In the month of May 2023, the missionary family Marcus and Adina Dumitru and their two children, travelled to their home country (Romania) to take a sabbatical year and thus take the opportunity to spend time with their parents and relatives since they spent many years until the year 2023 where they did not have the opportunity to spend enough time with their parents and relatives. During the missionary work of the Dumitru family, Marcus' grandfather and father passed away in Romania. It was very shocking to receive the sad news of the death of their loved ones and for this reason they made the decision to return to Romania for a year. We thank God that I use them a lot and in different ways in missionary work in the Ashéninka ethnic group and now also in Romania. Faced with this need, we as a family have been responsible since May 2023 to continue the work they began in the Ashéninka ethnic group. It has been 9 months since their trip to Romania and with the Lord's help, they will return to Peru in May 2024 to continue the work in the Ashéninka community and in the church planting. This is the reason why we as a family have dedicated ourselves to working in the Ashéninka community of San Fausto.
In the month of April 2023, I travelled to the Ashéninka community of San Fausto with the missionary family Marcus and Adina Dumitru and their two children, together with two Romanian brothers who visited us with the purpose of helping us in some work in the community. With their help we managed to build the bridge on the road to San Fausto, we also built a new tower for the elevated tank to supply water to the mission house because the wood of the previous tower rotted from years of use. We also managed to make several repairs in the mission houses and also installed two water tanks of 2,500 litres each and connection of the pipes from the water spring. After some hard work, we returned to Lima on May 3rd.
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The Lord made the trip to the native Capanahua community in Loreto possible and thanks to His provision, on May 15 I began my journey to Limon Cocha with the purpose of conducting Bible studies with the church and also the discipleship of its leaders. We start the Bible study every night and only on Sundays do it during the day. The study material I used was Firm Foundations, teaching the Bible in a chronological form. During the day, the men began sawing the boards and slats with the help of two of our missionaries of the Shipibo ethnic group who travelled with me with the purpose of building the windows and the main door of the church. Once this work was finished, we began to fill the floor with the help of all the community members, including men, women and children. In this way we worked throughout the time I was in the community with the brothers. With the work finished, I returned to Lima on June 24. I am amazed at how God worked in each person to join in the work.
On our trip to the Capanahua community of Limón Cocha, we were late crossing the river, so we decided to stay in a Capanahua community called Wicungo. Thank God we were given the school facilities to accommodate us. As we presented ourselves to the highest authority of the community (the APU or chief) he said to us, "Why don't you come here to preach the Word of God to us? Because we also want to hear the Word of God and you can help us". He said this because I shared with him that we are evangelical pastors so I told him that I would come back to his community to preach the word of God to them. Before my return, I sent them a message giving them the date I would be in their community. When the day came, we travelled and arrived late at night. The next day while I was studying the word of God and praying, the Apu came to me and said: "A woman from my community is about to die, she is in pain, please come with me so that you can pray for her... please," so I immediately picked up my Bible. When we got to her home, there were a lot of people who just watched from afar, feeling helpless that they couldn't do anything for her. When I entered the room, I saw a woman rolling around and screaming in pain without being able to speak. I went up to her and said to the woman, "The Lord has sent me here and I want to pray for you." I asked her if she wanted me to pray for her and she replied with great pain, "Yes". At that moment I got down on my knees and prayed. While I prayed the pain was calming until she stopped complaining and fell asleep (she had not been able to sleep several nights and days because of the strong pain in her body and no painkillers had any effect on her).
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I was also able to coordinate with the Apu so that we could meet at the school and thank God that meeting was possible. Children and adults came and through me they were able to listen to the word of God very attentively. Most of the people in the community did not attend so for this reason they asked me to return soon so that the Apu can gather the whole community to hear God's word and learn more. This makes me very happy because there is a hunger and thirst for the Word of God. I am praying for the Lord's direction and provision for that journey. May it all be for the glory of God.
God answered our prayers and sent us a construction team from Romania, among them a family with two children, plus three brothers who were experts in construction and two of them my wife's family, one of them is her cousin and the other her brother. In this way, we also travelled on June 29, with my wife and two children, to help in the construction of the classrooms and dining kitchen at the Segadores mission base in Atalaya which will be used for the students who will come to the Transcultural School Reaching Ethnicities (ETAE), a school for cross-cultural missionary candidates. The brothers of the construction team took care of the piping, filling the columns, the floor of the two houses, and also the mortaring of the walls. In the meantime, with the help of Liviu, we put together the iron tube structures for the roof of both houses. We finished with the roofing of the two houses, praise the Lord. With the Lord's help we returned to Lima on July 17.
