Leaving for Peru on Sat

In just a couple more days I head out for Peru again. As I explained in a previous post, we are even more committed now than ever to planting churches in the Yacus Valley, and are going to be going back there more regularly. I am taking our Associational Missionary, Craig Nalls, with me on this trip, hopefully in preparation for future trips. And several of you pastors who read this blog, should prepare to go with us in March or July of 2010.

But I want to fill you in on my agenda while I am there next week so that you can pray.

1. As I alluded to, one of my goals on the next several trips is to train others who may take trips down to Peru. So I want to carve out a place for Peru in Craig's heart. That will be my goal for all of you leaders who go with me over the next few trips.
2. The first of my main two goals for going back so soon is to check on our prospects. Miguel has been meeting with a group in Julcan and a group in Molinos. I need to discern whether or not these are true believers, or just seekers. We need to get the church meeting together regularly. I am going to spend some time with them strengthening them in the faith, and casting the vision for a church in Julcan, and Molinos, and Masma, that will help foster the church planting movement that we want to see there.
3. Secondly, I want to spend a lot of time with Miguel and Sergio, our disciple-makers. I want to inflame their passion for Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom there. I want to cast the vision of their crucial role in the planting of churches, and the reaching of the Yacus and Yanamarca Valleys. I want to train them in disciple-making, and leadership development, and church planting strategy; as well as the reality of what constitutes a church, and what it looks like there.
4. Also, I want to meet with the mayors of the towns and work with them about our upcoming trips in March and July. I want to try to discern the needs that we can meet, and figure out all the logistics for coming there again. We want to maintain a good relationship with them.
5. Finally, we are going to get to meet our partner pastor Scott Dollar of A Place Called Hope Church in Lethbridge, Alberta, CAN. He is going to be there this week as well. I have only met him on the phone and through email and Facebook. And although the parameters of our partnership have changed somewhat in the last year or so, together we are still committed to ensuring that churches get planted in the Yacus and Yanamarca Valleys, because our home base while in country is the same town of Jauja. He will be working mostly in Acolla and the area to the north of Jauja, and we will be laboring in Julcan and the area east of Jauja. But we will be helping each other where we can while in country on future mission trips.

So pray:

• for the hand of God upon us and our work, we are desperate for Him
• for our eyes to be open, and hearts to be sensitive to what God is doing there
• for His church to be already there, or first established
• for us to stand firm in His strength against the attacks of the enemy
  
• for safe travel and good health, we leave Sat 14th, return on Fri 20th
  
• for our families at home
  
• for favor in the eyes of the mayors
• for success in vision-casting and training, and God to fire up our disciplers
• for growth in Christ for our groups of believers
• for proper planning for the future
• for lost to be reached for Christ
• and most importantly for God to be glorified in all things

Thanks for your faithfulness to read and pray! Through your help in the trenches of prayer, the muscles of omnipotence will move, and Christ will establish His church as an outpost in the vast darkness that blinds so many in the Peruvian Andes!