Our fellow Team Peru missionary, Pastor Mark Rader, left us in charge of the church which he pastors in Surco during his two-month furlough. In his absence, we did our best to keep things running smoothly. The church men took turns preaching and running the services. God gave us visitors every week, and many of them got saved. Felix, Carmelita, Elvira, Samuel, Ivan, Oscar, Fatima, Sandra, and Patricia have continued to attend the services!
Felix and Carmelita had been attending a prosperity-gospel church for 18 years, where they were trying to work for their salvation. They oversaw more than 120 people at that church. They were effectively the pastors of these people and were given all the troubled people in the church whom no one else wanted. The pressure was so great that Carmelita got very sick. She realized that she needed to help these people and started studying to learn more. When she started reading a Matthew Henry’s Commentary, she realized there were some problems with the church they were in and started looking for one that followed the Bible. She found our church in Surco and started coming. Both she and her husband heard the Gospel and trusted Christ with tears in their eyes.
November 2 is a special holiday here. It is called the “Day of the Dead.” It sounds scary, but it is similar to our Memorial Day. People visit the graves of their loved ones and talk about and remember them. Here in Lima, we have the second-largest cemetery in the world, Nueva Esperanza. It is extremely crowded on this special day, with many thousands of people visiting the graves of their loved ones. We took a group of 20 soul winners out and spent several hours handing out more than 5,000 tracts and witnessing to people. Praise the Lord! We saw 25 people accept Christ in the cemetery! Afterwards, we had a dinner at the church for the soul winners. We invited our rented combi driver and his assistant to eat with us. They were surprised at the offer but accepted. Both heard a clear presentation of the Gospel and had a good meal.
We want to thank you for your investment in the lives of these people. They are all precious in His sight!
In His service,
Chris and Irene Williams
