Newsletter with fotos

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Hello friends and family, This time of thanksgiving we have much to be thankful for! We especially thank each one of you for supporting us financially and/or in prayer. The other day our son, Sam, was helping get the table ready for breakfast before school as we were rushing to not get another "tardanza" (tardy). He said, "Daddy when you work as a team you can get more done than if you do it alone." He said this because just the other day, I did it on my own and they were late for school. I was very glad to hear my son learning important life lessons even though they came as a result of my poor example. I am also impacted by this important life lesson that everyone of you are crucially important in the success of the work we are doing as missionaries. When you pray for us and work together with us as a team, we can get more done! God pleases to work in response to our prayers, and we give praise and thanks to Him for providing you as our supporters.  The passage below impacted me the other day and challenged me to not be like the 9 ungrateful lepers. I want to make sure to give thanks and glorify God for all that He has done for us. Most of all we give thanks for Jesus Christ who fulfilled all righteousness as our substitute. We also thank Him for sending the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk worthy of His calling. We are reminded all too often that it would be impossible without Him. Lastly we thank Him for all of you. Luke 17:11   While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine — where are they? 18 “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well We want to take a moment to let you know how thankful we are for having you on our support team. Here are a some recent things we have to be thankful for. Arabelle Emi was born! GG came to visit! Sam turned 7! Ezra turned 4! Hosting a visiting missionary from Holland, Carolien Van Mourik Grandma came to visit! Walter Hogue and Thomas Presley serving in Arévalo Arévalo Jovenes Emilio and Alejandra were married: Our first couple to lead in pre-marriage counseling! Did someone share this email with you? Sign up to receive more of our emails.  P.O. Box 25912 | Greenville, SC 29616 | 864.735.8267

Thanksgiving 2016

This time of thanksgiving we have much to be thankful for! We especially thank each one of you for supporting us financially and/or in prayer. The other day our son, Sam, was helping get the table ready for breakfast before school as we were rushing to not get another "tardanza" (tardy). He said, "Daddy when you work as a team you can get more done than if you do it alone" he said this because just the other day, I did it on my own and they were late for school. I was very glad to hear my son learning important life lessons even though they came as a result of my poor example. I am also impacted by this important life lesson that everyone of you are crucially important in the success of the work we are doing as missionaries. When you pray for us and work together with us as a team, we can get more done! God pleases to work in response to our prayers and we give praise and thanks to Him for providing you as our supporters. 

The passage below impacted me the other day and challenged me to not be like the 9 ungrateful lepers. I want to make sure to give thanks and glorify God for all that He has done for us. Most of all we give thanks for Jesus Christ who fulfilled all righteousness as our substitute. We also thank Him for sending the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk worthy of His calling. We are reminded all too often that it would be impossible without Him.

Luke 17:11   While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine — where are they? 18 “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well

We have several new things going on and a bit of transition.  We have a new baby. Arabelle Emi was born October 7. My mother came to visit for a little over 2 weeks. Meg's mother just came to visit for 2 weeks. This past year we started an apprenticeship program with four young men in our church. This has been a very good experience for our church as well as for these young men. Starting this programs was one of the steps that help to finally break through to convince me that my calling is not to be a carpenter but to be a pastor and mentor. I assume most of you already recognize that since I was ordained and installed as a pastor and have gradually become less and less involved with the carpenters. I still visit with them once a week and they continue to push forward with their business. I also continue a bible study with a mechanic friend who is growing more and more hungry for the word and has dropped a few comments about coming to church one day. But my real calling and work with Peru Mission is clearly as a pastor and mentor in this apprenticeship. This leads to the new role of our team leader asking me to take on the administration of our seminary work called, Areopago. I have to let go of the work I was doing with the carpenters and focus on the apprenticeship work. I consider a major part of the apprenticeship work is very similar to what my aim was with the carpenters, which was to disciple them to love Jesus and glorify God in their work and all their lives. This is still my main goal and calling in everything I do. But now, it will be more focus on the apprenticeship training and helping facilitate the seminary training for all people in Trujillo, Peru. The four apprentices in Arevalo are doing well and growing. There are several new apprentices that are joining in the seminary courses we are leading through BTS and IIIM. We pray this will be a major contribution to the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry in the church and in all the the community and marketplace. 

