely more effective chemo becoming available in the next few months and others in the next 2-3 years. So though I may be going through another valley, there are two good points. For every valley there must be a couple mountain tops, and in going through means I won't stay in the valley but will reach the top on the other side of it. God is good and whatever is ahead His grace will always be sufficient. Amen!

This makes it conclusive that others will make the trip to Russia this fall without me. God’s ways are perfect, and I am content with this. Who would want to go if not sent by the Lord?
Great opportunity:
Over the past nearly year and a half I have been meeting, usually on a weekly basis, with 2 and then 3 of our grandkids slowly going through the book of Romans. We missed during my trips and much of last summer, but have continued to meet. In time it has now grown to include 8 of our 18 grandkids ranging from 13 to 20 years of age. For some time they have been wanting to have a Romans retreat with G'pa, so this weekend the 9 of us will be going to a large house at the base of Mt Adams from Friday evening to Sunday evening. We plan to have 4 sessions during that time lasting an hour or two each. Of course they are planning many fun things to do and are collecting lots of food. It has been fun to experience the enthusiasm that most of them are showing for this class and now especially for this retreat.

I'm expecting that almost all of them will take the challenge to read Romans 20 times and to copy the book which I challenged them with last week. They are also learning quite a few verses in Romans 8. One of them has already taken the challenge to read it 50 times. He is thrilled with doing that. I keep our Bible class times very free and I've heard it said that by the time we get through Romans we will have studied the whole Bible. Our last class was looking at how the creation is longing for the redemption of our bodies in chapter 8. We have lots of discussion and usually it's hard to cut it off at the hour limit which I have tried to set. Part of it's my fault, I know.

Some are very active in reaching out in the public schools where they attend. One is going on a mission trip to Sylvania and another to Ecuador this summer and another is seriously considering a year's mission trip to Kenya next January. Their parents express how much they appreciate what this class is doing for their kids, and it is very encouraging seeing them stretching forward. I'm so glad God has kept me around to be able to make this kind of impact on this third generation. It's hard to imagine something more rewarding for grandparents to do than to seriously be training their grandchildren. I greatly recommend it to every grandparent, if they can do so. Pray that God will use this weekend to further His work of grace in their lives.

Mother’s Day
We have such a close knit family. It was very enjoyable and lots of laughing as all of them surprised Jeanette, (Mom and G'ma) on Mother's Day with a large jar full of small pieces of paper with her unique sayings and expressions and things they appreciated about her written on them. It took her 37 minutes and 10 seconds, I think it was, as timed by one of the G’kids, to read them aloud and enjoy all the spontaneous comments. Only Deb and her family in Spokane weren't here.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

John

John & Jeanette Corey
16911 S Manor Dr. Oregon City, OR 97045 503 631 7889 jwcorey@juno.com 

John Corey MP3 project update

2011-05-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to connect with the next step in the MP3 project in Africa.
http://swbible.org/listenin.shtml Click on mp3 heading for 5/15 Praise

the Lord for how this is beginning to impact so many in Africa.
John Corey

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update - April 2011

2011-05-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Ben and Elena Kerns Update 2011

2011-04-14T07:23:00.001-07:00

Hola,

Hope this email finds you well.

Attached are 2 newsletters. Some of you didn't seem to get Jan/Feb so I attached both.

Plus, there is a link to a unlisted youtube video that is something new we hope to do alongside our newsletters. A video update every month. So you can see and hear a little more of what goes on here in Zaragoza. Click Here to see it.

Thanks for watch, reading, and praying.

Plus! www.benelenakerns.com is totally back online! See endless family photos and videos here.

Love any feedback you have to offer,

In Christ,

Ben with Elena, Enoch, Elijah, and Kayeln

Sonoda Update March 2011

2011-04-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

Update from John and Ruth Sonoda

2011-03-28T09:34:00.001-07:00

Thank you for your prayers for Kadir, the young man who was diagnosed with lung cancer a few weeks ago. The Lord be praised! According to the doctors in Ankara, there is no cancer.

There were two biopsies taken prior to Kadir going to Ankara for surgery. One was taken here in Antioch and the other at a facility in Adana. The results of both of those biopsies stated there was cancer in his lungs. For this reason he went to Ankara (the capitol of Turkey) for cancer treatment. However, the result of the biopsy taken in Ankara stated that there was no cancer, only a fungus in his lungs.

He will be undergoing surgery to remove the fungus from his lungs tomorrow, so please pray for that procedure. And praise the Lord for his mercy in taking away the cancer.

Kadir is very much encouraged by this experience and has said it has made him want to live more for the Lord.

Jon and Ruth

Tuttles return to the US

2011-03-21T12:34:00.001-07:00

CAN you believe it?!

Of course you can. So can I.

Early tomorrow morning, we will go and pick up our passports. The lady at the embassy called us this afternoon and she had them in her hand. Hah! woohoo! The fact that we are picking up our passports on the very day we travel is not at all lost on me.

God just wants us to know; to trust Him.

Good, GOOD God that He is.

Do you know that I think He had all this fun with our passports simply so that He could hear me give Him glory?! He loves that I think. Will you join me in praising our GOOD God?!

We ought never ever doubt that God knows what He´s doing... we just wait. and marvel. Because we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. I believe it. It´s so very, very true.

Thank you God.

I do love you.

Amy for the Tuttles.

P.S. They did arrive safely home per Amy's mom in Portland. Praise the Lord!

Sonodas in Turkey February 2011

2011-03-04T15:12:00.001-08:00

John and Jeanette Corey Update - MP3 Update - February

2011-02-24T14:07:00.001-08:00

Greetings Friends,

UPDATE ON MP3 ROMAN'S PROJECT

At present we have about 700 pastors and church leaders involved in this project in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. 200 have received players, 300 are waiting for this next shipment, and about 200 are in process to qualify to receive one. - They must read the book of Romans 20 times and copy it into a notebook to be presented one.

Because of technical difficulties with our second order from China we were delayed at least 6 months in sending out players. We now have settled on the newly developed Coby MP301 4gb player, and have ordered 500 of them. They should arrive about the middle of March. This model does everything that we want. It is very light weight -1 oz including the ear buds, runs many hours on one aaa battery, and internally, it looks well built. It doesn't have a microphone or FM radio to distract people from the study of the Word. Included on the player are over 800 of SW Bible Church Pastor, Scott Gilchrist's messages, over 500 hours of listening to the Word clearly being expounded.

I just received the testimonies of a number of pastors in Nigeria on how this project has impacted them. Enjoy!

----Garba – the book of Romans helped me to understand God’s kindness and mercy for humanity. I also understand that I am saved not because of anything I have done but saved to do good works. Reading the book of Romans has increased a habit of reading the word of God. In fact, I am reading the book of 1Corinthans and I will read it twenty times. The book of Romans has become my favorite and I think I can talk about it easily.
----Azuka – that salvation is only an act of God’s grace. That is, I am saved, is not by works. That no amount of sin can prevent God’s mercy should sinner turn to repentance.
----Jibrin –my personal spiritual questions haunting me were answered while reading through the book of Romans. My reading insight was gained. My spiritual insight grew.
----Biwul – the blessing of reading the Bible is knowing the word of God. I also found out some hidden truths in the scriptures and gained more understanding of the word. I also learnt to discipline myself on some issues.
----Sarma – through reading the book of Romans twenty times, I have learnt that I am justified by faith through grace and not by works. I do not work to earn my salvation but Christ had done it all for me. As I read through the book of Romans, each time, I learned something new and took notes of things I didn’t know before. The study of the book has made me want to read more books of the Bible and also encourage others to do so too. The book of Romans has taught, rebuked and trained me in most aspects of life.
----Gimba – I realized for myself that reading God’s word is not boring regardless of the number of times and that God’s word is living. Each time I read the book of Romans was an experience of its own not exactly like a repetition. From the same familiar words, something new speaks out to me more profoundly with each reading. Although, I have not memorized the book of Romans, the passages of the book come to mind easily. That has helped me answer some questions that may otherwise have been difficult.
----Onuoha – I learnt discipline and commitment in reading the Bible. A lot of times it seem tiring to me doing it, but I kept moving by the grace of God. I am more familiar with the book of Romans now than ever before. I want to thank the initiator of the Romans project for this opportunity of helping me be conversant with this book because I know I would not have had the thought of concentration only in reading the book of Romans for twenty times. I think I would want to try it with other books of the Bible.
----Maigadi – I know what the book of Romans is about and can adequately teach it. The readings taught me discipline in keeping to a schedule. I was enriched spiritually. My reading speed has increased. I can easily relate other books to parts of Romans. Slowly copying the book made indelible marks in my mind, so much so, that I have largely finished memorizing the entire book.
----Ojekunle – I was able to cultivate a reading culture that is focused and steady. I can now differentiate between reading and studying. I have developed a mind set to do the same for every book of the New Testament over the next one year.

Look at the impact a $20-$25 investment can have in a pastor's life and ministry. Thank you to those of you who have contributed to this project making it possible for us to order the 500 units. The funds came in just before we needed to order them. Continue to pray that God will greatly bless His Word and for funds for expansion. I believe that the 700 pastors and leaders in the project are just the beginning of where this is heading. Much more interest will be created when these 500 new units are distributed.

To keep current on this project and for more testimonies check my blog.

http://mp3project-mp3.blogspot.com/

On a personal note: I was unable to travel to Liberia this year because of health issues. Since having pneumonia again last November my strength is slow in returning and the steroid I have taken weekly for over 4 years now leaves me quite exhausted for at least 4 days a week. We are beginning to plan for ministry in E. Russia in September. Though I am working on putting a team together it is not clear whether I will be able to go. God is able, and I know He will guide as to what I should or should not do. Thanks for your prayers.

Jeanette and all the family are doing well.

John

(PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS) (Some mailings are still being sent to our old address.)

John & Jeanette Corey
16911 S Manor Dr.
Oregon City, OR 97045

To assist in the MP3 project, send to:

SW Bible Church

14605 SW Weir Rd

Beaverton , Or 97007

(Designate “MP3 Romans Project")

503 631 7889
jwcorey@juno.com

Prayer Request From the Walts - Feb 2011

2011-02-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

Dearest family and friends,

Please pray for us in the sudden loss of our dear friend Warren Carter, a fellow missionary who lived just a few blocks from us and attended our church. He was hurt badly in a skiing accident a week ago and went to be with the Lord on Monday without regaining consciousness. This is a very difficult time for us and even more so for Leanne and their 3 sons, Christopher (31), Jonathan (13) and David (8). We are quite weary after having cared for Leanne and the boys all week while we waited for Warren's body to complete it's time here on the earth. Scott held a family memorial service yesterday evening and there will be a public memorial service on this coming Wednesday the 23rd. At the same time, Scott has a wedding and a retreat to speak at this week, so there is no let down the next four days. Pray for God's supernatural strength and comfort for us all!

In Him together,

Leslie

PS See attached photo of Warren and Leanne taken New Years Eve at our church.

PS 2 Warrens Testimony is on a video on my Facebook. It is very powerful. Only 4 minutes long and worth watching.

Tuttle Update Feb 2011

2011-02-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks one week since Micah left to teach in a Bible capacitation program in the jungle (Yurimaguas). We talked briefly on the phone tonight as he's got quite a pile of papers and tests to grade, but he's happy to be finished with the teaching part. He's had a grueling week teaching 6-8 hours each day, and then sleeping in a tent in the same room as the students, who stayed up 'til the wee hours every night studying for his classes :)

A Trip to the Jungle
Micah has been looking forward to traveling to Tarapoto tomorrow (where we've been for the last 2yrs). He'll spend two days with the church there before heading out of town for a week long river trip. I honestly can't remember which of the villages he'll be visiting, but then again, I'd venture that most of you wouldn't recognize them even if I did mention names, so I suppose it'll all be alright either way. :) Thankfully, the Lord is far more informed than we are, going before, working presently as well as following up afterward. Please pray that He would work mightily in hearts and that He would find Micah a useful instrument.

Please also specifically keep Micah and all the brothers who are still gathered there in Yurimaguas for another week of classes in your prayers as there has been an outbreak of dengue fever in the area. River trips always carry their own special risks as well, so please do pray for health and safety for the trip. Micah is excited because a friend/fellow missionary/adventurer will be joining him. You can also pray that the Lord would grant sweet fellowship and genuine encouragement for them both.

The kids and I are enjoying the time we've been in Trujillo, where we've had ample opportunity to catch up with friends and missionary family. What a neat blessing it's been to have some time here before we travel back to the States in mid-March.

Speaking of travel to the US... we do have a few dates set, but we'll be working feverishly on our itinerary plans just as soon as Micah gets back. We'll do our best to let you know where we'll be and when just as soon as we can. :)

Please accept my humble apologies for the lack of communication, as I had to leave the apartment for an internet connection until earlier this week, which for a multitude of reasons isn't as easy as it may seem at first glance:) Thank you all for continuing to pray regardless!

In Him,

Amy, on behalf of the rest of the Tuttle tribe

Sonodas in Turkey January 2011

2011-02-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Walt's Update January 2011

2011-01-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from cold, gray, “everyone is sick here” Austria! Along with most of our family I, Leslie, am recovering from cold and flu symptoms but since I am actually feeling human again today, thought I would get a letter off bringing you all up to date on us Vienna Walts.

Since we wrote last October, Scott had an amazing two weeks out at TCMi teaching and training pastors and church leaders from former Eastern Europe on how to deal with the many demands and challenges that face them today without destroying their faith or families. The day after the rigorous two weeks at TCMi ended, Scott flew out to the States where he jumped into ministry in the Spokane, WA area, both at Moody Bible Institute-Spokane and also at a local church pastored by good friends of ours.

The time at the MBI-Spokane missions conference was, according to many from the school, another time of God allowing Scott to be used as His tool to edify and equip young and old for the work of His kingdom. We praise God for the opportunity to take part in MBI’s ministry which we so respect and value. We also praise God that this conference enabled Scott to make an unexpected trip to Portland where he enjoyed spending precious time with his parents and Elisa. He and Elisa had an amazing Father/Daughter week together and Scott was very happy to get to celebrate Dad Walt’s 85th birthday with him.   This trip helped fulfill our priority to spend more frequent time in Oregon in the next few years as 3 of our 4 parents will be in their 80’s this year and as we also desire to be an ongoing encouragement and support to Elisa.

Click below to read more

Speaking of Elisa, please do pray for her as unfortunately she was laid off at Target and is looking for a job again. She has made the decision, with our blessing, to work full time for a year or so and then to attend Multnomah University with a focus on youth ministry. Although we are disappointed by the work situation, we are encouraged by the growth we see in her life in all areas. We appreciate all you who pray for her and ask about her regularly.

The Christmas holidays were a highlight which will be forever precious to our family. In spite of terrible storms which shut down most of Europe for weeks, all of our children and grandchildren arrived here safely and on time and were able to spend 8 fun packed days with us. We again experienced what a tremendous gift it is from God to have believing children who love to share deeply from their hearts what God has done in their lives and what they hope He will do in the future. I will put photos on our Blog and my Facebook page soon so take a look if you want to see our beautiful family!