Several years ago we began the construction of the church building in the Asháninka community of Chontakiari but the filling of the floor with cement had yet to be completed so I travelled to coordinate with the brothers of the church to be able to continue with the work of filling the floor and the sidewalks and also spend time with them, encouraging them to remain firm in the Lord. I also visited the brothers of the community of Pomporito, and I was with them encouraging them to continue on the path of the Lord and listening to their problems as a church because unfortunately they do not have a pastor.
On this trip I took advantage and went to visit the Asháninka community of Pampa Mercado. The person responsible for gathering the brothers is Brother Lucho. During my visit I encouraged them to continue to congregate faithfully. We were surprised that his wife Susana is sick with pulmonary tuberculosis (this is due to lack of a better diet) and so is his youngest son who is also sick with other health complications. The truth is that when talking to Lucho, he shed tears because of the sadness he feels when he sees his wife and son sick. I sincerely returned very sad because of the difficult situation of the brothers in the communities. At the end of my stay in the jungle, I stayed in the Asháninka community of Aoti with the brothers, especially with the pastor of the church, Víctor. We spent a great time with him, motivating him to remain steadfast in the face of adversity.
We travelled as a family to the Ashéninka community of San Fausto on August 30th with the purpose of continuing the biblical teaching of the new believers in the community. When we arrived in the community, we had hard work cleaning and maintaining the mission houses, including the overgrown grass and evicting the bats from the house. In this way we began the meetings with the brothers of the community and at the same time we made visits to the families in their farms and to other families we helped in their work. We were able to gather a good number of people who did not attend our Bible study meetings before. To do this, we asked Sister Berta for permission to hold the inter-daily meetings in her house and in the same way we held the meetings some afternoons at the home of José and Dora Moque.
I am very grateful to God for my children because it was very helpful that they are with us, in addition to the fact that we cannot leave them alone in Lima. On this trip we made many friends in the community, and this helped us to make the arrangements for the beginning of the sawing of the wood for the construction of the church building (the brothers had already agreed to build the building for the church of 6.60 meters wide by 12 meters long). They asked the chief of the community to help them saw the wooden slats and posts for the entire construction. The brothers and we collaborate for the payment of the chief's work, something that surprised us was that other non-Christian people who are friends also joined in with their donations.
We returned to Lima on September 22 very happy for the progress of the Lord's work. Everyone was motivated and encouraged by the Word of God and always waiting for our soon return to the community.
We praise God that on October 28th we celebrated the 60th anniversary of Segadores working as a Peruvian missionary agency among the tribes of our Amazon. At the same time, we paid tribute to our founder and director of Segadores, the missionary Peter Hocking and his wife Marta. It was a very beautiful time full of many memories and anecdotes in the ministry among the ethnic groups, we cannot stop telling the wonders that the Lord did, continues to do and will continue to do in favour of His work.
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The brothers of the community contacted me asking what day we would be in the community to continue with the Bible studies, so we got ready to travel, but this time we would travel with two young ladies of Romanian nationality, Maria and Madi. They wanted to do their missionary internships and also wanted to know if it was God's will to call them to work in Peru with an ethnic group because they have completed their studies in a missionary school in their country.
When we arrived in the community, we started again with the maintenance of the mission houses and at the same time we continued with the Bible study meetings, following up and discipling the new believers, in addition to the construction of the church building. It was a blessing to work as a team with the people who wanted to help in the construction, from the beginning we coordinated with the brothers and the head of the community, and all those who were eager to see the building gave their collaboration for what was left for the sawing of the wood and the transfer.
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Thanks to God and the brothers we were able to buy the necessary fuel and the head of the community took over the work of sawing and finishing the sawing of all the wood for the construction. I coordinated with the chief and he scheduled several communal tasks, with these tasks we were able to move all the wood to the church land which we managed to level with the help of the sisters and some men of the community.
By God's will, in the month of December 2023 we began the construction of the building with the help of the chief's son. Later, several men joined us to help us with the construction, but the day we lifted the rafters, the chief and all the men and women of the community came to help us. It was amazing to see everyone, men and women, working together like ants to carry the very heavy beams and the fun thing was that everyone worked happily until they finished. The next day we began to assemble the roof with the slats and in this way, we finished the structure and the roof of the church. With the Lord's help, I returned to Lima on December 24.
Behold, it is God who helps me; the Lord is with those who sustain my life. Psalm 54:4
My daily walk is with the Lord, there is no better place than in His lap under His care; as long as he lends me life, I live to do His will. I have no greater good or riches in this world that attract me, because I have known and live with the Lord and author of life. I desire nothing in this world than to be with my Christ for eternity with my wife and children. Every day I cry out to the one Almighty God to hold me in His hands, because I long to continue serving Him until the day I have the strength and as long as I breathe.
