Our hearts are full as we look back on 2018 and rejoice to see the victories that God has given us here in Peru. It was certainly a year of blessings, as we worked to bring the Gospel to many different areas of Peru with soul-winning trainings, water-purification-systems distribution, Pastors’ Conferences, and church-building efforts in our own churches here in Lima. It is an adventure to serve the Lord, and we are enjoying getting to see His blessings firsthand.
Our first semester of the institute finished strong! We are so excited about the institute and the opportunity to train those who want to serve the Lord with their lives. We begin our next semester in April, but in the summer months of February and March, we will be offering two, weeklong courses: Youth Ministry, taught by Bro. Ricky Torres, and Missions, taught by Bro. Luis Martinez. We will also hold a Youth Conference and a Missions Conference at the end of each of these weeks of training. Please keep these classes and conferences on your prayer list!
Our church in San Gabriel enjoyed a blessed holiday season. We had 114 children come to church for our annual Chocolatada. They enjoyed receiving a gift, given by our church members, along with hot chocolate and a sweet bread called panetone. With 29 babies in the nursery that day, we realized more than ever how we need more space! Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide a property for us to purchase in San Gabriel! For our annual Neighbor Day at the end of November, we rented a large tent to hold the adults, and the children met in the auditorium. We were able to see more than 30 people saved on that big day! In all, more than 70 people have trusted Christ through the San Gabriel ministry since our November prayer letter. We are excited to see personal growth in our precious church members as well. Please pray also for our 6th Anniversary service on January 27.
Last year a pastor from the jungle was invited to our church by a soul winner—he was in our area visiting family. He came, and we learned that he had been won to Christ in the Amazon as a young person by a missionary whose boat had broken down. The missionary entered this young boy’s village to preach to the people while someone fixed his boat. While he never saw the missionary again, the young boy stayed faithful to the Lord and later became a pastor to the people in his village. He has been pastoring for more than 30 years with hardly any outside influence, just studying his Bible to learn how to help his people! He asked for our help with resources to teach his people and to train them in soul winning. We visited his village in December and taught a soul-winning training course in the city of Nauta there in the jungle. What a blessing to see people get excited about leading others to Christ! We took the people soul winning, and we were able to see 47 people come to Christ!
We are very excited to see what 2019 will bring to Team Peru, to our churches in Lima, and to the country of Peru! We just came back from Northern Peru, where Team Peru worked to teach on soul winning, discipleship, and the pastoral family to more than 45 pastors who gathered in a city called Paita. What a blessing it was to help these pastors, many of whom are very poor in this world, learn how to win people to Christ and gain eternal treasure! We were humbled and amazed to be among people of such dedication to the Lord’s work! We were able to load these pastors up with a lot of excellent materials to use in their churches, such as Sunday school lessons, booklets on various topics, discipleship courses, and good books for pastors and pastors’ wives. We will be in other areas of our country this year doing the same thing.
We know that all this work is in vain without the presence of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of God’s people. We humbly beg for your prayers.
His for souls,
Zach and Karin Foust
Zach, C.J, and Logan
