It has been an incredibly busy and eventful first couple of months of 2025. There is much to share. We are grateful to God for all of His care. He reminds us that he does in 1 Peter 5:7 when he says: “Casting all your care upon him; forhecarethfor you.” How wonderful it is to know that He truly loves and cares for us.
NOTICE: We are officially on Medical Furlough. We hope it will not be more than six months as we have a great deal of work to do in Peru. God has given me a great staff of men and women whom we have trained for ministry, who are able to maintain the work as I manage from here for now. More details are in the family news section.
Ministry News
In January we had the privilege of hosting the R.O.M.A. mission board’s international training conference for their missionaries and missionary candidates. We are grateful for the facilities that we have here at Efata that allow us to serve other ministries as well as our own.
In February we had several things going on. We co-hosted our annual Fires of Evangelism conference in coordination with International Baptist Church. That was a great blessing. While this was going on, International Baptist was having their youth conference, and we were able to accommodate both conferences at the same time. There were over 500 in attendance for these.
At the same time, our Efata Deaf members went to camp. It was a great time for them. In all of this, there were souls saved, and decisions made.
During this time, we had our mass evangelism events in the northern city of Piura. Twice In two different weeks, members of Efata under the leadership of our asst. pastor Victor Ocampo traveled to Piura and partnered with local pastors and churches to distribute gospel tracts, Bibles, and New Testaments. Pastor Victor and others did evangelism training for the participating churches. Several hundred thousand pieces of material were distributed, and many were saved.
As well, we had our annual vacation Bible school. Our staff did a great job under the leadership of asst. pastor Jose Ugaz and his wife.
Family News
Unfortunately, I was not able to personally participate, as I had to come to the US for medical checkups. During these routine checkups, I was found to have a large blockage in my upper aorta above the heart. It was a very large blockage and would have translated to a heart attack at any time. I had been having strong symptoms of fatigue, loss of breath and no stamina for moderate work. I mentioned this to my doctor (just thinking it was part of getting old and not being in shape). He ordered a stress test, which they had to stop after one minute and a half. They sent me for a heart catheterization and found the blockage, fixed it with a stent during the same procedure, and after an night in the VA hospital, sent me home with follow-ups etc. In addition to all of this, I still need to get scheduled for cataract surgery in April.
Also, our daughter Jessica has been having swelling around her left eye since September. It was only once a month until December, and now it is every week. Sometimes her eye is swollen shut. In the past two months, Jessica has been hospitalized for five days, seen every kind of doctor and several specialists, has had multiple MRIs, Cat scans, Sonagrams, and blood tests checking for allergies, viruses and parasites, all to no avail. Thus, we have come home as a family to seek out help for her.
I want you to be aware that we will not be doing a great deal of traveling to churches during this medical furlough. It has been approved by my pastor and mission board; as opportunities arise and if we find ourselves in your area, I will try to reach out to you for a visit and update. Thank you for your understanding.
Please pray for all of this as we ourselves pray for wisdom and for God to connect us to the right doctors or hospitals for Jessica and that He will care for all the costs that are involved with all she will need. I am so grateful for the care I receive as a Navy Veteran from the VA. It amazes me to know that God has guided me in my life with decisions that have made it possible for me to get the care I have needed.
Lisa, Joel and Jennifer are doing great. We are so blessed to have wonderful prayer and support partners like all of you.
God is always good, and we are grateful for that goodness towards us. It reminds me of what the Lord said about Israel in the latter days:
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days. – Hosea 3:4-5.
We, like Israel, need to reverence (fear) the Lord and His goodness towards us!
We continue to work on our Church building project in Chancay. Many have given to this project and we are so grateful to all of you. The Mission will begin using the new building in January. We still have a water tank to install and are doing paperwork for the electricity to be connected. That will take some time, but we are working towards that goal.
In October we had a wonderful Family Day for the church where we took pictures of all our church families and had a lovely meal on the grounds.
In November, we had our annual Bible Conference. Pastor Scott Crabtree, Deaf Pastor of Signs of Life Baptist Church in Ohio preached to our Deaf, and Evangelist William Jeffcoat came and preached to our hearing members. Both conferences were wonderful with many decisions made.
We started another annex outreach in the town of Lurín just south of us. We are looking forward to what God will do in this new area. One of our Bible College graduates from last year is heading up this ministry.
This year, two Deaf students from our Deaf Bible Institute and one student from our Bible College will be graduating.
