It’s been such a blessing these past couple of months. God has been doing big things here in our little corner of the world! We have had a busy few months, and it’s amazing to watch people grow, get excited, and look to serve Him more.
I wanted to start with a ministry change. We are excited to officially announce that we have been offered a larger role here at the church in Chorrillos and, as such, will be resigning as active team members of Team Perú. While we will still be serving in the same country alongside of them and while we still love and admire each of the families dearly, God has called us in a different direction. We pray that God continues to work through them, using each one of them and their ministries for His honor and glory. We look forward to seeing how God advances His kingdom through both the church and the team.
The church is growing rapidly in spite of trials and struggles. We have about 40-50 people going out soul winning each week, and we pass out around 6,000 tracts every month. The people here are doing a fantastic job in making a big deal of God’s kingdom; and He, in turn, is building His church. Since June, we have had baptisms almost every week, from children to adults and everyone in between. We recently bought a water heater for the baptistry, which has been appreciated by all who are following Christ in obedience here during our winter months.
We just finished the biggest date on our church calendar—the anniversary. The church here in Chorrillos celebrated 7 years of ministry, and we had a Thursday-Sunday conference to mark the occasion. We invited Pastor Jonathan and Jenny Ashcraft from Monterrey, Mexico, as well as John and Maryuri Biazzo from Paita, Perú, to be our speakers. We had workshops on child rearing, marriage, teenagers, and children and preaching each of the nights. Thank you to each of you who prayed for this event. Thank you to each of you who supported us, both with the regular support, as well as special gifts! God did big things in our church!
That Sunday, we had dozens of salvations, and 8 more people baptized. Two of them were extra special for us personally. Recently while out soul winning, I got to talk to a man named Roberto. He was working about a block from the church, and while he didn’t have time to talk to me at that moment, he invited me to come to his house two days later to talk with him. After struggling to find his house on the side of the mountain on which he lives, we finally knocked on the door and were surprised to see his entire family gathered there waiting to meet us. He had kept his teenage children home from school to meet us, and we had the privilege to witness to them and lead them to the Lord there in their living room. They have been attending church faithfully now for the past couple of months.
As we got to know them, we found out that his two oldest children, aged 20 and 17, are professional musicians here in Lima, playing with the philharmonic orchestra. His son plays the violin and his daughter the cello. For the anniversary, we were blessed to have our own little orchestra! They were so excited to be able to use their talents for the Lord! The best part of all? They left playing their instruments to go and get baptized and then came back and played the postlude—shivering, with their still-wet hair dripping onto their instruments, as happy as could be.
Our teen group is growing; we had 31 people this past week. One of our faithful teenagers brought 5 of his friends from his university, and we had the chance to witness to each of them. It is amazing to watch multiplication happen right before our eyes. We have been training a young couple named Alexander and Maria Rosa to help us with the group, and they have taken off, thrilled at the opportunity to serve God and minister to the youth. They have been such a blessing to us and a huge help in reaching more young people for Him.
One final note: we will be in the States for a few weeks next year in March. We will be presenting our work in several churches in the Southeast, and Heather will be speaking at a ladies’ conference in Kentucky. If you live there in the Southeast and would like for us to come and present an update on what God is doing here in Lima, please let us know! We would love the opportunity to be a blessing to you, should the Lord allow!
Serving Him,
Josh and Heather Hedderman
