It has been with much sadness that we have watched from a distance the attack of the terrorists on New York City and Washington, D.C. We are praying for you and for our country during this difficult time. Clyde Godwin, our friend who pastors the Greenwich Village Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, told us that the streets around the World Trade Center disaster were filled with empty strollers, from where mothers had hurriedly grabbed their children to run them to safety away from the falling debris. What a picture of the effect of terror. I read this week in Proverbs 18:10 that “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” What a picture of safety for anyone who is afraid. This is a promise I pray you claim as your own in these dark days.

We have been moved by the love we have received from the Ticos (Costa Ricans call themselves “Ticos”) here in Costa Rica through the events of last week. People have called to see how we are doing, asked if there’s any way they can give blood or help, asked how are families are doing. The president of Costa Rica declared the two days following 9-11-01 as national days of mourning and had all the flags at half-mast. These were tangible examples for us of one of the greatest strengths of Latin American culture: the value they place on relationships. They really care about people, more than tasks, and we have really appreciated their love for us during this difficult time.

Update on Language Study

The Lord is blessing our language study. He is answering your prayers for humility for us (Phil. 2:1-11), as daily he brings us in touch with our weakness in not being able to speak to people around us, except at the level of a small child of 3-4 years. It truly is humbling. God is teaching us to embrace the humbling, not resist it.

Sometimes we feel like Spanish is an 18-wheeler Mack truck we’re trying to drive, except instead of being behind the wheel, we’re pinned underneath it. There’s just so much to learn. Being corrected is a constant part of life. Sometimes when I’m corrected, I feel like saying, “Well, I can say it right in English, do you want to hear me?” Or, “I used to be intelligent in my former life.” But then I remember what I’ve asked you to pray, for us to grow in humility, and I have to just say “thank you” instead.

The Lord has really been blessing Lori with here language, as many of you are praying specifically for her. She was moved up one grammar level for this quarter, since she was advancing so well last quarter. The change is stretching her a lot, but she again continues to do very well, thanks to the Lord.

As many of you know, I had Spanish in high school and college, while Lori came in with zero. At the end of each quarter here at the Institute, you take an oral exam called an ECO. It measures your level of proficiency in the language. The scale goes from basic to intermediate to advanced to superior, with three sublevels, low, medium and high, at each level. Lori was basic-low when we started, I was intermediate-something. When we had our ECO’s at the end of last quarter, Lori tested intermediate-medium, and I tested at intermediate-high, only one sublevel ahead! She really gained on me! I asked Lori what level she wanted to be when she finished, and without a hesitation she said, “One level ahead of you.” I laughed, but I sincerely hope that’s how we end up. I think it would be beautiful.

Rueben is Mark’s language helper

Team Update

I want to first apologize to those of you who back in February and March signed up to pray for our team in small groups. At that time, my goal was to get you an additional prayer letter that dealt specifically with our team (not just us), so that you could be connected and supporting with your prayers our entire team effort. Well, its finally here, included with this month’s prayer letter for those of you who signed up. [See below] Remember, the purpose is to gather in groups and pray for our team using this letter and ours. If you did not receive this team letter and you would like to, just send us an email, and we’ll send you a copy and put you on that mailing list.

I also want to let you know of some significant changes that have taken place on our team in the past 3 months. Dr. Brian Riedel and his wife Julie, along with Peter and Gretchen Beck, are transferring from our Lima team to Cusco, where they will work with Keith Powlison, another MTW missionary in that city. They plan to work with street children in Cusco. We were very sad to see them go, and we will miss them and their contribution to our team in Lima, but we bless them and pray God richly blesses their new ministry in Cusco.

On our team in Lima then are Santos Buendia, our team leader, his wife Norma, Santos’ brother Moises, who pastors Perales Presbyterian Church, and his assistant Jorge. Laura Deadwyler, Sean Galton and Julie Murphy are 2 year missionaries who arrive in Lima by the end of the year, or early part of 2002. Laura and Sean are here with us in language school. Its been great having time together before we go to Peru. We hope to join the team either in March 2002 or June 2002, depending on how our progress is with Spanish at that time. In addition, Frank and Suzanne Matthews are planning to join our team after seminary and language school. Frank finishes seminary and PCA ordination, Lord willing, this coming spring/summer 2002, and then they will come to Costa Rica for 8 months to a year of language school before joining the rest of us in Lima.

So our team has changed, but we believe the Lord is building it and uniting us around a common vision, to see churches planted among the poor and marginalized of the society, like the street kids, and to do this in partnership with the Peruvian Presbyterian Church. Please pray for our team, and especially for Santos, that God would bless and prosper his leadership of our team, and would knit our hearts together as a team.

