Dear Friends and Family,
We rejoice in all that God does and is doing. As Psalm 27 states: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” Through prayer, we have the blessed ability to “dwell in the House of the Lord” daily. It is our strength.
Ministry News
As you know, we have been raising support to build a new church building for our mission work in Chancay. We have raised most of what we need. The concrete foundation and floor was poured for the main church auditorium, bathrooms, and for the four classrooms. The outer walls and roof have been put up and we are starting the next phase of installing the windows, doors, electricity, plumbing, and interior walls and platform with the baptistry. We have already purchased 200 chairs.
We still must raise the funds to build the walls of the four new classrooms, complete the bathrooms, and install a septic system and a water cistern.
Thank you to all who have given toward this project. We rejoice in all that God has allowed us to accomplish and look forward to completing this first phase, including the primary church building, bathrooms, septic and water systems, in the coming weeks.
We had another mass evangelism outreach in the city of Arequipa in July. A team from our church with the coordination of other churches in Lima and Arequipa were able to distribute 200,000 Gospel tracts and tens of thousands of New Testaments and whole Bibles. Many were saved as our people preached on the streets, in police stations, hospitals, government buildings and schools.
We will be doing this again in October in Piura, another city in the north of Peru. We are thrilled to be able to reach out all over Peru with the Gospel. Thank you to Faith Baptist Church in Tacoma, WA, Pastor Mark Smith, and Spanish pastor Gabriel Duran for all of their support and help in providing the Bibles for these two outreaches.
In August, my family and a large group from Efata traveled to Arequipa on a mission trip to visit one of our missionaries, Wilder and Ruth Rojas. It was such a blessing to help them in their new mission church and provide clothing and toys to their community and preach the Gospel. After our visit, Bro. Wilder called me to inform me that the attendance at the church had more than doubled and they were completely out of space. We were able to increase his support so he could rent the other half of the building he has been renting.
Right after our mission trip, we had Music Camp at Efata. More than 70 students, both adults and young people, participated. Bro. Joan Zamora was our primary instructor. Two young ladies from the US and others from Peru helped teach voice, violin, piano, and other instruments. I decided to take up the trumpet again after almost 28 years. It has been fun. Two weeks later, I had the honor to play the trumpet in a special with Joseph at the piano, Joy (visiting from the States) playing clarinet, Jessica playing the viola and Jennifer the violin. I am still learning but it was beautiful!
The first week of September, Efata hosted Pastor’s School for International Baptist Church of Peru. This was an intense week where preachers and leaders from many cities in Peru and other countries come for pastoral training and preaching. Experienced Pastors and missionaries from Peru, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the US. come and preach and teach. We housed well over 80 people at Efata. Hundreds attended, many were saved and many other decisions for Christ were made.
I am in the States for the month of September interpreting in mission conferences all over GA for Pastor Henry Vasquez, our national pastor in Chancay (for whom we are building the church) and a national pastor from Bolivia.
Family News
God is blessing our family; our children are keeping busy in school and church activities. Thank you for your needed prayers.
Blessings, Joe & Lisa
Joel, Jessica, Jennifer