September 30, 2002

 

 

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. 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.

 

     September has been a month to regroup and do some much needed catching up.  We did not have any teams this month so Arthur was able to stay in Huancayo for the entire month.  This was a major blessing for the entire family.  Much needed mundane tasks such as repairing the truck, writing reports, balancing accounts and other such activities were accomplished.  Planning for next years teams was also begun and for next month's travel to gather information and prepare for these teams. One of the most important things we did this month was celebrate Mary Beth's ninth birthday.  Her favorite gift was a puppy.  Now she is learning a little about being a parent.

 

Mary Beth and her puppy, Carolina.

 

     The El Tambo church, where we attend worship, had a baptism this month.  Five of our young people, Lorena, Maria, Miguel, Carla, and Ivan, were baptized along with Josue's mother, Julia, Ricardo, and Nicolasa.  Eight people total were baptized.  Arthur had the privilege of participating in their baptisms.

 

 

Group to be baptized: (left to right) Julia, Ivan, Miguel, Carla, Maria, Nicolasa, Lorena, & Ricardo.      

 

     The Kid's Clubs are still doing well.  Our teaching team is continuing to grow spiritually.  The youth are participating more and more in the planning of the programs with Mary Alice.  Some of them have begun to share in the writing of the lessons.  We are continuing to see increases in attendance, especially at the adolescent ages, and the teaching team has been trying especially to increase the interest of adolescents and youth in the programs.  Between our four sites where we hold Kid's Clubs each weekend we have an average attendance of over 400 children.

 

     We have been teaching the children how to share their faith and the message of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The children have completed learning the Gospel presentation and have prepared a booklet that will aid them in sharing the Gospel message with their family and friends.  They learned the presentation with accompanying hand motions and gestures to help them remember all of the points of the Gospel presentation.  Each week they practice what they have learned as part of the large group program.    

 

     Some of our teachers have been experiencing spiritual warfare that has tried to prevent their participation in this work.  We have been proud of the way that they have fought these battles and sacrificed to continue to participate in the work.  Ivan is a good example.  He is 15 years old and was living here in Huancayo with his father.  His mother lives in Lima.  His father abandoned him here and his mother does not want to support him.  He did not want to leave Huancayo and the work with the children.  He was faced with dropping out of school to try to find work to live.  We prayed with Ivan about this.  He felt so strongly called to continue in the work that we decided to help him.  We paid his school tuition for the remainder of the year and have been counseling him on how to discipline his life in Christ and his studies.  He found a room to rent, provides his own meals, and cares for himself.  We give him $20.00 a month to pay for his room and board and he gives us a financial accounting of every penny every month.  His grades have been improving in school and he is one of our most dedicated and valuable teachers.  Ivan also was baptized this month. 

      

Ivan Cruz clowning in the El Tambo Kid's Club.

 

    We also have a group that we are training to be cell leaders.  We want to divide the Thursday night group, but do not have leaders ready for the division yet.  The leaders group is growing rapidly in their spiritual walk, but we still have more work before they are ready to take responsibility.  We have been working on spiritual strongholds in our lives, how to be free from them, and how to help others to be free. Here in Peru where they still practice pagan rituals, witchcraft, and have so many broken homes, this is a real need.  There is even a church of Satan in Huancayo, whose expressed purpose is to destroy the evangelical church here.  Please pray for the rapid development of leaders for our Thursday night cell group and their protection and provision as they boldly storm the gates of hell for Jesus Christ. The group of leaders are Lorena, Maria, Erica, Jorge, Josue, and Genaro.      

 

    Our Thursday night discipleship group is continuing to grow in number and spiritually.  We have been studying the book of Romans and the young people are not just interested in superficial study.  Most of the youth were unchurched when we started and have a real hunger to know deeply the Word of God and how to apply it to their lives.  The group has grown to have an average attendance between 15 and 20 now, and if all attended at the same time we would have more than 25.  This month we began to subdivide the group for a period of time during our meeting. The youth that are part of the leadership training cell took responsibility for the sub-groups.  As the training of the leaders continues we will eventually divide the groups into different cells.    

 

    Arthur also begin coaching a group of high school boys in basketball two nights a week this month.  Benjamin and Joshua are participating with him.  They have been sharing little bits of the Bible with the team especially as it relates to sports.  The boys have been improving in their basketball abilities, but more important in their attitudes and behavior.  We are hoping that at least some of these young men will begin to participate in our Thursday night 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 Figueroa.  Please pray for our safety as we travel, our continued adjustment and ability to understand 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