Dear friends, 

Some of you may already receive our BVI newsletter called the Intercessor. If so, you’ve heard some updates about the ministry this year. But, if not, it’s been some time since you’ve received an update from us either about ministry or our family. My apologies. In this update I’ll try to give you some on both topics. At BVI we continue the work of supporting partners reaching children with the Gospel. That support work takes three major forms—SUPPLYING (distribution), PRODUCING, and TEACHING.

SUPPLYING 
At BVI this continues to be an interesting season as we monitor ministry partners around the globe who are facing differing circumstances based on Covid restrictions. In May we took part in the CEF International conference but it looked much different from the past gatherings in North Carolina. Instead of meeting in person, the entire conference took place online. We hosted a number of Zoom sessions on various topics and made it a priority to listen to the particular needs of brothers and sisters right now to gauge how best to supply them through resources. However, at a most basic level supporting them means petitioning the Lord and these Zoom meetings often morphed into prayer times for one another. 

Since the conference, I’ve been able to have follow up conversations with various CEF workers around the globe. One ongoing opportunity includes sending visuals, Arabic texts and audio files to a partner in a closed country. 

Partnerships with other ministries continue to yield fruit. In Papua New Guinea our partners now have sample curriculum books in hand to share with others in an effort to see the government adopt BVI materials as the official Release Time curriculum in the public schools. Our partners at Editorial Bautista Independiente (EBI) sent us sample copies of the Spanish version BVI stories they have started to print and distribute in Central and South America. Oremundo Ministries in Mexico also provided us with video files of several BVI stories being taught so we could create a Spanish section of our Youtube channel which continues to be quite popular. We receive frequent updates from our other print partners in India, Canada, the Ukraine and Mongolia. In July I ran into a film maker who is producing a missions series that includes a profile of Mickey and Trina Cofer, our partners in Mongolia. I had a sneak peek at GO: Journey of Knowledge—Mongolia and you won’t want to miss it. (More info at www.ninthhourproductions.com)
BVI Spanish materials printed by EBI
Samuel & David helping to load a shipment for Liberia
Caught a glimpse of BVI materials being printed in Mongolia 
PRODUCING 
One of the main ways we continue to support the work of evangelizing children is by producing new Gospel-centered materials. 
In July a major project came to completion—our Family Worship Series book on Mark’s Gospel. The books helps families study through a single book of the Bible by following a simple pattern. READ the text together in small bites. TALK about it together by thinking through several types of questions. PRAY together in response to the Word. SING together in praise to God. This is a new kind of product for our ministry, but one that has been on my heart for several years. I’ve been blessed to see how God has provided for its production by supplying an author (Assistant Director Jeff Kilcup), the illustrators (Bethany & Olivia Moy) the layout designer (Lindsay Hess) and the funding needed for the project (many of you!). Please contact me if you are interested in getting a copy. We desire to produce more and your feedback would be very helpful. 

Another project getting close to completion is our mission story about Elinor Young. Opening emails from our illustrator Del Thompson feels like unwrapping Christmas presents of the best kind. (See illustration heading illustration)

Other ongoing projects include our reillustration of John Bunyan’s The Holy War, Patricia St. John’s story Rainbow Garden and the colorization of our remaining two-color illustration Bible lessons, stories and songs. Jeff and I have also split the work of writing a new Bible lesson series and special occasion family devotionals. 
 
TEACHING
Despite Covid restrictions, technology continues to provide ways for us to help support teachers through teacher training workshops. During the Spring, I taught several sessions via Zoom to children’s workers at an international church outside Washington DC. 
We also spent several months working with our friends Bruce and Jenny O’Neill preparing for another teaching opportunity, a family conference focused on family discipleship. This conference was hosted at Bruce’s dad’s church in Mansfield, Massachusetts and included teaching sessions on the WHY, HOW and WHAT of family discipleship, panel discussions, breakout sessions for men and woman and even some times of modeling family worship. The O’Neills did a great job leading the conference. Our hope is to be able to host these Planting Seed Family Conferences in other places so please contact me if you would like more info. 

SHARING 
Just like I’m doing right now, there is the ever constant need to share about BVI with ministry partners including our donors. Right now we are getting ready to host our first ministry banquet since things were shutdown because of Covid. These events have historically been a boost to us financially, but they have also helped forge relationships with new partnering churches and individuals. Our hope is to record this event so even if you can’t join us, we’ll plan to share it with you in the future. Learn more / register
Our new Family Worship Series book—READ, TALK, PRAY, SING
Representing BVI at a homeschool conference
A new visualized hymn
Bruce & Jenny sharing
FAMILY 
  • Elijah—Elijah is now 15 and has started his first job working at the Garden of Eden on Fridays at the Green Dragon. If you’re from Lancaster County that last sentence made sense. If you’re not from Lancaster County, the Garden of Eden is a produce stand located at the Green Dragon market in Ephrata. Elijah also volunteers here at BVI and is helping us with a few projects. He recently attended an Art & Design camp on the campus of Bob Jones University. 

  • Samuel & David—The twins turned 14 this summer. While their older brother was at his camp, they had some fun of their own sitting in on a BJUgrass practice on campus (see video below). They played along on several songs using their banjo and mandolin. This Bluegrass team from BJU will provide the special music at our upcoming BVI banquet on September 17th so we’re looking forward to a reunion. The twins and Elijah also spent a week at the Wilds in North Carolina where they were joined by other teens from our home church as well as two of their cousins.

  • Jesse & Ginger—Jesse (8) and Ginger (7) both are studying piano under Tracy Kilcup, our Assistant Director’s wife. In May they took part in their first recital and did great. Jesse and Ginger are like our second set of twins doing most everything together including losing teeth! 

  • Betsy—Betsy has recently started helping with the donation processing at BVI. The majority of this work can be done from home although I certainly don’t mind her being at the office more frequently. Besides overseeing the Luttmann clan’s education, she also finds time for video editing and most recently helping others transfer their old VHS and VHS-C tapes into digital form.  

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement as we grow as a family and work to make Christ known to children around the world. 

Tom & Betsy and family
JAM session with BJUgrass
project video made for CEF clubs here in PA