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Mission Newsletter June/July 2019

July 2nd, 2019 No comments

Hello Friends and Prayer Warriors,

GREETINGS IN JESUS CHRIST!

We hope and pray that all of you have been doing well. Our family has been doing fine thanks to God and his mercy. Our youngest daughter, Bella has been doing good and hasn’t had any more major problems concerning her urinary system. She has been recovering from the medical procedure that she had done back in April very well. We would like to thank everyone who prayed for her and made it possible for her to have the procedure done. It really means a great deal to us, and we will never forget it! We have gradually got back used to being in Peru since we got back on May 4. It took a while because the weather and environment here is very different from that in Mississippi. The seasons here are the exact opposite of the ones in the U.S. While it is summer where you are, it is now winter here in Peru. However, it doesn’t get near as cold as it does in MS in wintertime.

OUR NEW BUILDING!

As you may know, we were blessed to be able to find a building in San Sebastian (the place where we do our mission work) to rent last November. It’s not that big or fancy but serves all our needs concerning our mission work. It’s also been a blessing since we no longer need to rent part of someone’s home that they also use for secular parties and events. This new building will serve as our first official church that we’ve planted with God’s help in Chiclayo, Peru. We’ve decided that the name of our new church will be, “Iglesia Bautista La Familia En Cristo”. It will serve as the sister church of, “Iglesia La Familia En Cristo, SBC” in Sandy Hook, MS. We still have a lot of construction and remodeling work to do to the new building before it’s ready to become a real church. We need to have many of the floors finished, all the walls painted inside and out, and our sign put up that says the name of our new church. We pray to be able to have all those things done soon if God permits.

CONTINUING OUR WORK!

While we were gone to the U.S. from February to April of this year, several brothers and sisters in Christ helped to continue our mission work in San Sebastian. They were able to keep our weekly adult and children’s Bible studies going despite our absence. We are so grateful to all those who have taken the time to help us in our ministry in Peru. We would like to specially thank Brother Jesus Ortiz, Sister Zully, Sister Abigail, Sister Elizabeth, Sister Julieta, and Sister Raquel for all their hard work! We couldn’t have done it without their help. They’ve been a great blessing and asset to our ministry! Please keep them in your prayers.

OUR ADULT BIBLE STUDIES!

As of this time, we are having two major Bible studies each week. Our primary Bible study for adults including our members is taught every Thursday afternoon from 4-6 PM. An average of ten adults have been attending this Bible study including Filadelfo, Vicky, Fanny, Vilma, Florsita, and Olga. We started a new Bible study from the book of Romans early this month in June. We plan to continue this Bible study each week until we go all the way through the entire book of Romans and will probably take several months of teaching. We feel that this is probably one of the most important books from the Bible that we can teach, and we’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to do it. A brother named Allan from a local church and I recently started a new Bible study in a man named Pedro’s home and plan to continue leading it every Saturday evening whenever possible. Please be praying about this, especially Pedro as he isn’t a believer. We pray that he will receive Jesus Christ soon.

CHILDREN’S MINISTRY

Our children’s ministry is led every Saturday morning from 10:30 AM until 12 noon. Many children (ages 3-12) have been attending, and it’s been averaging around 20-25 children each week, praise God! Many of these children had attended our last VBS that we organized in February of 2018. We had originally planned to organize another VBS in Feb of this year (2019), but had to cancel it due to our daughter, Bella’s health issues. However, we plan to reschedule it sometime later this year hopefully next month or the next. Please keep these children in your prayers as they have learned a great deal about God, Jesus, and the Bible through our children’s ministry.

GREAT, EXCITING NEWS!

On Father’s Day of this year, we organized our very first Father’s Day celebration at our new building in San Sebastian. Five men attended the event along with several women and children. We served them a small meal, showed them the movie, “Courageous”, and I personally gave a Father’s Day message and presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them at the end of the event. We had a good turnout, and it went very well! Even though we didn’t have that many men to show up, we considered it a breakthrough since not that many men attend church related events in Chiclayo, Peru. This is how the culture is in most of Peru especially San Sebastian. We hope and pray to continue having movie nights at least once a month and believe that it will prove beneficial in our ministry for God’s Kingdom.

FUTURE PROJECTS

We’ve made a great deal of progress in organizing and forming our very first official church in San Sebastian, and we give God all the credit for it. Hopefully, we can put up our new sign and get more work done to the inside including the painting soon if God permits. In the meantime, we will continue having our Bible studies and other mission related events. We almost forgot to inform you about the medical campaign that we plan to organize at our building in San Sebastian in August of this year. This will be our very first official medical campaign that we plan to organize with the help of some brothers and sisters in Christ from Trujillo, Peru. We expect many people from the area to attend, and there will be a great potential to witness to many who are lost and need Jesus Christ. We are looking very forward to this and ask you to start praying about it in advance. Please remember to be praying about our next VBS that we plan to organize soon. Like the medical campaign, we are expecting several children from all over San Sebastian to attend and participate. This will also be the first VBS that we plan to have at our new building and the second one in the area in general.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please be praying for the following:

1. The Bible studies that we teach and all those who participate.

2. The new building that we use for our mission work.

3. The men’s ministry in San Sebastian.

4. Our next VBS planned for next month.

5. The next medical campaign at our building.

6. Our family especially Bella and all our needs.

7. All the lost in San Sebastian, Chiclayo, and all of Peru in general.

THANK YOU AND HOW TO CONTACT US!

We would like to thank every person who has prayed for us and our ministry and those who have contributed financially. It means a great deal to us, and as always, we could not continue what we do without your prayers and faithful gifts. Please continue praying for us daily as we really need your prayers. Also, please prayerfully consider making a donation to our ministry if you have not already done so. If you have any questions about us or our ministry in Peru, please feel free to contact us through Facebook or e-mail at any time. Again, the name of our Facebook page is “Smith’s Mission 4 Jesus Christ- Peru”. Please consider visiting and “liking” our page if you have not done so already. It will ensure that you receive notifications concerning updates to our ministry in Peru as they become available. Thank you to all those who have already liked our Facebook page and commented on it. My personal e-mail address is [email protected]. We check our page and e-mail every day and will get back with you as soon as we can. Thanks again for everything, and may God bless you always.

Sincerely,

Shane, Vanessa, Laura, Joshua, Matt, Jeremiah, and Bella Smith

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