Dear Friends,
I thought for this prayer letter, I’d bring you up to date on answers to your prayers. I know you have been praying, and sometimes it is nice to know how God has been answering. We treasure your prayers. Be encouraged to continue.

Prayer Warriors

Here’s what we asked you to pray for last time, and how we’ve seen God answer your prayers.

• 1 Peter 5:5: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Pray that God would keep us humble in heart so that we would depend on his grace not on ourselves. Keep praying this for us please. In my own heart I have been experiencing increasing freedom to accept and embrace Peruvian ways of doing things that for a long time were frustrating to me and I resisted in my heart. I really have noticed that something has changed within me and I am finding myself accepting customs and people with more openness, with more of a willingness to keep quiet and listen instead of putting forth my ideas immediately. Lori has seen some neat working of the Spirit in her own heart in the past several months. I’ve seen a fresh readiness to confess her sins when she hurts one of us in some way, and ask forgiveness. And she does it quickly, sincerely, with real brokenness, not just with words. We both recognize this is the work of the Spirit. It has been a tremendous encouragement to my faith to see God working in her so powerfully. Every time it happens, I think: “When was the last time I did that?…I sin as much as her.” Convicting really, and a model for the kids and me. Pray that God would give me (Mark) this same attitude more and more. Thanks for your prayers that are making a difference.
   
• Pray for Lori’s ministry to our kids and for one opportunity a week to do ministry with Mark and the team. God has given Lori grace in her ministry to our four children, and she is growing as a mother. As I just mentioned, God has been working in her life, powerfully granting her the gift of repentance. In addition, she has had the opportunity to head up a project for Vacation Bible School, preparing crafts from the home with volunteers who come over each morning. It’s been a huge project as the VBS outreach is extensive: 6 week long VBS’s in six different church plants in a space of 3 weeks. Thank the Lord with us for his answer.
   
• Pray for sustained growth in our Spanish. We’re both feeling like we’re plateauing, or growing very slowly. Pray that God would help us to keep humbling ourselves and asking for help, meanings of words, phrases, etc. that we don’t know, instead of nodding and acting like we understand when we really don’t. It’s a fine line sometimes, because you don’t want to always be stopping the conversation, but at the same time, you want to be learning and growing. Pray for wisdom and boldness in this tension.
   
• Pray for wisdom on choosing a school for Emmett and Anna. We’ve decided to send them to a bilingual Christian school called La Molina Christian School. The teachers are a mix of Americans and Peruvians, students almost all Peruvian, curriculum all English with history and Spanish taught in Spanish by Peruvians starting in 2nd grade. Our hope is that they become well grounded in English as their first language for reading and writing, and on that base that their Spanish language skills develop to become excellent as well.
   
• Pray for Emmett, Anna, Taylor and Abigail to love and worship Jesus from their infancy. Please keep praying. We’re seeing evidence of God’s grace in each of their lives. Taylor is our quickest to say she’s sorry, and she also regularly says “thank you”, without being forced or reminded. Anna’s prayers are spontaneous and thoughtful and a delight to listen to. Emmett is our most affectionate, and out of the blue will come up to me or Lori and say, “I love you Daddy/Mommy” and want to give us a long hug. Abigail is real gentle in her personality, sensitive. She’s crawling all over now, and loves her newfound freedom of movement. Thanks for praying for our covenant kids.
   
• Pray for solid churches with elders in Sapotal, Punta Hermosa, Perales, Manuel Correa and America. Long-term request. We have a long way to go and will need your prayers for the long haul here. Keep praying for elders, deacons and new conversion growth.
  

• For the spiritual health of our team. Pray for revival through the power of the gospel, leading to greater Kingdom vision, passion and heroics through the Spirit.
   
• For VBS outreaches in: San Pablo, Siete de Octubre, Sapotal, America, Punta Hermosa, Manuel Correa, Perales, and Nocheto from Jan 27-Feb 15. Pray for conversions through these outreaches, both in the events themselves and especially in the follow up that will be done in the months following which we hope will put us in contact with the rest of the family, as well as the children who attended.
   
• For the leaders we are working with to be set on fire by the gospel. Pray for me in the opportunities I am having to teach and preach the gospel to these leaders that the gospel would penetrate my heart and life first, and then that God would use me to pass on to them the same treasure.
   
• For our 2002 team evaluations and 2003 planning, in process during the months of January, February and maybe March. Pray for unity in the Spirit, a desire to pray first instead of trusting our own wisdom, and a Spirit-given plan for 2003.
   
• For the development of a significant ministry of mercy in 2003. We are seeing that in each church plant we are up and going with Sunday schools that are getting the gospel message to a wide group of children at risk. Now we want to take another step deeper into their lives, meeting their needs at the physical level. There are many possible ways to go, but we need wisdom from the Lord to show us which one.

I’ll close by saying again: THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!. They support us and lift us through many dangers, temptations and fears. You are indispensable to us, and we feel that daily.

With much love in Christ,
Mark for all