August – October 2008 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Psalm 33:5

“He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.”

In the midst of all of the economic turmoil and presidential politics; in the midst of the evil of the day, we are assured and know that as the verse above states - the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

Even in these times of high gas prices and cost increases; it is a tremendous blessing to see how the Lord continues to supply our needs, grant us safety on the journey, give us mercy and strength in the way and provide a great deal of loving fellowship for the heart.

Ministry News

In September we had our Annual Bible Conference. It was wonderful! Pastor to the Deaf John Olson preached and taught wonderful messages and lessons, and his wife Tricia came and taught the Ladies' classes. There were four deaf saved during the conference. While I was there, I also had the privilege of dedicating two precious new babies to the Lord.

A few weeks ago, our pastoral staff had the privilege of baptizing eight deaf young people. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful staff of assistant pastors and leaders that are able to keep the work going and growing in our absence.

Bros. Frank (Red circle -one of our preacher boys) and Hugo (Blue circle - the deaf man that had the accident with the saw last year) are doing a wonderful job in the new work in Huancayo. They had several baptized recently and have been involved in street evangelization and Bible distribution. Missionary Mark Lindsey and his church in Huancayo have been a great help by providing facilities and support for the work. Hugo is now living in Huancayo so he can visit and encourage the Deaf during the week.

Our child sponsorship program is going well. You can now go to our website at www.efata.org to view online the children who need sponsors. There you will find information as to how you can sponsor a deaf child in our orphanage and school.

We have one boy, Jose, who is Jenny’s brother that we would like to bring to Efata to care for and help. He is very hard-of-hearing and legally blind. We brought him to Efata to visit his sister and to evaluate and see how he is progressing and if we can help him. We believe we can. However, he is going to need some special help. Please pray that God would touch hearts of people to help sponsor Jose so we can give him a chance at life and the Gospel.

We are greatly enjoying seeing many of you again and meeting new churches and friends as we are traveling on furlough. We still have a goal of returning to Peru in January. Please pray that we will be able to raise the needed extra support for the ministry and that logistically everything works out for our return.

Family News

Joseph is doing well in college. It is different not having him with us. We look forward to Thanksgiving where we will be together with him again and for his winter break. He will be able to travel with us as we head for California.

All the kids are doing well and growing like weeds as well. Eve-ryone’s health is doing fine. Even though traveling in a van with ten people can sometimes be stressful, it still is the best being able to travel with the children. We enjoy having the family together when we travel. The daily costs are a bit more, but it is well worth it.

As always, we thank you for your prayers and financial support. They are greatly needed and appreciated.

God bless,

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