Ministry News
This has been a very busy time for us, both at Efata and now as we are in the States until July, reporting in many of our supporting churches and presenting the work in Peru to several new churches.
In January we had our Fires of Evangelism conference. This year, the focus was on the family – and what a conference it was! Many good decisions were made and several received Christ as Savior. In February we had several meetings with the Ministry of Education to help collaborate on Deaf education here in Peru. These meetings were positive but we still need much prayer for this country in this area. We have 5 new students in the school which started again in March. Pray for them and their families!
On Feb. 18th, we arrived back in the States and hit the ground running. We truly enjoyed spending a few days with our Pastor and home church. We love our church and are so thankful for our pastor and his tremendous help as we prepared to come to the States for this furlough.
We are currently visiting many of our supporting churches and enjoying the blessing of visiting new churches and meeting some very wonderful people who have helped us along the way. While visiting one new church, I had the privilege to lead a Spanish couple to the Lord. What a blessing. The seed had been sown by the wonderful people of that church and I was blessed to add a little water and God gave the increase.
Family News
In May Joseph will be graduating from Bible College. We are so proud of him and excited about what the Lord is going to do in his life. He will be graduating with a degree in Secondary Ed., with a focus in Music, English, and Special Education. He is praying about getting his Master’s Degree and we are excited for this possibility. After that, Lord willing, he plans to come home to Peru and work with us as a missionary.
This year we had the privilege of going to Falls Baptist Church in Menominee Falls, WI to attend their Holiness Conference. What a tremendous blessing. James, our second son has decided to attend their college, Baptist College of Ministry, in the fall. We are so thrilled about this. While there, our oldest daughter Julianne also decided that she would like to go to college there. That was not an easy decision for us but we believe it is God’s will. What a thrill! It is going to make things interesting around the house with our three oldest gone, but, it will be a challenge and opportunity for the other children to step up and take the lead.
Thank you to those who have been sacrificially supporting us and the work we are doing in Peru and beyond. God is blessing and we are seeing fruit that abounds to your account.
Prayer Requests
- Pray for Peru! A Philadelphia church with a God-opened door!
- Continue to pray for Efata as we are planning a major open-air campaign for Easter. Also, I will be going down in May for the 35th anniversary of our church. Pray for all the activities and opportunities to reach people for the Lord.
- Pray for the construction of the new church building in our mission in Pucallpa. Praise the
Lord for a five thousand dollar donation for this project! - Pray for our missionary pastor Henry Vasquez and especially his wife Miriam who is going through some very serious health issues and will probably need surgery.
- Pray that God will help us to raise much needed new support for our ministry and for the Deaf children in our home and school.
- Pray for James and Julianne as they both start these new and exciting preparatory steps in their lives of service for the Lord and pray for Mom and Dad as we adjust to not having them around.
- Pray for continued safety on the road for our family.
- Pray for Missionaries Corey and Melissa Ricker and our entire staff at Efata and for new missionaries Matt and Sarah McKendree as they come down in April to begin serving with us in Peru.
God bless you all,
Bro. Joe & Lisa
Joseph, Julianne, James, Jared, Judson
Joy, John, Joel, Jessica, & Jennifer