This year has been a great year for salvations, baptisms and baby dedications. As we close this year, we look forward to the next. There is so much to do. We look forward to Deaf camp and the Fires of Evangelism Conference in February. We also have another mass evangelism campaign scheduled for January.
One great difficulty that we have been facing is with our annex mission in Callao near the airport. We have been dealing with the municipality for many years to advocate for the title to the land that was donated to us in 1987. Unfortunately, the current mayor is trying to reappropriate untitled land back into their control for other purposes.
We have been in the battle for a long time. Two weeks ago, the municipality annulled the resolutions that we have from former years making them of no effect. We are now working with lawyers to deal with this. Since we have had possession of this land for over 30 years and we have paid all of the taxes and kept them up to date, they cannot kick us off the property and our rights of possession for over 10 years should give us favorable standing in the courts, legally speaking, to eventually win and obtain our title. We are basically in a holding pattern that does not allow us to build any much-needed space as we do not wish to presumptively build where by some weird happenstance, we could lose that land to the government. This lawsuit will probably go on for many years. We ask that you make it a matter of regular prayer. I will keep you up to date on this issue.
Family News
The family is doing well. Lisa and I just went to the States for a few days for the graduation of our daughter Joy from USAF Basic Training. She is in the Air National Guard. She will be on active training duty until late next year.
Joel, Jessica and Jennifer are doing great. Jessica and Jennifer are playing their instruments in the small church orchestra and singing in the choir. They also help in children’s church.
Thanks again for all that you do for us with your prayer and care. Thank you for the Christmas offerings for our ministry and family. Have a blessed Christmas and New Year.
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.
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.
It is wonderful to know that God is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. This statement from Hebrews 11:6 has been a strong tower of strength to me and has helped me increase my foundational faith and confidence in my Bible and my Savior. I thank God for these “handfuls of purpose” that He gives us on our life-faith journey.
As of the writing of this letter, my family and I are preparing to leave to return to Peru after three months of a short but extremely busy furlough. By the time you read this letter, we will be home and wrapping up our Mission Conference at Efata. We are so thrilled to have Spanish Pastor Fabio Betancourth coming as our special speaker from Bible Baptist Church of Bradenton, FL.
During this short furlough we were able to accomplish several important goals.
We were able to participate and interpret the Servant’s Conference at First Baptist Church, Hammond’s Spanish church for a Deaf Mexican young man who attended.
We were able to see our two new grandsons that were born during this furlough.
We were able to go to Joy’s Graduation from Bible College.
We were able to see most of our kids and family in the US.
We traveled over 15,000 miles and visited many of our supporting churches and several new ones.
I was able to take care of all my medical appointments with the VA.
One of the most awesome goals we were able to fulfill is the raising of more funds for the new church we are building for our mission work in Chancay, Peru, two-and-a-half hours north of our Lima location.
My, how God has provided through you, our wonderful supporting churches and friends. We were able to raise the initial $25,000 for Phase 1 to build the church building which is under construction as I am writing this. This is going to relieve the pressure from the landlord taking back over half the building they currently rent.
Once the church auditorium is done, we will be working on the four classrooms and the bathrooms. If you would like to help us with this second phase, it would be a great blessing. In this letter, I have included some pictures so you can see the progress.
Regarding the Deaf school, we increased our students from 5 last year after we reopened to 23 this year. We plan to open our High School again next year, and we are working towards that goal. Please pray for this very necessary part of our ministry in Lima.
The mass evangelism outreaches in Piura and Arequipa have been delayed due to Customs issues for the containers with the Bibles – Typical Peru! Pray we can get the containers in and reschedule our dates for the events.
Family News
Our children are looking forward to going home. They love Peru much more than being in the States.
It was so wonderful to see our two new grandsons. Julianne & Frank’s seventh, Daniel Jedediah; and Judson and Valeria’s first, Joshua Ryan. Thus, so far 15 grandkids. WE ARE BLESSED!
Please know we truly are grateful for all of you, our supporting churches and individuals. Lord willing, on our next furlough, we will be able to see those we were not able to visit this time around. There just was not enough time. You are more than welcome to come and visit us.
We are constantly amazed at God’s goodness and care for our mission work and ministry in Peru and our family. The beginning of this year has been wonderful.
In February, I was in the States for a mission conference and to attend my yearly medical appointments at the VA and eye doctor. I returned to Peru, and we had a wonderful Fires of Evangelism conference where several young people made decisions and several were saved.
