I want to start by giving thanks to God who has sustained us in every moment of difficulty when nothing seemed to make sense. He has helped me to remain steadfastly walking in the centre of His will.
The most difficult moments have been our children’s health. Briana, who is 7 years old, and Filip, who is 5 years old. As you know, Briana suffers from allergies and problems with bronchitis and our inversion is with her. In spite of our worries our children give us a lot of joy when we hear them pray for the tribes and their desire to travel with me to the native communities to speak about the Word of God. I give thanks to the Lord for my wife because she gives me joy and support in the missionary work, and especially in caring for our children (most of all because she is responsible for teaching the word of God when I am travelling).
On the other hand I give thanks to God for the lives of my parents and for the responsibility of going to their home each morning to prepare and serve them breakfast. Now us four brothers also take turns in caring for them at night.
My father is now 101 years old and my mum is 87 years old. The day after his birthday my father suffered a brain haemorrhage which has affected the movement in his right arm and his right leg. Since then us five boys take turns to look after our dad during the night, this is due to the fact that he had two falls and wasn’t able to support himself, and now we have to take care of both my parents, by day the sisters take turns and by night the brothers take turns. There are nights when we sleep 2 to 3 hours per night. I do this out of much love.
One day our son, Filip, came home from school complaining of a lot of pain in the groin. I saw that he had a little bulge and we took him to the paediatric specialist who said he had a hernia and that he needed to have an urgent operation. We took him to the children’s hospital and the surgeon told us the same thing that he needed an operation but we didn’t have the money to pay for an operation. We prayed to the Lord and God responded to my request and provided exactly the amount needed for the operation on 22 September. Now he is back at school and getting better day by day thanks to the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, I always give thanks to God in my prayers every day for you because in my diary life with the Lord I am learning to have confidence and to hang on to His promises. Without your help I couldn’t do anything.
From 27-30 of April I travelled to Cusco with a team from the USA. It was an exploratory trip visiting different denominations and evangelical churches in the Cusco region, the objective was to find out the reality of the churches and the spiritual and material needs so they can help them in the strengthening and spreading of the gospel to other Quechua communities where there isn’t an evangelical church. In this way they will be able to expand their work in Peru, not only with the jungle tribes but also with the Quechuas.
The truth is that we have been impacted by seeing the reality of the evangelical churches. They don’t have good theological or biblical preparation and also they have an absence of dedicated workers. Because of this some have been abandoned and are now without a pastor. Also there are many Quechua communities who don’t have a church but in the middle of this great necessity God has put a hunger for the Word in their hearts. Where there isn’t men in leadership the women are meeting to pray and read God’s word and sing in Quechua although many of them don’t know how to read. As fruit from this visit there opened up a possibility that this group from the USA and Segadores could sign an agreement of cooperation with the institution to support and strengthen the work that the churches are doing in the areas outside of Cusco.
After many years of praying for an office, God has allowed us to rent one and in the beginning of May we worked on painting it and moving in. We give thanks to God for His help. This is part of a transition of changes for Segadores and so that they can find a new secretary.
In May we received a visit of the Bright Hope World team from New Zealand, Carl & Margaret Daniel and Kevin. They were sharing with us and at the same time they listened to the missionaries and gave us advice. The team showed that they are ready to continue helping in the missionary work.
On 17th June I travelled to Mazamari to talk with the President of the Association of Ashaninca churches from the region of Junin. In the meeting we talked about the draft agreement. Later on we will materialise the signing of the agreement. I took advantage of this trip to visit Antonia Yalta (PER10) and Cristina Salas (PER16) in the Ashaninca Community of Aoti and we coordinated with their authorities to be able to extend the sewing workshop. We bought more equipment for the crafts workshop in Pampa Mercado.
In August I had a meeting with the lawyer for a legal assessment regarding gaining a clean ownership title for the Segadores property in Pariachi, Lima.
From 27th to 29th August two of us members of the Segadores board travelled to have an initial meeting with the leaders of Ashaninka tribe to propose the signing of the cooperation agreement. We have fixed another date for the signing of the agreement. We also took advantage of the time to buy a motorbike for church planting work in the Prene river basin, an Ashaninka community of Aoti.
This motorbike will be used by the Ashaninka worker/missionary to take the gospel to other communities that don’t have a church. The following week, 4-7 September, we made a new trip to sign the cooperation agreement with the Christian Ashaninka organisation.
During September we were busy with Filip’s operation, with the administrative work of Segadores and the appraisal process with the Segadores property in Lima.
1) For wisdom in the leadership and the decisions in Segadores
2) That God will guide us in any community we initiate missionary work
3) For the health of my wife and children
4) For the changes and legal affairs in Segadores
5) More transcultural missionaries for the tribes
6) For provision for the construction of the missionary base in Atalaya
7) For the construction of the missionary training centre in Atalaya
We are very grateful to our Father and every one of you for the abundant blessings we receive. Thank you for sharing with us and remembering us in your prayers because without that it would not be possible to do the work that we do reaching the unreached people groups.