Monday, February 22, 2010

Yesterday we attended the church where Dario S. is the pastor in Oasis de Villa (a part of Lima pictured above - the majority of Lima's almost 10 million habitants live in areas of stark constrast to the previous scenic pictures we have posted).

The name of the church, seen here to the left, is Vida Nueva, meaning New Life.  I got to sit in on the adult Sunday School class and I was able to observe some of the other Sunday School classes as well. Then, during the service, Dario (pictured right) shared a sermonette before asking me to preach. I was very encouraged to hear very substantive teaching going on both in Sunday School and in Dario's teaching. I was also encouraged to see almost as many men as women in the congregation.

We very much enjoyed our time spent with Dario, his wife Olga, and his three daughters Joha, Naomi, and Grace.

- Brad & Cassie

Monday, February 22, 2010

On Saturday I visited with Carlos M. and then Cassie and I visited with Ana P.

Carlos is the pastor of a mission church that is being sponsored by Juan O.'s church in the Lima area. Although the mission is relatively new, it already has a pretty good number of adult members and it is getting very close to becoming an autonomous church. As I shared in a previous post, Juan's church is already thinking about where they can work to plant their next church.

Every time I meet with Carlos he always has good questions that reflect that he is a real student of the Word who continues to strive to grow in his understanding. Pray that the Lord would continue to give him more light as he leads his church.

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Ana (pictured above at the right head of the table teaching a chapter out of Charles Leiter's "Justification and Regeneration") serves at the Church of Savior in Barranco in the areas of women's ministry and evangelism. She leads several Bible studies for women; some of which are more evangelistic in nature and some of which are more discipleship oriented. Cassie had the chance to hear her teach the other day and was very impressed with the way the Lord has gifted Ana with the gift of teaching.

When Cassie and I met with Ana, it was evident that she has a genuine love for the young ladies and the women that she is working with; she rattled off their names asking us to pray for salvation for some and for spiritual growth for others. It really was exciting to hear the stories of some of the ladies that the Lord has led to Ana. Some of them have made professions of faith recently, while others appear to be growing in their passion to know and glorify God.  One young lady has a desire to be a missionary in India. Pray that the Lord would give Ana the strength to minister to all of the women that he has been sending her way.

Yesterday I met with Juan O., Miguel S., and Victor M.

Something that I was very encouraged to hear about is that in the churches that all of these men pastor they are systematically studying the Scripture book by book. Both these men and their congregations seem to be growing tremendously in their knowledge of the Word of God.

Juan is pastoring a pretty well established church but he very much has a heart for missions. His church has served as the mother church for the church plant where (HeartCry missionary) Carlos M. is pastoring. Juan shared with me that Carlos' church is very close to being autonomous and that soon his church will be looking to begin work on another mission church. Please pray for Juan and for his church; that the Lord would help them to be a healthy congregation and that He would help them in their missions efforst.

Please pray also for Juan's health and the health of his family; he has some respiratory problems and his twin girls have just had chicken pox.

Miguel is pastoring a relatively new mission church in one of the poorer parts of Lima. Yet, the church already seems to be thriving; the people seem to be genuinely hungry to know the Lord and his Word. They have actually just named another elder to help Miguel shepherd the congregation and they just celebrated the Lord's Supper for the first time. The church is also already involved in missions; they have been sending Miguel and others from their church to help a church plant in another part of Peru.

Please pray for this young church and pray also for Miguel. His wife has recently had some serious health problems from which she has not yet totally recovered.

Victor is a pastor of a church on the very outskirts of Lima. In the past he has worked more in evangelism and his heart is still very much inclined toward evangelism. At his church, he has been preaching through books of the Bible. His church has also recently added another elder. This is another development that I am very encouraged to see in many of the churches of the men that we are supporting; a growing understanding of the Biblical precedent for a plurality of elders.

Please pray for the Lord to give Victor the strength and the wisdom to pastor his church and also for the Lord to open doors for him to be more involved in evangelism.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Yesterday I visited with Miguel Sa., Dario S., and Rogelio A.

Miguel (pictured here in the yellow shirt as we rested after our visit and lunch) is working to plant a church in one of the poorer parts of Lima. The area where he is working is also being worked by several cults and the church planting process there has been pretty slow going. However, there have been some very encouraging developments recently in the addition of a couple of new families. The church still has not settled on a final location since the people are kind of spread out from one another. Please pray that the Lord would lead them to an adequate meeting place that is convenient for everyone. Most of all pray that this group would be firmly established and that it would flourish.

Dario is also serving as a church planting pastor. It was a great blessing for me to be able to meet with Dario; I found him very full of faith and resting in the Lord's sovereignty and goodness. In spite of some dissappointing issues that he and his family have gone through recently, he seemed very content.

There are some very promising signs that the Lord is at work in the church plant where he is working. He shared with me that, as a church, they are reading through the Bible from start to finish and that each week they are discussing a chapter. He said that they people have really gotten in to this. He also shared that a couple of the men in particular have really demonstrated a hunger to know more of the Word of God. Finally, he shared that, at the church's annual meeting where they assign responsibilities for the year, that he did not have to prod anyone, but rather many people eagerly volunteered to do the things that needed to be done.

Rogelio (pictured left) is one of the pastors of the Church of the Savior in Barranco. He does some of the preaching and he is heavily involved in pastoral care and counseling. He is also involved in a prison ministry. He seemed to be doing very well.

I always enjoy visiting with Rogelio; he has one of the neatest testimonies of all of our missionaries. If you have not read it, I would encourage you to do so. You can find it by clicking on his name above.