Mark and Lori Berry
Mission to the World

Dear Praying Friends,

We trust this letter finds you well.

We are doing well here in Lima.  The children are in their last quarter of the school year and looking forward to summer vacation which is around the corner (a short 12 weeks :) ).  Emmett, Anna and Taylor are taking tennis lessons twice a week after school at the park near our house and Abigail is taking ballet lessons.  They are enjoying learning new skills and having a break after a long day at school before they have to do homework.

Hadassah started walking a week ago and goes further and faster, and with more confidence every day.  It’s fun to see her grow.  She has quite a personality too and is holding her own quite well with her big brother and sister.  Last month she had a long, several week bout with diarrhea and so with her doctor we have had to take milk and gluten out of her diet to see if it’s a food allergy or just the result of a virus.  We are praying it is not a food allergy, and would ask that you pray that as we reintroduce these foods into her diet that she would be able to digest them normally.

Lori is doing well.  She is teaching on Wednesday mornings a Bible study on the Gospel of John to the girls in the House of Glory women’s shelter, in addition to holding down the fort on the home front.  Please pray for this Bible study, specifically that the girls (there are three right now with their newborns) would come to know Christ personally as they read and understand the Word.

Speaking of the House of Glory, I have been so encouraged by what the Lord is doing in this ministry that I wanted to tell you a bit more about it.  Our teammate Amanda Ross is directing the ministry which opened its doors to receive abandoned and abused pregnant girls 14 and under to provide them temporary shelter and care for 1-3 years to help them heal, finish their education, learn to care for their children and equip them with skills for a job.  Our missionary team is the board for the ministry and our local church plant, Luz de Vida Presbyterian Church is closely involved with the spiritual care of the girls and staff of the ministry.  Eventually, when we have a session, the ministry will formally have its spiritual oversight from the church.

At present, our small church body has really opened it’s heart to the girls and their babies, and it has been a great blessing to see them being invited over to people’s houses, participate in youth group with other kids their age and express a desire to join the church and have their babies baptized.  All three moms attended the first class in my 6 week new members’ class that I started last Sunday.  And all this while we’re still not sure they are even converted yet!  They are so open, that my prayer is that during their time with Lori and in the new members’ class, where each will have an opportunity to meet with me and our leaders that we will have the opportunity to see them all come to faith.

I am also teaching a Bible study in the home for the girls and the staff each Monday morning at 9:30am, in which we are unpacking grace and the gospel.  Please pray for this study as well, as well as for the many other ways through our members that the girls are hearing the good news of the gospel.  Pray that each is converted soon, and that their babies also will come to know Christ too one day.

Please also praise the Lord with us for the way he is showing his mercy and healing love in such a powerful way to these girls.  We hope to take in 3 more girls in the next few months, and so you can also pray for the Lord to bring just the right ones.

Last week we had the privilege of hosting a vision team from Catalina Foothills Church in Tucson, Arizona: Don and Carolyn Spangler, Ashley Maddox and Jaime Gibbons.  We had a good time showing them the ministry and getting to know them better.  It’s always great to have the encouragement of a visit from churches that support us.

The Sunday they were here we had a truly amazing worship service.  It actually rained.  Hard.  And it never rains here in Lima.  The roof over our sanctuary in the school where we meet held up but due to the amount of rain that it really wasn’t designed to handle, lots of water was leaking in to our sanctuary.  I thought during Sunday school that we would have a low turnout, because it was also cold.  But despite the conditions, we had a normal if not slightly larger crowd than usual.  As I got to the pulpit, I looked over the congregation to see people huddled in groups all around the sanctuary, finding the areas where water was not coming in so they could stay dry, but not going anywhere, anxious to hear the Word of God.  This deeply encouraged me, because I know that in conditions like that, folks that come out to hear the Word are there for only one reason and that is because the Spirit of God is at work in their hearts drawing them to himself and working in them by his grace.  Praise the Lord with us for the Spirit’s work in Luz de Vida.  He is building his church.

Along those lines last month I took our leaders on an overnight retreat to pray and plan for 2010.  Enrique, Francisco and Jim are the men I’m meeting with on Friday afternoons to disciple and develop into the leadership team of the church, and Lord willing, eventually its session.  We are walking together through discipline cases, planning worship, evaluating and planning ministries, and a host of other things that are leading a church plant.  It’s been a great blessing for me to have them share the load with me, and of course my central focus in all I’m doing is to invest in and train leaders to do the work of the ministry.  Please give thanks for these men and pray that they would grow in their leadership in Luz de Vida and in God’s time, according to his will, that they might become elders or deacons in the church.

The last thing I wanted to report was a great opportunity I had to preach at a Peruvian army base where a young man I’m discipling in our church is the commander.  I asked if I could come visit him on the base and preach to the soldiers, and since he was the commander, he said he could do whatever he wanted there.  On two successive Saturdays I had the privilege of preaching the gospel to 29 soldiers, mostly 18 and 19 year olds, and with members from our church, distribute to them Bibles and evangelistic materials.  Praise the Lord for this precious opportunity, for the Lord to grow the seeds planted to eternal life, and for Carlos who is seeking to walk in holiness with Christ in that very hard, immoral context that is army life.  Pray for him to have a faithful and good testimony among his soldiers.

The last couple of things we’d ask you to pray for are our marriage and family, that God would protect and strengthen these every day.  I’ve been going really hard with the work of the ministry, and am sensing a need to tend to my family a bit more.  It’s always such a challenge with the demands of ministry, so would ask you to pray for us for wisdom in balancing all the demands and responsibilities I have as country director for the mission, team leader for our missionary team, church planting pastor for our church, and then Dad and husband.  Likewise for Lori as wife and mother, and wife to me in all my roles that involve her so much.

Also we’re planning a short home assignment to visit our supporting churches from November 29 to February 21.  Please pray for this time.  It’s a joy to visit our churches, and to get to fellowship with many of you, but it is also challenging being on the road that long as a family.  We also have a lot of work to do setting up our schedule, housing and myriad logistical details and communication, so we appreciate your prayers for all of it.

Thank you so much for your partnership with us in the ministry of the gospel in Peru.  It is a privilege to serve the Lord Jesus with you.

Un abrazo.

In Christ,

Mark and Lori
Emmett, Anna, Taylor, Abigail and Hadassah

P.S.  We’re linking our team’s prayer calendar too with additional prayer requests for the ministries for October.

- September 25, 2009