Dear friends and family,

What a blessing it is to be in the service of the Lord!

In May we had our 33^rd anniversary of the church here at Efata and had over 500 in attendance. The expanded auditorium was packed. 

Pastor Robert Sutton, the Associate Pastor at Winkler Road Baptist Church in Fort Myers, FL, was our guest speaker.  He did a tremendous job.  Several were saved and baptized.

We were blessed to have a mission group from Bethel Baptist Church from Hampton, VA come down in June.  They were such a tremendous blessing to all of us here at Efata.  Some wonderful relationships were forged.  They were a great help in many areas of our ministry

In May I wrote of our need and desire to build a new home and church building for our Deaf missionary and Church in the jungle city of Pucallpa.  I would like to thank the churches that have responded to this need and which have given towards it.   Pastor Sutton as well has be visiting some of our supporting churches and some new ones and sharing the need and helping to raise some funds for the project.  He has been a blessing.  Thank you to those churches that have been able to respond through him.

My son James and I with a mission team from Efata just returned from Pucallpa and we were able to begin the first phase of the project which was to build the home for the missionary and bathrooms for the church.   Our goal is to be able to return in November to complete the project and get the new church building built.  During the mission trip we were able to see eight deaf people and one hearing person saved while we were there. 

We are building the home to be able to add a second story with another apt. so we have a place for another missionary/national pastor to live.  Our desire is to start a hearing church there as well so that we can better reach the people of that city.  There are other Baptist churches in the area but most of them are in outlying parts.  Our property in right smack in the middle of the city and easy to access.   

If you have been keeping up with our blogs on our website you know that God has blessed us with a new baby girl.  Jennifer Rose was born on July 22^nd at 8:30am.  She weighed 8.5 lbs. and was 20.5 inches long.   Re rejoice in this new precious life that God has given us. 

Our oldest son Joseph was able to spend a month with us recently from college.  It was great to have all the kids home.  We will be getting a new family picture updated on the website soon.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.  Continue to pray for us as we seek to represent you on the field of Peru South America and beyond!

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