Dear Prayer Team,

Spring is upon us here in Lima. The weather is warming up, the sun coming out more, and the plants and flowers beginning to bloom, adding much needed touches of color to the desert landscape in which we live. You still need a jacket at night, but in the daytime its now mostly short-sleeve temperatures.

The change of seasons is much less pronounced here near the equator, no leaves turning or frost or spring rains, all of which you miss when you are used to marking time and seasons like that. Nevertheless, there are noticeable changes that let you know a process is taking place that is moving you from one season, with its unique and good characteristics, to another with its own unique and good qualities to enjoy.

So it is with the new team of which we are a part. We had 14 months with the Bethesda team under Santos Buendía, and we appreciated the opportunity we had with that team to get our feet wet in ministry here in the Presbyterian church scene here in Lima, through the San Pablo Presbyterian Church. We made friends who we know will be part of our life here for the long haul, and for that we are so thankful.

But as we reported in our last letter, we have entered a new season in our ministry here. Mark has been asked to lead a new team, and has been working with that team to develop a coordinated long-term vision. We are still in process, but wanted to share with you in this letter who the team is, the framework for the developing vision, some of the answers to prayer and open doors that the Lord is giving us as we have been seeking him through team prayer, and some concrete things that we desperately need you to pray for to advance the work through the Holy Spirit's power and moving.

The Team

Mark and Lori Berry	career missionaries
Sean Galton	2-year missionary through March '04
Julie Murphy	3-year missionary through Dec. '04
Andrew Halbert	2-year missionary through Oct. '05
Frank and Suzanne Matthews	career missionaries (arrive Dec. '03)
Jeremy and Amanda Ross	career missionaries-apprenticeship program (about to start raising support)

The Vision
Our team will have three key result areas (KRA): grace, mercy/justice, church-planting movement (Matthew 4:23).

KRA #1: Grace
One prominent feature of the spiritual landscape in Lima and Peru is the existence of the local church. There are many. In the Presbyterian context, there are several denominations. With rare exceptions, the churches are generally small, legalistic, and not growing or are declining. There is tremendous need for understanding grace and for spiritual revival.

Because of the presence of a local Presbyterian church denomination(s), our team will not seek to establish its own, independent Presbyterian churches. Instead, we will individually become active members of local churches and from within seek to preach and teach the gospel of grace. Our constant prayer will be first for personal revival, second for revival at the local church of which we are a part, third for revival in the Presbyterian denominations, especially among their leaders, fourth for revival in Lima among all evangelical churches and lastly for countrywide revival among all denominations in which the gospel of grace is (re)discovered.

We will in these local churches look for opportunities to teach and preach grace, especially in small group, Bible study opportunities. Ordained members of the team will likely have many opportunities to preach in a wider sphere of influence, including across denominational lines, and will take as priority every opportunity possible to preach the gospel of grace in Lima.

KRA #2: Mercy/Justice
Related to key result area #2, justice and mercy, the same strategy will be employed. As missionaries, we will, as part of our active lay involvement in the local church, seek to identify members with a heart for the needy, gather them for prayer, help them identify a specific ministry in keeping with Biblical mercy and justice, participate with them in the ministry to meet their community's need.

Team members will also actively be networking with and participating in ministries of mercy to street children, prisons, prostitutes, the sick, the poor, widows, orphans, etc., seeking to understand our city's needs better and obey the commands and example of Jesus (Matt. 25). We will also be looking for opportunities for short term teams to minister to the needs of the city.

KRA #3: Church-Planting Movement
The final KRA is: church-planting movement. We will understand this to be an expected outflow of revival, and thus will depend on the preaching of the gospel of grace to produce such a movement. One fundamental way in which we will preach the gospel is through evangelism. We will actively engage in evangelism ourselves using Evangelism Explosion, and we will train local churches as well in it

As we do evangelism, train local church leaders in it, and preach grace and do justice and mercy from within the local church, we trust God will raise up national leaders with whom we can form bi- or multi-cultural church planting teams, leaders who will begin to share a like vision for the local church. In such teams we will begin the planting of new Presbyterian and Reformed churches within the existing denominations.

How God is Leading So Far
We have several opportunities to begin church planting with interested national leaders and organizations. Food for the Hungry, a Christian international relief agency has asked us to consider planting a church in one of the very poor areas they are working in that does not have a strong local church presence. The Lima Presbytery of the IEPP, one of the two main Presbyterian denominations in Peru, has contacted us about helping them plant churches in the city. One local church of the IEPRP, the other main Presbyterian denomination, has also asked us to help them plant a church. We are praying over these opportunities, feeling that wisdom would have us move slowly and not dive in to anything right away, until we have clear leading from the Holy Spirit where he wants to go.

In October, God connected us to several local church leaders who were teaching Evangelism Explosion and our team was able to go through a week long EE Clinic, learning to share the gospel better in Spanish and giving us a tool that we will be able to teach the churches we work with and plant.

We have also made a number of connections with people in the city who are ministering to street children and prostitutes. We are in dialogue with one local church about helping them with a project to reach street children and drug addicts in their community. We have also been invited to visit a ministry to teen prostitutes to discuss ways of partnering.

We are taking time to intentionally network among church and para-church leaders, asking the Lord to teach us 1) the spiritual and physical needs of our city and 2) what He is doing already through his Holy Spirit to make his love known and his kingdom advance. As the Holy Spirit teaches us these two things, we are trusting that our unique role in Lima that God has for us as a team will become clear, and he will show us the concrete commitments and steps he wants us to take to see his glory in each of the key result areas of grace, mercy and justice, and church planting movement.

For Prayer and Praise

• For Lori's grandmother Bebie Nixon who is 96 and in failing health; as well for Lori's family, especially her Mom Melanie
• For Mark as team leader casting vision and working with team members to determine their unique roles
• For the formation of a pastors' and leaders' prayer meeting devoted to praying for revival in Lima
• For spiritual revival in Lima
• For our marriage and family life
• Thank the Lord with us for his faithfulness in leading us through this transition and opening new doors for ministry
• Thank the Lord with us for the Church at West Cobb (Marietta, GA), pictured here, who came with a group in August to help finish the second floor for Jesús el Buen Pastor, a Presbyterian church in Huaycan (east side of the City), and to work with their children. They were a tremendous blessing to our brothers and sisters there and a joy to work with. We're looking forward to their next visit!
• Please pray with us for Sean as he considers extending another year. God's really used him here and we would dearly love to have him with us another year or two. Pray that God will direct his steps.
• Praise the Lord with us that Julie has decided to extend for another year. She's a great team member and we are thankful to have her with us as we move forward in a new direction.
• Please pray for Andrew as he makes the adjustment to life and ministry in Peru. He graduated from UT-Knoxville in August and arrived here in Lima in October.
• Please pray for the Matthews as they finish language school in Costa Rica the first week of November, return to the US for 6 weeks, then make the move to Lima Dec. 28.
• Please pray for the Rosses as Amanda gives birth to Kayla Joy sometime in December and they begin their first steps toward support raising.

Depending on the promises,
Mark for all