December 31, 2002

 

 

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.

 

     December was a very busy, but rewarding month for us.  Mary Alice was very busy planning special programs and activities for the Kid's Clubs for Christmas.  She did an excellent job, working just as described in Proverbs 31.  She worked with our teaching team to present special programs and teaching to focus the children on Jesus Christ and away from the materialism that often plays a large role in the Christmas celebration.  On a very limited budget, she provided a small gift to the over 400 children that had attended regularly during the year and hot chocolate and panaton (sweet bread) to the over 700 children that attended the Christmas celebrations. Thanks to the children of Wesleyan Fellowship Church in Marietta, Georgia, we were able to give a nice Christmas stocking to each of our youth that are part of the teaching team, also.   

 

 

Serving Hot Chocolate and Panaton to the Children in the El Tambo Kid's Club.

 

     One of the pastors in the Sierra y Selva District performed a study of the youth programs that the church has had in the district.  He came to us to share his findings.  His study showed that the spiritual maturity and knowledge of the scriptures of the youth through out the district was very low and that there was a real hunger among the young people to grow spiritually.  He noted one major exception.  Those youth that had been participating in our youth discipleship program and in the Kid's Club teaching team were significantly more mature spiritually and there knowledge of the scriptures was well advanced over the other youth of the district.  As a result, he has asked to work with us to help develop ministries directed toward youth in other areas of the district using the models that we are using. 

 

     As a result of this study and the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ upon us, the first district wide youth workshop was held in December in Huancayo and a youth mission team made up of youth from the ministries we are leading was formed to go to other churches and begin to disciple youth in those churches.  Various other workshops for the discipling of the youth of the Sierra y Selva District have been planned for the coming year.  This is a major blessing and challenge for us.  We have a vision for transforming the church through the next generations, but did not expect to see this level of progress this early in our ministry.  We are now challenging the youth of our ministries with a vision to transform Huancayo for Christ.  Huancayo has a population of 500,000 and approximately 50 to 60 percent of the population are youth and children.  We are issuing the challenge to our young people to build a church for Jesus Christ comprised primarily of young people and believe God for it to grow to have more than 1000 members in the next 5 years and to continue to grow in the future until the majority of the young people in Huancayo are saved.

 

     Arthur, Ricardo Visurragua (the district administrator), and Jose Bustamante (the district superintendent) made a trip to the low jungle.  They had planned to go to Puerto Bermudez to plan for a medical team for next year.  Due to an early start to the rainy season, they did not make it to Bermudez.  With great difficulty they made it to within 25 miles, but were stopped by a series of large land slides.  Arthur, Ricardo and his wife Luisa also traveled to Tarapoto in the low jungle for planning for another medical team for next year.  This trip was easier as Tarapoto has a commercial airport and they could fly from Lima.  The trip from Lima to Tarapoto is only one hour by air, but by ground transport is a grueling 30 hours.  The trip to Tarapoto was very successful.  We will be working with an independent church called Esmirna.  The church is a dynamic growing church of 700 members, 500 of which are youth.  They not only have their own church, but have planted and support 94 other missions spread further into the jungle.  This church demonstrated that the vision that God had given Arthur and Mary Alice could be a reality in Peru.  It was a further blessing that Ricardo and Lusia could experience this reality, also.

 

 

Meeting with the leaders of the Esmirna Church in Tarapoto

Left to Right: David Gomez (youth pastor), Maria (administrator of the church clinic), Lusia Visurraga, Jime Gomez (senor pastor), Ricardo Visurraga        

 

   

     The Mobile Medical Clinic made its first outings in December.  The Clinic visited two sites in poor areas of Huancayo and El Tambo.  These outings were to provide medical consultations, but also to gather experience for further planning for the use of the Mobile Medical Clinic. Consultations were provide by a general practitioner, an eye doctor, and a Christian psychologist.  Each patient also received spiritual counseling and an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  This ministry has taken a long time to birth with the majority of the work being done by Ivar and Andy Quindsland.  It is still in its infancy and will require a great deal more effort before it can stand on its own.  The Quindslands will finish their one year term in Peru at the end of January and have done a remarkable job,  however we are in great need of some one to take up where they will leave off and continue to help the church here to develop this resource into a functional ministry.  Please pray for the Lord to call the person or persons He wants to bless with this powerful ministry.

 

 

First outing of the Peru Mobile Medical Clinic. 

 

     The construction work on the church in Ahuac is progressing well.  The exterior stucco work and the interior plaster work is almost finished on both the church and the two classrooms.  The church and classrooms now have concrete floors. The finish work should be completed by the end of January and ready to receive the paint.  The construction to finish the kitchen in the parsonage in Satipo was finally begun.  This project, supported by Frazer United Methodist Church, has been difficult to initiate, but thanks to much prayer and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is now in progress.  We hope to have a new kitchen for Anna and Ernesto Flores and the pastoral family, by the end of January.  Arthur is in the process of drawing the plans for the expansion of the sanctuary in Satipo.  Hopefully we will be starting construction on this project, which is also sponsored by Frazer United Methodist Church, in April after the rainy season has ended. Please keep these projects in your prayers, also.

  

     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