Thankful for Prayer support

This week, I received an email from a fellow pastor who faithfully writes every month to let us know that they will be praying for us this Sunday and asking for specific prayer requests.  It is always a great encouragement to hear from him. I get caught up in the everyday ministry and family and get behind on writing here and sending out newsletter but at least his email helps nudge me into getting out something. So here is a bit of what I responded:

Here are a few updates to mention:

1. Please pray for our church, the last couple of months we have seen a drop in attendance both in the church as well as in the young adult ministry. Tonight Meg and I are inviting the youth over to our house for the weekly meeting. As a session, we are continuing to work on strategic planning to try to adjust the way we do our ministries. One plan we are working on is to make more time applied to evangelism to the various ministries connected to our church such as the medical clinic Bethesda, Geneva School and a new ministry similar to Child Evangelism Fellowship with child sponsorship called Christ’s Kids. Specifically we are going to make an effort to reach out to all the parents of the children enrolled in the school and offer to visit them in their homes and pray for them. 
2. Some of our missionaries as well as Pastor Ricardo, who I serve with in Arévalo have been in Cajamarca this past week translating for a medical team from 1st Pres in Jackson, MS. I stayed back this year because Meg still needs my help with baby Arabelle. I get to preach both services this Sunday while Pastor Ricardo goes to visit his home presbytery in the mountains in a city called Celendín.
3. Christ the Redeemer in Parque Industrial. One result of the flooding in Parque Industrial has been that it has given the church an opportunity to reach the felt needs of many and draw more people into the church. Pastor Percy has asked Bryand, one of the apprentices, to help him with developing a youth ministry to reach out to the young folks that we have come into contact through the flood relief. 
4. Apprenticeship. We have finally returned to our classes working through IIIM theological courses. We finished two classes on the Prophets and Primitive History and just this week finished a class on Pauline Epistles. We are working through a class on introduction to Theology, one on the Gospels and another class on Abraham. Luis, another apprentice, requested to serve with a presbytery in the mountains called Celendín (Where Pastor Ricardo is a member of presbytery), he is serving for 6 months with a fellow missionary, Steve Hill. Alexis, another apprentice, continues to work with the Adolescent ministry and is now working with the University ministry as well. Jefferson, another apprentice continues to be the super deacon in Arévalo, and helps me with the young adult ministry. Please pray for Jefferson, I am afraid he is too much like the older brother in Jesus' parable.  I am still teaching through a Harmony of the Westminster confession in Sunday School. I am also meeting a couple of people in counseling. One thing on my to do list is to organize classes with other students for our Areopago ministry. We are also trying to organize a reformation event to celebrate 500 years. 
5. Lastly, we are beginning to make plans for our home assignment next year, 2018. We are trying to work out when is the best time to leave Peru for 1 year. Somewhere between March to May is in our sights now.