3 days after our children flew out, we flew to Bulgaria for a week of amazing ministry there in Varna on the Black Sea. Several small churches met together for a conference weekend. Scott taught 7 sessions on the topic of being filled with the Spirit moment by moment and dealing with the issue of bitterness which he believes to be the main reason the Holy Spirit is not able to work in the lives of many believers. (Either you are filled with the Spirit or you are filled with bitterness. You cannot be filled with both.) Aside from the public teaching times, we were involved in hours and hours of counseling and teaching with individuals or small groups. We also had the joy of being able to participate in the baptism of two new believers. We arrived back in Austria exhausted but greatly enriched!

In the coming weeks Scott will be the speaker for our yearly week long Teen Winter Camp from the 5-12 of Feb, he will speak at a young adults retreat for another church on the 18-20 of Feb and we will race home for part of the day on the 19th for him to preside over the wedding of one of our precious young couples in the church.   (Our church growth strategy continues to work well. We have two weddings coming up and 8 babies due!)   

We have many other opportunities coming our way, most of which focus on our priority of training and growing leadership both in our church and in other churches around us but we will tell you more about them in March hopefully. We will be flying back to the States on March 1st for a 5 week furlough. (Our plans for future furloughs is to keep our visits shorter but to try and come more often.) Currently Scott is scheduled to speak at Camano Chapel on March 6th, Hauser Community Church on March 12th and 13th, Spring Mountain Bible Church on March 20th and again on April 3rd and we will be attending (possible speaking) at Eastgate Bible Chapel on March 27th. Hope to see each one of you at one or another of these locations.

In closing, we have a great ministry opportunity for a few of you out there. In a nutshell, we were scheduled to have a team come from one of our supporting churches the first week of July to help us on our big Youth Center building project.   A big chunk of our old factory building is going to be renovated into a center where we are able to invite in and reach out to the young people of our district and beyond. Sadly, the financial crisis at this time has made it impossible for this team to come as planned, leaving us with a need for a creative alternative. If there are any skilled craftsmen out there who would be willing to sacrifice a week or two of vacation and to pay for a round trip plane ticket to Vienna, we would be very happy to supply room and board (at Leslie’s B and B) and a great team of motivated Austrians to work with. You would not have to lead the project, just use your skills to help us replace and insulate ceilings and floors and walls and whatever else we are able to accomplish as time and finances allow. If you are interested, please email us at srandlawalt@gmail.com. The time frame we are looking at is starting on July 4th for 7-14 days. We would be very excited if even 1 or 2 carpenter types would come. Perhaps a Home Bible Study could send one of their skilled members as a group project! Please be praying about this!

Well, as usual, this letter is getting too long, so I will sign off now!

In HIM together,

Scott and Leslie

Tuttle Update Dec. 2010 convention, baptism and boxes

2011-01-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

Tuttle website link here

Family Fun with Friends

Last week I (Micah) spent five days in the village of Huimbayoc [wim-bye-YOKE] where we had the bi-anual convention. About 300 believers came from the surrounding villages to worship the Lord and study His word together. This is always an exciting, yet exausting time for me as I try to maximize my time with the brothers. I taught from the scriptures for 5 hours each day, had many personal meetings with leaders of the different assemblies, marked out time for one-on-one evangelism, preached open air a few times and corrected about 75 Emmaus Bible courses that the brothers handed in.

The assembly here in Tarapoto is doing well and many were encouraged as we just recently baptized eight new believers. We have had many ups and downs in this new work over the last two years but recently we've been encouraged that some of the believers are showing signs of maturing, including taking more responsibility. The building project is progressing little by little and in the last few weeks we have advanced a lot with the wiring, finish work and painting. We thank the Lord for this provision.

Our entire family is doing wonderfully well and we've all enjoyed the special events surrounding Christmas. We want to send a special thank you to all of you that sent us Christmas presents or money this year!

Lord willing, the following are our plans for the next few months. Many of you know, that the owners of the house we've rented for the past two years, have need of their house. So, we are once again in the midst of packing up and preparing our things for storage. We plan to go to Trujillo where I will be teaching some classes in IBEM, and then in Februrary the family will stay in Trujillo while I travel back to this area to help at “Capacitacion Biblica” in Yurimaguas. Somewhere around mid-March we plan to travel to the States and hope to be able to visit many of YOU over the summer!! We will be posting a schedule of where we'll be and when in the coming months. Or, you can get in touch with us by sending us an e-mail - thetuttletribe (at) gmail (dot) com

Enjoy some picture of the recent baptism...

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update

2011-01-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

Kerns in Spain Newsletter October/November

2010-12-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update - November 2010

2010-12-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

Dan Ubaldo’s October 2010 ISI Spokane Newsletter

2010-11-27T17:49:00.000-08:00

Update from John Corey, November 2010

2010-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

John Corey returned from Russia mid October and writes the following. He also gives an update regarding the MP3 project in Africa.

Greetings Friends.

PASTOR ZHENYA – (Russia) For years I have known this dear brother and have been building into his life and church. But he had come from a very authoritarian and legalistic background. Through his 10 year leadership, the church he pastored was failing and nearing to close. During the 4 days Jim Morud and I were in his church teaching the book of James, I was able to spend several hours each day with Pastor Zhenya. God opened his heart to much more fully understand God’s compassion and grace and that to serve Him and His church he, too, must be a man of compassion and humility.   He was a very humbled and encouraged brother when he attended the pastors’ conference with Pastor Gary Dozier a couple weeks later. He saw that God’s primary concern is that we develop godly character and are producing the fruit of the Spirit. Zhenya sought the forgiveness of his church and is now seeking to reach out to many people he has offended and had previously pushed aside. Praise God that He is building His Church. Pray for Zhenya (about 50) as he seeks to rebuild his life and the life of his church. It’s a long process - growing a man of God. We are all still in process. I know I am! --- God is growing a number of these Russian pastors.   Praise Him!

ELLA– You may remember that last year I had the opportunity to lead a Russian woman, Ella, to the Lord on the plane flying from Seoul to Vladivostok. God had arranged that seated on the same plane there was an English speaking Russian brother whom I knew, who could translate for me as I led her to Jesus.    What a pleasure that when I met Sasha in the church in Vladivostok about 7 weeks ago, he gave Ella a call and she was very excited to hear that I had returned and came that Sunday to the church for the first time. She has been attending the Russian Orthodox Church but through her personal Bible reading she had come to the conclusion that it was unnecessary to confess her sins to a priest and that she could go directly to God for forgiveness. She also learned that it was wrong to bow before an icon as that amounted to idolatry. When she visited the church we work with she was so encouraged with the friendliness and fellowship and unlike the Orthodox Church, “it is like family” she said. We had a good time together and I trust that she will continue to attend our church there and grow in the Lord.

MP3 - We are currently awaiting another shipment of 250 mp3 players for the Roman’s project in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. Here is an unexpected result of this project in Nigeria.
Let me quote from an email I received 10/26 from Boakai.
“Many pastors are adopting the ideas to at least (read) 20 times before preaching from the text and I think this very good for the coming of this program in Nigeria. Elder, this program has just begun. In fact other states, a medical doctor there now (is) recruiting people who are from Muslim backgrounds but are wanting to become Christian, have (them) writing and rewriting the book of Romans in copybooks to give to these boys and they are reading it. So instead of the Bible, because their parent may most likely see it with them, they are now using the copy book. What they do is they put it among their books taking it as a note and read over and over again. Now you see what this projects has done. God has a way of using people in order for his words to go out. I know you never meant it that way but God is using that ideals for others to received Christ.   No matter how long it may take some of these people, (they) may one day be able to tell others of Christ. Right now their parents don't even know what is happening so lets continue to pray that this idea be very fruitful and God alone will be glorified.”

Daniel, our mp3 project coordinator in Sierra Leone, reported that there are about 90 pastors who have qualified and are waiting for the shipment of players and another 40 are in process to qualify to receive it.    The demand for players is more than the present order we are awaiting from China, and we should make another order for 300 units. We need at least $5000 to order these.   I am planning a 5 week trip to Liberia on Jan 9th.   I need to take a good supply of these players when I go.
(Contributions for the mp3s? – Send to: DBC 14605 SW Weir Rd. Beaverton, OR 97007   Designate “mp3 project.”)
(Assistance for my travel? –Send to: SW Bible Ch. {same address} Designate “Corey travel.”)
                                               Thanks for ministering with us!

Some Pastors’ quotes about the mp3 project – 11/15/10
“I see members who were very reluctant now really studying the Word of God. People in my church are now having devotional times. I see people who were living in sin who have been very touched and giving themselves to the Word of God. Two years ago I wondered when my church would get off the ground, but now I am seeing real growth in people’s lives” Moses Paye

“The messages (of Scott) are very good. They mean a lot to me. They really help me to understand the Scripture, and they make it much easier for me to prepare my sermons. I have taught most of Romans.” Pastor Christopher Smith

“I love the messages and am playing them over and over. Am listening through Romans the second time. Today I was listening to Romans 12:1-2. The main benefit is teaching me how to relate to my church members and to unbelievers. I have learned about the whole plan of salvation.” Rev Samuel Tye

“The messages are very in place. I was just listening as you called. When I started copying Romans it was very tedious, but by chapter 3 and 4 I started going in depth, and found Romans to be very rich and very fine for pastoring my church.   I am encouraging pastors from other denominations to begin the program.”
Rev. Zinnah Charlie

OUR FAMILY is all doing well. With Melodie and Curt’s oldest having graduated last year and doing part time work, all the other 17 grandchildren are now attending school. Three of our grandsons will graduate from high school this year, so they are all being challenged as to the next step in their lives. It is great to see them going on with the Lord. Melodie continues to work with special needs kids in the local elementary school, and Curt’s job in the cabinet shop is keeping him very busy. Darren continues as a Portland detective and Reenie is busy with their family and keeping her home together.   Shari and Bill are wondering if a move is in order for them from the church in Yakima they founded about 4 years ago. Erich (and Deb) in Spokane has moved into the pastorate of the church his Dad was pastoring but couldn’t continue when he took on a full teaching load at Moody Bible Institute in Spokane.    Tim and Joyce are well and keeping busy with his work in the water dept and she being a busy soccer mom. While I was in Russia for 6 weeks Jeanette had a great couple weeks with her sister in Canada, and some special times with the family – especially a week-end away with our daughters.

Do have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas season as we celebrate the great grace of our Lord Jesus.
John and Jeanette Corey

jwcorey@juno.com
Note our change of address as of the end of the month.
16911 S Manor Dr.
Oregon City, OR 97045

Sonodas in Turkey October 2010

2010-11-06T17:37:00.000-07:00

Walt's Update October 2010

2010-10-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, 11 October 2010

Greetings from Austria! We want to bring you all up to date on what is happening with us Vienna Walts. There are many things to be thankful for.

The first three days of October we had our church leadership retreat. The focus of the time was leadership development for the future. We are very encouraged by the continued opportunity to train quality young men and women in various areas of ministry. At the beginning of the summer Scott participated in the installment of elder/pastors at the new church in Schwechat, out by the airport.

Of the three men installed, two were originally from our church here in Baden and were men who Scott had invested much time in. The third man was brought to Christ and discipled by one of the first two. This is one outworking of the vision of our church to train leadership to not only be godly, active and effective in our own church but in ministries all around Austria and Europe.

Another outworking of Scott’s call to develop leadership has been a tremendous number of requests for him to teach, counsel and advise pastors and church leaders of other churches. A few weeks back he was the speaker for the Tulpengasse Church in Vienna and spoke on “The Nature of the Church.” In two weeks time he will be teaching a two week intensive course at TCMi seminary (Training Christians for Ministry Int,) with church leaders from Estonia and the Ukraine. Pray for Scott to be able to discern where and with whom to invest his God given time and resources.

In four weeks Scott will be in the USA speaking at Moody Bible Institute—Spokane for their missions conference and then he will be visiting his parents and Elisa for a week in Portland and speaking at Spring Mountain Bible Church on Sunday the 14th of November. Praise God that Scott’s parents are doing so much better physically. They just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary together! During our visit to them in June, we helped them get moved into an assisted living village and they are learning to love their new place—just a few blocks from their house—even though they miss their home of 40 some years very much.

This coming weekend is our yearly church women’s retreat which I, Leslie, had dropped back into my lap this year. We have a record 44 women attending. Our topic will be “Your Kingdom Come—When the Kingdom of Heaven breaks into our daily life!” Pray that many women would grow in their love for the Lord and allow Him to impact their every day activities. Pray for me as I train godly, committed women who will eventually take over the leadership of the women’s ministries even though I love leading it and will always stay involved at some level.

In the four weeks that Scott is at TCMi or in the USA, I, Leslie, will be spending added time with women and catching up on all those home projects that get put on the back burner. I am also looking forward to extended times in quiet with the Lord. Pray that I would use my time effectively.

On the family side of things, we are all looking forward to the WHOLE family being together for Christmas. David, Caty and Ellie, John and Katie, and Elisa will all be flying to Austria to be with Mike, Sissi, Mikela and ourselves. Pray for protection of this very precious time together. It has been years since we have been able to experience family fellowship with everyone present.

Ellie Cate

Scott and I have been greatly enjoying weekly babysitting duties with our beautiful little Mikela Sue and we are so excited to get to spend some quality time with our beautiful little Ellie Cate at Christmas. The girls are 9 and ½ months already. The time is flying by! They will celebrate their 1st birthdays with all of us on the 24th and 27th of December and Elisa will celebrate her 21st birthday with us all on the 29th. Fun!

Mikela Sue

Last, but not least, we want to very much thank everyone who has been involved in making Elisa feel welcome to Portland and who have given her help in various ways. We thank the Lord for a job at Target, for being able to attend Clackamas Community College, for a place to live with Mary Beirwagen and for the generosity of Kevin and Greta McKinney who have made that possible. Please keep her in your prayers for this first year away from home, especially as the homesickness is making itself known.

In HIM together,
Leslie for us Vienna Walts

Tuttle River Trip - October 2010

2010-10-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

And he's off!

2 comments Posted by the tuttle tribe at 10/12/2010

At 3:30 am this morning, Micah met up with the guys who were to accompany him on this current river trip starting today (10/12) until Saturday (10/16). They had to wait while the car filled up with other passengers who will also go to the town near the river (Chazuta), where they will take a motorboat (way faster!) to the first village. The plan is to visit another 4 villages before returning Saturday night.

Please join us in prayer for this trip!

We are praying:

that many brothers and sisters from the villages would be challenged to be reconciled to God or continue on in faith (as the case may be).
that those who purchase and commit to study the Emmaus courses would grow by leaps and bounds in their knowledge of Christ - and that this would be contagious!
that the time Micah spends with the young guys from our assembly would be extremely profitable (this is one of the main focuses of these trips - mentoring these young guys).

