Deep Waters

What does it mean to be fishers of men? This is the question that over 200 Peruvian children learned to answer during our annual Short Term Mission Trip (STMT). Based upon the passage in Matthew 4:19, our mission team spent a week visiting churches in Lima and Iquitos, Peru to share the love and calling of Christ with our COJ children.

Fishing for men means bringing people to Christ. Through our VBS program this year, the STMT team highlighted the importance of praying for and reaching out to those in need of hearing the gospel of Jesus. This year’s VBS program included a time of small groups where missionaries were able to lead smaller groups of children, spending the entire day with them and guiding them through the program. This change really allowed leaders to connect with the children they ministered to, diving deeper into their personal lives and giving them more opportunities to share who in their lives was on their hearts and needed Jesus. Whether it was small group, worship, crafts, or even games, each activity was an opportunity to remind these children of the importance of sharing the gospel with the lost.

More than the mission team’s impact on these children, though, was the heart of serving that was placed upon our team members. For many of them, it was their first ever mission trip or their first time in several years. Countless testimonies were shared of how God used this trip to reveal His heart for the lost and how it inspired them to continue seeking God’s will and how He plans to use them for His glory. One brother was even convicted to the point of asking to stay an extra week in order to serve at the ABBA Conference. This testimony reminds all of us that God doesn’t just use us to bless others when we serve. He also teaches and grows us at the same time. 

Though our time in Peru may have been short, we return with full confidence in the work that God has started in these children. We hope that you will continue to join us in prayer as we lift up all those we have met in Iquitos so that they would be used by God to continue sharing the gospel. We pray that God raises up more and more true fishers of men!