The day after the conference, the entire family flew to the States to begin the short furlough that I mentioned in my previous prayer letter.
One of our goals for this short furlough is to raise funds to build a church two hours north of us at one of our mission works. Our national pastor there was advised by his landlord that he would be losing the use of half of his small building in a couple of weeks and may lose the other half as well. We purchased property to build the church and are now raising funds to construct the initial church building for them nearby where they have been renting.
So far, we have raised $12,000 – to God be the glory! We are looking for an initial $20,000 to build a 200-seat auditorium and another $5000 to equip it with water, sewer and furniture. Later we will raise funds to build Sunday School and multiuse rooms as well as a pastor’s home. We plan to begin right away as funds come in.
Please make this a matter of prayer. If you can help with this project for the initial building or for the future classroom and home space, that would be a blessing. Please send the support to Macedonia World Baptist Missions designated “Efata Building Project – Chancay.”
We are planning another evangelism explosion for the second and third largest cities in Peru – Arequipa and Piura – around the middle of the year. We are praying for a soul harvest in both locations. We and the Peruvian churches that are partnering with us will be printing the tracts, and Pastor Mark Smith From Tacoma, Washington and partnering churches in the States will be printing and sending us two containers of Bibles and New Testaments to distribute in these two cities.
The school is moving forward with more Deaf students this year. Our goal is to be able to accept high school students again. We are working with the legal department of the Ministry of Education on this. Please pray that we will be successful. The Deaf need this, and we need to have this influence on the future generation for the Lord.
Family News
Julianne and Frank are having a new baby boy, to be born any day now! This will be their seventh child and our fourteenth grandchild. Then in May, our son Judson and he wife Valeria are expecting their first child. Joy will also be graduating from College in May. We are grateful we could be in the States for these few months to share in these wonderful milestones and report to several of our supporting churches and present our ministry to a couple of new churches.
We return to Peru the first week of June and immediately have our Mission Conference. Fabio Betancourth, Spanish Pastor from Bible Baptist Church in Bradenton, FL, will be our special speaker. We are thrilled that he is coming.
As I mentioned before, we will do a longer, more robust furlough of reporting in 2026 or 2027, the Lord willing. Joseph, our son who works with us, will be going on Furlough for 2025. Thanks you to all of you and we are sorry if we did not get by to see you. There just was not enough time. We will see you next time around, and, as always, you are more than welcome to come and visit us.
The new year is upon us. We look forward to what 2024 will bring. In spite of the political challenges that the entire world is facing, the wars, the persecutions and the lawlessness of the day, our hope is in the Lord. The Psalmist encourages us to this hope in Psalm 42:5.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
We ended 2023 with some amazing events. First, we had a wonderful Christmas meal for those who live at Efata who wished to participate and for those of the church who did not have a family to celebrate with. We were able to give gifts to all the children that were present and had a wonderful time. We also had several events for children and their families at Efata and at some of our mission works. Many trusted Christ.
In addition, we were able to help a few families in need through the generous donations of you, our supporters.
One dear elderly member was given a new wheelchair which she desperately needed, and she is so excited coming to church in it. Another young girl was given a nice keyboard so she could learn to play the piano, which was one of her dreams.
We baptized six people in the last two weeks of 2023. Lord willing we have three baptisms this first week of January as well.
We know it is the Lord who gives the increase as our church is going and telling. We praise Him for the increase of souls saved and baptisms. Many souls have come to know Christ throughout 2023.
Family News
In March of this year our family will be coming to the States for a short three-month furlough. Though it will not be long enough to visit everyone, we have too much going on to be gone longer.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Pastor, if you would like to have us come and give an update, PLEASE contact me so I can see if we can come to you. I am prioritizing churches we have not been to for a long time and ones in the areas we will be in.
Here is our contact information:
Phone: 813-675-4879 – Voice Only (use Mobile after March)
Mobile: 813-406-2838 – Voice, WhatsApp, Text
Email: jkotvas@efata.org, jfkotvas@gmail.com
In March our daughter Julianne is expecting her seventh child. In April, Valeria, Judson’s wife, is expecting their first child, and in May, Joy will be graduating from Bible College. We have coordinated our visit around these events.
We will probably do a longer, more robust furlough of reporting in 2026 or 2027, the Lord willing, as Joseph, our son who works with us, is planning his furlough for 2025.
