Missionary Report May 2017

Ministry

Pastoral Bible Training

I, Saul, traveled from Lima to a native community, Asuliz which is part of the Yanesha native group, to give pastoral bible training from 21-26 May 2017, it takes 12 hours to travel there. This time I taught the first 10 chapters of Hebrews which they understood well - ‘How was the first church formed in Jerusalem?' Pastor Walter Parado went with me and he taught a course – ‘How can we have victory in the midst of suffering?’  During the evenings we had meetings for all who attended and in the mornings we had devotions together. 

Weekly Events

On Monday nights from 9-10.30pm I lead bible classes for 13 leaders of the youth group, for our lectura text we are using the book, Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan.  It gives us a lot of inspiration in our lives, we study the bible section together. 

On Thursdays from 8-10pm I am discipling families in their homes. One of them is the Arroyo family who meet with all of their children to study the Bible. They were baptised last year and now we are in the discipling process. 

On Saturday nights Clara helps with the youth group. They have a time of prayer with the leaders and afterwards a time of praise. The young people divide into four groups to study the Bible.  Yuliana is teaching the bible to one of these groups and Yudith (our second daughter) is teaching another.

On Sunday mornings I am teaching the bible in my home to 15 couples from 8-10am. We are using the book, ‘Pardon, how God has pardoned us’. We have been studying this subject for six months. We also take advantage of this time to have breakfast together. 

People

The people I am working with are ethnic groups that are different culturally, one of which is the Yaneshas. They have an animist background and they live in communities. For their subsistence they depend on hunting and fishing. They also grow coffee, cocoa, yuca and bananas in small quantities. They maintain their language in their daily life but are billingual and use Spanish in commerce. There are organisations, not governmental, who are helping them in the cultivation of cocoa in a small way. There are churches amongst them who are using their language, Yanesha, in their Christian services. The native Yanesha group is a native group from the jungle whose beliefs are animistic. Within the ethic group there are churches that were formed in the 80’s, actually the church is developing well. My job is to train Yanesha pastors and leaders. 

The other group I am working with are people who have immigrated from the country to the city of Lima. They are from an animistic culture, Quechua, and also from the Amazon regions but they have lost their language and use Spanish to communicate. With them we have formed a church that maintains partly the culture of their parents and partly the culture of the city. Most of them are involved in street trading. Their children are students in the schools and state universities. 

Personal 

My wife and I give thanks to God for taking care of us during the past few months in many ways, providing our daily needs, and freeing us from danger each day.  We have seen Him clearly guiding us in our walk toward His purposes. 

In regards to our daily Bible studies we have been able to advance.  I am now in Chapter 12 of Isaiah and Clara is a little bit ahead of me. It is precious to listen to God’s voice through the reading of His Word. There are so many beautiful promises that strengthen the soul. So many requirements that the Lord asks of us because He is holy.

We attend the prayer night in the church on Tuesday nights. I had never imagined the great blessings it would bring to my life to search for the Lord in the community. The Lord has responded to many needs and taken away things that weren’t to His liking. 

The days during the week are full of many activities, we are praying to the Lord that He will help us to be able to order our time wisely. 

On Saturday mornings we meet with our children for breakfast as a family and we take the opportunity to read a chapter of Proverbs and learn a verse each time we meet. 

Family:
A month ago Clara’s mum died at the age of 80.  Clara shared about Jesus many times but her mother was very attached to catholicism and animism.  Also due to poor health Clara wasn’t able to attend the funeral which she was very sad about.

Our oldest daughter, Yuliana, has now finished her studies in the university.  We give thanks to God’s grace in this.  We are praying that God will provide her with work. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) We are praying about starting a new church in the Huaycan área with a group of believers from our church.  We would start the work with a group of children.

2) In July we will be travelling with a group from the church to the city of Huancayo, in the centre of the country, with the motive of helping with a new work of our church for four days teaching the Word. 

3) I am praying that God would provide me with a laptop as the one I currently have is very old and is too slow.