2025
November 2025 – Ministry Newsletter
November 2025 Newsletter
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
From the keyboard of Dr. Ross Jutsum
Dear family and friends::
Greetings from Florida on this pleasant November day. We will celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S. in just a week.
In September Tammy and I made a long trip “down under” to visit my family in Queensland. On the left is a picture of a Worship Concert I gave at my sister Claire’s for some of her neighbors. We sang some great traditional hymns like “How Great Thou Art, “Amazing Grace” and “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” We enjoyed two picnics with family – brother, sisters, in-laws, nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and cousins. With no piano available in the parks where we enjoyed the picnics, I played guitar, although a little rusty and with steel strings!
Upon our return to Florida in October, we drove 6 hours to Destin, FL where I served once again as a Worship Leader at a Church Convention and gave a Worship Concert. Pictured over is when I invited the children to join me on two of my original songs, “No Worries” and “No Other God,” the latter being a musical story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. It was also wonderful to catch up with Bill and Kari Crow who were students when I served at Ambassador University in Big Sandy, TX. They were in our musical group, the Young Ambassadors, in the 1990s, and shared a beautiful duet rendition of the Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli’s “The Prayer” at one of the Destin worship services. Bill also shared one of my songs, “Someone Special.”
In November, we were blessed to make a trip to Connecticut to visit our daughter Heidi and her husband Ryan. One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing our 12-year-old grand-daughter, Grace, in her middle school musical version of “Willy Wonka Jr.” In addition of performing, the students ran the sound and lighting, and coordinated the set building and the publicity. It was truly Broadway quality and we were so proud of Grace’s contribution. Another highlight was watching our 9-year-old grandson Gabriel play in a soccer match. Gabe is quite the sportsman! (see below)
Daughter Lisa, husband Jonathan, and our five other grand-children continue serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Guinea in West Africa. Their work is very challenging and we ask once again for your prayers for their safety and protection. The children are thriving and their French is amazing! Like Grace and Gabriel, they love music and 9-year-old twins Evelyne and Isaiah and 7 year-old Solomon are doing wonderfully well in their piano studies. 5-year-old twins Aaron and Noah will begin their piano studies soon.
Ryan, Grace, Heidi and Gabriel post concert!
Tammy and I so appreciate our family and friends and are very grateful for your prayers and support of our ministries. Please know we continue to pray for you and yours.
With gratitude, love and prayers,
Ross and Tammy
2025
August 2025 – Ministry Newsletter
When you meet together sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart! Ephesians 5:19
From the keyboard of Dr. Ross Jutsum
Dear family and friends:
Greetings from Florida on a very hot July summer day. Tammy and I traveled to Williamstown MA in June where I served for the 23rd time as Music Director for the Williams College Reunion Concert. Again, at the invitation of our dear and long-time friend, Martha Williamson, who attended our wedding 47 years ago, I was privileged to direct and accompany the program. (Martha is best-known as Executive Producer of “Touched by an Angel.”) This was the first time Tammy attended. One especially moving moment was when I led the group in the singing of “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and “Amazing Grace.”
Following that weekend, we spent a week at our daughter Heidi’s place in Woodbridge CT “baby-sitting” and spoiling our two oldest grand-children, Grace (12) and Gabriel (9). Heidi was on a business trip to Uganda and Kenya and Dad Ryan was at a writing retreat working on two new books in his capacity at the Yale University Center for Faith and Culture. I also attended the Elm City Vineyard Church before returning home with Tammy – Heidi and Ryan were part of the worship team that Sunday.
Tammy and I are looking forward to our trip to Australia at the end of August. We will visit family in Queensland and serve at a couple of churches. It will be wonderful to catch up with my sister Claire and husband Keith, brother Bruce and wife Janine, sister Margaret and husband Lex, brother-in-law Ian, and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and nephews! This will be the first time we go back together in more than 15 years.
On July 4th we gave a concert here at our condominium building in Florida. In addition to leading well-known patriotic songs like “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “God Bless the U.S.A,” I was also joined by 5-year-old Maddie, a grand-daughter of one of our neighbors, and “taught” her how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!”
We enjoy fellowshipping with many of our neighbors in our 89-unit building and have developed quite a number of close friendships in our 3 and ½ years since moving away from Southern California. Music truly is the universal language and is a wonderful way to share God’s love in our community.
When we return from Australia, in October we will be traveling to Destin, Florida where I will once again serve as Music Director for a week-long church conference. In addition to providing accompaniment for the worship services, we will also give an evening concert.
Above are our 7 grand-children all together in Conakry, Guinea, where younger daughter Lisa and her husband Jonathan serve as missionaries – Jon as a pilot. Heidi and family traveled from Connecticut for a couple of weeks’ visit. We are so happy to see the cousins getting to know each other so well.
Tammy and I so appreciate our family and friends and are so grateful for your prayers and support of our ministry and those of our daughters.
Please know we continue to pray for you and yours.