Prayer points

Two Sundays ago,  after the worship service during Sunday school, a man from the neighborhood known for being a drug addict and thief came to the church and wanted to publicly repent and ask forgiveness from everyone. 
Please pray for him, may the Lord truly grant him repentance unto salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Thursday night we had a great English conversation class with Walter Hogue and Thomas Presley. During the class one man (who found out about the class through his wife who teaches at our school) asked the question, "what is God to you?" this led into a great opportunity to share the gospel with several attendees who are not in the church yet. Please pray that seeds were planted as we are building relationships and that God will bear fruit in these souls and bring them into Christ's body.

Friday morning while walking back from taking Ezra to his kindergarten, I had a conversation with a neighbor who is a pharmacist. He asked me about my religion and then said that he thinks religion is just a belief and everyone has one and it is good. I began to explain that it is more than a belief but a relationship with the one who created us. This led to a long talk about the truth of Scripture and the catholic worship of Mary and that fact that all believers are saints. I showed him Ephesians 1 and 2 and he seemed surprised. He said, "if that is true, then my mom is wrong about Mary. She says that if we all just pray to Mary then everything will be ok." Please pray that he and she will come to know Jesus in truth and trust in Him alone. I invited him to our Areópago class next week (which will be held down the street from his house) on early church history.

Tonight for our young adults weekly meeting we will be studying through Ephesians 5:1-20. Please pray for the Spirit to work in our hearts and we think about what it means to imitate God by walking in love, light and wisdom.

Prayer requests

Good day from Peru!

We have a few things that I am compelled to publish so more can be praying.

1. Pastor Ricardo's wife Danny, has a herniated disc and may need surgery soon. Please pray for her pain relief, healing and recovery. Please pray for him as his takes on all the cares of the house and kids that she normally handles. 
2. Wilson, a man I have been sharing the gospel with, brother of Felix who I mentioned before. His son fell and hit his head and was sent home from school with vomiting this morning.
3. Felix's son was robbed this morning at gun point and they stole a new cell phone that they bought on credit.
4. Pray for our apprentices who are studying Third Millennium courses for credit through Birmingham Theological Seminary.  They are being challenged with plenty of reading assignments as well as our additional assignments to read through the Bible and Berkhof's Systematic Theology. 
5. Pray for Meg and baby as the due date approaches. Also pray for visits from my mother and Meg's mother, traveling mercies and health. 

Email Update from April 5, 2016

Greetings from Peru! Here are some highlights and prayer requests. Don't miss the last 3! We want to take a moment to let you know how thankful we are for having you on our support team. Here are a few updates from the last few months as we serve in Trujillo, Peru. The year 2016 has started off very full!  January 1, we returned to Peru after a Christmas visit and helped with the Summer Camp, Noah's Ark. My niece, Anna Louise, stayed with us for a week after coming down with the group from Twin Lakes in Jackson, MS.  Bethesda Clinic re-opening. The first week in February the medical clinic in Arevalo started attending patients again. Geneva School found a new director and also hired a few new teachers and started the new school year on March 7th. We had a great VBS week in our church in Arevalo with around 60 children every day. Cristo Restaurador celebrated it's 11 year anniversary on February 14th with a potluck dinner and special music from a visiting volunteer from Nashville. We had a decent turn out and seemed to encourage attendance a little bit. Please pray for our church attendance. We have several new visitors coming regularly but we are losing several older members. We are seeking them out and visiting them. Please pray for grace and encouragement for them.  Last week, we celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord with a Maundy Thursday service, a church-wide picnic fellowship, a Saturday prayer vigil and a sunrise Resurrection service.  The Young Adult ministry increased attendance during summer vacation, one evening we had 24 people. We planned several activities, a day of sandboarding, a trip to the beach, a fund raiser for a retreat later in the year. Please pray for these young christians battling many temptations and struggles. We started an officer training class where several candidates are regularly attending along with a few others who are interested in learning more. We also started a new apprenticeship program with four young men (see more below). The carpenters at Las Ponas are plugging away but struggling to grow. Please pray for encouragement and wisdom to improve their business and discipleship efforts with their employees. In the bible study with Felix the mechanic we have had several very good conversations where he expresses recognition of his need for Christ and change in his life, yet he thinks he is not worthy to give himself to Christ. Please keep praying for the Spirit to work in his heart and help him understand free (yet costly) grace.  Praise God and many thanks to our supporters that our personal financial support has been fully supplied and we lack in nothing!   Because of too many mechanical problems we are going to sell our old VW classic van and plan to replace it with a more reliable car. Please pray for a buyer for the old and guidance to select the right vehicle to suit our needs for family and ministry.  We have 3 special prayer and fund requests:   Geneva school is working towards becoming self-sufficient but will need a few years to reach that goal. Would you consider supporting the education work to cultivate a new culture in the next generation? You can do so here and select Arevalo Geneva School The session at Cristo Restaurador has started an apprenticeship program where we are training 4 young men in ministry. Their names are Alexis, Bryand, Jefferson and Luis. These young men have proven themselves in their commitment to the church and are zealous to serve Christ. Some are considering full-time pastoral ministry and others are pursuing careers but commited to serving the church in ministry. We would like to enable them to dedicate concentrated time in ministry in the church and study by providing a stipend for them. Please pray for our program that we would succesfully prepare these men and also please consider contributing to support this. We aim to raise $330/month per apprentice for 2 years. Please consider helping us provide this by donating here and writing in the additional comments: Arevalo Apprentices We saved the best prayer request for last! This one is not a fund request but an announcement and request for prayer. We are excited to announce the expectation of another baby!  Megumi is due to give birth to our fourth child early October. Please especially pray for the delivery as we are planning to stay here in Trujillo for the birth. Make a gift! Did someone share this email with you? Sign up to receive more of our emails.  P.O. Box 25912 | Greenville, SC 29616 | 864.735.8267