Thank you for your prayers!

The Tuttles

Here's a little touch of home with Daddy....

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update - September 2010

2010-10-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

the River Trip diaries {part three}

2010-10-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 23

Since the moment we arrived here in Ricardo Palma we've been harrassed by a very annoying drunk that follows us around everywhere. He went door to door with us, ate with us, and continually interrupted our times of singing and bible reading. I tried to be patient with him but it was very clear that he wasn't going to sober up and had no intention to sincerely turn to the Lord. At the open air meeting he kept trying to come forward and “repent” (in a mock sense) but I told him to sit back down. One time I even had to take him by the arm back to his seat. It was a tremendous distraction to all, and in the end, this village was the least responsive to the gospel. It reminded me of Acts 16:17-18 (except I didn't cast out any demons).

At the open air meeting I preached Ezekiel 7:8-9 and then we put on the Fireproof DVD (I always take a few evangelistic movies to use whenever a generator and a T.V can be found). At about midnight we had a piping hot cup of chocolate milled from their own cocoa beans and then we were off to bed.

At 5:00 a.m the believers began to show up at the church building where we had slept on the hard ground. Thankfully they didn't catch us snoring away, we were up and ready to go. Eber started playing his guitar to lead us in worship and when he finished I preached on 1Thes 4 and Rev 20. The believers seemed to be very encouraged and had many questions. We finished up around 9:00 a.m and then had a scrumptious banana breakfast with coconut juice to wash it down.

Before we left, the three main brothers expressed a desire to start the Emaus corespondence courses but they didn't have any money to buy them (less than a dollar for course #1). I always insist that they pay for them because otherwise they just don't value the opportunity. One of the brothers offered to pay with his coa coa beans and just like that we struck a deal. Now they are happily studying their Bible courses and I'm happily drinking hot chocolate every day.

-Micah for the Tuttle's

Tuttles: the River Trip diaries {part two}

2010-10-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Wednesday September 22

This morning I baptized the four people that placed their faith in Christ yesterday. Most of the village gathered around to watch and listen as I preached in the river. It was another good opportunity to preach the gospel. After the baptism we went back to the hut where we were staying and I preached from 1 John on four proofs of genuine Christianity. The believers were very attentive and we had a great question and answer time. Four of the men here bought the Emmaus correspondence courses that I've been pushing everywhere I go. They are showing a real desire to study and prepare themselves to lead this new work!

Three interesting things in this village are:

Good hunting: last night one of the men checked his “trampero” (Shotgun set up on a trip-wire) and found that he had shot a wild boar so we've been eating smoked “Sahino” meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yum!
Interminable salt mines (click here, or see video below): The people harvest tons of salt and sell it down river in the “big cities”
A pristine, crystal clear creek: the water cascades down a natural waterslide rock formation into a beautiful pool (just how I imagine the garden of Eden).

At about 3:00 p.m two of the brothers took us down river in their small paddle canoe. They guided us through a few difficult white water spots while Eber and I bailed the water that kept pouring in over the sides. After about an hour of sopping wet excitement we arrived in the next village (Ricardo Palma) where the believers were surprised, but, elated to see us. The message hadn't gotten through to them that we were coming but all the same they stopped everything to receive us. One brother went out to catch some fish for dinner, another went to mill some dried chocolate beans, the sisters got to work boiling plantains and cooking rice and the rest just gathered around as Eber and I sang hymns and read the Bible out loud. Praise the Lord for this opportunity to serve HIM.

Click Here to watch Micah with the salt harvesters

Kerns Update May - September 2010

2010-09-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

Tuttles: the River Trip diaries; vol.1 issue1

2010-09-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

"Wild boar brains, eyeballs, toucan meat, and yucca spit juice were just a few of the delicacies on the menu as brother Eber and I visited several villages last week."
- Micah Tuttle

Um, yeah. So how's that for an intro? Does it whet your appetite to read more?! Awesome!
Well, we have another series of posts coming up this week from Micah's journal over the last week while he was out on the river going village to village. He was on the Huallaga River, and the dates of his trip were Tuesday 9/21 - Saturday 9/25.
So without further ado...

Tuesday, September 21
We left Tarapoto at 3:30 this morning and about three hours later arrived in Chazuta where we immediately went to the radio station and preached over the air waves. The only communication access that the surrounding villages have is by radio and so it was a great opportunity to get the gospel to a lot of isolated people (it encouraged us when in each village people commented that they had heard the radio message). After breakfast with the believers we got the next boat down river and within an hour we were in the small village of Callanayacu.

This was an extremely exciting visit for me because just six months ago there were no believers in this village and now there are fourteen! In June two men from Callanayacu happened to be in another village where they heard me preaching open air. Both made professions of faith on that day and when they returned home they started sharing the gospel with everyone in their village. In three months eight more people have made professions of faith. Today Eber and I went door to door and then preached open air. Praise the Lord, four more came forward tonight to place their faith in Christ! Pray that this new infant work would produce fruit that will last!

- Micah Tuttle

John and Jeanette Corey Update from Russia #4

2010-09-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Well it's Sun evening 8:30. It has been a full day. I was able to get in about an hour nap which was so necessary. But what a lot of confirmation of God's working. Zhenya, our translator, Galla's daughter told me when I was asking about her father, which I don't ever remembering asking about. Her mom and dad divorced when she was 8, and she says that she still prays for him but has now idea where he is or if he is alive as he was a very heavy drinker. But she told me that I led his mother, her grandmother on that side to the Lord the year we got rained out at the sea near Olga, and we stayed 3 days in a school gym with about 65 people. She passed on years ago, but it was very interesting to hear.

A couple came this afternoon and fixed up a light supper here where westay at the seminary building, of fish head soup, very tasty, with somefruit and goodies, and rose hip jam. Even that was good. She wantedto come and talk about some of their problems, but she said that reallyalmost all of her questions were answered as we went through the book of James these three days. She came from the Orthodox church and was a new believer when I held a conference in this main church in 2004. She said that what I taught then about the family had really helped her, and she said that I had talked about my cancer treatment, and she was praying forme. She said, then I came back the next year and the next and back again this year. The couple is about 60 years old, and he was baptized the year after she was. She shared how much God had blessed her through my ministry here.

Then another couple came whom Jim and I worked with 2 years ago. They are so thankful as their lives were in chaos at the time, and God restored them. He had spent nearly 20 years in and out of prison and hasHIV. They are doing well, but they wanted to thank me for my part in their lives.

Then one of the pastors at the church made contact with the lady, Ella, I led to the Lord on the plane last year when I was coming, and who was totally laid up with an injured back throughout my time here. She hasn'tcome to the church, but she was very glad to hear that I had come back and wants to come to the church on the 10th if I am going to be there. She said she very much wants to meet me and that she has been reading her Bible and praying. Nastya, another of our translators is here talking with Carl. We were sharing some about when she got her life turned around when Carl and I

John and Carl

had her as a translator 3 years ago. God also set her then boy friend on the way to knowing Him through a 2 hour discussion I had with him in Ira's apartment reasoning why the Bible was credible. He and a bunch of his friends used to come together with a somewhat Buddhist persuasion and discuss the things that they would want to believe. It has been such an encouraging day with so many coming by telling what the Lord has been doing in their lives. More than one has told me that our coming year after year has meant so much to them, and they feel it is so needful. All the praise is the Lord's but it so much confirms the need for such a ministry. Jim has such a great ministry of encouraging people to write letters of blessing to those who have injured them. I will probably tell you more about this another time. It is so good for reconciling dysfunctional family relationships.

Well, I'm very tired, and will close this off and go to bed early.
Thanks for praying,
John Corey

Tuttle updates September 2010

2010-09-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Click Here to see a video of a little missionary princess LIVE...

Micah was able to take Bria, his oldest daughter on a river trip with him into the jungle.

On Monday morning Bria embarked on a four day trip with me down the Huallaga river to visit four different villages. It was her first time going on a trip like this and so she was extremely excited even while Amy and I were a bit nervous. Two Peruvian brothers accompanied us and were very careful to help me watch over Bria's every move. She had lots of fun being the jungle princess with her three knights in shining armor, they being ready to fight off the snakes, jaguars and tarantulas at any given moment.

There was quite a commotion in each village when they saw this white American princess enter into their forgotten corner of the world. Bria handed out tracts, showed the evange-cube to everyone and sang with me at the church meetings. Each night I preached open air and all kinds of people came out to listen (I'm not sure if they came out to listen to the gospel or to see Bria... :).

In one village there was some kind of an epidemic of eye infections, as lots of the kids had puss in their eyes. When Bria saw the disease, disorder and dirtiness in this village she was quite alarmed thinking that she too might get sick. It was a good opportunity for me to explain to her that we need to try to love the people, be willing to do hard things for the Lord, persevere in difficult moments and trust God that he will take care of us. After having prayed together she felt better and in the end we made it out of that village without any eye problems.

In all it was a great trip. We were able to preach the gospel and encourage the brethren in each village. Bria was able to experience what life is like in the amazonian villages and we thank the Lord that we came through relatively healthy. We are suffering from numerous bug bites and chiggers but I'm confident that we'll heal quickly. Thank you for your prayers.

Micah for the Tuttle's

Tuttle updates September 2010

2010-09-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here and there and everywhere... pastoral visits are like a sprinkling of sweet water in a parched place. After a busy July and August, Micah has concentrated his energies on visiting church members and leaders to help carry the weight of their burdens and give them some life-giving Scripture to soak in. Personal visits seriously encourage the downhearted, sick and the heavy-laden. We know it to be true.

By August, attendance at church was considerably down after two months of extreme busy-ness, but after only a week of visits, we had the highest attended mid-week Bible study meeting EVER! And has maintained. Praise the Lord! Micah's gifting is admittedly NOT in the pastoral realm, but when there is NO one else, the LORD glories in showing HIS power through our weaknesses. He continues to wow us in this. :)

This week, Micah is off again on a river trip to visit four different villages along the Huallaga River. His goal is to try and visit four villages each trip of 5-6 days, rotating which villages he visits each month. This is such an encouragement to the believers in this region.

Prayer Requests:

River Trip - that it would bear MUCH fruit.

There are two young men that are very dependable and carry much responsibility at church (when we are here, and ESPECIALLY when Micah is away). Both of them have spoken of traveling/moving to other parts of Peru (one of them plans to buy tickets next week! He is our music man). We ask the LORD what will happen to the work if there are no men apart from Micah to carry the load. Pray with us that the LORD would prove Himself faithful to His work by providing in some way for this huge need.

Our landlord advised us that he has need of the house we are living in by January of the coming year. Pray with us that the LORD would continue to lead and confirm the direction of steps we ought to take.

Solidarity in our family - growth in love, peace and joy.

Monday is 'our family day'... Hooray for PIZZA!

Link to the Tuttle Ministry Page Here

John and Jeanette Corey Update from Russia #3

2010-09-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
In the last town I had very significant ministry with the pastor. He has
been very authoritarian for the 10 years he has been there, and has
alienated many people with very few remaining in the large and very old
community center building which they own.   Another US pastor was here in
May seeking to bring reconciliation in 4 different churches and he did
evaluations of each church. He highlighted that unless this pastor
changed, he should be relieved of being a pastor.   The pastor has been a
friend of mine, though I have not had much opportunity to be with him
over the past few years. These last few days have been so great.   God
seemed to really touch him both in our sessions together and one evening
during the service especially as we were considering the wisdom from
above and from below. He has a deep desire to change. Not easy for a
strong minded pastor of 10 years and who is at least 50 years old. He
told me that all of his training had been under authoritarian leadership
who tend to be very strong on maintaining their authority and control in
the church.   He discounted all who disagreed with him and basically
pushed them out of the church.   He said that except for one other source
I was the only one who was teaching him differently.

Pastors and Wives Conference

The last day with him, he summed up our conversations stating that he
needed to be a man of compassion. I could already see some of that
coming through. He commented that other people always told him what he
should be doing or shouldn’t be doing. I was emphasizing what he should
be, and very little on what he should do. He said as a result he was now
beginning to sense what the Holy Spirit was showing him that he should
do. We have an appointment to meet again during the pastors’
conference. He also wants to have email follow up contact for me to be
holding him accountable, and to be a resource for advise. He can read and
write English but not speak or hear it well. I much welcome the ongoing
relationship. These retirement years are great. You get to do the
things you love to do.

We praise the Lord for the gals God has given us as translators. They
are very spiritual minded and sincerely minister as they interpret.
Each one of them is humble and very sincere, and they have been a real
blessing to work with.

I have been in good health and strength and many have noticed and see me
stronger than I was last year. Working most of the summer on my house no
doubt had something to do with it. All praise is the Lord’s.

Thanks so much for upholding us in prayer. We have quite a few from here
praying for us as we travel. A number have told me that they pray for me
throughout the year, and especially that I will be able to return again.
God has been answering that prayer. Besides our ministering to these
people, it is such a blessing to have fellowship with some very dedicated
and God seeking people. Some are a real encouragement to us and we are
learning from them.

There are challenges as we go on to Spassk. I appreciate prayer for our
time there and that God will give us wisdom as we minister. I leave
return from there Oct 7th.

Again thanks for your prayers and support.

John

John and Jeanette Corey Update from Russia #2

2010-09-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

One of the brothers whom I have known here for years and who likes to take us to the forest came and said that when I was up teaching that it was like I had never left. I hear many people say that they are so thankful that I continue to come. It seems this trip that I am getting deeper with the pastors along the way, and that they are much more interested in drawing from me. I sense the Lord continues His work in my life growing me deeper in His love and enjoyment of Himself. These trips certainly have that affect both for me, much for our translators, and for some key people along the way. Anna who will be emigrating with her family to Canada in January was in a very out of the line Pentecostal church, but last year saw reality with the other team she was with and came over to one of our churches. She has grown so much, and is so desirous for growing. She is working on how she responds to people who are rude with her and who say or show unkindness. Last year he son broke his arm a day before she was to come, so she delayed a day and joined the team. Each of the gals are really humble and willing to help in any way.

Zhenya is Vladimir's step daughter and Galla's daughter. She is translating for me for most of this trip. I knew her in Spassk when she was just a girl, and have given input into her life for many years now. She quits her teaching job in Khabarovsk each year so that she can come with me as a translator and then has to find another job when she returns later in October. What a blessing. She told me that after talking with Vladimir this morning, as he had come to Kavalerovo to do some business and bring some of her things, that her mom had been crying most of the day yesterday as it was so hard for her to see us go. She is such a sweet and quiet spirited lady, and faithfully serves often being unseen. There is not lack of love between us, and one of my key emphasis for pastors is to always minister in love. The word faithfully taught and a heart filled with love and expressed for each person is the key to developing a strong and vibrant church.

Oleg reminds me from time to time of the first time I was with him as a new pastor. Thinking that I was such a well experienced missionary, he wanted me to tell him how he could really grow his church. He was expecting to hear some great programs, but he said that my answer rocked his world view as a pastor. My only answer was "Love your people so that they can feel it." He was acting more of an administrator. God has taught him much along this line, and I now see a man who has a deep concern for people and not for program. He is such a blessing to me.

