Dear Prayer Team,
Greetings to each of you from Lima! We hope you are well.
We are doing great, having had the joy of receiving our fifth beautiful child from the Lord Jesus on July 31, Hadassah Andrea Berry. Hadassah just had her one month birthday on Sunday. She is doing well and Lori is as well. Thank you for your prayers for them and for us as a family during these weeks of joy and transition.
Our other children are all doing well also. They have been so excited to welcome Hadassah to our family and love holding her and helping us take care of her.
On Wednesday mornings at 11am Mark has been meeting with Maximina and Cirila, two elderly ladies attending our church who he has been preparing for baptism after they prayed to receive Christ in our church. One day he got to Maximina’s house and in the room they normally do the study in the roof had fallen in. They had accommodated the furniture around the edge of the room to keep it from getting wet in the night, when at this time of year it often drizzles lightly, giving us the majority of our yearly rainfall here in Lima. It is winter here, and in the 50’s and 60’s at night.
Our church takes up a mercy and missions collection the first Sunday of each month, so we decided to use some of that fund to roof Maximina’s home and provide her with the kind of shelter from the cold and rain that she needs. Providentially we also had a short term team from Washington DC coming down, so we decided also to make Maximina’s roof a major part of their ministry as well.
Her home is now roofed and with her family’s resources they are putting in windows this week. Maximina and her family, along with Cirila, were baptized on Sunday. It was a joyous occasion and we praise God for giving us the privilege of being a part of his Kingdom’s expansion here in Lima.
Thank you for your prayers which the Father is using in a powerful way to spur his work on here.
Here are some things to remember for your prayer time today.
Praise
- For God blessing us with a new baby girl, Hadassah
- For God’s care of Lori during the Caesarean operation and in her recovery after
- For the baptism of 6 new believers in the past month
- For the way God is raising up male leadership in our church in answer to prayer
- For our church prayer meeting which continues to grow and in which most of our male leadership is in attendance
- For our Sunday worship services which have seen slow but steady growth in attendance and power of the Spirit
- For the team from Grace DC in Washington, DC which visited us last week and was an absolutely tremendous help. They helped us roof an elderly church member’s home, move our mission offices, move one of our two year missionaries into an apartment, did community service in Salamanca, taught English and did service projects in several schools and shared their testimonies in word and deed throughout.
- Our mission received formal government recognition allowing us to continue to receive visas for our missionaries.
- For Mark’s parents’ visit this week. God has given us a great time together, which we have treasured.
- For our disaster relief project in Pisco, where we’ve been able to put electricity into a local school, rebuild the floor of a local church, provide uniforms for a local school, soccer goals for a park and tents and temporary shelter for families.
Prayer
- For Lori’s milk to come in better so that Hadassah can nurse and be satisfied. Right now we’re supplementing with a bottle because Lori doesn’t have enough. We’re fine to do this, but are praying that God will supernaturally give Lori the ability to satisfy her. Also pray for protection from post partum depression.
- For Lori’s continued recovery from surgery
- For Lori’s sister Nancy, 42, who has cerebral palsy. Please pray for her health.
- For male leadership and families to be raised up in our church.
- For Mark’s preaching and teaching weekly
- For Lori as she begins to organize and lead the women’s ministry
- For Mark as he travels to the MTW LEAD conference on Sept. 26-Oct. 2. LEAD is a biannual meeting of all MTW team leaders that takes place at Ridgehaven. Pray that it would be a renewing and edifying time for him and for the rest of the MTW team leadership throughout the world
- For growth of the children’s ministry under Susan Crenshaw’s leadership and for a Peruvian replacement for her.
- For our youth group, for male leadership and growth in grace
- For our worship team, growth in unity and spiritual power leading in worship.
- For our disaster relief ministry in Pisco, for team unity and more opportunities to provide practical help.
- For our team’s ministry to street girls. We want to open a home for them in Salamanca and need prayer for our team members who are working on this ministry’s development, Jeremy and Amanda Ross and Susan Crenshaw.
Thank you again for your faithfulness and partnership in the gospel for Lima.
Much love in Christ from our family to yours.
Mark and Lori
Emmett, Anna, Taylor, Abigail and Hadassah
P.S. There are additional prayer requests for our ministry in the linked prayer calendar. Thanks!!
- September 5, 2008
