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Jeremy, Amanda, Kayla, & Isabella Grace Ross
August 26, 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you so much for keeping up with us, caring for us, loving us enough to check up on us after the earthquake and especially for praying for us. God is good! all the time!!!
There is an MTW team flying in tomorrow and heading down close to Pisco to do medical work and counseling work. They will be there for a week. There is a great possibility that many more teams will follow them. This is a specialized team that has been trained to be the first team on site after a disaster. They will be camping out and caring all their supplies in with them. It will be "no impact" for those of you backpackers out there, but please pray for a "HIGH IMPACT" of the Holy Spirit using this team to be the hands and feet of Jesus caring for so many desperate families that have been devastated.
Many of you have asked what you can do. First of all, PRAY for our team as we respond to the disaster needs and continue on with the ministry here in Lima, pray for the teams that are coming, for all the details and for their safety heading into unchartered waters, pray for God's hand to powerfully move in these communities that have been affected, that they would know a God who loves them perfectly, eternally and redemptively and of a Savior that offers a personal relationship with this King of Kings, Lord of the land and the sea.
Secondly, you can GIVE. Below is a letter written by the Coordinator of MTW.
If you are interested in seeing pictures of Jeremy's trip to Pisco, you can check out our blog at www.xanga.com/kaylabellainperu
We feel honored to be in this place at this time. I'm sure pictures of Peru have long left the headlines of the major news networks, but NOW is a very strategic time for God's people to act.
Thank you for remembering us and the lost people of Peru.
With Joy,
Jeremy and Amanda Ross
August 2007
Dear Minuteman,
Just two days after Peru's 7.9 magnitude earthquake on August 15, our
advance team left the U.S. to assess the needs in the region surrounding the
city of Pisco. News we are receiving from them is grim and often
heartbreaking.
Recovery workers and volunteers are digging through rubble by hand, but
there is now no expectation of finding survivors. Almost 550 are dead, and
no one knows for sure how many could still be under the rubble. Nearly 1,700
are injured, and it is estimated that 80,000 people have been affected. The
town of Pisco is said to have lost 85 percent of its simple mud brick
homes-structures that normally serve well in this dry region. Residents of
surrounding towns are desperate as well. Their infrastructures are also
completely destroyed, and the area hospital is gone.
It is winter in Peru. The weather is cold, and families are huddled in the
streets. Fearful of aftershocks, even those who still have homes are
sleeping outside. One mother said her child was crying all night because he
was cold. A worker said, "The city smells of blood and death."
A member of the Luz de Vida Church in Lima, with which we work, had 25
family members in the earthquake region, and four of their five homes were
destroyed. Our missionaries in Peru are safe, but eager to begin ministry
with the suffering people of the region.
Peru is in one of the most seismically active regions of the world, and if
the earthquake had struck a more densely populated area, damage and
casualties would have been far worse. As disasters go, this one is "small."
But it is not small to the grandmother who lost her daughter and her
grandchild. It is not small to those who are injured or who have lost homes.
Most of all, it is not small to God.
Thank you for your commitment to serve as an MTW Minuteman. It is only
because of you that we are able to meet the urgent needs of desperate people
who have no other resources. We are already releasing funds in advance of
your giving, and will work to make the best use of what you entrust to us
for the sake of the gospel. Together, we will seek to do justice and to love
mercy.
To make your donation, please make your check payable to Mission to the
World and write "93982" on the memo line. And please join us in prayer for
these people who are sitting in darkness-many in spiritual darkness as well
as in the physical darkness of this moment. Ask God to enable His people to
shine the great light of Christ into their lives and that many would be
drawn to the kingdom.
Sincerely in Christ,
Paul D. Kooistra, Coordinator
PS: MTW's Minutemen gave $53,076 to the continued work on the Gulf Coast
in Katrina's aftermath. Any funds not used in the current appeal will be
used for similar appeals.
PPS: If you would like to receive more immediate notification of Minuteman
appeals by means of email, please send a message to minuteman@mtw.org with
the subject line "Add to Email List."
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