Report for January - March 2018

After some time I am communicating with you to inform you of the activities that I have been involved in for the past three months. 

Recent Events

Extra Responsibilities

At the start of the year the Segadores president travelled to Romania and so I took on some of the mission group's responsibilities, along with other Segadores missionaries, producing reports and the Missionary Bulletin. I also assisted with two training sessions for teachers in APENP, also giving training based on the book “How to Prevent Infant Sexual Abuse”.  

Rainy Season

The rainy season was extremely strong this year in the jungle regions but this didn’t limit my work with our Asheninka disciples in the native communities. They learned to consult with me by telephone when I wasn’t able to be there. During this time two people in the community died. Max’s grandfather was my neighbour and in December, before leaving for the jungle, God put in my heart that this would be the last time that I would see him. It was very clear inside me that I should ask him some questions: “Grandad where are you going when you die?” and he said “above (heaven), Jesus has forgiven me of my sins”. After a few weeks Victor (native missionary) called me to say that grandad had gone to be with the Lord. Victor said; “I visited the widow and prayed with her. I told her not to leave her home now that her husband has died and she decided to stay”. One of the customs of that people group is that when someone dies the family put ashes around the house and then leave the home. They say that the soul of the person who died is going to do them harm. They don’t return until the witch doctor advises them to. Firstly, the witch doctor smokes tobacco in the house and then he determines that the soul is no longer there, then the family is free to return. 

February

In February I went on vacation to where I grew up, to visit my father who is very sick with prostate cancer and is unable to be operated on because he has heart arrhythmia. I stayed with him for a couple of weeks. 

I returned to Lima after my vacation and joined four youth from my church to carry out a school outreach event to extremely poor children. We are grateful to all of the people who were encouraged by God to contribute in various ways, and we were able to get together a variety of school materials. Some children were not going to be able to participate in the school outreach because they had no school materials but we were able to provide nearly all of the list of school materials that they would require. We also provided materials to the leader’s children and the pastor’s children as they also didn’t have any materials. 

Other Activities

We continue to teach the children and adolescents the Word of God. One Sunday I was teaching the adolescents and the young people and after finishing I went to the church to teach the adults. One of our disciples goes to other communities in the jungle because he is trying to establish two churches, in one area there are 30 people meeting.  He has in his heart the desire to go further, to strengthen the weaker churches.  

During one week we had continuous visitors in the house. The children kept coming, in spite of the heavy rains, to ask us to help them with school materials. The Sunday school food kitchen, Seeds of Hope, is functioning well and more ladies are getting together to cook food for them. The teachers are selling roast chickens, they go house to house selling them, but they give credit and so you have to wait for payment in order to be able to purchase food for the food kitchen.  

A widow came to another community so that she could secure a secondary school education for her adopted daughter but she didn’t have any means of feeding her daughter. I am grateful to God and the people who, without being aware of the widow’s need, sent gifts that enabled us to purchase food for one month.  

We went to another community taking new clothes and school materials. In this community some of the children did not go to school because they didn’t have any suitable clothes to wear. The teachers helped us distribute the school materials. We coordinated with the teachers so that we could continue teaching the Bible in this community. 

Prayer and Praise Points

Prayer 

1) That God would provide a laptop for Victor. He needs it for his thesis because he is graduating this year in Pastoral Theology.
2) That God would help people to understand His Word in the communities where the Gospel is being preached.
3) That God would provide 50 seats for the youth group that we are teaching.
4) That God would give me wisdom and health to continue extending the Word of God in those places He sends me to. 

Praise

1) I am grateful to God for the people who send support for outreaches as this means that many children are able to attend school. 
2) Thank you to the group of youth in the church who were able to help me for a few days. Their help is very encouraging.
3) Thanks to the believers’ prayers on our behalf and for the work to the unreached in the Amazon jungle. 

Thank you for your prayers. 

Antonia Yalta
Until the ends of the earth