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Sukkau Newsletter March 2008 |
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Our biggest event in February was a two day youth camp for 19 kids organized by the young people with Erika’s help. Jano Lopez, whom we worked with nine years ago in starting the youth group in Trujillo and who is now on the staff of the Lima church, was the guest speaker. It was rewarding to see the youth leaders work together to make the camp a success. In these two days they packed in a lot of activities: Bible studies, times of worship with a complete band, taking turns cooking, swimming, games of all kinds, and even a few hours of sleep. A bright, young guy took time off from university and even missed an exam, but he said it was worth it to get closer to God.
We also had our initial men’s meeting led by Pastor Sergio (second from the left). The men decided they want to talk about how to overcome stress, how to overcome “machismo”, and how to become good husbands and fathers. These are all very busy men and we pray that they will make this a priority in their lives. We have many ladies that are active in the church and would like to see more men involved.
We were happy to have some old friends, Al and Sue Enns from Winnipeg, come for a week. They got busy and painted the staircase of our church and put up shelves in our storage room where we keep our sound equipment and instruments. Al also spoke on Sunday morning and on Friday night at a Friendship banquet because Valentine’s Day here is called the Day of Friendship. The banquet was on our second floor patio which made things a lot cooler than they would be downstairs because we are in the middle of summer. Gary Bergman from Steinbach, MB came for two weeks to help with electric work on the sanctuary and did a big job no one else was willing to do, clean the new ceramic tiles in our sanctuary because the installers had done a poor job of installing them. Our thanks go to these people who were willing to come and help us.
A promising young couple has been attending our church, but they recently obtained their visa to move to Australia. This is not the first time that we have lost people going off to other countries to work, because good jobs are so hard to get here in Peru. We pray that the couple will find a good church and reach out to people there. The husband´s mother comes to our church and keeps us posted on how they are doing.
A few churches are planning to send teams to come down this year to help finish with the construction of our church building. They plan to paint, make shelves, or teach English to reach new people for Christ. We welcome financial contributions to our building project C0152. We are still lacking funds to complete the walls on the third floor and finish the pastor’s apartment. Our continued thanks go to those who support us so that we can cover our personal budget, C0103.
Prayer Requests
(1) Please continue to pray for our Leadership Team in Trujillo as it plans for the future, especially for Sergio la Rosa as he adapts to his role as pastor. Please also pray for his wife Susan, their daughter Jessica who is in her first year of college in the U.S., and their son David who is in his second last year of high school.
(2) Pray for the Lima church. José and Esperanza Prada, pastors of the church are now on MINA in California and B.C, while Jacque Hidalgo, Jano and Angelita López, and Otto and Lidia Funk are leading the church.
(3) On a national level please pray for Rolando Neyra, our new president, and the rest of the national committee as they guide our association of Peruvian churches.
(4) Please pray for us as we transition out of the church in Trujillo and look to the Lord for guidance for the future. We are thankful that with this transition “God is doing a new thing”
(Is. 43:19), both in the church and in our personal lives. The last week of March we go to Abbotsford, B.C to attend a meeting of the MBMSI country representatives and to spend our holidays there. Then we come back until the end of October.
(5) Our thanks again to those who prayed for me, Bob, during the long recovery from an operation on a tumor attached to my prostate that turned out to be benign. During that time I dreamt of jogging again and now that has become reality!
In Christ’s Service,
Bob and Erika Sukkau
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