October 31, 2001

 

 

 

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.  We definitely see the results of you praying for us.  We are adjusting rapidly and the children are doing well in school. 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.

 

     October has been a very busy month.  The two Kid's Clubs have been slowly growing.  We have between 110 to 120 persons attending on Saturday in Huancayo and 60 to 75 attending on Sunday afternoon in Ahauc.  We have four to six young people from the Methodist Church in El Tambo helping to lead these ministries.  Mary Alice has been preparing lesson plans and meeting each week with this team to prepare for each week, plan future activities and especially teach the team members how to prepare and run this type of ministry on their own.  We are praying that the Lord will add to the number of the team, not only from the el Tambo Church, but from the Huancayo church as well.  We are praying specifically for strong young Christian men to help because their influence among the boys that come is much needed.  We have potential opportunities to develop this type ministry in two or three more locations in the near future, but can not do it with out additional help.  Please pray for those that are helping us now: Pilar, Rosario, Breta, Ester, Erika, Marleni, and Genaro, and for the Lord to call others. 

 

    

Team from Lewis Memorial and Trinity on the Hill helping with Kid's Club 

 

     We had two short term mission teams from Georgia come and work here with us this month, also.  One team was a combined team from Lewis Memorial United Methodist Church and Trinity on the Hill United Methodist Church from the Augusta, Georgia area, and the other was a medical team from Dalton First United Methodist Church in Dalton, Georgia.   The team from Lewis Memorial helped with construction of a small parsonage in Concepcion about 30 kilometers from Huancayo.  This was a big step for us, because it will permit a full time pastor to live at this site.  With a full time pastor at Concepcion, the church will grow rapidly.  This is also a location for one of our future Kid's Clubs.  They also participated in the Kid's Clubs and times of sharing with youths and adults in several of our local churches. 

     

Checking blood pressures in preparation for seeing the Doctors in Satipo

 

The team from Dalton was a medical team that worked in the church in Satipo.  Satipo is a city of about 35,000 in the high Amazon jungle.  Many people came for treatment by two dentists, three medical doctors and an eye doctor.  All together they treated over 1000 persons during the four days of seeing patients. Everyone of these patients heard the Good News of Jesus Christ and received spiritual counseling by local church members as part of their treatment.  The local church members participated heavily with the team and had over thirty persons there each day organizing, maintaining order, assisting patients, cleaning and ministering.

 

    

Signing in patients in Satipo

 

     Arthur was able to travel to Lima twice this month in addition to meeting the teams. He went once to close the deal on a truck that Wesleyan Fellowship made possible for us to use here in Peru.  The truck is a 1996 Toyota Hilux and is in very good condition, except for the fan belt.  The belt broke while Arthur was traveling home from Lima so he got to experience first hand the joy of being stranded on the road in Middle Nowhere, Peru.  This time was as all times like this an opportunity.  Arthur was able to share the Gospel message with a young lady in a road side shop and with the mechanic who eventually came to fix the truck.  He will be able to follow up with both of them in the future and has a good place to make a stop on the way to and from Lima.  The other trip allowed Arthur to finish his visa process and receive his resident's card.  He also was able to push the families visa process along and we hope to receive their resident visas by the end of the year.

      

     Again we want to thank you for all your support and prayers.  Please continue to pray for our adjustment to the new culture and that we will boldly speak God's Word wherever we go.  Pray that God will raise up Godly leaders for the church here. Pray for protection as events surrounding the attacks on our country and the war continue to unfold.  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

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