Report from Manuel Cortez July 2022

Ministry

I am very grateful to our God for another year that He has permitted both my wife and me to continue with the ministry amongst the Ashaninka community from Maucayapi. 

God has blessed us and helped us up until now with the ministry to the Maucayapi community because we are maintaining and strengthening our fellow believer's lives with a view to their continued growth, so that they might advance the Gospel in other Ashaninka communities.  

Sunday School

We run a Sunday school with the believers from the Maucayapi community. We run Bible classes with the children, around 35 attend. 

We also meet with the adolescents for their classes, around 10 attend. 

Women's Meeting

The women meet every Wednesday at 3.00pm. The meeting comprises of a time of sharing the Word of God and afterwards they complete their workbooks. Numbers vary as they have to go to their land to gather straw to aid with cooking. In these meetings the ladies share their spiritual needs, material needs and their health concerns. There is a time of prayer and counselling with those who are suffering difficulties.   

Visiting Homes

As a missionary team working in the Maucayapi community we decided to initiate visiting fellow believer’s homes with the goal of encouraging them to stay firm in the Lord. We share the Word of the Lord and provide a breakfast that we share together. We also pray for their needs and other prayer requests. These visits help us to see any problems that our fellow believers have.

We have had two issues to resolve:
Firstly, was the case of Jhony, a Christian who attends the church. He was resentful because another believer had told him about how others were leading the church services. We visited him and this helped to clarify what had happened and, in this way, restore the relationship with him. There was forgiveness and reconciliation among the people affected.

Secondly, the case of Dina, a case that has yet to be resolved, who, according to the comments of various church members, is a person that started speaking badly of other people and not only this, but who is involved in harming her mother-in-law. We had an initial conversation with the believers in the church, however, we have a follow-up meeting planned where the people who have been affected will be present.

These sorts of cases are coming at us due to the more regular visits we are making to the Mauacayapi community believers.

Sunday Breakfasts

Thanks to God that this year He has made it possible for us to continue providing Sunday morning breakfasts to the Mauacayapi believers. Although the budget doesn't cover enough for the entire year, we are waiting upon the Lord for His provision of funding. We provide a cup of chocolate drink along with two pieces of bread with butter and jam. There are around 70-80 adults, adolescents and children attending. 

Personal Life 

Another year more has gone by where we have experienced the care, protection and blessing of our God, in spite of the difficulties that confront us in daily life. The years don't go by in vain, each day has its business. One of the things that I find in my personal life is the help of God in forming my way of living (God continues to mould my character and temperament).  

I am always grateful to God for His help and strength in the difficult areas of my life and in the ministry that we are involved in with the Mauacayapi community. 

In spite of the difficulties that confront us, the physical and spiritual, the marvellous thing that we experience in the Lord is His encouragement and comfort each day, for the enablement to do the activities that we carry out, together with my wife and the fellow believers that we are involved with, in order to plant a church in Maucayapi.

There are moments when I feel tired and have sore shoulders because of the physical work that we do at the missionary base. When I feel like that I turn to the Lord and ask Him to alleviate my pain and renew my strength and marvellously, the pain and tiredness starts to disappear. This consoles me and makes me remember the words of Isaiah: “But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” God’s action towards me makes me remember His faithfulness, His mercy and His love towards me and my family. 

Family

My wife has problems with a fleshy growth over her right eye. There are times where this irritates her sight. The doctors couldn’t operate due to our lack of funds. God willing, we will be able to do it on another occasion. 

I have two daughters. The oldest, Stephanie, is 27 years old and lives with her grandmother in the city of Chiclayo. She has a few minor problems with her back, she has scoliosis. She has completed her university studies and is waiting to receive her Batchelor of Computer and Informatics. 

The youngest, Abigail, is 24 years old. She continues ahead with her Accountancy studies at university. She lives with us and has a 1-year-old daughter.

My mother will be 90 years old in September and has Alzheimer's and various other health problems that makes it very difficult to maintain physical stability.

My mother-in-law is 85 years old and continues with sight problems, each year it gets worse. Now her sight has deteriorated to where her vision is blurred in one eye, and she can’t see out of the other. She has eye drops to control the worsening of her sight.

I have health issues that result in body pain, something I will have for life. There is nothing that can be done.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) That God would continue giving us wisdom when we are teaching the Bible to the adults, children and adolescents in the Maucayapi community.
2) For spiritual and numerical growth of the Maucayapi church.
3) That God give us wisdom as we counsel and provide solutions for the problems that exist in the church.
4) That God would guide us in each visit that we pay to the Maucayapi believers in their homes and that we would know what to pray for and how to minister to their lives.
5) For economic provision (US$800) to be able to by a laptop that would be a blessing in the ministry to the Maucayapi community. 

Comments

I am grateful to God and to you, dear fellow believers, for the support that you give us in order to complete our missionary labour in the Maucayapi community of the Ashaninka ethnic group, strengthening the spiritual lives of our brothers and sisters in the faith, in the place where we have been placed by our Lord.

Your prayers are important in the advance of the work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in this community, where God has permitted us to reach and help. Also, your offerings have made it possible to supply our needs.

May God bless you.

For the extension of the kingdom of God.
Manuel, Lucy, Stephanie and Sue Abigail Salazar