Zhenya was in great tears confessing that she was very self centered and really didn't care much about people, but desired and asked for prayer that she would really have a heart for serving people. There were about 8 women in the little church who stood and confessed to some real issues in their lifes and after each confession I asked if someone would pray for her. It seems that God was deeply working in a number of their lives where there was division and jealousy. Praise the Lord. The translators learn so much being with us in meetings and counselling so many different people, and just in our personal conversations with them. They are team members and I always encourage the other guys to do as I do to use this time to help them to grow stronger in the Lord, and to be sensitive to them and their needs. God blesses them each time so much that they desire to come with our teams if they in any way can.

Tomorrow we will have 2 sessions for the church service, eat lunch, and then go to Kavalerovo - 45 minutes return trip, leave Allen with Carl, and take Jim on to Chagoifka and begin the conference there in the evening. It is about 3 hours travel. By the way I skipped my steroid last week but took it again yesterday. Will see how it goes with all that we are doing. There are some deep problems, especially with the hardness of the pastor toward many people in that church. He want's to make sure he rules the church, and doesn't allow any distention, or really initiative without it being under his control, so has alienated many people. Gordon who was here 4 months ago and did assessments in 4 churches and conflict resolution actually recommends that if this pastor Zhenya doesn't change that they should get a new pastor. I planned to go to that church this trip because I knew there were issues there and thought maybe the Lord would use me in some little way to help. You could pray with me about that. God is able. The couple I always stay with have been alienated for well over a year and I stayed with them every time I have been in town, and always stopped to see them even when I wasn't staying there as we travel next to that town on our return trip. But the pastor doesn't want us to stay there this time. Oleg was going to discuss that with the pastor. To not stay there would bring a barrier between us, and I don't think that is the way to go. I trust it can be resolved wisely so as to reach both people. The lady is a definite believer, the man is a believer, but has issues, and Zhenya the pastor tells him to his face that he is not a believer. God is able.

John

John and Jeanette Corey Update from Russia

2010-09-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

It's Monday morning here in Olga on the coast of the Japanese Sea about
10 hours drive from Vladivostok in a small fishing village where I come
each trip. Yesterday Allen and I were involved in the ordination service
for the pastor, Vladimir, whom I have known for years and to whom I
have been able to give much input. His wife came to Christ in Spassk
before they were married and she was the SS teacher for the kids for
years. The church is small here with 13 adults in the service yesterday.
Some could not come because of work, so I don't know how many actually
attend the church. We will be here until Wed evening and after the
training session we will drive the hour to Kavalerovo where our two teams
will connect and Allen will go with Carl and Jim will be with me as we go
on to Dalnegorsk another hour north up the coastal area, a lead and heavy
mineral mining town of about 45,000.

Last night I was counselling a lady, Ira, who came to Christ some years
ago but her husband at 50 is retired from the police and is a drunk and
is in bad health and has no desire to live as he sees no point in it. He
has told her it didn't matter to him whether he goes to heaven or hell,
but she is serving him and praying for his salvation. She seemed
encouraged as she left with her 11 year old daughter, upon whom her
husband often throws much verbal abuse when he is drunk. She has three
other older children who all know the Lord. May the Lord answer her
prayer. There are so many women who have unbelieving and often drunk
husbands. Satan certainly has captured so many of them. It is such a
privilege to be able to minister to these people. The people are so
appreciative of our coming and it is such a blessing to us as well.
Praise the Lord. These three days here they have us scheduled to meet
with a number of people.

In Nahodka, the second largest sea port in E Russia where we had a great
conference with about 25 people. We were busy talking with various
pastors in the area, with some other people of the churches who were
represented, and I had a good opportunity to go over the diagram with the
sister and daughter of two members who isn't a believer. She had to
leave before I could try to actually lead her to Jesus, but I believe she
is on the way. It is such a blessing to be able to minister to so many
people. One couple, involved with a small group of about 10 women in a
small village about 80 miles away, travel there to minister to them twice
a week. Since it is on the road to Olga from Nahodka each year we stop
there and meet with the women. We had a good time with them a couple
days ago The women were very concerned as they told us that the JW's are
so active in their village and are continually going house to house.

I had a good opportunity to discuss with the couple on how to work with
these ladies and to seek to help the fellowship to grow. This couple
came to me with an envelope and read from 3rd John about how they ought
to support such men who go out ministering. Later when I looked in the
envelope they had given to us $330. I was greatly humbled to see their
heart knowing that they work hard to earn what they have. Praise the
Lord for those who sacrifice. I will pass it on to some needy pastor,
likely the one we are presently staying with who really struggles
financially, and doesn't have money to fix his car with engine problems.
It has been sitting since before I was here last year. So he walks
everywhere he goes around here.

We have been in good health so far, so praise the Lord for that. Here in
Olga in the pastor's house there is no bathing place. A believing
neighbor heats up her sauna for us to bathe every other evening. That is
great, but there is no way to bathe every day, and though the nights are
probably in the 40's or dipping to upper 30's the days are probably
hitting 80 so we miss the daily showers. So we are just "suffering here
on the mission field," said tongue in cheek. Here the pastor has fixed
his out house with a seat to sit on, which is a great amenity. I bet
most of you don't think what an amenity that is unless you are use to
camping in the rough.

Thanks for praying.

John Corey

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update - August 2010

2010-09-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

Tuttle River Trip August

2010-08-30T17:48:00.001-07:00

On Monday morning Bria embarked on a four day trip with me down the Huallaga river to visit four different villages. It was her first time going on a trip like this and so she was extremely excited even while Amy and I were a bit nervous. Two Peruvian brothers accompanied us and were very careful to help me watch over Bria's every move. She had lots of fun being the jungle princess with her three knights in shining armor, they being ready to fight off the snakes, jaguars and tarantulas at any given moment.

There was quite a commotion in each village when they saw this white American princess enter into their forgotten corner of the world. Bria handed out tracts, showed the evange-cube to everyone and sang with me at the church meetings. Each night I preached open air and all kinds of people came out to listen (I'm not sure if they came out to listen to the gospel or to see Bria... :).

In one village there was some kind of an epidemic of eye infections, as lots of the kids had puss in their eyes. When Bria saw the disease, disorder and dirtiness in this village she was quite alarmed thinking that she too might get sick. It was a good opportunity for me to explain to her that we need to try to love the people, be willing to do hard things for the Lord, persevere in difficult moments and trust God that he will take care of us. After having prayed together she felt better and in the end we made it out of that village without any eye problems.

In all it was a great trip. We were able to preach the gospel and encourage the brethren in each village. Bria was able to experience what life is like in the amazonian villages and we thank the Lord that we came through relatively healthy. We are suffering from numerous bug bites and chiggers but I'm confident that we'll heal quickly.

Thank you for your prayers.
Micah for the Tuttle's

http://thetuttletribe.blogspot.com/p/subscribe-to-get-our-updates.html

Micah and Amy Tuttle - July and August 2010

2010-08-30T17:45:00.001-07:00

How is it possible that these months have already happened? Oh my.

Well, we are alive (albeit barely) after two VERY amazingly busy months. Thank you to those of you who have reminded us that we are completely out of touch by not posting for two whole months!

Perhaps you all will understand when I get finished with this update :)

July.
We were in Trujillo basically, for the entire month. We left Tarapoto on the 2nd (right on the tail end of a river trip that last week of June) and arrived back here the 29th. During that time, Micah was IBEM for the third week of classes (doing devotional, class on Psalms, eating lunch with the students, practical studies and fun nights in the evenings - we were down a couple players with Rich & Pam on baby leave :). No internet during all this time. The following week, we hosted a very good friend and co-worker from the US for 10 wonderful days. Only a few days after saying goodbye, we received Amy's mom on the 21st just in time to pack up for heading back to Tarapoto. We made the LONG drive all in one long haul this time because of it being Peru's Independence day and there being no room at any of the inns. We made it without issue even with another passenger in our already too small vehicle.

August.
The first weekend Micah traveled all the way back to the coast to participate as one of the key speakers in a national youth convention in Chiclayo. He was back for a few days before leaving to speak again at the bilingual church in Sisa's 14th anniversary the next weekend. We are VERY thankful to have had Amy's mom here during all that time. The day after Micah got back, Amy traveled with her mom to spend a few days in Lima together before her mom flew home. While at-home-daddy, Micah was also working full bore on installing the bathrooms in the church preparing for a young people's retreat coming up this next weekend. Today, Micah left for a 5-day river trip. He took Bria with him and Lord willing they will be back on Friday. Saturday, the young people from Yurimaguas arrive for a three day 'retreat', but we're both pretty sure they'll go home wanting nothing but rest after the packed schedule he's lined up for them! ...and then, August will be over.

Phew! So you may now understand why you haven't heard from us! :) Please keep praying! Though perhaps the most insane months are past, we have some important decisions to make very soon. We are looking to the future and are dependent on the Lord's guidance. Pray that the Lord would bless the work of our hands. Please also pray that we would stay tightly knit to Him as well as to each other!

Pictures coming soon! stay tuned :)

Micah and Amy Tuttle
http://thetuttletribe.blogspot.com/

John and Jeanette Corey Update

2010-08-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

The MP3 project is growing, and the demands for the player are increasing. We are ordering another 300.   Yesterday I talked with Pastor Momo who is heading up the project in Liberia. He reported that they have set up a program where, after pastors and leaders have read Romans the required 20 times and copied it, that they come together for the presentation. They are then encouraged to continue in their reading of the Scriptures and to meet together to discuss this book and then do the same with other books. The leadership is using this as an added means to train pastors by bring them together to discuss what they are reading and listening to.   He also told me, “There are many in my church who have read and reread Romans and have become excited about what the Scripture is saying in Romans and are wanting to do the same kind of study in another book. It has helped so much.” Imagine how encouraging this is to a pastor.    He said, “Now they understand salvation from God’s perspective and not just a human point of view.” Pastor Momo is so thankful for this project.

The same is being reproduced in other churches as well.    We have at least 350 pastors and leaders registered in the project in Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone with most of them still seeking to qualify to receive the MP3 player. Many others are inquiring about the project.   The players contain 823 of Pastor Scott’s expositions on many books of the New Testament and Genesis, Exodus, and Proverbs.    Funding for this project is a big challenge. That could be the biggest limitation in its expansion, but God is so faithful. This is definitely helping many pastors to get more serious in reading the Word and in teaching it more plainly. For years I have sought to motivate Scripture reading, and expository preaching.   Praise God!!   If you want to know more, check out my blog at http://mp3project-mp3.blogspot.com/ There are some great testimonies there. Note some of the older blogs or posts. Continue to pray that God will prosper this in helping to build His Church as pastors are exposed to good expository teaching of the Word.
Pastor Daniel in Kenema, Sierra Leone, even though he hasn’t received the player yet, told me today, “The book of Romans is a great help to me and to my church. I have actually begun teaching it verse by verse. Many people never read it because they thought it was too hard to understand, but now they are paying attention to it. Several other pastors have also begun to teach it in their churches.”

Pastor Kellie in Sierra Leone, who is connected with the association of churches in the Konah district told me that reading and rereading Romans has really helped him know the way of salvation better and how we come to God, as well as giving a better understanding sanctification. Pastors in his area have been meeting together to discuss the book of Romans.
What a great movement this project is creating!

A team of 3 guys and I leave for East Russia on Sept 5. I will be gone for 6 weeks during which time we expect to hold Bible conferences in 8-9 churches teaching the book of James. Pastor Gary from SW Bible will join me Oct 9th to hold a pastor’s conference. He will be teaching the book of 1 Timothy and I will be speaking on the heart of the pastor. God is building His church in E. Russia. What a privilege it is to be a part of this. I greatly appreciate your prayers during this time.

You see, I find I’m not as young as I used to be, and of course I continue treatment for that Myeloma thorn in the flesh. In the last lab test the Myeloma counts went down from 0.3 to 0.2 which was very encouraging since it had been trending up. God seems content to keep me around a little longer. As I have been working on our house this summer, I so often think of how temporal this stuff all is. I think much more about the house that is eternal and look forward to it. But still I do the repairs, whether it’s for a year or 20. It has been great to have 4 of our grandsons (17-19 years old) working for me when available. We replaced a wood shake roof with a metal one, repaired a lot of rot, as well as prepped and painted the outside and many other projects. It has been such a good learning experience for them, and they appreciated their earnings with jobs so scarce.   It has been fun and certainly has deepened our relationship. They are neat kids.

Our family camp-out was near Florence on the Oregon coast where we had a group camp sight. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so much, and with so many teenagers, preteens, and parents, there was lots of volleyball, football and soccer. But the two more “mature ones”, (just celebrating our 48th anniversary) made up the cheering section. That was hard for me to sit, but I valued keeping my knees and shoulders and back functional, so I watched.   “Life moves on” is one of my acknowledging statements for more things than I like to admit.

We trust you had as great a summer as we did. And life moves on as Jeanette and I go our separate ways for a while, I to Russia, and she up to spend a couple weeks with her sister, Irene, in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. Put those two gals together and you have two peas in a pod. It’s great!    Jeanette is doing well. Of course we all seem to collect some aches and limitations

Praise God for Who He is and all His gifts!! He is so good! Don’t you just love Him? How often do you tell Him?

In His grace,

John and Jeanette

Eric Schrag Final Update on Mongolia

2010-08-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Even though I am back in the States as of Monday, I am still going to send the rest of my updates to everyone so you can all know what else happened whilst I was in Mongolia. When I was in the countryside, I was not able to write updates on my computer. I did try to keep track of what I did, but it will take too long to type out a weeks worth of updates Just a short version in pictures. The first few are from when I went with my class for a walk to a monastery (the walk that ended up taking about 10 hours). The next few are parts of the wedding, the food (and drinks), the monk that did the ceremony, and a gift goat that I was given. The last few are some of the sights that we went to see in the countryside: a huge Ovoo (pronounced: ah-wah), a monument to a famous queen of Mongolia, a walk through the beginning of the Gobi desert, and our dinner that evening. If there is any further explanation needed, please let me know.

Enjoy,

Eric

20100727- Today was a normal class day until around 5 o’clock. That was when we had the “Mongolian Culture Night” as the evening activities. Our students put together presentations and skits about the different customs, traditions, weddings, and holidays in Mongolia. They did a really good job. It was interesting to see some of the things that they do in certain ceremonies. And they all wore their traditional “dells” (the extremely colorful and beautiful clothing). One of my students gave me her father’s dell to wear for the holiday, called “Tsagaan Sar” (means “White Moon”) that our class was in charge of.
It was a lot of fun, but very hot in the robe. Whatever the material was that it was made out of was very heavy—probably great for winter, but very hot in summer. After everyone presented, they (and I) wanted pictures of each other looking their best! That whole photo opportunity took about a half hour…it was pretty crazy; everyone wanted a picture taken. But, it was great to see how much they enjoyed that time with us. When all was said and done, we came back to the apartments and had about a half hour of prayer, singing, and talking about how there is only one and a half weeks left. That’s hard to believe. It’s crazy how fast time goes by when you truly are enjoying yourself!