With heartfelt gratitude, love and prayers
Ross and Tammy
2025
Newsletter – May 2025
May 2025 Newsletter
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Psalm 150: 1-2, 6 NIV
From the keyboard of Dr. Ross Jutsum
Dear family and friends,
Greetings from Florida on a beautiful Spring May day. Tammy and I were privileged to join daughter Lisa, her husband Jon, and their 5 amazing children for a week in Interlaken, Switzerland. Lisa’s family were taking a vacation from their important missionary work with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Guinea, West Africa. They were staying at a Christian Retreat Center for missionaries from all over Europe and Africa. It truly was a blessed time of family fun and worship and getting to know our grandkids better. The three younger ones had never seen snow so this was very exciting for them! (In the picture, Jon and Lisa are holding 5-year-old twins Aaron and Noah, and in the front 7-year-old Solomon is standing between 9-year-old twins Isaiah and Evelyne.) Praise the Lord! Lisa, Evelyne and Isaiah (and Grandpa!) enjoyed playing the piano for our family and joining in fellowship, music and worship. We also enjoyed hiking and sledding (not for Grammy Tammy and Grandpa Rossy!) in the stunningly beautiful Swiss Alps.
Before our European trip we had 4-day visit from older daughter Heidi and 12-year-old Grace and 9-year old Gabriel. The highlight of their visit was 2 rounds of mini golf, but an even more wonderful opportunity was a visit to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. A former college student of mine from the 1990s in Texas is now the Director of Communications for that operation. Derrol Nail gave us an amazing behind-the-scenes tour and the children were able to meet and get pictures and autographs from a real live astronaut. There was a rocket launch scheduled that afternoon but it was too cloudy to be able to see it there. So we drove home and had a fantastic view just a few miles from home!
They were even able to get autographed photos for their friends back home in Connecticut. We are looking forward to visiting Heidi, Ryan and children in June when Tammy and I make a visit to Williams College in Williamstown MA where I will once again, for the 20th time, serve as Music Director for the Reunion weekend concert with our dear friend Martha Williamson and many of her 1970s college singing classmates. This will be Tammy’s first time to join me there.
Lisa was playing and singing and leading worship songs in Swizerland. The family returned back to Conakry in Guinea and are very busy with their work with MAF where Jon is a missionary pilot and Lisa serves as director for the organization in that part of the world. The children are thriving in school and are doing well with their French studies. Please continue to pray for this family as they continue to face many challenges and even dangers as they share Christ’s love. Meanwhile back in Florida we gave an Easter concert here at our condominium building. I shared stories of my accompanying Randy Travis singing “Amazing Grace” and George Beverly Shea singing “How Great Thou Art” and also shared my testimony of broken wrists from back in 1989 when I was told I probably would never play the piano again and sang my song “I’ll Never Leave You.”
Tammy and I so appreciate our family and friends and are so grateful for your prayers and support of our ministry and those of our daughters. Please know we continue to pray for you and yours.
With heartfelt gratitude, love and prayers,
Ross and Tammy
2025
Newsletter — February 2025
February 2025 Newsletter
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. II Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
From the keyboard of Dr. Ross Jutsum
Dear family and friends,
Greetings from Florida on a sunny but rather cool winter day! In December I was privileged to join our dear friend of 47 years, Martha Williamson, best-known as the Executive Producer of the TV series, “Touched by An Angel,” for a Christmas Concert at Monte Vista Grove Home (MVG) in Pasadena CA. MVG is a retirement community for retired pastors and missionaries and others. I also gave a Christmas concert at Morningstar Senior Living also in Pasadena. Having lived in the Pasadena CA area for many years until we moved to Florida three years ago, I can truly say that Tammy and I are heart-broken as we have seen the horrible tragedies of the recent fires in the Pasadena and other areas. We know many dozens of dear friends who have lost their homes and it is heart-breaking. Please join us as we continue to pray for the thousands who have lost their homes and all their worldly possessions. Please pray for their comfort as we are exhorted in the above words of Paul to the Corinth church.
Tammy and I are looking forward to spending two weeks with Lisa and Jon and their 5 children in late February and early March. They are still serving as missionaries with MAF in Guinea, West Africa. It will be great to have time with these five grand-children who live so far away from us – Isaiah and Evelyne (8,) Solomon (6) and Aaron and Noah (4.) We will have a lot of fun playing games, reading books, and singing songs at bedtime – a special time of family worship and togetherness.
In mid-February we will be joined here in Florida by Heidi and her two children, Grace (11,) Gabriel (8). We hope to be able to visit the Space Center at Cape Canaveral during their visit.
During 2025 we are planning to make ministry trips to Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Virginia and Australia. On our Australian trip, we are planning also to visit my brother and two sisters and their families, comprising of many nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and grand-nephews. They all live near Brisbane, the capital of Queensland.
We continue to pray for you and yours and really appreciate your prayers and support of our ministries and our family. I want to thank you for your prayers regarding my right hand issue of Dupuytren’s Contracture. A few weeks ago I had the Xiaflex injection to break up the cords and am doing hand therapy. I hope to have full use of my right hand and be back to playing the piano better than I have in 15 years! I have a bandage on my hand now which makes handwriting challenging to please forgive the lack of personal notes. notes.
With heartfelt gratitude, love and prayers,
Ross and Tammy