Mark’s August Trip to Lima

The time in Lima surpassed my highest hopes. It seems God is developing a partnership with West Boca Presbyterian Church and our team that we’re hopeful will bear a lot of fruit for the gospel. Santos and Norma and I spent time with Frank Finfrock, who is chairman of their missions committee, and John Peoples, the senior pastor. John led a conference for San Pablo Church, giving four talks from Romans 6-8. It was an encouraging time for the San Pablo body. John did a great job laying out the difference between moralism (trying to be good by doing good), selfishness (living for yourself) and faith (trusting in Christ to make you good and help you live for God and others). In addition to a great conference, the Lord gave me, John, Frank, Santos and Norma a great time getting to know one another, grow in friendship and mutual love, and share our vision for ministry. This led us to some in-depth discussions on specific ways to partner in ministry together in the future. One example is Santos asking Frank to help us put into writing a team vision statement. Frank is very gifted in this area, and I think it’s going to really help us as a team. Would you pray for us as we work together over email on this important team document?

Left to right: Frank, Norma, Santos, and John

I did preach in Spanish at Perales Presbyterian Church while I was in Lima. I have a long way to go with my Spanish, and I felt that keenly as I was trying to communicate. I trust God used me. I know he used it for me to motivate me to keep working at my Spanish. Thank you for praying for me and for Lori while I was gone.

For Our Prayer Warriors
“The prospect of the righteous is joy” (Proverbs 10:28a). “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Pray these verses for us this fall, for our joy. Learning a new language is hard and stressful, and so we need you to pray that we would be daily being strengthened in the joy of God’s grace for us in Christ. Of course keep praying that we’d be able to learn Spanish, but please pray just as much for our hearts, that they would be growing strong in grace.

For my current conversation class, I have recruited 10 people in the community and each week I go visit them and recite a memorized text in Spanish, and ask them to correct my pronunciation and grammar as we converse a bit over the theme. It’s a lot of work and for a basically shy person like me, it’s a faith stretcher. The people on my route are shopkeepers, guards, neighbors and friends from church. Reuben, my neighbor, helps me write my text each week and records it onto a cassette for me to listen to and memorize. Because he writes it like a Tico would, as I memorize and recite it I am picking up new words and expressions, as well as the way a Spanish speaker structures sentences and thoughts, which is very different from English. Lori is doing the same thing with two women in our neighborhood. Pray for us to be salt and light, and humble learners as we visit with these folks week by week.

I also am teaching a junior high age Bible study on Tuesday nights as part of my requirement for my conversation class. The kids would be a handful for me even if the spoke English. But they of course speak Spanish, so its doubly challenging. Most of them come from single parent homes, there’s lots of child prostitution, drugs, shootings, etc. in this neighborhood, so I need you to pray. Pray for joy as I share the gospel and pray for conversions among the kids. I’m currently taking them through Jack Miller’s New Life booklet, which I’m translating into Spanish. It tells you how to have new life through a personal relationship with Christ. “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” So says Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5. Will you claim that with me for my ministry to these kids with my partial Spanish? Pray that I would love them well.

Lori, as I mentioned, is in a higher-level grammar class. She is currently having to work extra hard to catch up on some of the material she missed in the transition to a higher level. With all I have going on and with the needs of our family, she has a lot on her. Pray for her joy as a Mom, student and wife.

Pray for me to delight in her and in the kids as well. In particular pray for Emmett and our relationship with him. He has been a challenge to parent recently, and we are asking you to pray for the Lord to take away the anger that seems to come to the surface of his heart so easily. Lori and I both struggle with anger, so we know he comes by it naturally, but nevertheless, we want it to end, in our own hearts as well as his, and for joy to replace it. We know the Lord wants to end generational sin, and we’re asking him to powerfully do so in our family. Would you pray this specifically with us, and that our parenting to be full of patience and love? Thank you.

We’ll be back in touch in a couple of months. We appreciate you and are so thankful for your partnership with us in the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the love of Jesus,

Mark and Lori
Emmett, Anna and Taylor

NEW MAILING ADDRESS!:
Mark and Lori Berry
Mission to the World
1600 North Brown Rd.
Lawrenceville, GA 30043.
Please make a note of this for those of you who have been contributing financially.
Our phone number is 001-506-227-2562 here in San Jose, and
our email is mberry@mtwla.org

Santos and Norma Buendia
Santos has helped organize the Living in Grace conference that will take place the last week of Sept. in Lima. Santos has invited many key leaders in the Peruvian Presbyterian Church to come and they are expected to be in attendance. Dr. Paul Kooistra from MTW will be doing the teaching and Bill Yarbrough from New City Fellowship in St. Louis will be translating. Pray for God to bear much fruit through this event, helping people understand the grace of the gospel better, as well as helping Santos build relationships within the denomination. We want our team to be well networked, accepted, trusted and a resource to the whole of the church, and this could be an opportunity for significant relationship building.  Norma has just completed her next English class section and did well on her exam.  She is also continuing to teach Sonship at San Pablo and Perales on Wednesdays.  Santos and Norma just returned from a street child conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Pray for wisdom on how to incorporate what they learned into the local church context. We want to plant churches that actively minister to street children and we believe the material shared at the conference can help us learn how to do that.

