Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey 
San Jose 454
Urb. San Carlos
Huancayo
Peru
011-51-64-23-76-69
 
December 31, 2003
 
www.IveyMission.org
 
"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;"  Revelation 12:11 NIV
 
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, especially during difficult times. We hope and pray that He has been blessing you wonderfully during this Christmas time and that your life has been filled with His grace and mercy.  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.
 
     The passage above from Revelations is part of a Christmas story presented in Revelation 12 that is very different from our traditional point of view.  This account shows us the fierce battles that take place in the spiritual realm as part of the events of the birth of Christ.  Here in Peru we often see much more clearly the physical manifestations of the spiritual warfare that we are involved in, and these are clear reminders of how powerful the little Child in the manger was, still is, and always will be.  We also see more clearly our responsibility in this warfare, the sharing of our testimony.  We see, in Revelation, how the battle was won by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.  We continue to experience how powerful our personal testimony about our salvation and experience with the Lord Jesus Christ can be in attracting others to God's saving grace.  
 
     We have been sharing our testimony with many persons and teaching others to do the same.  The Lord Jesus is giving us a great harvest.  We now have Kid's Clubs in seven locations:  Pichcus, El Tambo, Ahuac, Chilca, San Jeronimo, Concepcion, and San Martin de Pangoa. We just started a new work with the "Shoeshine Boys"  in the downtown area.  We are also working with the Iglesia Peruana and the Iglesia Nazareno to create opportunities to open two more Clubs near their churches, and we still have opportunities to open two clubs in Chilca. As the Bible tells us the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Please pray that the Lord would send more workers, both nationals and missionaries. Please also pray for our spiritual strength, wisdom, and discernment, because as the harvest has increased so have the attacks against us.
 
 
The Shoeshine Boys
 
      The most popular way to celebrate Christmas here is to have a "Chocolatada".  The "Chocolatada"  is a sharing of hot chocolate and a sweet bread called "Panaton".  You can do without just about everything else, but you can't have Christmas in Peru without panaton and hot chocolate.  We had the privilege of participating in this annual celebration with the children of the Kid's Clubs.  We had well over 1200 children in our Kid's Clubs that heard the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and celebrated Christmas with the "Chocolatada". 
 
 
Chocolatada at El Tambo Kid's Club 
 
     Mary Alice traveled up to Cerro de Pasco in the high Andes to teach a workshop to the youth from the churches in La Esperanza and San Juan de Pampa.  This area is at an elevation of 15,200 feet.  It is hard to breath, gets very cold at night, and very few places have heat.  The workshop was on how to prepare lessons for Kid's Clubs.  We are hoping with time that this will result in additional works in those areas.
 
Kid's Club at Pichcus
 
     Arthur traveled to Trujillo, a city on the north coast, for two weeks to help a new missionary find a house and prepare for the arrival of his family at the end of February.  The new missionaries are Martin and Tracy Reeves and their children.  They will work in pastoral training and church planting in the North Coast area from Chimbote to Tumbus.
 
     Arthur and Mary Alice have also formed a new discipleship group to train leaders that will start on January 9, and recruited four more persons for the existing group.  New persons, both believers and non-believers, continue to come to the open cell groups that meet each Thursday in our house.  In addition, we are currently working with a pastor from Ayacucho to translate some of our discipleship materials into the Quechua-Ayacucho language so that they can use them in training among the Quechua speaking groups around Ayacucho. 
 
     Please be in prayer with us for the continued advancement of the Kid's Club ministry and our efforts to find and train additional workers for this ministry.  Pray also for the discipleship and leadership training and the youth cell ministry, and that God would continue to impart His vision in these young people.  Please ask God to expand our time and provide additional financial resources for the ministries.  Please continue to pray for our new relationship with Mision-AMEN and our relationship with the Methodist Church.  Most importantly we would like to ask you to covenant with us and the youth leadership team to be in regular prayer and fasting for the ministry to the lost and dying youth of Huancayo.  Pray that we would be protected from attacks and that the enemy's power over these young people would be broken.
 
    Again we want to thank you for all your support and prayers.  Please continue to pray for the churches here in Peru. Please pray for the tension in the churches, and for the church leaders. Please pray for the leaders in the Methodist Church:  Bishop Marco Ochoa, and District Superintendents Jose Bustamante and David Figueroa.  Also be in prayer for Obed Alvarez, the head of Mision-AMEN, as well as their other leaders and missionaries.  Please be in prayer for additional regular financial support for the ministry.  Please pray for our safety as we travel, 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
                                                                                                                           The Mission Society Missionaries to Peru
 
 
 
The Mission Society                                                      P.O. Box 922637                                                        Norcross, Georgia 30010-2637