“Somebody needs to care enough to bring the Deaf to the feet of Jesus!”Joe Kotvas – Pastor/Missionary

September – October Prayer Letter 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

Psalms 86:12

“I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.”

As always, these have been a very busy two months. Much is taking place here in Peru and at Efata. Thank you to all of you who have a part in making this ministry what it is. Were it not for all of you, we could not be doing what we do. We praise and glorify God for all that he is doing.

Ministry News

First, let me give you an update on the earthquake relief. Many of you responded and compassionately sacrificed so that we could help those that were affected by this natural disaster. We were able to bring food & other supplies to those who were affected. Our efforts now are in working with other missionaries to help rebuild some of the churches and pastor’s homes that were destroyed. We are currently waiting for architectural reports to begin rebuilding one church and pastor’s home that was completely destroyed. We want to make sure it is built right, so this does not happen again. We will be sending out pictures and updates as we have them available.

Here at Efata, God enabled us to participate in a non-governmental grant project. We were able to win four projects. These projects are a great blessing. The organization is providing two-thirds of the funding for the projects and we are providing the other third, which amounts to approximately $9000.00. We were blessed to receive $5815.00 for this project and are only lacking $3185.00. We are going ahead by faith, knowing that the Lord will provide. The four projects are:

  1. Carpentry – new machines and materials to provide better vocational training for the Deaf.
  2. Industrial Sewing – same as above.
  3. Computer Lab – This grant provided for eight new machines to allow us to enhance greatly our computer training lab.
  4. Dorm construction – Allows us to complete another young boys’ dormitory.

    5. All of these projects need to be completed by December so we are working furiously to get them done.

    The church is doing well and we are seeing souls saved every week. We have had several join the church as well as baptisms. We are grateful to the Lord for every opportunity we have to reach people. We are concentrating much on our close neighbors who are hearing folks. We want them to know that there is a church that wants to make a difference in their lives and that we care enough to bring them to the feet of Jesus as well.

    The school is going through some changes as the government wants us to send our deaf children to schools with hearing kids. We have been fighting hard to continue our school as is. Unfortunately, they can and are mandating that we be involved in this disastrous policy of inclusion with the Deaf. God has given us a solution however; they will allow us to bring in to our school hearing children to teach. This is great because we have wanted to do that all along, but our “special school” status was preventing that. Now, we can legally enroll the children of our pastors and workers into our school and thus meet the requirements of the government without sending our deaf kids away. Please pray about this as it still is a fluid situation and we want to do right.

    With this change and other governmental requirements regarding salaries and benefits, the loss of value of the dollar, and the need to increase staff; we need to raise more support. Please pray that God will give us wisdom in all of this.

    La Familia CáceresLa Familia Cáceres

    Our Missions Conference is coming up in January and we are excited about what the Lord is going to do. We will be sending out our Argentine family, Manuel Caceres and his wife, as missionaries to the Deaf of Argentina. He is going to do a pioneering church and ministry planting work. Please pray for this family as they raise support and make preparations to go.

    Frank ChavezFrank Chavez

    We are also excited about a deaf young man named Frank who has surrendered to preach and has been training with us. He is preparing to start a new ministry in another part of Peru. Both of these men are fruit that abound to the accounts of each of you who have invested your prayers, finances and care into this ministry.

    Family News

    Our FamilyOur Family

    Well, Joseph is an adult now! Wow! We are the parents of an adult child. My, how time flies! He is finishing up school and preparing for college to study special education with a goal of coming back and working with us here at Efata.

    Lisa is doing well with this pregnancy. She is due on the 28th of January. We will be having another girl to add to the family. Her name will be Jessica Anne. Isn’t this exciting!!!

    All of our children are doing great. James and Julianne are growing up to be fine young people and a great deal of help to us here. We are grateful to the Lord for the family He has given us. The website has been updated with new family pictures. Check them out at http://kotvas.efata.org/.

    God bless each of you. Thank you for your prayers and support for this ministry.

    In Christ,

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