Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey
Jr.
Urb. San Carlos
Huancayo, Perú
011-51-64-21-21-52
E-mail: acivey@mindspring.com
Website: www.iveymission.org
December 31, 2007
"And God, who knows the heart, bore
witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and
them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”
Acts 15:8-9 NAS
Dear Brothers
and Sisters in Christ,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. We praise the Lord God for all He is doing in our lives and
in the ministry here in
Peruvians really love
to celebrate all important events, so Christmas is always a big celebration
here. In most of the Kid’s Clubs, they
had a big celebration to celebrate the wonderful birth of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. In the Kid’s Clubs in Pichcus, each age group and the teachers
presented something special - a song, a drama, or choreography. They all did a great job. The parents were
invited to come, and Benjamin shared about how only Jesus Christ can give us
happiness. Some people accepted Christ when he gave an invitation. Of course,
at the end of the club, the children ate panetón, which is a sweet bread with
candied fruit, and drank homemade hot chocolate. Eating panetón and drinking hot
chocolate is something that all Peruvians do during Christmas. We now have 12
Kid’s Clubs that meet every week to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ. Please
pray that each child and each youth that comes will be truly passionate about
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praying at Kid’s Club in
Pichcus
We had an enjoyable visit from Louise
Reimer, who is a potential missionary that will work with us in the
future. She is a retired teacher from
Justin Grogg, who worked with us for a
year and had a significant influence among many people here, finished his term
and returned to the states. We already miss him a lot, especially his joy. He
always had a way of keeping everyone laughing. Please pray for him to adjust to
living back in the states. It is not
easy to adjust to living back in the states after one has been in a foreign
country. Also, please pray for his future marriage that will occur in May
2008.
Our son Joshua graduated from high school
this year. We are very proud of him, and next year he will be helping Arthur
with teams and doing some advanced home school classes. We would appreciate
your prayers for perseverance for him, because he has a lot of work to do this
year. Please also pray for Joshua to choose a direction for college.
Joshua at his
graduation.
We were involved in a special wedding
during December. Alejandra Aquino is one of our best workers. She has probably
started more discipleship groups than any of our leaders. Her daughter, Thalia,
lives in
Our jungle missionary team returned to
Huancayo, and then to their homes for the holidays. Their reports were
positive, indicating that several of the folks in the jungle are starting to
take responsibility for leadership in the jungle ministry. As these persons are trained, the
discipleship in the jungle will begin to grow even more rapidly. Our biggest obstacle to the growth of this
ministry is a lack of workers. Please
pray that the Lord will continue to raise up faithful men and women. One of our
missionaries, Miguel Chavez, decided to stay in Palcazu during the
holidays. He helped Mario, one of our
discipleship leaders, make panetón in his bakery. Please pray for Edwin and
Haydee, Edith, Flor, and Miguel as they continue to serve the Lord Jesus
Christ.
We were also
blessed to have another gathering of all our discipleship groups. The Praise Band played many worship songs,
and we worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ for all that he is doing in our
lives. Justin Grogg gave his testimony
and shared that our identity should determine our actions. If we are truly
Christians as we claim to be, our actions should show that in everything that
we do. For this gathering, we divided into small groups for Bible study. People that are in our discipleship groups
were the leaders of the small groups.
Many of them had never taught a group before, so it was exciting to see
the Lord Jesus Christ work through them.
Also, we had a Kid’s Club for the children that came to the event. The
Lord is setting many people free, as a result of the discipleship studies;
please pray that He will continue to do so.
Ita Hualcus leading the
dance group at the gathering.
The Praise Band was invited to play for a
Christmas celebration at a local university.
Although the university is not Christian, the director of this
university is Christian, and wants the students to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. Please pray that there will be
other opportunities at this university and other universities for the band to
play and influence people for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Arthur is continuing to work hard on the
design for the
We would like to thank all of you have
helped to support the ministry here in
Please be in prayer for each one of our workers and for each one of the
ministries and projects. Please continue
to pray for financial support for the ministries both from Peruvian sources and
Bermudez, Shiringamazu, Villa America,
Huánuco, Sambillo Alto, Rio Azul Ugarteche, San Augustine, KM 40 and
Tinahuani. Also, pray for the ministries in
Huancayo, especially the Colegio El Camino. Please continue to pray that the
Holy Spirit would continue to awaken and change hearts among the young adults
of Huancayo. Please give praise to the
Lord for bringing us additional persons called to be part of the
missionary team in
We pray that God is drawing you closer and closer to Him every
day. God bless you. We love you.
Yours
in Christ,
Arthur,
Mary Alice, Benjamin, Joshua, and Mary Beth Ivey
The
Mission Society Missionaries to
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