Just as all good things must come to an end, a great summer has just come to a close.  As I attempt to switch gears back to college life, I would like to take a moment to share with you what God is doing in South Peru.

When my summer started 3 months ago I was a scared 20 year old with halting Spanish headed south to try and encourage some missionaries with out being a burden.   I came home with much better Spanish and a heart to return to a people that I have grown to love.  I had opportunities to minister in music with the church choir and children’s classes.  I was able to teach Sunday School and children’s classes during a campaign we ran in Puno.  I encouraged the Tuttle family by pitching in with shopping, cooking, laundry, home schooling and babysitting. I made lots of friends with nationals in the church and found that leaving them was even more difficult than leaving home.

God blessed our travels to the jungle of Quillabamba for a crusade that saw over 100 saved. Our next trip was to the campo of Santo Tomas to encourage the Loveall family.  There we were able to help cut some trees for firewood.  Andy preached 3 nights and saw 2 saved while 4 received assurance of salvation.  Another trip took us and 15 seminary students to Puno to celebrate a church’s anniversary.  When someone preached in Spanish we saw no response.  When we used a translator (one of the seminary students was from that region) to preach in the local language of Aymata we saw more than 100 saved.  In that region there are about 120 churches that someone started and left.  They aren’t sure what they believe but want to be Baptist. Bob Whatley is starting a seminary in Chaqachaqa.  In the first class of 16 students, mostly pastors, 14 were saved.  God is working!  We traveled again to the campo pueblo of Tocoqori to take believers to a convention for a church’s 25^th anniversary.  Tocoqori has become a Jerusalem, a sending point for people to spread the gospel.  I was able to spend time working along side veteran missionaries Andy and Debbi Tuttle and Ken Loveall.  I was also able to meet other missionaries: the Loveall family, the Muth Family, and several Whatleys. 

This summer God taught me to keep looking to him for the next step.  He also showed me not to get anxious about it.  My verse for the summer was Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.”   I have enclosed a coin from Peru.  Just as the woman who had found her lost coin called others to rejoice, I call you to rejoice over the hundreds that God chose to save this summer in Peru.  May this coin remind you of the need for others to be found.

Chaw (Chow) for now.  Please pray for me as I finish my last year of college and seek God’s will for next summer and life.  “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:  The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

Consumed for Christ, Committed to Christ, Contagious about Christ,

Rachel Tarvin