20100728- After a normal day of class, a couple of students and the teacher from my parallel class (sometimes we combine classes to do activities with a larger number of students), went for a walk around the city and talked. It was a nice time, and a bit more personal because there were only three students and two teachers, so we could always have someone to talk to, with hardly any Mongolian mixed in. After walking around for about an hour, we went to a pretty nice pub/restaurant. The meals were excellent and the conversation equally so. After eating, we walked a bit more, then stopped at one of taller buildings in Sukhbaatar Square. We went up to a higher floor, and had an amazing view of the Square as we drank milkshakes. It was a fun time just to relax and enjoy friends.

20100729- Today’s class was a bit different than all the rest. We spent most of the day practicing for competition coming up next week. So, everyone in the class gave at least one speech and answered at least one question in English. They all did very well. I’ve seen quite a bit of improvement in some of them. At first, it seemed like some of them didn’t even know English, now they are writing and giving speeches—it’s great to see!
Later on in the afternoon, the activity was a talent show that all of the classes participated in. Some of them performed individually, and did a wonderful job. One girl played a classical song on the piano, one girl danced a traditional Mongolian dance, and one read a poem that she wrote…and of course…my batteries died!

20100730- Today had a very exciting start. One of the teachers had a soar throat during our devotion time. But it turned out to be so much worse than that. Once we were dismissed to start setting up our classrooms, she began having difficulty breathing. At first, I thought she was crying, but she was gasping for air. It was actually kind of scary. I wasn’t sure what to do, but there were too many people around her anyway, so I would have just got in the way. That was when the miracles started to happen! It turns out that one of the other teachers had an “Epi-Pen” in her purse. The weird thing was, that she didn’t need to have it with her. She had no allergies that she knew of, but she just brought it in case. Coincidence? I think not! Another “coincidence” was that there was a person in their car, sitting there in the parking lot of the school. The people that were helping the suffocating teacher thought that the person in the car was a student, so they asked for a ride to the hospital. It turns out that the shot from the Epi-Pen was most likely what saved her life. The hospital really only gave her an inhaler. Apparently, she had an allergic reaction to something she ate, and it caused her throat to swell up. Another miracle that was discovered through the course of events was that the teacher that had the Epi-Pen, wasn’t even supposed to come to Mongolia. She was originally slotted to go to another country, but some confusion with her being unable to get a Visa caused her to be sent to Mongolia instead. Not that I wasn’t convinced before, but I am certain that God knows what He’s doing, even if we don’t understand why something happens the way it does. It just helps to be reminded of that every now and then. After the excitement class was pretty much the same way as it was yesterday—the students practicing for the competition. They told me that they enjoyed the last two days more than the rest of the class because they actually got to do what they have been learning for the past month. After class, we watched the movie “Fireproof” in the main hall. As far as I know, there were many students who thought it was very good, and I hope that it was well accepted by the rest of the students.

20100731- I would have to admit that today was the most interesting day that I spent with my students. All but two of the class showed up. We met up around 10a, and the first thing that I needed to do was…to get batteries (which took about an hour just to find a place that sold them) before we left on our adventure. After I found batteries, we had to wait in the van for another 30 minutes until it filled up. The vans in Mongolia are called “Micro Busses” and they are similar to a taxi, but for long distances. In order for them to make any money, they wait until they have enough people that want to go to the same place, fill up, and go. We drove close to forty-five minutes around to the backside of the mountain, stopped in a different town, and ate lunch. This was the beginning of our adventure. After lunch, we began to walk. Although the landscape was similar to the States, it was so different than walking in America. We were walking through an open range with tons of pasturing cows, sheep, and goats. It was kind of weird having the ability to just walk through the grazing animals. We walked through pastures for about a half hour, then the landscape began to change. The trees became more and more frequent. So, there was about another thirty minutes of walking through the trees before we arrived at our first destination. I knew what we were going to go see, but I didn’t think that it was going to be as cool as it was. We went to an 18th century Buddhist monastery; it was incredible! There was one section of ruins, which looked much older than 300 years, and a temple made completely out of wood. I couldn’t believe it, but we were able to walk around inside…for free! It was really cool, and a little eerie at the same time. It is very strange to see the similarities between Buddhism, Hinduism, Shamanism, and Voodoo Witch Doctors that I have seen over the years. After touring the monastery, we went into a few of the little holes dug into the mountain that the Dahli Lama sat in to meditate. Next, we went up to a white pillar that was further up the mountain. It reminded me so much of the “high places” that the Bible talks about in the Old Testament. The view of the valley was incredible! This area was located in an amazing place, right in the middle of a network of three mountains that surrounded the valley. We took a few pictures then ventured farther up the mountain. This time we were going to the very top. The whole time that I have been in Mongolia, I wondered if there was anywhere that we could hike in the woods. This was the place. I finally had a chance to go for a hike, and it turned out to be the longest hike that I had ever done. I would say that it was about 15 miles! I knew that it was going to take a while, but we walked for probably 12 hours throughout this entire day. I loved it, but I was so tired when we were done. The scenery was beautiful and the smells were so diverse, from mint, to citrus, to dung. We hiked to the very top of the mountain, where there was another “high place”, but this one was probably the biggest that I have seen since I’ve been to Mongolia. This Shamanistic/Buddhist sacred pole is called an “Aahwaah” and is used to mark a special place, whether good or bad. Since most of my students were Buddhist, they prayed a bit, walked around it three times, and spun this bell-looking thing three times too. They told me that I should do it too, but I had to gently refuse (I probably should have explained to them why though?!) The view from the top of the mountain was incredible! For a decent sized city, Ulaan Baatar looked so small from where we were. We didn’t waste too much time there, and started making our way back down the mountain; but, this time, we went down the opposite side. It was about 7p when we started our descent and we didn’t even make it halfway down before the sun set. So, we had to walk in the dark for a good 2 or 3 hours. We kind of had to walk in a single-file train for most of the way. Although it was getting cold, everyone was soar and tired, and they seemed to be somewhat afraid, we all had a great time together. We finally made it down to a road and got a taxi at 1:30 in the morning. Dropped off the other students, and then me, one student and his wife went to get something quick to eat. So, I didn’t get home until three in the morning; but, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire day!

20100801- Sunday. I was very tired, but I got up to go to church. Today one other teacher and I went with one of our students to her church. It was a very small, and intimate family of believers. One of the guys who went to the church also works at the airport where I may help out during my last few weeks here. He spoke English very well, and told me that they might not need much help at the airport, but that his church could really use some help rebuilding their main room. I saw it, and he was right. It definitely needs a lot of work. I would really like to work at the airport to get some experience in the field that I am going to school for; but, I will go wherever I am needed the most. After church we went out to eat at a Northern Indian restaurant with our student. It was very tasty, and filling. Then we came home and I caught up on my updates, so I wrote a lot. Around 9p, we had a meeting with all of the teachers about how the next day would unfold. Then went to sleep because I was very tired from the night before.

20100802- Today was really only a half day of practicing and the other half was the start of the competition. Unfortunately, different teachers judged my students, which makes sense, because I would have a hard time giving them low scores. The students that I had to judge were well advanced compared to my class. They all did very well. Some were pretty basic, but others were quite entertaining, and I learned a few things from some of them. It was a very different day and extremely busy from lunch until about 5p. Then we ate, and stayed at the restaurant for about an hour and a half just talking to our aid. It was really nice. Came home and realized that I don’t have to do any planning tonight…yea!

20100803- Today was very interesting. We did more judging. Some of the same lessons as yesterday, but also a few different speeches. It turns out that one of my students is a finalist in the competition! That is very cool, but very strange that she was one of the finalists; because, ironically, she is the one in my class that speaks the least English. She must have had a really good presentation, and done well as a teacher. I am so proud of her! She is going to have a very busy schedule tomorrow—she will have a speech, an interview, and another lesson plan.
We learned a Mongolian Proverb: A bird and a fox were trying to be nice to each other. The bird made a meal and gave it to the fox in a vase—the way she likes to eat it. The fox gave the bird a meal on a plate—the way he liked to eat it. Because the vase was so tall and slender, the fox could not reach his tongue down far enough to get the food. Likewise, the bird had a difficult time eating because she had a long beak that hindered her from grabbing food off of a flat plate. The moral of the story was that men and women are different; they are made different, and they think differently. Giving them what we like, they way we like it is not always best for them. We need think about what they like and treat them the way they like. One of the teachers and I had a great conversation with both of our aids. They are husband and wife, and they have done so much for us the entire time that we have been here. Can you guess what our conversation was about? It was a really nice counseling session between all of us for quite a long time. It was a really good way to end the night.

20100804- Today was a really hectic day of judging. So many different people coming in and going out, and the fact that we had to hear the same speeches over and over again made it seem like a very long drawn-out day. Dinner was nice though. There was a team of teachers from China that we went to dinner with. We ate at a place called “City Nomads”. I had a steak, but the girl across from me got a meal called a “Sheep’s Head”. It was a variety of meats that are found in the head of a sheep, and it was actually served in the skull of a sheep! That’s the first time I ever saw that, so I tried some of the various parts. They weren’t horrible, but I wouldn’t crave it enough to ever order it on my own.

20100805- Today was graduation day! But before the ceremony, we had a lot of preparation to do. The first part of the day we had the final portion of the competition so we were each in a different classroom. The students that I judged were mostly middle-aged women, and when the testing was over, they said that I had beautiful eyes and went further to say that they were like a child’s eyes. It was a very nice compliment, but it definitely made me blush. For lunch we had our final meal at the German restaurant. It was better than ever before. The weird thing is that it was Korean food. So, American teachers ate Korean food, at a German restaurant, in Mongolia. When lunch was done, we went back to the school and finished up the things that we needed to get done. Not long after that, we had to go back and dress nicely for the closing ceremonies. The ceremony was very nice, just a typical graduation, except that I was one of the teachers on the stage presenting the certificates to my own students. It was more meaningful being on the giving end of the graduation certificate. After all of the awards were handed out and all of the pictures were taken, my class and I went together to the same restaurant that I went to yesterday with the other teachers. I didn’t want to tell them that I ate there the night before. So, I ordered something different than last night. I had ribs tonight. It was funny, because there was someone in my class who ordered the Sheep Head. This time, I tried an eye. Actually, it was only half of an eye. My class told me that it was considered bad luck to only eat one of the eyes. If you eat one, you need to eat the other one too. So, I asked if I could only eat half of an eye, and they said that might be ok. (I did not have bad luck). It really didn’t taste that bad; but again, I definitely wouldn’t crave it. After we were all done eating and talking for a long time, we left the restaurant and started walking with a few options of what we would do. Our options were karaoke or a disco. So either I would sit there and watch them sing (because I don’t sing) or they would sit there and watch me and one other girl dance (because most of my class are a little older and don’t care too much for loud music. I think that because they wanted to make me happy, we ended up going to the club. We only stayed for about an hour though, because it was very smoky, we couldn’t really talk over the music, and I felt bad for the ones who weren’t dancing. I enjoyed the music there and had a very good time, but I am kind of glad that we left when we did, because I had to wake up sort of early in the morning for our final meeting.

20100806- Had a debriefing this morning until lunch time. Then we went to our director’s house and ate Mexican food. It was so good. Then we relaxed for a few hours until dinner. For dinner, we went to an authentic Mongolian Grill—one of those ones that you bring your food up to the person at the big hot table and they flip their knives and throw your food. That was also great food; and there was a traditional musical group along with our meal. After a very filling dinner, we went up to the Russian monument as a team one last time. We had a little speech from our director, and then we prayed for a little while, then went back to the apartments and some of the people packed up for tomorrow when they leave. My computer started to act up, so I was not able to catch up on my pictures, or sending my updates for a day or two.

20100807- Today was pretty crazy…at least for some people. A few of the teachers had to leave very early in the morning, like 4a! Some of the others left around 11, and 4p. For the rest of us, we spent some of the day at the French Bakery drinking coffee, eating crepes, and talking about what we were going to do once we got back home. After breakfast, we went back to the apartment and cleaned everything and packed up all of our stuff. Unfortunately, there was a bit of confusion, and we actually could have stayed in our apartment for another day or two, but the three of us have a place to stay tonight. Then, those of us who were left (about six of us) went to a restaurant called “Millie’s”. The food was so good. I had a cheeseburger, and it was the closest thing to American food that I have tasted since we got to Mongolia. We kind of had to eat fast though, because we only had about an hour until the last group of people needed to go to the airport. So, we all went back to the apartments, loaded up all of our belongings, and left for the airport. After saying our goodbyes, the guys got back into the car and we got dropped off at our new places to stay (I say places because, the other two guys are staying somewhere different than me for tonight and possibly tomorrow night as well). They are much bigger than the last apartment where we were staying. The people who we are staying with are an American couple and a Canadian guy. They are very generous to allow us to stay with them. I didn’t have too much time to talk with them tonight though because they had to go pick up someone else from the airport. So, I had time to write…

Eric Schrag 6th Update

2010-08-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

20100718- Had a brief meeting about yesterday before going to church. Went to a new church today. It was really great. About half of the songs were in English, and the pastor spoke a little English. But, there was a woman from the Philippines who spoke today and she spoke almost perfect English. It was a really good message. There were also a few missionaries from South Africa who were visiting that church today too. Directly after church, the director, his wife and I went to one of my student’s houses in the countryside for a late lunch. It was an excellent meal of Korean food. The last time I had Korean food (in America), I did not like it; but this time it was really good. After eating, we went for a walk, then we drove back home and I put my lesson together for the next day. It was all-around a very nice, relaxing day.

20100719- Don’t remember too much about Monday. I took too long to write anything about it, and pretty much forgot anything that might have happened. I’m going to say that it was a normal day, with nothing extremely interesting to mention.

20100720- Got Married on Tuesday! It was an arranged wedding. Not for real, but we had a pretend North American wedding to show our students what a wedding looks like in our culture. It was very convincing for them. In fact, a few of them asked me why we didn’t kiss, and one girl was actually a little jealous… After the “ceremony”, the teachers went with their own students to their classrooms and everyone had cake together as a class.

20100721- No one is really sure why, but we were able to let out our classes early today. So, most of the teachers went somewhere with their students. I went with my class to one of my student’s houses. She cooked a little bit while we looked through pictures of her childhood. It was interesting to see Mongolian life through pictures of someone’s past. After a short period of time, it was our turn to do some of the cooking…at least some of the preparation. During class in the past few days, my students found out that I like huurshuur, so my class taught me how to make it. It was a lot of fun. Mine didn’t turn out too bad (visually); and they tasted awesome! When we were finished eating, we started to make our way to a place where we could play table tennis (ping pong), but it was closed. That was probably a good thing though, because I didn’t end up getting home until just after 9p and I still had to prepare my lesson for tomorrow.

