Tomorrow I leave for the mountains with two other men. We’re taking literature and the projector and films with us to help reach the people there. Pray for us!

This weekend, I’m travelling to Bambamarca and from there into the mountains to visit some other small groups and to receive a new group of brothers who wants to join in our fellowship.

Women Working for God in Peru

Every day the church continues to grow in this region and we are so happy for that, but now I have a lot of work to do because I need to visit the different places each week where new churches are starting.
We are starting two new churches in the mountains, and in March, I am going to travel with Pastor Jorge from Chota eight hours into the mountains –up and down and there is one part that lasts for three hours where the road is about a half-mile above a drop to the river down below. If a driver were to go off that road, he would be a goner. In one of the new groups there is a high school teacher and a nurse, as well as some high school students. We meet in a room provided to us by the local clinic – interesting.
Last Saturday we had a meeting of the region’s pastors to plan the work for this year and how to reach new areas. Soon we will have 20 churches in this region. When Udelia and I arrived four years ago, there were just eight or ten congregations. God is really blessing now! I am preparing Bible lessons to send to the local church leaders for them to use.
I also have to prepare the missiology institute materials. Every other month the group gathers for one week of intensive classes then they take home lessons to study in the interim. This year, we have 14 students who came to the on-site classes and four others who could only study from home. There were three professors. We were encouraged that some of the new students are young people who we believe will be ready to go into these new churches when they finish their studies. It was also a surprise to us this year to have three women among the students. In years past, there has only been one. God is calling women this year.
We are so grateful to Christian Triumph Company for the offerings that pay for the professors’ room and board, the course materials and to hire a cook for the week. And we are now stocked up with literature for use in edification of the church, El Mensajero de Esperanza, as well as tracts for evangelism, thanks to CTC.

Last week I was going through the mountains, travelling toward Trujillo, in a town called Magdalena that produces fruit and sugar cane. It’s between the high mountains. I walked up the mountains to visit a man had been with the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) a long time ago. But when my wife and I left for mission work in Ecuador and Chile, no one ever came again to visit this man. There were three churches in this area and I met with the three leaders and they told me, “We are from the Church of God, but we’re all alone up here. No leader has ever come to visit us. We have received visits from pastors from other churches, but nothing from the Church of God.”

So in talking with these leaders and one other, they decided to join us. We are incorporated separately from the other Church of Gods (Anderson, Ind.) in Peru. To do that, we had to change our name, so we are actually recognized as a new movement, which is why the Church of God leaders in Peru have told me they don’t recognize our organization as being as part of theirs. But in actuality, each region has its own corporation, and ours is the largest of the Church of God in Peru. There are three churches in the jungle, two in Lima, five between Chepen and Chiclayo on the coast and we have 16 churches in Cajamarca. And we have a plan for each congregation to plant another church within the next two years, working in conjunction with other denominations if we need to. We are praying that God will provide leaders to continue this growth.

This picture of the recent mission group working with the children in Cajamarca show the tin roof we're having problems with now that rainy season has begun.

Well, the rains have begun in Cajamarca and they are complicating our meeting in the church in Cajamarca, because rain comes in everywhere with just our ill-fitted tin roof. I think we will move evening services to twice a week, one in one home, another in another home. While it doesn’t rain in the mornings, we will continue to have Sunday school for the children who come to sing, pray, do crafts and Bible Studies. We’re hoping these rains bring the blessing of funds for a proper roof.

In October, I will travel to Piura to visit a man who is asking for 10,000 tracts from Christian Triumph – I hope to be able to find his home! Then the following week, I will be travelling to a new place where we will hand out testaments and tracts and have some meetings in a school for some Bible studies. We’re praying that God will give us victory and that people will accept Jesus as their savior. The place is far from here – four hours by car then two on foot. We will have to carry the literature on horseback. It might also be possible to take our projector and show a film – that brings people in.

Outskirts of Chota

Estuve nuevamente en chota pero por el campo, para ayudar a una iglesia pequeña. Este lunes salgo nuevamente para el campo por 3 días para tener cultos con gente inconversa y ver las posibilidades de ayudar a levantar una iglesia que esta levantandose por las montañas. El 3 de septiembre viajo a la costa para dar un seminario sobre evangelismo y hacer una campaña evangelsitica. oraciones por favor.
Narciso Zamora

We gave the leaders a brief (!) demonstration on their use, but I’m thinking it was much too brief. Just got word from Narciso today that he would like us to return next year and do a two-day workshop on children’s ministry. We also left a fund of 500 soles with the regional pastors group to reimburse churches who make photocopies of the lessons. If each of the churches used the materials each week, the fund would probably last about four months. Really doesn’t seem like much and when you see these faces… just makes a body want to do MORE!