Dear Prayer Team,

It is a privilege to write you again and give you a report on the past months activities here in Lima. It's a privilege because we know you are praying for us and invested in the work here, and knowing that we are part of a team effort with you here in Lima is a joy. We're especially glad to have teammates like you when we have months like the last few we have had, which have been very difficult for us. We have experienced some very significant changes here, as a team, which I want to take this letter to explain. I want to say also that it's because of these changes that I've been late in getting out our bi-monthly communication. So I apologize for that, and want to let you know that you'll be receiving another prayer letter for July-August real soon after this one, to get us back on track.

In May, Mission to the World (MTW) - our sending agency - began to make some significant changes to its work in Peru. Some of these changes involved our team. They restructured us as a team, appointing me as team leader and giving me the responsibility of developing a new vision for the ministry. Specifically, they have asked me to direct the team in such a way that it will work more broadly in Lima with a wide variety of churches, providing training and teaching and promoting mercy ministries, with the primary goal of planting new churches in this great city with the national leaders we train.

You have been praying for us in Sapotal and in Punta Hermosa, where I (Mark) have been working to plant churches affiliated with the San Pablo mother church. As you know, I have been heavily invested in these two works, and love the leaders, members and children of these groups deeply. The Lord has blessed me in these ministries, and he has done so through your prayers and partnership. You will understand then how difficult the restructuring has been for us, in that part of it is that MTW has asked me to withdraw from those two works, as well as from San Pablo church where we have been worshiping this past year and a half, in order to advance the work of church planting here in Lima more effectively.

So in the weeks following May 14, we gradually transitioned out of the San Pablo Church network of extension works. On July 12 I said goodbye to the brothers and sisters in Sapotal, and to the children in the Sunday school class I was teaching. I explained to them that this is one of the hardest parts of being a missionary. One has to be ready at any moment to entrust those he's been ministering to to the Lord and move to another place that needs to hear the gospel too. Because I had to leave before I'd planned to, and with so many hopes and dreams we'd developed as a team there, I was forced to entrust the ministry to the Lord in deeper ways than I'd ever had to do before in my ministry. I had to confront those sinful desires of my flesh to want to be in control, to want to get something out of the ministry for my own emotional needs, and simply entrust it to Christ and fully trust and walk in the reality that the ministry is His, for his glory, and in his control. It's his church; I'm but a servant who goes where he tells me for the time he tells me to be there. Though this transition was full of tears, I do indeed trust my Lord, that he has a plan for Sapotal and the brothers and sisters there and he is caring for them. Keep praying for Percy Martinez, the 23 year old who remains as leader of the work. Thank the Lord with me for Keili, a wonderful young lady who God raised up to replace me in the Sunday school class I was teaching. And pray for the children and adults who continue to come, that people would continue to come to faith in Christ and that a church would be established. Pray for the session of San Pablo Church as they seek to shepherd this extension work, that they would have wisdom and great blessing from the Lord.

Well, where are we going from here you might ask? I thought I'd close this letter by giving you the basics of a vision for the team and plans for the future. The basic idea comes from Matthew 4:23: "And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people." As a missionary team we will have three priority areas, following Jesus' ministry priorities in this verse: church planting ("proclaiming the gospel"), teaching and training in the truth of the gospel ("teaching in their synagogues"), and diaconal/mercy ministries ("healing every disease and every affliction"). We want to recruit good missionaries and national leaders to each of these areas, according to their gifts. The first priority in the mercy ministry area will be to develop ministry to street children. As missionaries we will work in each of these areas in such a way as to be seeking at all times to be working ourselves out of a job. That is to say, we will always work with a clear exit strategy in mind so that the works do not overly depend on us as missionaries, but can be sustained long term by Peruvians with Peruvian resources. Our end goal is, as a Lima team, in partnership with our sister MTW teams here in Lima and Peru, to be a catalyst for a church planting movement of gospel-driven and Kingdom-minded churches here in Lima, in Peru, and beyond.

That's the thumbnail version of the vision. I'm going to devote our July-August newsletter to explain in more detail the vision of the team and outline some specific steps we will be taking in the months ahead, so you can be more informed and can pray. So look for that soon, as I'm sending these letters out within a few days of one another. Mainly in this letter I wanted you to know about the changes.

Thank you for your faithfulness to the work here. We're glad to be in team ministry with you.

Depending on the promises,

Mark for all

Mark and Lori Berry
Apartado 1529
Lima 100, Peru