Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 

     Greetings in the name of our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We praise the Lord God for having sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who has 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 during this past month and that your life has been filled with His grace and mercy.  We want to give you a special thanks for your continued prayers for us and support of the ministry in Peru.  We definitely see the results of your prayers 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.

 

     We have been very blessed this month to see the fruit of all of the prayers that you have been offering up to God on our behalf.  During June we continued to visit and share in churches about what Jesus Christ has been doing in Peru and to raise support for our return.  We shared at St. Stephens United Methodist Church, Douglasville First United Methodist Church, and with a group in the home of a long time friend, Bertha Mabry.  Our pledged support has reached a level of approximately 72% of our projected budget.  We are scheduled to return to Peru for October 26, 2005.  We also had the chance to talk with more potential missionary candidates about working with us in Peru and ask that you be in prayer for them as they seek God's guidance.  We shared this month with four couples and a young lady who have been praying about a call to the mission field and possibly to Peru.  Arthur is still working on repairs to our house so that we can rent it while we are in Peru.  Please pray for Arthur to have time to complete this and for us to be able to find a suitable renter.   Please continue to prayer for our support raising, and for the recruiting of additional missionaries. 

 

    We worked hard this month with the medical teams and those in Peru to arrange for this years medical mission teams.  By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have met this year's challenges, and the importation of medical supplies was successful for the first team to Palcazu.   Pastor Pablo Paredes wrote us and informed us that the medical campaign was a great success.  We worked together with a team of medical professionals from the Morehead United Methodist Church in Morehead Kentucky and a large team of Peruvian volunteers to provide medical, dental, and eye care services to people in the region of Palcazu.  While providing for their physical needs we also shared the Gospel message with them.  Pastor Pablo reported to me that there were many professions of faith in Jesus Christ, and that 40 of these new believers were baptized.  There is now a new church in Palcazu.  

 

     Pastor Pablo Paredes has worked with us during the past 3 years in Puerto Bermudez.  He is a lay pastor and chemical engineer who built and runs a soft drink bottling plant in the jungle near Puerto Bermudez.  He sells his product locally and uses the income to support his ministry.  Pablo was the pastor at Puerto Bermudez, but has now resigned in order to devote more attention to the new work in Palcazu.  He and his wife had trained another lay pastor, Fredy, who, along with his wife, will continue the work in Puerto Bermudez.  Pablo and his wife, Flora, will now work Saturdays and Sundays in Palcazu with the new church; on Wednesday he will work with his family in one of last years church plants in Santa Rosa, and on Tuesday and Thursday he will work with some of the cell groups in Puerto Bermudez.  By the way, Palcazu is approximately two hours of travel on a jungle road from Puerto Bermudez.

 

 

     Obed and Cynthia Alvarez with Mision-AMEN (now called NEWMA) have been partnering with us in Peru.  It is because of their hard work that we are able to continue to import the medical supplies needed for these events.  They also train Peruvians as missionaries in their school in Lima.  We work closely with them to provide workers to do the follow-up ministries in the new church plants.  Pablo is also associated with them now.  Obed and Pablo have been working on the follow-up plans.  Around the Palcazu area we have identified 108 communities of native peoples that do not currently have any church or Christian witness. The plan involves developing the new church in Palcazu into a mission center to reach out and plant churches in these native communities.  Please be in prayer for these plans and for God to continue to provide the Christian workers need to advance His Kingdom in Palcazu.  Obed and Cynthia will be hosting our medical team from Paintsville, Kentucky to Canta in July.  Please be in prayer for this team and all of the work and details that must be completed, also. 

 

       

 

     We have a wonderful opportunity to further the work in Peru and all of Latin and South America coming up in late August.  The World Parish Division of the Mission Society will be conducting its first Latin American Mission Mobilization event in Costa Rica.  Arthur will be there hopefully with some of the folks from Peru.  We currently have seven scheduled to attend - Victor, Graciela, Carlos, David, Daniel, Zulema, and Obed, who will be presenting a lecture on "Latin American Sending Structure".  Please be in prayer that God would use this event to further empower each of them as they are each key leaders in the ministries in Peru. This event has been given a matching funds grant.  These funds will provide a way for participants from all over Latin and South America to attend.  Please pray for this event, and, if the Lord Jesus leads you to give an extra one time gift for this event, please do so as it will be matched dollar for dollar.  You can send gifts made payable to "The Mission Society" and designated "World Parish Ministries - International Ministry" to the address at the bottom of this letter. 

 

     Please continue to be in prayer with us as we continue to raise support to return to Peru.   If the Lord leads you to partner financially with us in this ministry, you can send gifts made payable to "The Mission Society" and designated "Ivey Support  254/IA" to the address shown at the bottom of this letter.  Please also pray that we can find additional persons called to be part of the missionary team in Peru.  Covenant with us to continue in prayer for the young adult leadership team and their continued ministry to the spiritually lost and dying youth of Huancayo.  Please pray for the leaders of  the churches in Peru, and for their spiritual protection and growth in the Lord Jesus.  Also be in prayer for Obed Alvarez, the head of Mision-AMEN, as well as their other leaders and missionaries.  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