20100722- Just a typical Thursday in class today. This evening we did have a Bingo night. I’ve seen Bingo played before, but never really understood it. An embarrassing fact is that it took a few rounds before I finally began to understand that the letters that they said before the numbers spelled out B-I-N-G-O?! Seriously. Most of our students (who range from 15 to 50) never even saw the game before. They all seemed to enjoy it though. I thought it was lots of fun.

20100723- Today’s class was a little confusing. There were a lot of changes to the schedule, so I never got a good grasp of where we were. We did get to visit a few different classrooms to experience new environments and speak with different students. In the afternoon, we had a movie for the students to watch, then we went back home.

To Read More Click Below

20100724- Today was a pretty relaxing Saturday. I was able to sleep in until about 11a. I was supposed to meet with my class and go to a Buddhist Temple, but I received a call form one of my students telling me that we would have to cancel until next weekend. So, our aid came over and some of the teachers went to the Cashmere Factory. I though that it was going to be an actual factory where they make the clothing; but it turned out to be just a store- like a “factory outlet”. They had a lot of nice clothing, but a little too pricey for my taste. Then we went to a different store so that some of the ladies could do a little more shopping. It was not boring though, because while we waited, there was a traditional Mongolian group playing a couple of songs for the customers. There was also a brief runway show of new clothing that the store offered. When everyone was finished shopping, some of them went home and a few of us went to the Russian Monument that we went to on one of the first nights that we were in Ulaan Bataar (the one up the road from the Buddha Statue). It was better to see it in the daytime; there were a bunch of murals on the inside of the monument that we were unable to see the first time because we went at night. From the top of the hill, there is a great view of the entire city! Once we finished up there, we went out to eat at a Ukrainian restaurant. The food there was very good, and the conversation was very nice as well. It involved the director, his wife, and a few of her relatives. Her uncle was a linguistics professor. It was very interesting to listen to some of his theories about different languages. Then we came home and I was able to use the computer to call my mother for the first time since I got here. ’Twas a nice day.

20100725- We went to a different church this morning. This one was much larger than the last two that we visited over the past few weeks. They also supplied small radios that provided an English translation of the message; it was very helpful-and a good message. After the service, there was a woman who asked me and another teacher to pray for her illness. Her story reminded me of the woman who touched the corner of Jesus’ robe to receive healing. It was a pretty powerful opportunity. Not too much longer after that, we went to a (somewhat) fast food restaurant and got burgers before we went to a place called the “M-Club”. It was an indoor entertainment center with: bowling, pool tables, karaoke, and video games. A few of our students met us there and we all enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with them, just talking, and having fun (and they sang—not me). For dinner, two of the other teachers and I went to the program director’s house, ate Chinese food, and had a really great conversation about a variety of things regarding Mongolia and America. Then came back home and prepared the lesson for tomorrow.

20100726- For half of the day, I was the teacher for two classes. One of the other teachers did not feel well until about lunchtime, so she asked if I could watch her class. I felt bad because her class has more advanced English speakers than mine does. So, they were somewhat bored, as I needed to repeat a lot of things for my students to understand. After lunch though, she came back and I was relieved of my double duty. For the last hour and a half, I reviewed the things that my students would need for the competition at the end of the program in a few more weeks. It took a while of explaining and repeating, but I think that they may understand what is expected of them (at least, I hope they do?!)
All of the explaining helped me understand how I could teach a little better in the future.

Tuttle updates August 2010

2010-08-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

Updated Prayer Requests for the Tuttles:

Pray for continued ventures with the river ministry
Continue to pray for the church in Cahamarca and its leadership.
Pray for the family as they have just returned from Trujillo with Micah teaching in the institute IBEM.
Pray for them as they begin to organize their plans to return back to the States April/May 2011 and all the details that involves.
Pray for their family living in the jungle, managing ministry and family life as well.

Here are Amy and Micah's girls practicing ballet. So sweet and precious.

For more insights into their lives click on the link below...
http://apilgrimsproject.blogspot.com/

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update - July 2010

2010-08-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Voice of the Martrys - Ali Colchin of Iran

2010-08-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

On July 25, Ali Golchin was released from Evin Prison after paying bail of 200 million Rials (about $21,700 U.S.), according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN).
Golchin, 29, was arrested at his home in the city of Varamin on April 29. At the time of his arrest and while he was in prison, government agents searched his home and confiscated a Bible and other books, a computer, his identification documents and other personal belongings, according to FCNN.
Golchin was held in the notorious Section 209 of Evin Prison, where it is believed he was tortured by authorities. “Throughout this time he [Golchin] was only able to meet with his family once for 10 minutes,” FCNN reported. “Ali Golchin had said that during his detention he had faced long and harsh interrogation and his family reported that Ali had described his time in prison as ‘unbearable.’”
The courts have not explained why Golchin was held for more than 87 days, and he has not been formally charged with a crime. “This disproportionate bail has been inflicted upon the family in the form of a bond against the title deed of family property of equivalent value; it is keeping not only Ali but the whole family virtually in chains,” FCNN reported.
Prior to Golchin’s release from prison, his father told the Voice of America Persian Service that he believed his son had been arrested because he had Bibles in his home. “The judicial authorities accused us of attempting to convert Muslims by distributing Bibles, which is considered a crime. I told the authorities that these Bibles were not for the purpose of going into the streets and distributing them,” Golchin’s father said. “They were for the people in our church.”
Ali Golchin is among a number of other Christians from the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, and Kermanshah who have been arrested and released without specific charges against them. The Voice of the Martyrs stands with these courageous believers who continue to serve Christ in the face of government harassment. Pray that believers in Iran will remain faithful and that their testimonies will draw non-believers into fellowship with Christ.

Tuttle updates June 2010

2010-08-06T07:58:00.001-07:00

After 5 hours in the back of a 4x4 truck eating dust and getting burnt in the hot sun we finally arrived in Yarina where I promptly found tremendous relief by jumping into the river. Without delay our team of six believers headed down river in a canoe (two more hours) until we came to the village of Huimbayoc where our bi-anual convencion of river churches would take place for the next 4 days. About 350 brothers and sisters from 30 different villages showed up with great joy and anticipation (these conventions are a real highlight for the believers every six months).

Myself and two other expositors preached a total of 9 hours of meetings each day. It was an excellent time of fellowship and encouragement as everyone always comes with a real hunger to learn from God's word. I took with me 15 Bibles, 35 hymnals, 5 sistematic theology's, and 400 tracts to sell at a reduced prices and everything was sold out by the second day (the bretheren are always begging for Bibles, hymnals and any theological book that they can get their hands on).

At meal times we drank plenty of chicha and ate lots smoked majaz to go with our bananas that had been cooked in the ashes. On Sunday I had a great time preaching in the river and then baptizing 13 new believers. The whole time I was in the water there were schools of small piranas swarming me, all the while I could feel them nipping at my fingers and toes with their sharp teeth (if your not bleeding you have nothing to worry about, they just like to tickle you a bit). Thank you all who prayed for this event. It was a great time of learning and encouragement for all.

-Micah for the Tuttles

Skeeter and Barbara Wass Prayer Request in Guinea Bissau

2010-08-02T15:43:00.001-07:00

Hello All,

Skeeter and I have the opportunity to speak on the local radio station tomorrow morning at 8:00a.m. We will be giving a brief history of Servants to Missions work in G.B., reminding people of our upcoming teacher training seminars, and giving God the glory for the results we are seeing. We covet your prayers for this endeavor. Radio is the only means of communication here. Everyone listens at different times of the day, so this has the potential to reach a large number of people.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Skeeter and Barbara Wass

Eric Schrag 5th Update

2010-08-02T12:46:00.001-07:00

20100711- Unfortunately, we did not go to church this morning; but we still had to wake up early again. This time it was for a very good reason though. We had to arrive early to the stadium for the opening ceremony of the Mongolian holiday “Naadam”. The festival includes: It was incredible! There was a huge parade and an amazing display of the traditions and history of Mongolia. They had trick horse riders, men dressed like old fashion warriors, and archers shooting from horseback. My favorite part was when they had all of the branches of protection for Mongolia (i.e., police, army, palace guard) out in ranks and moving in perfect unison, all at the same time and each in their own way! Extremely impressive!
When the ceremony was over, we had authentic “huurshuur” at a tiny tent outside the gate, then walked around the festival (very similar to a fair or carnival, but on a much grander scale). We went over to the area where the archery was taking place, watched that for a little while. It was not like the archery that you would think of when you hear the word. They were shooting an arrow across a field and trying to hit a stack of (what looked like) cans, not a target. A few of the teachers that we were with got interviewed because it was their first time at Naadam. After archery, it began to rain, so we went under the tent where they were playing a game where they flick a square piece of bone about ten feet and try to knock down two other bones (that looked more like teeth?) at the other side. It sounds weird, but it was something that they used to do during the long snowy winters. The rain let up a little, so we started to walk back to the car. On the walk though, the rain picked up quite a bit so we took shelter under the roof of the stadium. Whilst there, this drunk guy came up to us because a couple of the girls were pretending to arm wrestle. He tried to arm wrestle one of them and won. Then he wanted to try against me, so I took on his challenge. I won! (with both arms- he wanted best out of three?!). Eventually, our aid got us all some raincoats and we continued our journey back to the car. We were able to fit 12 people into a Land Cruiser, it was tight, but we didn’t care, we were out of the rain. We went back to the apartments and dried off, ate a small dinner, and left again. This time it was off to Sukbaatar Square to watch a concert and fireworks. Some of the music was just knock-offs of popular music in America. There were a few really good performances (and a few strange ones too). Altogether, it was a great time! One of our aids knew someone, and we were able to go backstage and see the performers a lot closer. We had a very good time and a really positive first impression of the entire Naadam festival- and there’s still two more days!

20100712- Today was another really good day! It started early again. We had a teacher’s meeting over French toast, watermelon, and coffee. Then, I had to leave so I could meet my students. This is the day that we agreed to spend the day together. Only four of them showed up, but that’s ok, some of them live kind of far from the city. We went to the Museum of Natural History (one of them paid for me); it was pretty nice (except that I had to sneak my photos). After the museum, one of my student’s family was waiting outside, so we walked with them to the Naadam festival. His daughter spoke English pretty well, so we talked a little while we walked. Before we got the festival area though, we stopped to get a “snack” which turned out to be more of a meal- it was really good though. We also had this hot juice that I really liked a lot. When we arrived at the festival, we ate huurshuur again. I wasn’t really hungry anymore, but it was offered to me, so I took it. While we ate, an older Mongolian man sort of winked at me, I can only assume that it was because I was sitting with four younger looking females?! Eventually, everyone except my only male student left, so he and I went into the stadium to watch the wrestling matches (I was pretty surprised that he paid for everything). Mongolian wrestling is just as different as the archery was. Their outfits are crazy, but there is a story behind why they are so strange. I had a good time watching wrestling, eating more huurshuur, and enjoying conversation about Mongolian life. There was a little girl standing down in the front who kept looking at me and smiling, so we had some non-verbal interaction. I would do something with my hand, and she would copy it. Then, she would make some motion, and I would mimic her. It was entertaining, so when we left, I gave her an American quarter- not sure what she’ll do with it, but maybe she’ll remember that white guy at Naadam 2010?! My student then walked me home around 8:30p.

20100713- Woke up at 9a and all of the teachers left the apartments around 10a. We spent the day celebrating one of our aids’ birthday. First we went to Sukbaatar Square because they were having a traditional dress parade. Some of their outfits were very elaborate, and each family that was represented had a different pattern. All so beautiful. Then we all loaded onto a bus and met up with more of her friends to enjoy an incredible meal at an amazing hotel/resort. After lunch, we all went down to the river and played soccer, volleyball, frisbee, and played Uno together for the rest of the day. It was a really fun time. Around 6p, we all loaded back on the bus, went home, and began prep for class.

20100714- Hopefully, this will be the last day that I will get new students. I gained one more student today, and it is very difficult to help them catch up to what we have already covered in the class in the last two days. There are two students that have not showed up for the last three days, so they are officially out of the program. Three absences and you are out. For as much as I may have taught my students, I learned a lot from them as well. We talked about superstitions and taboos in America and Mongolia- different things that should and should not be done in each culture. Some of them were helpful for me to know, so I don’t offend any of my students. I learned that 247 means “I Love You” in Mongolian, because of the number of letters in each word. On our way home from school, we met some other Americans who are doing almost the same thing that we are, but more long-term than we are. We talked with them for a while, then came home and began preparations for the next day of school.

20100715- Today’s class was semi-difficult, almost more so than the other days. When class started, I asked a few questions, and all I got was blank stares. No one answered anything I said. Maybe it was too early, and their minds’ were not thinking in English?! After a short period of time, they began to participate a little more and think of words to write on the board. I don’t remember if I mentioned it yet or not, but I have a student in my class, that doesn’t know any English. I had about fifteen minutes to sit down with her and have her read to me “in English”. It seemed like a little bit of an accomplishment. When we went to dinner tonight, there was a film crew recording a movie at the place where we usually eat. It was interesting, but all in Mongolian. Came home and prepped.

20100716- Friday. Movie at school and late night movie at home with a few of the other teachers.

20100717- Today was so much fun! The teachers and I went on a bus with some of our students to the Ghengis Khaan monument. I was surprised at how huge it was. It is the biggest monuments with a horse and rider in the world. The pictures that I took of it don’t really do it justice as to the size of it. We went inside and walked around. There was a museum of the Bronze Age inside which had a bunch of really old artifacts found around Mongolia, and a sword that dated back to 1500 B.C., that’s like David’s time period! We were also allowed to go up onto the mane of the horse to see Ghengis Khaan up super close. The statue was made completely of highly polished metal; it looked like very shiny silver- except for his whip, which was made of gold. Supposedly, he found a gold whip on the way to conquer a certain area, so the designer accentuated the golden whip.
After the monument, we all went off-roading in the bus down to the river. It was a pretty crazy road, but we had a really good driver. When we got to a good spot, we all got out and played Frisbee and volleyball in a circle, and had a little picnic. Some people road horses and a camel. After about an hour, for some reason, there was a family in a small van that tried to drive through the river. They got stuck in the water. Not just a little stuck. The van was almost halfway under water. So, a few of the guys in our group and I tried to help them out, but it was not really possible without a rope or chain and wench. Eventually, they were able to get something to help them out. We started to drive off, and then our bus got stuck in the sand! That wasn’t as difficult to get free, but it was ironic that we would get stuck after helping someone else who was stuck. There was so much laughter about everything that happened today, that it really felt like a wonderful bonding experience for both the students and the teachers. On the bus ride home, the Mongolians would sing a song, and then the Americans would “try” to sing a song. They definitely did much better than we did. It was a really memorable and fun day! And it wasn’t over when we got home. Around 11p, four of the girls, our aid, and I went to the “disco” (a dance club) for a few hours. It was pretty fun. We drank energy drinks and danced quite a bit. The music was decent…mostly house with a few hippity-hop songs mixed in. For the most part, I really enjoyed it!

