Jr.
Urb. San
Carlos
Huancayo, Peru
011-51-64-21-21-52
E-mail: acivey@mindspring.com
Website: www.iveymission.org
March 31, 2007
"If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down." Luke 13:9 NIV
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 Peru, for filling us with His Holy Spirit to guide and direct each
of our steps, and for pouring out His grace upon us through His precious
Son, Jesus Christ. We hope and pray that He has been blessing you
wonderfully during this past month and that your life has been filled with
His glorious riches and mercy. We want to give you a special
thanks for your continued prayers for us and support of the
ministry in
We are grateful that the Lord Jesus continues to call some of our workers into deeper relationship with Him and to prepare them to share the Light of Jesus Christ in the darkness of this world. However, some take a longer period of time and more effort before they produce fruit than others. This passage from Luke shows us that sometimes we have to be patient giving a believer three sometimes even four years and much attention before they begin to bear fruit. Sometimes they may never bear fruit, and as sad as it may be, we have to let them go. We are grateful to the Lord that many of those that have come into relationship with us are bearing fruit, and we have not had to leave many behind.
The discipleship ministry is continuing to grow and we now have around 430 registered in the ministry. Of these only approximately 20 have stopped participating over the last year. Many have produced fruit in abundance starting their own discipleship groups. We now have third generation groups and groups as much as 4 hours from Huancayo started by those that have been involved with us in the first groups. We have a new group in Colcabambas 4 hours south of Huancayo and are in the process of starting a group in Huancavalica, approximately 2 hours south of Huancayo. These areas have traditionally been very closed to the Gospel, but the Lord Jesus is opening doors for us. The ministry in the jungle is also producing fruit in abundance with 40 involved in discipleship in Puerto Bermudez, many of whom are young people. Pablo Paredes informed me that they are now starting to see fruit among the parents of these young people. In Shiringamazu there are 70 involved in discipleship and some of these are traveling approximately 3 hours from their homes to help us establish work in Villa America where many are hungry for the Word of God. In June, we expect to have at least 200 more involved in the discipleship ministry there.
Early this month we sent our Peruvian mission team back to Shiringamazu and Villa America. This is the rainy season and is a difficult time to work, but they are doing well. Our team now consists of Luis, Felix, Genaro, Jhonatan, Hiede, Edith and Romel. They will be working until at least the end of May and probably longer during this cycle. The physical challenges of this area are significant, from having to cross swollen rivers to avoiding snake bite and insect bites. Finding food to eat each day can be a challenge and often times they are limited to a half can of tuna.
Crossing a small stream.
From front to back: Genaro, Edith, Hiede, Felix, Luis, Romel, and not visible in the back Jhonatan
We had the privilege of a hosting a team from the Wesley Foundation from the University of Georgia. A team of 14 lead by Dana Hernandez spent a week in Huancayo helping us to pray against spiritual strongholds in and around the city, evangelize in several places, and disciple some of our young adults. They shared and witnessed in several schools, in centers of witchcraft, parks and during several special events. We had a concert for youth one evening in the Casa de Joventud and a Question - Answer night with young people. A number of people prayed to receive Christ, opening up new possibilities for additional discipleship groups. We now need more workers for the harvest. Please pray for more workers.
Dance presentation for the students of the Colegio El Camino school.
Arthur, Benjamin, and Todd traveled to Huánuco for a meeting to try to further establish the church planting work among the Quechua Panao. Folks from Asbury UMC were present, Manuel Villar was part of the meeting, and Terry Smith and some of his Peruvian translators participated. It was a good chance for everyone to get to know each other better and seek the Lord's will for this ministry. Manuel already has seven Quechua Panao speaking churches planted in the region, and we are investigating the possibility of involving them with this ministry. Please be in prayer for us to be sensitive to the Lord Jesus' will in this endeavor.
Arthur and Roly have been working to try and finish up the detailed design on the Center for Production and Renewal in the Canta Valley. The designs should be complete soon, allowing us to begin planning for construction and evangelism teams to help us in the work in the Canta Valley. The land has already produced its first crop of purple corn, and a second crop is already planted. The income from the crops will help us to support this project as well as the churches that are being planted in the valley. We currently have 8 churches and 10 missions in the valley.
Project model for the Center for Production and Renewal.
We have been plagued by a spirit of procrastination among those entities that we have to work with around us in the community causing us to not be able to complete many things. Among others are the designs for the project in the Canta Valley, the fabrication of one of the machines for our bottling plant, the printing of some of our discipleship materials, and an agreement for the purchase of the property for the Colegio El Camino School. Others that work with us have noted the same thing occurring for projects that they are involved in. Please join us in prayer and fasting as we seek the Lord Jesus' power to break down these strongholds.
Please continue to be in prayer for
the continued growth in the ministries here 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
******
The Mission
Society
P.O. Box
922637
Norcross, Georgia 30010-2637