Until last year, I never stopped doing forced labour, especially during the construction in Atalaya on the missionary base and the facilities for the Transcultural School, the construction of the church buildings for our Ashaninka brothers, Capanahua, Ashéninka and also a school. Last year I made an excessive effort, I carried too much weight without measuring the consequences and because of this I felt a pain in my stomach like colic, but I didn't know why until one day I was lying on my bed but the moment I tried to get up I noticed a lump in my abdomen - I couldn't believe it. As soon as I saw this, I decided to go to the doctor to see what the problem was, and I was diagnosed with a hernia. But after going to several doctors the last doctor was the surgeon who told me that I could continue working normally, until it was time for an operation. The Lord has sustained me so far and will continue to take care of me. I wait on the Lord, and I know that in His timing everything is perfect. I only ask that you sustain us with your prayers, for I receive everything from the Lord.
During the year 2023 as a family, we have dedicated ourselves to serving in the different mission fields where it was needed. I know that it has not been easy for us as a family because of the constant changes because our children have had to adapt in the native community, and it has been more difficult for them because of the lack of internet to receive and send their homework to school because they study at home in a homeschool program. This program helps us to be able to travel to the communities and stay as a family, with the purpose of discipling new converts. I thank God that our 15-year-old daughter Briana successfully completed her studies in the 4th year of high school and in April of this year 2024 she will turn 16 years old. With God's help, she will finish her high school studies and God willing, in 2025 she will enter university because she would like to study translation and interpreting or languages. Our 14-year-old son, Filip Daniel, finished his second year of high school with a good degree in his career. This year 2024 he will enter the third year of secondary school, thank God.
The gracious God made the financial provision possible last year and I am sure that this new year He will also make it possible to pay the monthly tuition of our children's studies. I am very grateful to the Lord for the life and valuable help of my wife and children because we work as a team where the Lord leads us, in the communities.
During our work as a family with the Ashéninka, our means of transportation from Lima to Pucallpa has been interprovincial buses, from Pucallpa to Puerto Bermúdez by public transport, and to get to the community we have two options. One is by road because there is public transport more frequently, but it does not reach the community because there is no direct entrance for vehicles. The other is by river and is much more practical because it leaves us in the community, but it is very difficult to find and the cost is high. We thank God for His faithfulness and care.
Every Thursday we gather at the Segadores office to cry out to the Lord for the prayer requests of each of our foreign, domestic, and native missionaries. My wife, Aura, is responsible for leading the missionary intercession once a week on Thursdays, along with a group of sisters and brothers from different churches who come to cry out to the Lord for the missionaries who are in the field and for the churches in the ethnic groups without a pastor, as well as for more workers for the mission field.
When we travel to the communities, my wife commissions sisters who live in Lima to lead the prayer service, especially Sister Marta Hocking, which is a great blessing for all of us.
So far, the Lord has blessed us with good health, sustaining us each day and healing us in many ways. During one of our trips to the Ashéninka community, my wife felt very bad on the bus during the trip. For us it was a surprise because she had never felt like this, she was always very strong. When we returned to Lima, we went to the doctor, and he sent us to do different tests and diagnosed her with high blood pressure. Since then, she has been on medication to stabilize her pressure daily or as many times as she requires. Thanks be to God, this has not limited us from continuing to serve Him because we continue to travel as a family to the communities, of course, always taking the necessary precautions, but always trusting in the Lord who is the one who sustains us with life and health in His infinite grace.
Faithful is the Lord who has allowed me to carry out research trips to unreached peoples for many years in various regions of our Amazon. This year 2024, with the Lord's help, I will continue to travel in various regions because I have reports of their presence in some places. I will also conduct Bible trainings in churches of different ethnicities.
In the new communities I will continue the evangelization to continue with the planting of churches, keeping in mind that everything will depend on the plans of the Lord.
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1) For the direction and guidance in the work that we do among the ethnic groups.
2) For new challenges for this new year in the work between the ethnicities.
3) For the health of my wife and the salvation of my children.
4) For the consolidation of the new Ashéninka church of San Fausto.
5) For tribal research trips.
6) For more missionary families for work in communities without missionaries.
I ask the Lord to provide a portable projector and a laptop to write the study materials and also to play evangelistic and edifying Christian films in the communities, it would be a great blessing to the lives of the believing and unbelieving brethren.
My gratitude to God for allowing me to serve Him with my family, and for the strength I receive from Him, and I am also very grateful to the Lord for each of you who I know and am sure are praying for us as a family to remain steadfast in His work, and at the same time to sustain us with your offerings, This is very helpful to continue mobilizing among the ethnic groups with whom we work.
Together in missionary work, to the ends of the earth...
Oscar Tello