Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 

     Greetings in the name of our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We praise the Lord Jesus for having so wonderfully blessed us and for having sent his Holy Spirit to guide and teach us. We hope and pray that He has been blessing you wonderfully and that your life has been filled with His grace.  Thank you for your continued prayers for us and support of the ministry here in Peru.  We definitely see the results of you praying for us.  You are special people called by our Lord Jesus Christ to minister to His children.  Thank you for your faithfulness to His calling.  Thank you for your love for Him, for us, and for His children.

 

     April has been a blessed month.  We have seen the Lord Jesus working to give new vision to some of the leaders in the church and begin to awaken new desire to expand his Kingdom among some of the churches.  One very good example is the Kid's Club in Concepcion.  The ministry was closed at the end of January by the District Superintendent for no apparent reason.  At that time, we had an average attendance of 60 children.  The church in Huancayo made the decision to reopen the club this month and the average attendance is back up to around 30. The most important aspect of this ministry is that we are not really involved.  The church is providing the people and the resources to carry on this ministry.  Many of the people working in the ministry still come for training Mary Alice has each week at our home, but are putting into practice what they learn without depending on us to make it happen.

 

     We have also been working with the church in San Jeronimo to help them advance their children's and youth ministry.  We have been working with the pastors wife, Karina Llanco, and two of the youth to train them and help them to implement their own program. Some of the youth that work closely with us have been involved with the San Jeronimo youth helping to advance this ministry in the San Jeronimo church.  We have a team from Lewis Memorial coming to work in San Jeronimo this summer.  Arthur has been making the plans necessary for the construction of bathrooms for the church that this team will build.  Plans are also being made to use the ministry talents of this team to further the children's ministry.

 

 

     Arthur traveled to Satipo to collect information necessary to design the expansion of the church building and has been in the process of drawing the plans for this project.  This project was started almost a year ago, but due to politics within the church administration at the district level, it has not advanced.  Arthur is having to do everything himself to move this project forward.  Arthur also taught in a youth workshop in Satipo that was held for the churches in the jungle region of the district.  The workshop lasted three days and covered  topics such as evangelism, discipleship, and basic Christian disciplines.  Approximately 18 youth attended, and among them was a young man who had been a terrorist  with the Shining Path.  Near the end of the workshop, they got to put into practice some of the things they learned by doing an evangelism outreach and children's ministry in a nearby park.

 

 

 

     We traveled to Puerto Bermudez, a town in the low jungle, to plan for an upcoming medical mission.  Jose Bustamante, the district superintendent, Luz Landa and Sonya Orey, representatives of the Women's Ministry, and Josue Cisneros, representative of the youth ministry, traveled with Arthur.  In addition to the planning of the medical mission, we helped to organize and encourage the women and youth of the Puerto Bermudez Church.  The church now has a young couple that will be responsible for leading the youth program, and a group of 15 adults that have begun a process of discipleship to help them to grow to be leaders for the church. When we return at the end of May we will be carrying additional discipleship materials for the youth and for church leaders.

 

  

     Again we want to thank you for all your support and prayers.  Please continue to pray for the church here in Peru. Please pray for our discipleship groups and the attacks against them.  Please pray for the children and young people that are part of the ministries here, for the tension in the churches, and for the church leaders.  Pray for the Lord to enable us to train more church leaders, cell pastors, and church pastors. Please pray for the leaders of the church here:  Bishop Marco Ochoa, and District Superintendents Jose Bustamante and David Figueroa.  Please pray for our safety as we travel, our continued adjustment and ability to understand the Peruvian culture, and that we will boldly speak God's Word wherever we go.  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

                                                                                                                               & nbsp;    Missionaries to Peru