Foreign companies mine gold and other minerals and metals in the mountains outside of Cajamarca. The people of Cajamarca are objecting to the large quanties of water the process uses, among other environmental challenges.

Tomorrow begins a general strike in the city of Cajamarca and the news reports are that it will last indefinitely until there is a resolution to the concerns about the mining companies in the State of Cajamarca. I’m concerned that the strike will close the roads and airport, so Udelia and I are leaving here on Wednesday to go to Lima, to make sure I can travel to the States on June 13.

Udelia’s health is particulary bad just now and we are making frequent trips to the clinic. Prayers please.

Also, I have an upcoming trip to the U.S. planned – June 16 to July 2. I will mostly be in Texas with maybe quick trips to Oklahoma and/or Arkansas. Please contact me if you’d like me to visit your church in one of those states. I’ll need to nail down my schedule by the end of this month. In Texas, John Anderson, an accomplished young opera singer, is going around with me to offer a few songs of praise to go with my speaking. Should be interesting! Here’s a video of a performance of his.

You may want to visit the Kurrle’s blog and read what Julie was up to on the day before the accident. And please consider a gift to help Norberto during this time of loss. There is a donation button on the blog, you will need to designate the donation for Norberto Kurrle, as the donate link goes to a missions organization.

Children of Promise is also accepting memorial gifts. Julie Kurrle Memorial Gifts for special health needs of sponsored children in Paraguay; local administrative support for the program in Paraguay; resources for the spiritual formation of the sponsored children in Paraguay; and other sponsorship program needs in Paraguay as determined by the Kurrle Family and Children of Promise.

Timmy Kurrle Memorial Gifts for unsponsored children in the Children of Promise program in Paraguay for food, education, and health care for these children until new sponsors are secured.  In this way, the fund provides continual care for Paraguayan children.

It is at times like that that we are so very thankful for the hope of the resurrection!

I was in Chota working in the Bible Institute, but I got home to Cajamarca on Saturday night. I brought with me several boxes of the periodical El Mensajero. We left one box in Chota and Bambamarca which was handed out personally to the pastors and churches of the area. This morning I took a suitcase full of packages to the post office to send the Mensajero to other subscribers and still more will go by bus. Then I will also personally deliver others to the churches in Porcon and five other churches in Cajamarca. It’s getting interesting how many subscriptions we have and we’re happy that the pastors here have this material to help in the spiritual growth of their congregations.

We are about to print another 16,000 tracts – different ones from the last printing. When we printed the first time, I honestly thought that 16,000 was a lot, but it all fit in two boxes. We have already distributed about 12,000 of them throughout the country. We’ve given them to pastors and we even have a radio station that is offering them to their listeners who request them.

God is blessing this effort by adding saved lives to our congregations and this is comforting.

These Spanish tracts we are distributing are available to download and print at Christian Triumph’s Web site.

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.