20100718- Had a brief meeting about yesterday before going to church. Went to a new church today. It was really great. About half of the songs were in English, and the pastor spoke a little English. But, there was a woman from the Philippines who spoke today and she spoke almost perfect English. It was a really good message. There were also a few missionaries from South Africa who were visiting that church today too. Directly after church, the director, his wife and I went to one of my student’s houses in the countryside for a late lunch. It was an excellent meal of Korean food. The last time I had Korean food (in America), I did not like it; but this time it was really good. After eating, we went for a walk, then we drove back home and I put my lesson together for the next day. It was all-around a very nice, relaxing day.

Kerns Update May - June 2010

2010-07-21T11:56:00.001-07:00

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Scott and Leslie Walt in Austria - July

2010-07-19T15:20:00.001-07:00

Dear friends and family,

We are back in Austria after 3 fast and furious weeks in the USA. In that time Scott and his sister Wendy helped their parents move out of their home of 46 years into an apartment in an assisted living development located 3-4 blocks from their home. Although this was a hard move for everyone involved, it was comforting to see the Lord provide everything needed including strength for the task. Mom and Dad Walt have daily been looking to the Lord to help them adjust to this radical change and to feel at home in their new living space.

While Scott helped his parents move, Leslie helped Elisa get all the bases covered at Clackamas Community College. She will start her classes there in September. Please continue to pray for work for her and for a permanent place to live. I know these things are heavy on her heart as they are for us too. Right now she is helping out at Eaglefern Camp, our church camp, for a week here and there. If anyone has any work you can give to Elisa for a few hours or a few day or weeks or years then please email me for her cell phone number. She will need transportation as she does not have a drivers license or a car yet.

We so enjoyed spending 5 days with John and Katie in Minneapolis on our way back to Austria and we thank the Lord for their love for each other and how well they have adjusted to married life. They are delighted with their new family member, a huge black cat named Sarge who loves to sleep in the bathroom sink. Some of the highlights of our visit, next to our wonderful kids and Katie's parents, were the fireworks display and a day on Lake Minnetonka.

Back home again, our missions trip to Bulgaria with our young people got cancelled for this year. Many details for the trip simply did not come together including the people we needed. It was decided to postpone the trip until next summer and to include the youth groups from our sister churches in the planning and leadership. This came as a great relief for both Scott and I as we were still too tired from the time in the States.

Well, must run. Time to head for bed.

In Him,

Leslie for us Vienna Walts

Read More to see a summary of Scott's message, June 27, 2010 at Spring Mountain Bible Church that we thought you might find interesting.
Scott was my counselor out at Boys’ Camp (http://www.eagleferncamp.com/) when was about nine years old. I still remember how, when I had fallen and injured my knee on a long hike, he carried me all the way back to camp on his back. We have not been super-close all through the years, but I have always looked to him as someone from whom I have learned and continue to learn Christ. Scott and his wife have been missionaries in Austria for many years. But once in a while, they come back to the Portland area for one reason or another. And when they do, our congregation is usually treated to a sermon by Scott on some Sunday during their time here.
Not long ago (June 27th), I was blessed to have heard a sermon by this old friend who always challenges me and spurs me on to love and good works. (You can listen to the message here: http://www.springmountain.org/) As I wrote to him in the encouragement note that I slipped to him after the meeting, I am not sure when I have ever had such a love-hate relationship with a sermon. I think my spirit loved it, but my flesh did not appreciate it much at all. It was as though the Lord had brought him to town just to preach this message to me. I would certainly think so, if I did not hear several others say the same thing as we all stood around talking.
Scott’s message was on I John 1:5-10. Early on in the message, he asked the question of who we would consider the godliest man or woman we know. Then he told his answer. He identified Bert, another of our church’s missionaries, as the godliest man he knows. Many years ago, Scott and his wife had the opportunity to live for the summer with Bert and Colleen in Peru, where they have served the Lord for decades. In that context, he saw that Bert lived every day at home as the same humble, Christ-like man that others saw in public. Yet Scott saw Bert agonize over his own sin. And he wondered why such a godly man would need to feel so bad about his little sins. Then he thought of it like golf. If someone like me, he said, hits the ball and shanks it off to the side, he is not really surprised to have missed. He might say, “Awww, shoot!” His disappointment is not that great, though, because he never really expected to do that well. But someone who has practiced and is, in fact, very good at golf, and barely misses the shot is very disappointed. He agonizes as he sees the replay in his mind of the ball swirling around the rim of the hole only to swoop back away onto the green. The closer we get to the heart of our Lord, the better we look? Not to ourselves. It’s an up-close look into a magnifying mirror with the kind of light that shows all of our imperfections.
This was a very good thing to chew on. But it was the main point of Scott’s message which really convicted me.
Centering on verse 9, he began to describe the differences between explanation and confession. When we exhibit bad behavior (i.e. sin), and we offer an explanation, we are doing something other than what John means to teach us in this verse. The Scripture does not say, after all, that if we explain our sin, or excuse our sin, or rationalize our sin, God will forgive us. This is important. Explanation involves mitigating our guilt, and its goal is understanding—that is, our goal in explaining ourselves is to be understood. The example Scott used is the common, “I’m sorry I did X, but I’ve been under a lot of stress lately.” Confession is very different from explanation. Confession merely owns up to guilt, and its goal is forgiveness. When we confess, we don’t seek to be understood, but to be forgiven.
This was a very hard truth for me to hear. It is easy for me to look back on all of my admissions of guilt in the past and see how I sought to be understood and then forgiven. It’s as if, before you forgive me, I need to reduce my debt by getting you to see that the sin was not entirely my fault. To be honest, I’m not sure I can think of a single situation in which this insidious form of spiritual self-defense (and consequent lack of total reliance on the mercy of the Lord) was not at work within me. Ironically, this has even been part of my reluctance to forgive certain others from my heart. Before I forgive them, I want it clearly understood just what they did—and therefore, just how magnanimous it is of me to forgive them. [Sighhhhhh…]
In talking about stress as an explanatory factor in our bad behavior, Scott made this bold assertion: Stress does not cause bad behavior, it reveals it. Stress helps to create the situation or the environment in which our sinfulness is exposed. For that reason, stress is a gift from God. Without it, we might not have our sins exposed to ourselves and to others around us in a way that will help us to deal with them. In fact, it is just this sort of reality check that we are trying to avoid when we seek to explain our sins, rather than confess them. If I can convincingly explain my sin to you, perhaps you will help me sweep my underlying sinfulness back under the rug where I think it belongs. That way I can get back to life as I know and like it. This is how many of us manage to go through decades of Christian life never really growing or dealing with the underlying sin issues which cripple us and make our faith so anemic.
Nevertheless, even if we fool ourselves and other humans into swallowing our explanations, God is not fooled. Scott offered an alternative reading of I John 1:9. He said, “If we explain (or excuse, or rationalize, or justify) our sin, He is faithful and just to let wallow in our sin.”

Eric Schrag 4th Update

2010-07-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

20100705- We did training all day…not much interesting to talk about. During our devotions in the morning something happened that really made me think about how it must’ve been when Jesus was walking around talking to His disciples. We were sitting out in front of the school going through a couple verses and some Mongolians came up and were listening to our conversation. They probably couldn’t understand anything we were saying, but it made me think how awesome it would be to do that type of ministry. Just walk around teaching the people closest to me, and other people out of curiosity would just come and listen. A bit later, we went to the “mall” down the road and bought batteries that only lasted about a few hours, and a few groceries for the week. Those were about the most interesting events of today.

To read more click below...

20100706- Today, we had a half day of training. It was the first time that we had to speak in front of the class. We each presented an activity to assist in learning and teaching a new lesson. After lunch, the highlight was going to the countryside. The drive was great. We got to see a variety of landscapes, different towns, and of course many “gers” along the trip. Unfortunately, the batteries that I bought yesterday died after about fifteen minutes into our drive. So, I just had to soak in the beauty. Then the director finally had the idea to let me use his camera (which takes much better pictures than my does I might add). We went to an awesome rock formation called the “Turtle” and climbed around on that for a good half hour or so. It was pretty cool. Then, we drove a bit farther down the road to a hotel at which we ate dinner. We ate a meal called “Hushuur” (lamb steak), I though it was very tasty- especially the sweet, hot sauce!

20100707- Had the day off. Still had a little bit of a meeting with the rest of the teachers. Then we went to a store to buy new batteries. At least, we thought we were going to the store. We ended up sitting in the car for about an hour waiting for our driver. We parked on the side of the road and sat in the car and waited for him until he came back. We had no idea what he was doing at the time; but eventually, when he returned, we found out that he was getting us a few more copies of the keys for our apartment. Then we ate dinner, came back home and prepared for class tomorrow. I didn’t personally see it, but apparently someone brought a sheep into the elevator and it peed all over the hallway in the apartment

20100708- 1st day of school orientation, and boy was I nervous. I had no idea what to expect. At first all the teachers and students met in the big hall and the teachers were introduced in front of everyone. Then a few instructions and expectations were given before we were all dismissed to our classrooms. I was supposed to have 13 students, but only 10 showed up. I did everything I could to get to know everyone. Their names are so different than American names- it was hard to remember all ten. It was also hard for me to slow down when I talk, but I know that they needed me to. There were a few times that I could tell by the way that they looked at me that they did not know what I just said. By the end of the day, I think that I got the hang of it, and they started asking me questions about where I’ve been in Mongolia. They also mentioned that we would all have to go somewhere together as a class sometime next week because we have Monday and Tuesday off of school for a holiday called Naadam. After school was finished for the day, the teachers had a brief meeting over dinner, then went home to study and plan for the next day of class.

20100709- Friday was the 1st day of real class. It was a little easier than yesterday, but I began to realize how much of a challenge this is going to be. For the next four weeks, I have to teach English to ten people (one man and nine ladies) who are all different ages and different levels of speaking. There is one girl who I don’t even know if she knows any English?! On the contrary, I am already starting to enjoy being a teacher and growing unexpectedly close to my students. They asked me if we could go somewhere as a class on one of our days off next week for Naadam. After class was over, the teachers had a short meeting, then we had to set up a movie (Blind Side) in the main hall to watch as an extra credit activity. It seemed as if at least half of the students showed up for the movie. I think they probably understood the movie enough, just maybe not enough to answer our questions?!

20100710- It’s Saturday, but I was not able to sleep in today because we (the 11 teachers) were all invited to have breakfast at another long-term teacher’s home. We enjoyed quiche and a plethora of fruits, and of course coffee! After some pleasant conversation, a few of us went to a Mongolian military ceremony. It was quite impressive to watch them marching in their ranks; they seem to be incredibly disciplined. The batteries in my camera died again, but I did get a few good pictures of them in ranks while the dignitaries drove by them. When that was finished, we went to a mall to get a few things (batteries especially!)

20100711- Unfortunately, we did not go to church this morning; but we still had to wake up early again. This time it was for a very good reason though. We had to arrive early to the stadium for the opening ceremony of the Mongolian holiday “Naadam”. The festival includes: It was incredible! There was a huge parade and an amazing display of the traditions and history of Mongolia. They had trick horse riders, men dressed like old fashion warriors, and archers shooting from horseback. My favorite part was when they had all of the branches of protection for Mongolia (i.e., police, army, palace guard) out in ranks and moving in perfect unison, all at the same time and each in their own way! Extremely impressive! When the ceremony was over, we had authentic “hushuur” at a tiny tent outside the gate, then walked around the festival (very similar to a fair or carnival, but on a much grander scale). We went over to the area where the archery was taking place, watched that for a little while. It was not like the archery that you would think of when you hear the word. They were shooting an arrow across a field and trying to hit a stack of (what looked like) cans, not a target. A few of the teachers that we were with got interviewed because it was their first time at Naadam. After archery, it began to rain, so we went under the tent where they were playing a game where they flick a square piece of bone about ten feet and try to knock down two other bones (that looked more like teeth?) at the other side. It sounds weird, but it was something that they used to do during the long snowy winters. The rain let up a little, so we started to walk back to the car. On the walk though, the rain picked up quite a bit so we took shelter under the roof of the stadium. Whilst there, this drunk guy came up to us because a couple of the girls were pretending to arm wrestle. He tried to arm wrestle one of them and won. Then he wanted to try against me, so I took on his challenge. I won! (with both arms- he wanted best out of three?!). Eventually, our aid got us all some raincoats and we continued our journey back to the car. We were able to fit 12 people into a Land Cruiser, it was tight, but we didn’t care, we were out of the rain. We went back to the apartments and dried off, ate a small dinner, and left again. This time it was off to Sukbaatar Square to watch a concert and fireworks. Some of the music was just knock-offs of popular music in America. There were a few really good performances (and a few strange ones too). Altogether, it was a great time! One of our aids knew someone, and we were able to go backstage and see the performers a lot closer. We had a very good time and a really positive first impression of the entire Naadam festival- and there’s still two more days!

20100711- Today was another really good day! It started early again. We had a teacher’s meeting over French toast, watermelon, and coffee. Then, I had to leave so I could meet my students. This is the day that we agreed to spend the day together. Only four of them showed up, but that’s ok, some of them live kind of far from the city. We went to the Museum of Natural History (one of them paid for me); it was pretty nice (except that I had to sneak my photos). After the museum, one of my student’s family was waiting outside, so we walked with them to the Naadam festival. His daughter spoke English pretty well, so we talked a little while we walked. Before we got the festival area though, we stopped to get a “snack” which turned out to be more of a meal- it was really good though. We also had this hot juice that I really liked a lot. When we arrived at the festival, we ate hushuur again. I wasn’t really hungry anymore, but it was offered to me, so I took it. While we ate, an older Mongolian man sort of winked at me, I can only assume that it was because I was sitting with four younger looking females?! Eventually, everyone except my only male student left, so he and I went into the stadium to watch the wrestling matches (I was pretty surprised that he paid for everything). Mongolian wrestling is just as different as the archery was. Their outfits are crazy, but there is a story behind why they are so strange. I had a good time watching wrestling, eating more hushuur, and enjoying conversation about Mongolian life. There was a little girl standing down in the front who kept looking at me and smiling, so we had some non-verbal interaction. I would do something with my hand, and she would copy it. Then, she would make some motion, and I would mimic her. It was entertaining, so when we left, I gave her an American quarter- not sure what she’ll do with it, but maybe she’ll remember that white guy at Naadam 2010?! My student then walked me home around 8:30p.

Erich Schrag 1st Update

2010-07-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Skeeter and Barbara Wass Update in Guinea Bissau

2010-07-18T19:36:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

The rains are coming continually now. Everything is green, humid and muddy. The plants grow as you watch them. The water is gathering in the 'bolanas' where they plant rice. Everyone who is able is out planting now.