The Buendias will be traveling to the US in late Oct. for the MTW Leadership conference and then to South Dakota in early Nov. to visit churches.  Santos and Norma will return to Lima in the middle of Nov.  Please pray for travels, the teaching and preaching they will be doing, and for some time to relax/vacation as they are working so hard.  Santos and Norma will be attending a street children conference in Brazil in late September, to help our team learn how to incorporate this ministry into the church. Pray for wisdom for Santos as he develops a vision to street child ministry as a part of the local church.

Moises Buendia
Moises has been working hard this summer with many MTW short-term teams that have been coming from the states.  These trips have been all over Peru.  He has also been working on continuing to disciple the adolescents at Perales and lead the children's ministry there.  They leaders from his Sunday school class are being trained to lead VBS 's in other neighborhoods and help out in the church.  Please pray for him as he continues to be leading two different ministries and it takes a lot of time.  Moises also went to the street child conference in Brazil. Pray for all that he learned about ministry to street children, that the Lord would show him how it applies in Perales. Pray for Perales church as they look for a new place to meet next year.  The building they currently rent is no longer going to be available because the owner is going to move back in it.  Pray for the leaders at Perales church as they continue to minister to the children there.

Jorge
Jorge is continuing to lead the music ministry at Perales and help with the children's ministry.  He is also helping with short term US teams this summer.  He is also taking English classes and improving rapidly.  Prayer for Jorge with all the things he is doing and as he continues to learn English.  Pray that the language will continue to come easily for him. Pray for the music ministry as he continues to disciple the students who are helping out.

Laura Deadwyler
Laura is in Costa Rica with Sean and the Berrys studying Spanish at the Instituto de Lengua Espanola. She will be there until November, and then go on to Lima. She just returned from the Street child conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The conference was a great experience and she, along with the rest of the team members who went, learned a great deal. She asks for prayer for her language study, that she would be able to concentrate and learn, and persevere, in the midst of being physically tired much of the time. Physical tiredness is a constant reality for all of us, especially those of us who are foreigners, because the cultural and language differences, big or small, just constantly drain you. Pray also that she would have good health and stay dependent upon God.

Sean Galton
Sean is in Costa Rica with Laura and the Berrys studying Spanish at the Instituto de Lengua Espanola. He will be there at least till November (one quarter). He asks that you pray for his language study, that it would be according to Galatians 3-5, led by the Spirit not by human effort. Also, please pray for his parents, who are not believers.

Julie Murphy
Julie has moved back to Atlanta to live with her parents until she goes to the field.  She stopped working in July and is focusing totally on support raising now.  She has a little ways to go but is trusting God to provide by Nov.  so she can come down with Laura then.  Please pray for Julie as she contacts people about the ministry that she will reconnect with old friends and that God will use her time talking to them to share about the ministry in Peru.  Pray for Julie as she is packing and preparing to go to Lima

Frank, Suzanne, Joshua, and Micah Matthews
The Matthews have been traveling around a good bit this summer.  They spent 3 weeks in Lima en Junio -Julio.  They had a wonderful time getting to know Tio (Uncle) Santos and Tia (Aunt) Norma better.  They were able to see many ministry sights, learn more about the vision for Peru, see the ministry at Perales and meet with all the leaders there, get to know the Buendia's much better and pray with them.  A wonderful trip for God to strengthen their calling to working for the Kingdom in Peru.  They have been raising support at several different churches in the southeast and visiting family too.  They will return to St. Louis soon.  Frank will begin classes at Covenant  Seminary this fall-2 classes.  He will be studying for his licensure exams in Oct. He will attend the Street children conference in Brazil in Sept.  They also have the possibility of meeting with many different churches this fall. Please pray for the family as the travel.  Pray that they will be able to spend a good amount of time with their home church in St. Louis learning more about Team Ministry and Sonship, two discipleship courses the church teaches and that we want to model on our team in Peru.  Pray for Frank as he takes these exams and Suzanne as she will begin studying Spanish.  Pray for our boys and that God is continuing to make himself known to them even at an earlier age.

Mark and Lori Berry (Emmett, Anna and Taylor)
See prayer letter above.

Team Praises.  God has provided a way that many members of our team are getting to spend time together and to know one another in a closer way.  Laura and Sean coming to Costa Rica to be studying Spanish with the Berry’s is just one big example. I know Santos desires to build good relationships within our team and that we learn from one another, pray with each other and for one another.  He believes we all need to grow in God's grace together.  God is graciously opening doors for the team members to do this in Peru and before we all get together.