Tito – a small man who is very little esteemed in his village yet greatly loved by the Lord.

When I was a little boy at the Toototobi mission post, deep in the jungles, one day Tito showed up from a far away village in a neighboring country. Though he was an adult he so little and short that people laughed at him. They would not give him a wife and wanted him to work in their gardens without pay. He was despised and laughed at, given the hard jobs to do and criticized even by young boys. We missionary kids liked him a lot though. Tito had a good size nose and talked fast and with an accent. We had a hard time understanding him a lot of times as he did not talk the dialect of the group we grew up with. We would laugh with him a lot but always really liked him. He seemed old then…

Now 35 years later, he still looks the same; no one knows his age. He is such a joy to our hearts. He is a believer now and loves the Lord so much! He is still looked down on by the villagers but is the focus of God’s love. He is still despised by many and laughed at but he is a child of God and he knows it and lives in the love and care of God. He loves to sing in church coming in late on the songs and finishing last, singing off tune the whole time, but singing loud and happily.

God is his life, he knows he is accepted and loved. He loves to talk about heaven and going to live with God someday where there will be no more sickness, pain and suffering.

He has suffered much but loves much! He is little but big. He is seen as nothing but is everything to His Heavenly Father. He is illiterate but knows how to follow God’s path, he is poor having nothing but rich possessing all in Christ. The  jungle is so hot but he melts our hearts and causes us to praise and glorify God. Who can do something like this? Who takes little and makes much of it? Who takes the weak and despised and makes him a light and a beacon to God to his own people? Who loves mankind like this? He who is looking down from heaven thru the jungle leaves saving and making a people His own.

We are so excited to see the Lord provide abundantly for our Yanomami friends in the village! A generous donor has given them a large gift to enable us to buy them a new deisel motor to replace their old broken down one.  And to get the 2nd steel boat fixed – a new bottom put on! So these days here in Manaus we were able to purchase the motor which we will take with us up river  in a few days. Then in the beginning of May, a local welder there in our little town will give the old boat a new bottom, so they will be good to go for a long time! Now that we are living in the town they go to, to trade their goods,  we will be able to help them sell their produce, to get more fair price, and also help then set aside money each time for future boat repair needs.

And God seems to be affirming our strategy. We praise Him for His provision of land for our planned 2010 move! We have been given about 120 yards of waterfront property on the Rio Negro by 2 friends of mine (John & True Hawkins) whom I went to school with at PQQ. What a blessing and help they have been in allowing us to use this land.

Now, we are looking to the Lord to supply what is needed to have our house and the Yanomami guest house built on this property. We will also need a boat and motor for our trips up to the village to teach and obtain language help for the translation work.

We have many needs to be met as this project gets under way. Phil Ketcham, who works at PQQ where our children have been studying, is going to lead the construction projects. Of course, construction takes manpower; and if you are interested in helping, please contact Phil for details and answers to any questions you may have regarding the logistics and/or joining a work team for this project.

Phil Ketcham, True Hawkins, and I plan to make a trip to survey the land and choose the building site in June 2008 with plans for the first construction to take place in November 2008.

In addition to participating physically in the work project, there are other ways you can partner with us:

We are excited to see these pieces fitting together for the future work among the Yanomami. You are a vital link to seeing this phase in the Yanomami Church become a reality. The Lord continue to bless you as together we serve our great God!

We, Joel & Gwen Hartman, along with 1 other couple, will move to a town about 300 miles from the Yanomami village where we currently work. It takes the people 3-4 days to get to this town by boat. Here the Yanomami sell Brazil nuts, vines, bananas, and other products to get money for buying clothes, lines, hooks, and whatever else they need.

Around the same time as we move to this town, the Yanomamis plan to move to a new location a few hours downriver from where they are now; here, the game and fish are more plentiful and gardening land is fertile.

From our new location, we plan to continue working on the translation of the New Testament. We will be making trips upriver to where our Yanomami friends will be in order to visit them, encourage them, and continue teaching them. As we complete portions of the Scriptures we will get these, as well as other Bible study helps, to the Yanomami. There will also be many Scripture checking sessions to do both at our new location when the Yanomami come to see us or to trade and up at their new village when we visit them.

Please be in prayer for us as we strategize and work toward this phase of the seeing the Yanomami Church functioning autonomously.