Our classes start August 2nd and will continue through the month of September. We are very excited about the classes this year as many other people will be helping teach them. Two of our village teachers will join us this year in teaching, as well as several Brazilians. Each day someone different asks us, "When will your seminars begin?" We are trusting God for a great turn-out this year. What a difference it could make to this country if we could put Christian teachers in each village. They would not only have an opportunity to increase the literacy rate (25%), but would have many opportunities to teach about God. This is our goal. Please join us in prayer.

Ramadan is coming up in the month of August. Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting and praying. It is always a very black, difficult time for us. The Prince of Darkness loves Ramadan. We covet your special prayers for us and all of the missionaries who work in Muslim countries. Once you've experienced the extra weight on your head, you can't mistake it for illness or depression, you know that it's evil. There's nothing quite like it.

Two of our teachers are going on for further training this year. Mesaque is doing his DTS with YWAM, Youth With A Mission. A discipleship training seminar is great for furthering your knowledge of God, deepening your relationship to Him and practicing evangelization. At the end of a DTS you go out into a village to practice what you've learned. We are excited for Mesaque. Domingos wants to go to Enchumbe to be trained to be a pastor. Enchumbe is a training school in the middle of the country. We were there several times this past year and were very impressed with their program. Domingos needs a sponser. The financial need is only $30.00 per month. The program runs for 3 years. We are praying that God will touch someone's heart to help Domingos. It is such a blessing to watch God at work in the lives of these precious young men. They are so devoted to God, and He rewards their faith.

Our love to each of you. Skeeter and Barbara

Eric Schrag 2nd Update

2010-07-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Skeeter and Barbara Wass Update in Guinea Bissau

2010-07-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

We have had a busy time lately. Saturday we spent the day going to YWAM's graduation exercises. They did preschool in the morning and the older students in the afternoon. Our cooks daughter Fatumata, graduated from high school. She invited us to her party afterwards. Pastor Tony's 2 middle sons graduated from high school also. The king of the region was there at the graduation and spoke of his appreciation for the effort that YWAM is making to educate the children of the Gabu region.

Sunday we took public transport into Bissau. We were able to visit with Aisatu at the hospital. One of her legs is healing up, the other one is still bad. We left pain pills with her as they do not prescribe anything for pain. Her daughters are with her and take turns sitting with her in the hospital. They turn her frequently so that she will not get bed sores. She is not able to walk at all. They try to get her into a sitting position once a day. Please continue your prayers for her and her children.

After our visit we went to WEC to change clothes for the graduation ceremony for Enchumbe. Enchumbe is the pastor training school outside of Bafata in the middle of Guinea Bissau. They had 11 graduates that had completed the 3 year course. One of the graduates came from a Muslim family. He had been kicked out of his family when he converted and raised by a missionary. It was very exciting to see him graduate. The graduation was held in the largest church building in Bissau. There were at least 500 people inside with more listening outside. Skeeter and I were the "godparents" of the graduating class. As such, we helped with many of the expenses, such as graduation robes. I also had to give a speech! A little scary standing up in front of a crowd which included many pastors and missionaries and to have to give a speech in Creole.

Upon arriving back in Gabu we learned that Pastor Seco was taken to the hospital in Bissau with complications of malaria and his heart/blood pressure. Please lift him up in prayer. He is also a Fula/Muslim convert. He is planning on teaching at the pastor training school that we will open up on the Jericho property.

We have had some huge rain and wind storms. Many houses and buildings have been damaged. Unfortunately our school in Balanka was one of them. The wind took off the roof and then the rain tore down the dobie walls. This was the first school that Jose Dilson built during his time in Gabu. The Presbyterian Church are the over-seers of this outreach. We will have to do some fund raising to rebuild the school. We are considering whether or not to build it in the same village as the villagers are not very supportive of the school. There are so many other villages that are begging for a school. But that will have to be decided along with the board of the Presbyterian Church.

We are working on our plans for our seminars. They are taking on a slightly different form this year. Skeeter and I will be teaching the first and last weeks here in Gabu, but 2 of our village teachers will be teaching the middle two weeks. We are thrilled that they are able to do this. Both are great teachers and have a lot that they can pass on to others. The middle two weeks of August will find Skeeter and I back in Bissau training teachers for Central Evangelical Church. We've done this before and it's always a great time.

September, we will be collaborating with a Brazilian team who are coming to do teacher training on the YWAM base. We have seen their program and it is very similar to what we do. We will take part in the training, and enjoy watching as others teach. It's always good to be a learner as well as a teacher.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. We are continuing to take God's challenge one day at a time. Each day holds a different task and we are glad to be His hands and feet. Our love to each of you. Skeeter and Barbara

Tuttle updates June 2010

2010-06-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

back from one trip, to begin another

Posted by the tuttle tribe at 6/29/2010

Micah returned Monday afternoon from June's river convention dirty and tired as is normal. He got back early while the kids and I were out on one of our very rare outings, so he broke into our house and was able to get all cleaned and unpacked before we got back. Surprise!

I've put a slideshow up in the sidebar with a lot of pictures, but I thought I'd give you a link here to the pictures taken on this latest trip. (Click here, or on the picture below to see the whole album.)

To see all our ministry photos online click here.

Monday Micah returned, and we'll be leaving no later than Thursday for the long trek to Trujillo.

We'll be there for a month to work with IBEM (Instituto Biblico de Entrenamiento Misionero).

We'll be receiving Amy's mom who we'll bring back with us to Tarapoto. She will get to stay with us for several weeks and we are VERY excited. In her bags will arrive all the necessary homeschool materials for the upcoming school year. Please pray that we can somehow miraculously get everything we need into the allowable luggage weight limit. Airlines are making it painful for us overseas dwellers with all these limits and extra fees!

To pray for:

safe travel for us and all the students (no landslides or car trouble)

the professors' last minute preparations

the Lord's leading in all the classes

Amy's mom's (Mary) travel that everything would be trouble free, especially re: luggage

emotional adjustment to living in another place for a month

that we'd be able to really enjoy the change of scenery

and accomplish all that the Lord has for us to do while in Trujillo

Skeeter and Barbara Wass Prayer Request in Guinea Bissau

2010-06-19T12:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Church Family,

Thank you for your continued prayers for Aisatu. She was given a donation of blood from her son and another Christian man on Thursday. Friday was a bad day for her as the 2nd boil was getting ready to burst and she was in extreme pain. Today she is receiving more blood and the Dr. will lance the boil. Tomorrow they are planning to take her to a hospital in Bissau. The 2nd boil dislocated her leg bones at the knee. Without proper care she will lose the use of her leg.

There are a lot of expenses for the family. We are helping as is Judy Byers. Any donations to help the family may be sent to Servants to Missions and put into the Wass support acct. Let us know by email what has been donated and we will make sure that that money gets to the family.

Please continue your prayers for Aisatu and her children. Her children are exhausted from taking care of her. Realize the hospital conditions here are poor. The family must bring food, clean bedding, water, etc. for the patient. They must go to a pharmacy for all of her needs, including iv's, syringes, bandages, etc. We take so much for granted in the U.S. Thank God that you were not born in a 3rd world country. We have so much to be thankful for.

Love in Christ, Skeeter and Barbara

Pray for Eric

2010-06-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

I leave on the 29th of June, which is a Tuesday. I will be there until the 23rd of August.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlmoor/212314403/

Skeeter and Barbara Wass Update in Guinea Bissau

2010-06-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Church Family,

Thank you for your prayers for us and the prayer needs that we sent earlier. Skeeter and I are fine. Just getting over colds. Our maid, Mariama, is back to work and doing much better. Her daughters still come to help with the heavier work. Keep up your prayers for Aisatu, John and Rachel's maid, as she is still not doing well. Our teachers are doing much better except for Domingos in Kanjufa. He has some skin disease that can only be remedied with honey. We sent a jar with Pastor Marios as he was headed that way to disciple Domingos and his wife.

The schools are preparing to test the kids and close up for the rainy season. Skeeter photocopied off some tests for the kids in Balanka this morning. We'll try to make it back to each of the schools as they close to gather up materials that would be damaged by rain, termites or rats if they are left in the classrooms.

The people are preparing their land for the coming rains. They use plows harnessed to cattle or donkeys, or they pay a man who runs a tractor to plow for them. They will plant rice in the lowlands where the water gathers, and peanuts and manioc in mounds or raised beds so the rain won't damage the crop. The cashews are about finished and we see large trucks hauling out burlap sacks filled with unprocessed cashew nuts. The mangoes are still coming on and the bigger varieties are starting to ripen. They are delicious.

Please continue to pray for the pastors and church workers in the outlying villages. Continue prayers for the persecuted church. Please continue your prayers for us as we seek God's guidance for teacher training. Pray that our faith will continue to grow as we wait for God to show us His plan for our future.

We are still praying Ephesians 3:14-21. Our love to each of you.

Skeeter and Barbara

Testimonials from Pastors Regarding MP3 Project

2010-06-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

5/31/10
Testimony from Liberia - "I am using the book of Romans both for Bible Study and for the Sunday Sermon. I am spending time with it. From Romans I am getting the understanding of the foundation of Christianity, and it is helping me to become solid in understanding the Word of God. I am not doing it for entertainment. Before I didn't understand the Biblical foundation as Scott teaches it. Now when you understand this book you will understand any other book like Ephesians or Colossians, and it really helps to understand the Old Testament. I would welcome having this kind of teaching on every book of the Bible.
"We had a revival with another speaker in our church, and the people were disappointed by what he taught." Theophylis.
He agreed that when a person gets to know the truth of the Word, he is able to recognize false teaching or incorrect teaching.

Testimony from Nigeria - "26 pastors are now in the Romans reading project and others are interested. 4 have completed reading the book 20 times and are now copying it. We are all reading it more slowly seeking to understand what Romans is saying. It is very interesting." Boakai

Testimony from Sierra Leone - "Several pastors are in the reading program. I have learned many things that I didn't actually know. I had stuggled to understand Jesus physical side and his being the Son of God. I found the answer to that in Romans 1 as I was reading it, that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. People are very interested in this program and sometimes we discuss it together." Daniel

^{Romans 1:16-17}
¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹⁷For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

ISI Spokane Ministries Update

2010-06-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

I.S.I. is taking a quasi-break for the summer. Of course, there are always new students to meet and continuing activities.
The prayer group meets every Tuesday morning at 10 at Larch House.
June 26-27 is a U.S. conference in Denver, Colorado. Dan and Pam will be attending that.
There is a world conference in Hong Kong next summer and they are making plans to attend that, as well as follow up with some of our Chinese student contacts in that country.
Please join us in praying for that.

The International Women’s Connection (I.W.C.) is not CLOSED FOR SUMMER.
We are meeting several times for picnics, hikes, Fourth of July, and impromptu activities.

Talk Time will begin again in September.

ISI Sokane

is a student ministry reaching international students in Spokane.

Melody Faris is involved in ISI Sokane

and loves the interaction she has been able to have with various students.

Continue to pray for those involved as they share Jesus with students from around the world.

Jonathan and Ruth Sonoda Update in Boise, Id

2010-06-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

We have been enjoying our time in Boise with friends and family. The boys have adjusted to the time change very well. Yohan is even sleeping 6 hours at night!

We were very glad we could be at Joel and Heidi's wedding. It was very special and touching. Picture time was a little difficult since James did not want his picture taken. During the ceremony Evie (a friend) held Yohan and I had given her a bottle for him. She said he slept through the whole thing until the "I dos" which is when he let it rip in his diaper. Thankfully it was almost over. We had asked another friend, Olyvia, to play with James if he got antsy during the ceremony. Since it was outside she just walked around with him. Because we had this help Jonathan and I were able to stand in our place throughout the ceremony.

Today James is two years old. He was given a dollar to spend by his Great Aunt Beth. So I took him to the dollar store. He browsed the toy aisle. He almost chose a ball and bat. But then he saw a package of cars and it was all over. I didn't want the cars but I had told him he could choose whatever he wanted. Oh well.

Ben and Elena Kerns from Spain

2010-06-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

This is the story of their Kaylen Sharon Kerns coming...

This is the Kern's website for any further details on their life in Spain...

River Trip Update from Tuttles

2010-06-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Journal entry for 6-4-2010

Early this morning, I read Psalms 1-30 with the guys. We walked 2 miles to Pelejo, talking. Once in Pelejo, visited the main church leader, who gave us breakfast of plantains with HOT chile sauce. During the day we visited many houses, sharing the gospel and inviting them to the meeting in the night. In the evening, the verdant greens faded, the sun set, the stars began to glow. Preached Isaiah 55, in the dark to a good crowd in the plaza de armas (town square). I couldn't see anyone, until later when the light came on and sure enough I'd been preaching to a good sized group of people. Many were shaken and wanted to talk afterward. It seems like many people were interested in the message, but once again, we kept hearing the same sad story, people don't want church because of the bad testimony of a handful of leaders in the church. We NEED leaders.

Journal entry for 6-3-2010

Up at 5 a.m to pray and read with the guys. We read from Psalms 119 thru 150. Awesome God! After breakfast we went to pray for sister Patricia, she was in a lot of pain (everyone thinks it is appendicitis). I could only urge the family to get her to the hospital in Tarapoto as soon as possible.

At about 10 a.m we headed up river in a peke peke (boat with a motor, the sound the motor makes sounds like 'peke-peke') to the next village. Along the way, the propeller shaft hit a submerged log and the whole motor came flying out of its socket, flipped over and landed on Pablo's leg. He had a pretty good gash and lost plenty of blood. In the end he was alright, but the peke peke was busted and we were stranded on the banks of the river a few miles from the village. There was nothing else to do but to set out hacking through the jungle with machetes until we found a trail.

After an exciting trek slogging through mud, eating a variety of jungle fruits and avoiding the many poisonous critters we finally made it to Puerto Mercedes, where we promptly began our regular hut to hut evangelistic visits. After giving out N.T's and tracts to a lot of people one family gave us a fine dinner of rice, beans and majaz which was muy rico (very yummy). That night the normally abandoned church building was so packed out I thought the elevated rotting wood floor was going to cave in (by some miracle it didn't). I preached from Mark 14:66-72 and everyone was very attentive. I was able to deal with several souls for a good amount of time afterward and I think the Lord was really working. Many people begged us to return and help resurrect this church that no longer meets together at all. If only there were 40 dedicated available men to serve in 40 different villages that all have a similar story.

At about midnight we said our good-byes, got into our canoe (the motor had been re-secured and brought up to the village by that time) and we headed into the pitch dark to sail the mighty Huallaga river. Despite the tremendous darkness, Pablo our peke peke driver, had no problems guiding us back to Papa Playa where we happily retired to our tents (in the company of rats).

The Tuttle Update - June

2010-06-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Tuttle Web Ministry Page
The Tuttle Blog Page
The Tuttle's continue to work on the building for their church.
Pray for Micah while he is away from the family on another river trip. Oops just talked with Amy and he is home and sleeping peacefully :) Praise the Lord he cares for us whether anyone remembers to pray or not. He is faithful. I am grateful.