May - June 2007 Prayer Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Isaiah 41:13

“For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”

These past two months have been some of the most blessed and most incredible months since my family and I came to Peru in December of ’99. There is much to tell so, let me get started.

Ministry News

Efata Baptist Church celebrated its 30th anniversary on May 20th. It was an extremely special time. The founder, Vernon Miller, went home to be with the Lord in November of last year. His wife Velma was able to come to the anniversary as well as several friends from the States. We had over 600 in attendance for Sunday services. It was an incredible time.

During our anniversary, we had the privilege of ordaining three men to the Gospel Ministry: Jonathan Ramirez, our assistant pastor to the Deaf, Henry Vasquez, assistant pastor to the hearing, and Manuel Cáceres, our missionary to the Deaf in Argentina.

We also have a new staff pastor, Victor Ocampo and his wife Cleila and two precious little girls, whose responsibility will be primarily the education side of our ministry as well as other ministries directly in the church.

The hearing ministry is growing as we reach out into our community and some new “squatter” areas (tracts of land where people from the provinces come to claim as their own and build upon so they can eventually get the government to give them the title to the land.) We are seeing souls saved.

We are praying for funds to purchase three vans that we can use for routes to pick up these folks and bring them to church. We also need the vans for the school and home ministry to transport the children to various activities.

From June 22 – 25, Manuel Cáceres and I participated in the Deaf Baptist Fellowship of America hosted by the First Baptist Church, Long Beach California. This was a tremendous blessing as we were able to minister to Deaf from all over America and some from abroad.

A bit of a reminder, I have written a book on Deaf ministry and missions entitled Into the Silence. It is available to purchase or download in book form or PDF from Lulu.com in English or Spanish. The Spanish version is called Dentro del Silencio. If you would like to know more about the Deaf and working with them, especially in missions, I am sure that you will enjoy the book.

Currently we are blessed to have a work group from Philema Road Baptist Church in Albany, GA here with us. They are helping us with our new boy’s dorm expansion. They are a great blessing and encouragement.

Family News

As those of you know who receive emails from our blog (If you are not receiving them you really should subscribe to stay better up-to-date), Lisa had to have surgery for a herniated disc in her lower lumbar spine. It was causing her debilitating pain to the point where she could no longer walk or sit without almost blacking out, and there was very little relief when lying down. The herniated disc had engulfed her sciatic nerve causing her pain all the way down to her toes.

Praise the Lord he gave her and me the wonderful verse above. As this was the first time we had experienced anything like this, it was a bit uncomfortable. Thankfully the surgery was a wonderful success and she is now pain free. The doctor did a good job and the Great Physician did a miraculous one in both healing and comforting. Lisa was in the hospital for three days and has recuperated well. Now she will be attending physical therapy to help her strengthen her back and develop good posture and lifting habits.

Prayer Requests

• Funds to purchase three vans ($5000 each used)
• Funds to complete new dormitory ($2000)
• Finalization of land title (very close)
• Continued recovery for Lisa (she’s doing GREAT!)
• Wisdom for ministry growth
• Adoption process for Jenny

God Bless,

Joe & Lisa,
Joseph, Julianne, James, Jared, Judson, Joy, John, Jenny, Joel, ?