A TRIBUTE TO DR. JACK TULS
FATHER OF LIGHTBEARERS SCHOOLS OF MINISTRY
AUGUST 5, 1934 – JUNE 2, 2023
There are probably a handful of people in your life who have had a profound effect on you. Maybe your father or mother, maybe a coach or a teacher, maybe a pastor or minister but someone who stands out above the rest and leaves an indelible mark upon your soul. That someone leads you not because they have an authority position over you but because the strength of their character and calling draws you and pulls you into alignment on the path they are traveling. That’s leadership! For me, such a one was Dr. Jack Tuls!
My friend Chuck introduced me to Dr. Jack and Grace Tuls in 1998 in Lancaster CA. Jack was teaching at Roberts Liardon’s school in Orange County, and Roberts would occasionally come up to Lancaster to do a house church at the Tuls. One time I was in town having come from Oregon when RL was in Lancaster, and Chuck suggested I go meet the two men. Little did I know I would get an introduction to an advanced course on discerning of spirits the first night. That night at his house, Jack took me in his office and showed a detailed map with all the ‘hotspots’ of demonic activity all over the valley!
We talked much about Africa, and he told me he had a desire to go to the Central African Republic and plant a bible school there. Later that year I was given a contact in Bangui that I passed on to Jack, which set the stage for our first missions trip together in January 2001. We landed in Bangui, with a view of planting a bible school in Ndele, 450 miles to the north. So began a month-long adventure!
Jack had contacted a French missionary, Claude Pettman and his wife who would be directors of the school. They had in turn rounded up students who would come to the school. We had to move the missionaries from their home outside Bangui to Ndele, where a location had been rented, gather the students and start the school. Claude had a Toyota Land Cruiser which we loaded, plus pulled a trailer with a fifty-gallon drum of airplane fuel, for the Mission Aviation Fellowship plane that would pick us up in a month.
The road to Bangui was memorable. The tarmac road ended after 150 miles, leaving us three hundred miles of gravel roads and goat paths (literally!) to get to Ndele. We blew three tires, so Claude purchased two ‘very used’ used tires along the way. We crossed one washed out bridge while matching our tires to the ‘I’ beams of the structure that was left, with yours truly driving the Cruiser across the rushing stream.
Jack was so patient, loving and kind. It never cooled down in the CAR except until after midnight. In Ndele we met the Sultan and the Muslim Imam who gave us consent to start the Bible school. We sat at his feet in the courtyard, as his people served us tea and cookies. Jack consulted with him, and then the Imam proclaimed, “The people need to know the Bible!” and our school was officially welcomed. I felt like I’d gone back in time about fifteen centuries!
Claude, Jack and I started the school with eighteen students, with me teaching the Holy Spirit Seminar, Jack teaching English, and Claude and his wife running everything. Every evening we ate baguettes and fromage from a kerosene fired refrigerator that the Pettmans had. A moment I anticipated every day was the bucket bath in the morning which ended gloriously with dumping the bucket over my head. Jack and I slept in the same room, and one night we had a visit from a BIG spider that scared the ‘be jibbers’ out of a sleeping Bible teacher! Jack was singing CALIFORNIA HERE I COME! after two weeks…
The flight back with Mission Aviation Fellowship was memorable. The next two Bible school teachers came with the plane inbound (they would go back when Claude went for supplies). I have a picture with the pilot sitting on top of the plane before we left pouring fuel through a strainer into the wing tanks as I passed buckets of fuel up to him. Jack graciously allowed me to sit in the ‘right seat’ in the Cessna 210 on the way back even though he loved flying! He had been an aeronautical engineer and had flight tested systems on all the USAF inventory during his career out of Edwards AFB and the Skunk Works…
We did eight more trips together into Africa including going to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mali ( we tried to plant a school in Timbuktu but did in Bamako), Zambia, Botswana, Niger, Kenya (with Grace), Zimbabwe and South Africa.
In Niger Jack suggested that all of the African schools be under Lightbearers Ministries. We had entered into a memorandum of understanding between AL Gill Ministries, whose curriculum formed the basis of our six-month schools, Remote Areas Ministries under Dr. Jack and Grace Tuls, and our ministry, in essence to freely use the curriculum and remain submitted and responsible to one another.
For over twenty years we’ve never made a decision about Lightbearers schools without Jacks input and agreement. When we introduced the materials on CDs and travel drives, when we developed administrative materials and procedures, we cleared everything with Jack. If Jack said NO about something, which he did on more than one occasion, that was that. I always felt we were an extension of Jack’s ministry.
That relationship has proved fruitful. Today Lightbearers works with several hundred schools in over twenty countries. In 2020 the Lord said to plant a school in every nation. Even though Jack has gone to be with the Lord, His love, vision and integrity will continue to mark all of the schools. A Dr. Jack Tuls Memorial Achievement award with a financial blessing will be given from us each year to the directors who best represent the qualities that our father of our schools built into all of us. Amen!
Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ!