Blessed with the opportunity to serve him
March 20, 2009

Pastor Agusto

Pastor Joab and Pastor Segundo

Each stove helps to feed hundreds of children daily.

What a beautiful time of the year this is with spring in the air, the hills turning brilliant green, pink blossoms on the trees, and Resurrection Sunday only a few weeks away. We are truly blessed in so many ways. In Psalm 103 we read, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits.” The greatest benefit of all is that He has us in His hands and we are never out of His thoughts. Oh what a blessing that is!

God has also blessed EMM with a wonderful opportunity to serve Him through Mission Belen April 13-30. In the midst of this difficult economy we all want to make sure that we are managing God’s money well, and we want to know that our financial gifts are truly making an impact. As one man recently said to me, “The reason I keep giving to EMM is that I know it will make a difference, and I want to make a difference.”

It is such a thrill to see so many people participating with us in ministry through prayer, giving, or serving on one of our teams. In fact, I want to tell you that we have raised all the money needed for the eyeglass portion of Mission Belen. Praise the Lord that so many of you wanted to bring reading glasses to the poor along the Amazon River in Peru.

One of the greatest benefits of EMM to the local pastors is that we model for them a new way to do ministry. We have been blessed in India, Africa, Europe, and now in Peru, to watch pastors grab hold of our ministry model and continue the work. Committee member Pastor Augusto wrote, “You have shown us another way to do ministry. For most of our time we have focused on doing ministry inside the churches and you have shown us that it is not only okay to do ministry in other places but it is even better and more effective to do ministry in places other than churches. While we have been waiting for the next festival with you here in Iquitos, we have been very busy making small festivals out in the villages on the river. We have seen many come to the Lord and have helped those people with small humanitarian aid projects. Thank you for showing us how to open our eyes to another kind of ministry!”

You are helping to train others. You are setting a fire in their souls to stop playing church and to get out and do the work of Jesus. You are blessing Christians that are seeing their church leaders step out in faith and lead the way in evangelism. You have opened a whole new world of ministry to the people of Iquitos, Peru and that entire region.

For the past two years Pastor Segundo has been in charge of setting up    ministry for teams in schools, hospitals, and orphanages. When he first started he had tremendous doubts about doing ministry outside the church walls. Pastor Segundo said, “We had never heard of doing this kind of     ministry before. When you explained it to me, I thought we will never be able to find places that will allow us to come in and tell them about Jesus.” Pastor Segundo found that people wanted help, they wanted to know about Jesus, and they wanted to be blessed. Now he says, “Now the challenge is not finding the places but to come up with enough people to go to all the places that want us! You have helped me to find a way to fulfill my passion to help the poor people.”

Mission Belen is just around the corner. We praise God for His benefits that allow us to take a team there to continue the work that was started over two years ago. However, we still need to raise $15,000 for the evangelistic ministries that we will be doing and for stoves for the Glass of Milk program. The present economy has forced us to cut back our budget from earlier ministries in Peru and to eliminate the small salaries that we were paying the committee. They have continued to work hard without pay but it is my desire to give them a gift during our festival in Belen. If you would like to help us bless them with a financial gift that would be so appreciated.

Please pray that many would turn around and follow Christ for life, and that we would be a blessing to the pastors and churches of the Belen District of Iquitos, Peru. Thank you for joining in this ministry with us!

With Eternity In Mind,

Dan

P.S. July 6-13 we will be returning to Peru to help with the follow up of new believers, do more evangelistic events along the Amazon River, and provide more eye glass clinics. It will be a celebration of the two and a half years we have served in the Iquitos District of Peru. If you would like to be a part of that team please contact Ben Owens at 805-239-8615.