Growth in the Church

I wanted to give a short update on the church in Cusco. God seems to be doing a great work in the people. We have all our documents in order and we operate by our constitution. We have established membership and the congregation really understands it and takes it serious. We have everything in place to train future leaders, and we have several men that will potentially be trained. The culture of the church is changing as well. The members are more active in and outside of the church. Our prayer meeting has doubled in size this year.

We are introducing a new member on Easter.  His name is Bernabe.  He is a young man, sound in doctrine, filled with great zeal for God and holiness, and he is active in evangelism and the church. We have several others who have been regularly attending the church from 4 months to 2 years. They are faithful, but earlier it did not seem like God had saved them yet, however, as of recently, we have seen great changes in their lives and a new love for God, the Scriptures, and the church. We will continue to teach and watch them, but it seems God is working in them in a big way.  

There are so many exciting things happening in the church this year. We started three home groups, where Joe, Werner, and I each lead one in our homes. The church loves the home groups and they are very dedicated to them. We are studying the book of John and having super good fellowship. 

We will be doing a lot of street evangelism on the two days before Easter to invite people to the church for Easter service. Please be in prayer of this, that God would make His Word effectual in the hearts of His people.

Another thing to start praying for is the May conference in the jungle. We will be doing the leadership training conference in Satipo again from May 23-27th. I will give more details as we get closer. 

Why Missions?

Why Missions?  Here is a video I put together of our work in Peru for the last four years. I explain what our motivation is behind missions.  Hope it is encouraging.

Medical Campaign 2016 (Video)

Our church in Cusco just finished up a four day medical campaign.  Joe Martinez organized a group of doctors through his mission to come to Cusco and help us with our ministry by doing a campaign.  In the four days of the campaign we served around 500 people in Simataucca (The Quechua village near our land), in the juvenile detention center in Cusco, and at our church.  It was a busy, but a God glorifying, week.  Everyone heard the gospel in some way, whether through the preaching in the mornings, the one-on-one conversations, or by the gospel tracks that everyone received.  

We find these medical campaigns to be a good way to build trust with people who we are trying to reach, to share the gospel, and to open doors for future work.  All the kids of the church were helping as well.  Christian, Micah, Wehrner's twins, Raegan and Emmy did everything from translating to fitting people for eye-glasses.  Emmy filled prescription bags and Raegan, who translated for the dentist for two days, even pulled a few teeth!  Check out the video below to get a glimpse of the campaign.