May 31, 2002

 

"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Acts 2:47 NIV

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 

     Greetings to you all 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.

 

     May was a wonderful month for us.  Arthur only had to make one trip, and since the children were on their quarter break from school everybody was able to travel together.  We went to San Ramon to follow up on the work done in April by the team from Alpharetta First United Methodist Church.  Arthur adjusted the water treatment system and reviewed the operation and maintenance of the system.  VIctor, the president of the church, told us that they had changed their worship schedule.  They will now be starting an hour earlier in order to go out ahead of the worship time to evangelize and invite people to the worship service.  They have also started a Sunday morning service specifically for the children in which all of the adult members will work to minister to the children of the community.  After the children's service they will have a service for the adults.  To see this response to the ministry of the team in San Ramon was a great joy for us. Please pray for Victor, his wife, Sara, and children, Eli and Zulema, and for Mario, who is in charge of the youth and a principal leader in the church,also, as they pursue a deeper work for the Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

     When we returned from the trip we received the children's grades from the school.  All of their studies are in Spanish, so we were really excited to know that they had all received very high grades.  Only one B, all the rest were A's and AD's (like A+).  Benjamin was even the top student in his class.  More important than this, they continue to lead more of their classmates to saving relationships with Jesus Christ.

 

     Mary Alice and Arthur received the call of Jesus Christ to minister to one of his suffering children, Erika.  Erika is a beautiful, 21 year old, young lady, who had been raised in a Christian home.  She was the youngest of several siblings.  She had been missing from her home for several days and was found in the local hospital with injuries to the back of her head.  She had been sitting in the hospital for two days without having received any treatment.  Praise the Lord, her injuries were not severe. When we first saw Erika, she was in her bed at home in much pain from her injury, but in much deeper pain spiritually.  She was suffering from a deep depression, the effects of alcohol abuse and drug abuse and the enslavement of Satan and his agents.  We spent time with her everyday, being the only persons she would talk to.  We prayed for her and talked with her some, but she would not share much.  Toward the end of the week she begin to share a little with us and as she shared the Lord revealed to us that she was under tremendous attack by the enemy.  We begin to pray specifically for her spiritual freedom.  Due to other commitments we were unable to visit her for several days.  It was reported to us that during this time there was little change.  When we returned, we talked with her about the spiritual attack she was under and prayed with her specifically to reject these things in her life.  We saw the Lord Jesus set her free.  She shared with us, how, when she was younger she felt called to be a missionary and how the leaders of the church told her she could never be qualified to do that.  She told us how much grief their response had caused her.  Erika is now attending our Thursday night discipleship cell group and is growing rapidly in her faith.  She glows with the presence of Jesus and His freedom in her life.  She will probably begin training with us soon to become a cell pastor.

 

 

Thursday night discipleship group. 

 

     We had the privilege of participating in the baptism of eight new believers in Christ.  In Peru to be baptized, you have to have been active in the church for a year after praying to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Four churches met together to celebrate this wonderful occasion with a dinner on the grounds afterward.  Mary Alice and I had the privilege of being asked to be the witnesses of two of the persons receiving baptism, but the greater privilege was knowing that we had been able to minister to many of these persons during our time here in Peru.

 

 

Baptism of believer, Pilar. 

 

     The Kid's Clubs are still doing well.  Our teaching team is beginning to grow again after the split in the local church and we are beginning to see them take more responsibility.  We will soon begin assigning them the job of preparing and writing the lessons with Mary Alice's assistance.  Please pray for these dedicated young people:  Josue, Daniel, Iban, Genaro, Betsabe, Carina, Susan, Rosa, Cris, Breta, Benjamin, Joshua, and Mary Beth.

 

 

Betsabe and Breta praying with the children in their Kid's Club cell group.   

   

     Again we want to thank you for all your support and prayers.  Please continue to pray for the church here in Peru, 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 Figeroa.  Please pray for our safety as we travel, our continued adjustment to 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

 

 

 

The Mission Society                                                      P.O. Box 922637                                                        Norcross, Georgia 30010-2637