Dear Praying Friends,

Warm greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to each of you! We trust that you are well in the Lord and encouraged always through the presence of his Spirit in your hearts, ministering his grace in all its wonder and power.

Things are going well in Lima, by God’s grace. Our life is full, blessed, stretched and we’re ever learning and needing to learn and grow more every day. Lately, we have been extremely busy and stretched to the point of crying out to the Lord for his sufficient grace in our weakness with the work of the church plant in Salamanca, four children in school, baby on the way in July, missionary team leadership and increasing country level mission responsibilities for Mark. We just had a time of vacation last week and after an extremely intense month it gave us time to get our bearings and recommit ourselves to life with limits instead of the tyranny of the urgent.

Praise God for:

• great and much needed rest and time together as a family on our vacation last week
• renewed perspective on living with limits
• a fruitful week in Iquitos conducting evangelism training for 14 leaders from different churches in that city. 30+ people prayed to receive Christ with our trainers and students and 4 trainers from our Salamanca church grew in their training and leadership skills and saw the fruit of their labors training others
• first anniversary service for our church plant (Iglesia Presbiteriana “Luz de Vida” - Light of Life Presbyterian Church) on June 1, 2008, a special landmark. It’s customary in Peru to have anniversary services each year in the church
• five new members joining the church on June 1
• Lori and the baby are healthy, due date July 29
• a great birthday for Lori on May 9 (40!)
• steady stream of conversions happening in our church plant

We’d ask you to intercede for us in these areas and for these specific needs:

• marriage and family life
• Lori and the baby
• for Keith Powlison, MTW’s Country Director in Peru, who will be preaching at our anniversary service on June 1
• for children’s ministry in our church to attract children of families in attendance and children from the community
• for Robinson’s Castro’s new believers’ Sunday school growth group in which he is discipling new believers in our church
• the renewal of our mission’s legal status in the country. The government, driven by the Catholic church, is making life difficult for the evangelical church and many missions have been expelled from the country for not having the paperwork required in a law recently passed by Congress. We are working to fulfill the requirements, but in the meantime all our visas or visa renewals are suspended, causing difficulty for many of our missionaries. Pray that we would be able to dot all the “i”’s and cross all the “t”’s and get approved as a mission, as soon as possible.
• disaster relief work in San Clemente (2 hrs. south of Lima). Pray for Robinson, Lupe and Wilber, national workers overseeing the project and for Jeremy Ross as he plugs in short term teams to the work.
• Summer teams working in San Clemente and Salamanca: Chestnut Mountain Pres (Atlanta) May 28-June 18; Covenant Life Pres June 21-28; Grace DC August 16-24.
• Lori’s sister Nancy, 42, who has cerebral palsy, just had to have a feeding tube put into her stomach as she has now lost the ability to swallow. Pray for her to be fully healed from pneumonia, severe pain in her shoulder that has required her to be on morphine, and for her transition into a new care facility with full time medical personnel to attend her. She has been in a group home with much more freedom up to this point, so it is a big change for her. We’d also ask you to pray for the Lord Jesus to draw near to her in a personal way at this time of great trial in her life.
• for God to raise up male leadership in our church plant
• for Mauricio, a young man who prayed to receive Christ two weeks ago with Mark, for his growth in faith and grace
• for Emmett, Anna, Taylor and Abigail to grow in their faith in Christ and love for him
• for wisdom for Mark as he leads our missionary team and church plant
• for wisdom for Lori as she disciples women on our team and in our church plant

I’m also attaching our team’s May prayer calendar that has prayer requests from the various members of our team as well.

Thank you for your faithful support, friendship and partnership in the gospel, especially through your prayers.

In Christ,

Mark and Lori

NEW MAILING ADDRESS IN PERU!
Mark and Lori Berry
Apartado Postal 3-5012
SerPost de Salamanca
Lima 03 PERU

http://limanewcity.mtwla.org/
Vonage#:615-469-2589
mberry@mtwsa.org
lberry@mtwsa.org

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