Mark and Lori Berry |
JUNTOS "Together" |
Update November 13, 2006 |
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Dear Friends, Greetings from down south! It's springtime in Lima with the sun breaking out more but the cooler temperatures still remaining at night and in the early morning. I guess for most of you it's getting somewhat colder where you are about this time as you continue into fall. Instead we are gearing up for the hot summer:-) It's always a bit disorienting following the football scores from the US and thinking about bowl games and playoffs beginning when the weather outside where we are is getting hot and summer is about to begin. :-) Well, it seems like a long time since we wrote, so much has happened. I'll recap quickly for you. We went to our Latin America Area Retreat October 10-18 in Panama. This is a once every four year event for all MTW missionaries in Latin America. There were 300 people including kids and MTW staff attending. It was a renewing time for our family and a blessing to be able to worship in English, spend time with colleagues and hear good teaching. We are thankful for MTW providing this for us once a term. The time away from the ministry to reflect is also very helpful for getting perspective. Any rest we got that week though was quickly dissipated as we had to hit the ground running with an EE Clinic that started October 20 and ended October 28. Mark was one of the trainers for the event and is part of the EE Peru team led by Fabio Padilla, pastor of the 4 Square Church of Lima and National Director for EE in Peru. The EE Peru team is tasked with helping disseminate the EE training throughout Lima and Peru. Mark and Adrian have been instrumental in getting the training into the Presbyterian churches they work with, and many of the trainers for this clinic came from the churches in Huayc‡n and Santa Anita who now have a solid group of men and women trained and capable of training others. It was a wonderful week. On Sunday October 29 we concluded our month long series on the Reformation, covering the 5 Sola's of the Reformation, and Mark preached on Sola Dei Gloria. That afternoon we had a special program at the Salamanca Sunday school as a sort of substitute for Halloween, and Mark did a first person monologue as the Gadarene Demoniac from Mark 5, giving his testimony of how Jesus had delivered him from Satan and the Legion of demons. A team from West Boca Presbyterian Church in Florida arrived on October 28 as well and was with us all last week, working in Santa Anita mainly, conducting art classes and building tables and chairs for Sunday school. They returned to the US on Saturday Nov. 4. While they were here, Huaycán church celebrated its 13th anniversary, so we all attended a special service on Wednesday Nov. 1 to celebrate. Anniversaries like this, for organizations, are a big event here, complete with birthday cake and candles. Bob Woodson, the senior MTW missionary in Peru, preached, and Mark did a baptism and profession of faith for 3 young men becoming communicant members of the church. Then on Sunday, November 5, Mark preached on Baptism at Santa Anita and administered the Lord's Supper, which we celebrate the first Sunday of each month. As you can see, it has been a whirlwind few weeks. Honestly, we are very tired and our first prayer request would be that you pray for our health and strength to hold up and for God to grant us physical rest. The demands of the ministry are so constant and pressing, that there seems to be no way to avoid these kind of seasons where you are just sprinting and having to persevere physically and emotionally and spiritually. We have grown tremendously in setting limits for ourselves, but always are in need of more wisdom to make sure we are staying balanced in our lives and not becoming just consumed with ministry demands. Please pray for this. Lori and I had our 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday November 9. Please praise the Lord with us for 10 blessed years of marriage! In Salamanca things are taking off spontaneously and we need wisdom to know how the Lord would have us respond. Mark prayed with three more people to receive Christ since last we wrote, Selene a 15 year old attending the Sunday school, Zuli, the maid of one of the Saturday night Bible study members, and Felipe, the husband of one of the women helping with the Sunday school. I want to tell you about Felipe in particular. We went to share with him last Wednesday, and will be going tomorrow morning to follow up. I went to visit him with Enrique Matamoros, the man who came to Christ with us in 2003 and who is now one of our EE trainers. It was the first time we've had a chance to work together sharing the gospel since he's been trained, since we're usually leading separate teams. Anyway, Felipe was to be baptized in the Mormon Cult that coming Saturday, and at the request of his daughter and wife, we went to share the gospel with him in the hopes of him getting saved and rescued from the Mormons. We spent almost 4 hours talking to him, most of that time just trying to get through the presentation. Felipe likes to talk, and one of the things we were both praying throughout was that the Lord would just help him to listen and let us talk. The Lord answered our prayers in this regard, but it was hard work. Anyway, he prayed to receive Christ in the end, very clearly understanding and articulating the gospel. But when we advised him not to go forward with his baptism with the Mormons, he contended (he is very, very strong minded) that it was no big deal, all the same, etc. We told him no way, lovingly were persistent, and in the end he said, "No one will decide today, but I'm going to let God decide and tell me". We thought, great, that's definitely the right approach, and we left it at that. We both prayed over the weekend and Sunday afternoon at Sunday school I asked his daughter Patty what had happened. "You'll never believe it," she says, "At 5am Saturday morning my Dad woke me and my Mom up to tell us that he had decided not to get baptized in the Mormon church. He had decided and just wanted to tell us. When they came by looking for him, he told them he was too busy and wanted to take care of some business before he went through with it." Well, we were delighted to hear this. As you can see, there is still work to do, but this was an important step I think. Please pray for our conversation with him tomorrow, for wisdom and the power of the Spirit to be at work, winning over his mind for Christ. The last thing I want to ask you to pray for related to the ministry is for another young man who prayed to receive Christ during the EE clinic. Carlos was smoking a cigarette on the front steps of an apartment complex when our group approached him with a questionnaire designed to open up a discussion about the Lord. He was very open and we shared the gospel with him fully. Before I could even finish the presentation of the gospel, while I was explaining how we have to have faith in Christ and "sit in the chair that is Christ, leaving the chair of our good works" (he had told me at the beginning that God should let him into heaven because he'd never done anything wrong:-)), he stops me and says, "Hold on. I want what you are talking about. How can I get that?" I told him, okay, that's exactly what I want to tell you. Here's how...and off we went. He prayed to receive Christ right there on the street. He will be followed up with by the folks at the 4 Square Church, but I want to ask you to pray for him, for his protection and growth in grace. Lori travels to the US this Wednesday Nov. 15 for her Mom's wedding on Nov. 18. She will be helping with the wedding and spending time with her family and mine. I am praying that it will be a renewing time for her and a much needed break from the constant load she carries here with our family and ministry. Please pray for her too as she is under the weather right now. We appreciate you all very much and thank you for your faithful prayers. The Lord bless you,
In Christ,
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