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Email Update from July 28, 2016

Hello from Peru!  How can you be praying for us? We want to take a moment to let you know how thankful we are for having you on our support team. Here are a few updates from the last months as we serve in Trujillo, Peru. Family Meg and the baby girl are due October 9. We are planning to stay here in Trujillo. Please pray for God's grace, health for both, and good medical care. Please also pray for a few couples with whom Meg and I are doing pre-marriage counseling. May the Lord bless and form families that will glorify him. We have had a very busy month with several short-term teams helping with the work. Youth Retreat and Missions Conference Today, as this email arrives in your mailbox, we are on our way to a retreat with the young adult ministry  July 28-30 (Peruvian Independence day), we will be speaking on going deeper in the gospel. The theme of the retreat is "Further up and further in." Some of the other pastors and I will be working through the Evangelism Explosion outline and tying it in with Ephesians. Please pray that God will work in the lives of many visitors that are not yet professing faith.  We are also planning a missions conference, July 30 and 31 with the entire church. Pray that the attendants will be motivated to participate in missions. Apprenticeship Four young men are participating in the apprenticeship program at the church: Luis, Jefferson and Bryand (full time) and Alexis  (part-time; full-time architect student). Please pray that they will continue to grow in grace and wisdom and that the Lord will confirm His call on their lives. Luis recently was ordained as a deacon in our church. Pray for our young deacons that they would humbly carry out their role faithfully as they grow in spiritual maturity.  Morning devotionals, led by the apprentices and pastors, are held every morning with school and medical clinic staff. We have begun working through the book The Peacemaker by Ken Sande. Pray that these devotionals would be instrumental in unifying the employees and deepening their understanding of the gospel. Food Fair celebrating Independence Day at Geneva School Geneva School Continue praying for improvement and growth. Several parents of students are in the new members’ class of our church. We give thanks to God that we received the approval to begin 1st and 2nd grade for the 2017 school year. The classrooms for these grades are yet to be built. Ideally they need to be finished by September or October to accommodate summer session classes. Looking at our financial situation mid-year we have calculated the actual cost per child. Being in a lower income neighborhood, we charge only S./120 ($37) monthly when it actually costs S./ 207 ($63) per child on an extremely tight budget. The school is highly dependent on donations given to Peru Mission to the compassion fund.   Pray for Funds for and rapid construction of classrooms Funds for covering the difference between tuition and actual cost per child.  Increased enrollment for the 2017 school year Please consider donating to Geneva School and/or the apprenticeship program in Arevalo. Did someone share this email with you? Sign up to receive more of our emails.  P.O. Box 25912 | Greenville, SC 29616 | 864.735.8267

Peru MissionP.O. Box 25912Greenville, SC 29616 Unsubscribe {Email Address} Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by stuartmills@perumission.org in collaboration with Try it free today