March - April 2007 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Proverbs 3:5

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

These past two months have been very exciting, with a great deal of challenges and victories. It is amazing to see how God is working. As the verse above states, we must truly trust in God, not our own understanding.

Ministry News

I have had the privilege of being in the States for two months interpreting for two Spanish speaking national missionaries, Manuel Caceres and Aldo Asto, as well as raising some much needed support for Efata.

Manuel is a member of my church who we are training in Deaf ministry in Lima. He is from Argentina, and is raising support to return to Argentina to begin a pioneering work with the Deaf. Aldo is a church planting Peruvian missionary working in Santiago, Chile. This has been a wonderful time of blessing; however, it is good to be home in Peru.

It is never easy to be away from one’s family for a long time. However, this gave me an opportunity to share our wonderful ministry with several new churches as well as report to some of our current supporting churches. During this time, we have seen several people saved in churches and on visitation. We are grateful for this opportunity.

30 Year Anniversary

On May 20^th, Efata Baptist Church will be celebrating its 30 year anniversary. This is going to be an exciting time. It will be a time of honoring Vernon and Velma Miller for their years of love and labor amongst the Deaf in Peru. A memorial will be dedicated to them. Vernon went home to be with the Lord in November of last year, and Velma will be with us for this wonderful time.

During the anniversary services we will have the privilege of ordaining three of our men to the Gospel ministry; Manuel Caceres, who we will be sending to Argentina as a missionary; Jonathan Ramirez, our assistant pastor to the Deaf; and Henry Vasquez our assistant pastor to the hearing. This is going to be a wonderful service.

One other bit of tremendous news is that finally after many years of struggle, frustration and delays, our title for the land that Efata occupies is finally ready. I wish to thank all of you who have continually prayed for this. We have been dealing with this for many years. Two years ago, with your help, we were able to finally pay $14,500 for the acre where we live and work. I will be picking up the title in a few days.

Family News

Pray for our oldest son Joseph. He plans to study special education from an accredited institution. He is looking into several Christian colleges. His goal is to return to Peru after his schooling and work with us as a missionary to the Deaf and special needs children. Please pray for these decisions.

Lisa and the kids are doing great. She did a wonderful job of holding the fort in Peru with our leadership team. They faced some very unique and difficult situations, but God was an ever present help in time of need.

Jenny, the little deaf girl that lives with us, is doing great. We have begun taking the steps necessary to begin the process for eventual adoption. Please keep this in your prayers.

Finally, we are going to be trying to make some more improvements on how we stay in contact with you. Please send me an e-mail with your most current e-mail address to info@efata.org. Even if you are already subscribed to the blog or receive our paper prayer letters, we want to be assured that you are kept informed.

We are going to begin sending e-mail and blog updates on a more regular basis. If all you receive is the paper prayer letter, you are missing much. We want you to be as informed as possible so that you can intelligently pray for our current prayer needs.

You can always read our blog at www.efata.org. You can also sign up for the blog and receive notices when posts have been made. Just click on the little orange button next to the word “Subscribe”.

We desire that you all are intimately involved with our ministry that you may be informed prayer warriors for our vital work. God Bless you all.

Bro. Joe & Lisa
Joseph, Julianne, James, Jared, Judson, Joy, John, Joel