Dear Praying Friends,

Warmest greetings to each of you in Christ! We hope this letter finds you well.

Our family is doing well. Emmett, Anna and Taylor are a quarter of the way through their school year and having lots of homework and tests at the moment. Abigail is at home still, spending time with Mommy and anxious for her opportunity next year to join her brother and sisters at school. Lori is busy managing our home life and working with the women on our team. I am busy preparing for the first worship service of the church plant in Salamanca, continuing my responsibilities with our church planting partnership with the Huaycán Presbyterian church and its extension works and enjoying working with Jeremy Ross, who with his wife Amanda is starting a ministry to street children for our mission.

On April 17, one of our members in Salamanca went home to be with the Lord, Juana Espinosa. I had the privilege of doing her funeral, which gave me the opportunity to preach the gospel to a very large sector of Salamanca called “La Marginal”, where Juana had grown up and was widely known and appreciated. She was 52 years old. Most in attendance were not believers, and some very positive relationships were made that we believe the Lord is going to bless and bring a harvest from in the days to come as we plant the church in that community. Thank you for those of you who prayed for us during that time. We really felt strengthened by your prayers, and know that they enabled us to minister the gospel in that very difficult situation.

I found out at 7:40am Tuesday morning, April 16 that Juana had died. By 10:30am Lori and I were with the family, as the wake begins immediately and goes for 24 hours. We sat with them until midnight that night. Mostly what you do at the wake is just sit and be with the family. You are simply accompanying them in their grief. No one really says much, you just are there and sit quietly, with the casket of course in the corner of the room.

I preached to the group when it was biggest, at about 9pm. There were at least 150 people present I’d guess. At about midnight, when the neighbors began to pass the corn liquor and get a bit loud, as is the custom, we went home and slept for about 4 hours, then were back the next morning about 8:30am. I preached again at 9:30am, then the casket was carried throughout the neighborhood by Juana’s neighbors, as the tradition is for her to symbolically say goodbye to the places where she lived.

Then the casket was loaded into a hearse, and in several vans and buses rented by the family (most people don’t have cars) all the neighbors and the family traveled together to the cemetery, where we had the graveside service. Later we returned to the family’s house for lunch.

Jeremy and Amanda Ross took care of our kids over that 36 hour period of time, enabling Lori and me to accompany the family constantly. We really learned a lot as it was the first funeral that we’ve participated in from beginning to end and the first funeral that I have officiated as a pastor, anywhere, Peru or the US. It made us appreciate the Peruvian emphasis on relationships above tasks, and their understanding of the importance of simply being present with people when they are suffering and their willingness to invest time into their relationships. That is I think in many ways quite distinct from our own American culture that places such emphasis on getting things done, almost to the expense of relationships. I tend to be stingy with my time, wanting to manage it well with an emphasis on using it to get things done, rather than being quick to invest it in someone’s personal need.

So we’re thankful to the Lord for how he helped us, used us, and taught us in this whole painful and heart wrenching process of Juana’s death. Please pray for the family as they continue to grieve and as we continue to follow up with them to disciple them in their new faith. Kiara, Juana’s niece, just completed our basic discipleship course and will be baptized Lord willing our first worship service on June 3 in Salamanca. Mercedes, Juana’s sister who was her principal caregiver at the end, is struggling and needs prayer. Maximina, Juana’s Mom is holding up well and anxious to be discipled, as is Mercedes. Martin, Juana’s 25 year old son who is retarded, seems to be holding up well too. “Where is Mom?” I ask him when I see him. “In heaven” he says. “Who is she with?” “With Jesus” he says. “Does she love you?” “Yes.” “Who else loves you?” “God does” he says. “Will Mommy always love you?” “Yes, always”. “How about God?” “Always”.

Thanks for praying for them.

Here are some other items for prayer and praise this month:

PRAISE

1. The Lord provided a meeting place for our church plant in Salamanca. The director of a school in the neighborhood donated one of his school buildings to us for our use all day on Sunday!! It has a large area for the worship service, 200+ chairs, a sound system and multiple classrooms for Sunday school. We will start, Lord willing, on June 3.
2. It was Lori’s birthday on May 9!
3. Lori’s and my health has improved since last time when we had very bad sinus infections.
4. Jeremy and Amanda Ross have begun work to develop a street child ministry for our mission. It has been a tremendous blessing having another couple alongside us who shares a sense of long term calling to Lima.
5. For the Lord’s blessing on all the preaching and teaching times I asked you to pray for last month. The Lord has been giving me unusual freedom and power, and enabling me to prepare my messages in the midst of a lot of stress and very limited time sometimes, and I am just very thankful for his faithfulness.

PRAYER

1. For continued meetings with the session in Huaycán concerning our church planting partnership and feeding/tutoring program. I have begun to run into some significant roadblocks. Working through these things in a cross cultural setting is extremely intense, and requires huge amounts of time and energy. I earnestly ask for your prayers here.
2. For the church plant in Salamanca, set to have it’s first worship service on Sunday June 3rd. I have a lot of preparation to do for this, and with what I mentioned in #1, I have had virtually no time to attend to this. Fortunately our core group is taking initiative and doing a lot, but I really need to be providing more leadership on a number of fronts and I’ve just not been able to. Pray for wisdom here on whether I should postpone the opening of the church, or go forward. If the latter, pray for time for me to form the various ministry teams that need to get into place.
3. For our marriage to grow and deepen in the love of Christ.
4. For physical protection while driving around the city. People drive very, very recklessly, all the time, and there are many accidents and fatalities on the roads on a daily basis.
5. For protection from kidnapping. It is on the rise in Lima.
6. For Juana’s family, mentioned above: Mercedes, Maximina and Martin. Please pray for us to be able to disciple them effectively and help them integrate into the church.
7. For our vacation May 13-20 when the kids are on break from school. Pray that God would preserve the time (vacations are notoriously difficult for us to take as crises seem always to come right when we’ve had some time scheduled to be together as a family) and enable us to rest.
8. For our team meeting for prayer and fasting on May 23.

Thank you dear friends for your faithfulness to us. Your prayers are precious.

In Christ,

Mark and Lori
Lima, Peru

Contact information:
mberry@mtwla.org
http://limanewcity.mtwla.org/

Support information:
Mission to the World
P.O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368
Support Acct #10541