Tozour Times 2009

Highlights & Happenings

Two thousand nine was our sixteenth year in evangelism, a year of harvest mingled with some heartache (as we wept with some who wept). We ministered in twenty-one states, thirty-eight churches, four camps, at West Coast Baptist College (for chapel), and at the “Farmtastic” Teen Rally in Rochelle, IL.

We may have seen more people saved this year than ever before. For example, at Calvary Baptist in Oroville, California, in October, there were sixteen people who trusted Christ for salvation. One was a young man we had placed on our prayer list that week. His uncle had flown him in from Texas (where he had been homeless). He came to two consecutive services and was saved on the second night!

In that same service, three junior-high boys were present who had come in response to some invitation fliers handed out at their school. They came forward at the invitation and called upon Christ to save them. Likewise, an adult farmer came and was born again that same evening.

We also had very good meetings during our annual visit to Hawaii. While with Pastor Wayne Surface at Ohana Baptist Church in Honolulu, we saw a dozen saved. On the island of Kauai, we conducted the first-ever revival meetings at Kauai Baptist Temple. Pastor Nathan Grosse was very pleased with the attendance end efforts of his people. Michael and Rich preached on a Sunday at Lighthouse Baptist on the Big Island. Then we closed out our month in Paradise at Friendship Bible Church in Ewa on Oahu. We met outdoors under a tent and had 150 to 200 every night.

Friendship B.C., Ewa, Hawaii

Spring Preachers’ Retreat

We hosted our 3 rd annual Spring Preachers’ Retreat in April of this year. As always, we met at the Quail Creek Resort in Hartselle, Alabama. Pastor Jim Schettler, our former pastor at PCC and the current pastor of First Baptist in Santa Maria, California, was our guest speaker. His messages were profound! Two different pastors who had considered resigning from their ministries decided to stay the course after the Lord encouraged them through the preaching and fellowship at the conference. The Calvary Quartet and Evangelist Ben Everson (and his brother Joe) ministered to us in music. One evening service lasted almost three hours—there were so many testimonies and requests for more music.

	The men enjoyed their fill of golf each day, and the ladies had a luncheon and some special times of sharing and some shopping. All of us were refreshed. Preachers, plan to join us at Quail Creek, April 5-7, 2010, right after
Easter. Our speaker this year will be Dr. Bud Calvert (founding pastor of Fairfax Baptist Temple in Fairfax, Virginia). The Calvary Quartet will again minister in music (see our new website, tozourministries.org, for details

Trials & Triumphs

The triumphs of the year were balanced out by some trials in the lives and ministries of some of our friends. At one church out West, a pastor friend of ours took his life just weeks before we were scheduled to be in his church! We took on a new kind of service as we ministered for two Sundays and Wednesdays to the grieving church family (Having been through a similar tragedy at our home church in 2000, the Lord gave us real empathy and some semblance of what to say in such a heart-rending time.).

In the same state as the incident just mentioned, we had one pastor friend dealing with the heartache of a prodigal daughter and another pastor facing a church discipline matter involving his own adult son. The issue was tearing at this pastor’s heart and threatening to tear apart his family. We spent numerous hours counseling or lending an attentive ear to the various family members. In the end, our loving Father brought about brokenness, confession, and reconciliation. It was a sweet time.

Our dear friend Pastor Tim Zacharias learned this fall that he has multiple myeloma in his spine. Tim is forty-three years old. He and his wife Stacie have four children and a ten-year-old church to care for. Tim has begun treatments and has responded very well so far. Please, pray for him, his family, and Community Baptist Church. (Cards can be sent to Community Baptist Church; 23 Bellview Road; Branford, CT 06405.)

Family Outings

	Talk about family outings, besides a trip to Yellowstone National Park on our way west in September, we had the privilege of hosting Mom Tozour (Rich’s mother) in October. We were in California at the time, and Nina (as the grandkids call her) came to spend a week with us. We spent two days in Yosemite National Park. (Beautiful days!) Mom had only been to Yosemite once, back in 1976.
She got perfect days for touring this fabulous park.). Then we had a day and a half in San Francisco to enjoy. It was a blessed time with family.

Michael and Candace had gotten to spend a similar time with Candace’s parents, sister, and brother-in-law in San Francisco in September. We all are grateful that, although we don’t live close to family, we are very blessed to have periodic visits from our extended family members in some of the most interesting places in America.

Yellowstone National Park

We’re now in the middle of our sixteenth year in evangelism. For the past eleven years we’ve travelled America in our 1994 Travel Supreme fifth-wheel trailer. We’ve literally raised our girls in this house on wheels. She’s worn with wear now, but we’ll all have a sense of sadness when we eventually have to move into new quarters. The Lord has given us many wonderful memories in our “trailer home”. What a privilege to serve Him as a family spreading the glorious gospel of Christ!