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
