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Mark and Lori Berry Mission to the World |
JUNTOS "Together" |
Update November 17, 2005 |
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Dear Praying Friends, Grace and peace to each one of you and to your families in our Lord Jesus Christ! I appreciate your prayers for my trip to Lima last month. The Lord really blessed the time. The team consisted of 7 people from West Boca Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Boca Raton, Florida. On the team were four members of the missions committee, including the chairman, as well as the church's youth pastor and one student. This church is the sponsoring church for our team's church plant in Santa Anita, and it is the second trip they've made to Lima to meet and work with personally the members of the church they are helping to plant. We were all encouraged to see the growth that has taken place in this church plant over the past year. We worshipped with them on Sunday and the sanctuary was full, a noticeable difference from when I left at the end of last year. There were also many new faces and some gifted emerging young leaders who are growing and contributing and catching the vision for the Kingdom's advancement through the local church in Lima. I was very encouraged. In Huaycán, we worshipped at their night service and there also noticed a very similar spiritual dynamic taking place: growth in numbers (the sanctuary was full) as well as depth. As in Santa Anita, so in Huaycán, the EE training is contributing to the personal spiritual growth and maturity of the church's leaders as well as to the growth in numbers of the church itself as people are coming to the Lord through the EE visits. I am very thankful for the work of Andrew Halbert, who finished his two year term in October and returned to the US, for the good work he did continuing to develop the EE training in both church locations this past year. He also was instrumental in the development of the youth group in Huaycán, which now has close to 50 kids attending every Saturday night (they had about 20 when I left last year). I am also thankful for the Matthews, as their support in Santa Anita and in Huaycán most definitely has borne wonderful fruit over this year in which we have been in the US. The Cristo Salvador Diaconal ministry seems to also be flourishing. 7 children were present when we visited and had lunch with them and the staff of three women who oversee their care, feeding and tutoring during their approximately 5 hours/day at the church. Reyna, the director, has trained one member of the church to do all the cooking for the children's lunches, and another young lady to oversee their tutoring, school work, chores and devotionals. Reyna is now concentrating her time on meeting with the children's moms and families, where oftentimes even deeper needs can be found. She is also ready to develop a similar ministry at the church plant in Santa Anita, which we hope to be able to open in 2006. So as you can see I had a very full week. It was a great time with our church from West Boca, being mutually encouraged in what the Lord is doing in Lima, and it also gave me time on the ground to tend to the ministry as well as take care of a lot of personal business related to the kids' school, our housing, etc., that you can't do unless you're there. Thanks so much for praying for this time there. The Lord responded so graciously. And join us in giving thanks for the many encouraging developments taking place. Here are some items for prayer for the weeks ahead: 1. The EE Etnias Clinic that started today 11/14 and runs through Friday 11/18 in Lima. Our Peruvian co-worker Adrian Fernandez is overseeing the clinic which will provide training for 30 national leaders in a form of EE designed for tribal groups and folks who don't speak Spanish as their first language. Many of the folks in Huaycán are in this category with Quechua being their first language. Pastor Adrian is excited that many of the devoted believers in the Huaycán church who did not have the language ability to pass the regular EE course will now be able to have the material in a form suitable for them. This will open up the church's ministry also to the large Quechua population in Huaycán. Also in attendance are targeted leaders from the jungle and the mountains who will be able to implement the training in their immediate contexts. Pray for David Gomez, the Director of EE Etnias who has flown in from Guatemala to lead the clinic, as well as 8 other trainers from Guatemala and Ecuador who have come. Pray also for the church body at Huaycán, that it will be a great experience hosting their first ever national conference. Overall we are praying that this training can take hold in a very broad way in Lima and Peru and contribute to the training of many disciples and the harvest of many souls into the kingdom and the local church. 2. Our family health. Mark and Emmett have sinus infections and Abigail has a bad cough right now. 3. We leave for Washington DC Thursday to speak at Grace DC, a PCA church plant of my good friend Glenn Hoburg which is considering us for support. I present our ministry and speak on urban church planting Sunday afternoon for an hour and a half before the service at 5. 4. We still need additional monthly support so we can return to the field. Our target date is still early January 2006, by faith. 5. Lori is now responsible for our team's financial accounting and there is a significant learning curve and workload here for her on top of home schooling and other family responsibilities. Pray she could learn quickly and establish a system amid her many and varied daily responsibilities. 6. We are presenting our ministry and Mark will be preaching at the Church at West Cobb in Marietta, Georgia on December 11. They are one of our supporting churches and on line to sponsor a new church plant in Salamanca which we hope to get underway in the latter half of 2006. 7. We are going to devote the week of November 28-December 2 to prayer, planning and vision for the ministry. Please pray for the Lord's hand to be on that time. Thank you, dear friends, for your faithful support of the ministry in Lima. We love and appreciate you so very much, never forgetting that it is through your prayers that we are enabled to rejoice, trust, love, overcome and persevere in the calling that God has place upon our lives. We are yours with deep affection, In Christ, Mark and Lori and family
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