In August, the 2023 mission trip team returned from 14 days of seeing God work in the Satipo and Huancayo areas of Peru. While many songs were sung, dances danced, and Bible stories taught, there was a story of a young girl and her family that captured the hearts of the missionaries. Araceli, a six-year-old girl living in Satipo, had lost her mother during the pandemic. Her family was forever changed. Their father, Mario, fell into a deep depression. Their oldest sister, Susaly, took over caring for her siblings while their father was far away for work. In their small rented shed behind the Satipo church, they shared a room on some old mattresses. It was during the mission trip that Mario accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, answering his daughters’ and their mother’s desperate prayers. Araceli’s story touched the heart of a sponsor who wanted to help Araceli and her family. Last month, Araceli and her family were added to our Eagle’s Nest program where they will receive monthly aid to help supply their family with food and school supplies. Susaly will also receive enough support to resume her college degree. Also, one of the first things Araceli and her family received was new mattresses. God is so good! We continually pray for hundreds of families like Araceli to experience the love of our amazing God.

This year, the Holy Spirit convicted our hearts with the theme from Isaiah 54, “Expect Great Things!” As we embarked on our short term mission trip [STMT] to Peru, we were excited to see what God had in store for us. The missionaries visited 4 COJ churches and directed a 2-day VBS for a total of 200 COJ children. The first 3 churches were in Huancayo, a city in the Andes mountain at an altitude of 11,000 ft, and the last church was located in Satipo, a tropical city in the Amazon rainforest. During the 2-day VBS, we shared 4 main themes with the children, one being that God restores our broken hearts. Miraculously, on our last day, that theme came to fruition. This is the story of Araceli. She’s 6-years-old, and she loves to dance and sing praises. To our sadness, we found out that her mother passed away from COVID. As a result, her oldest sister named Susaly takes care of the family when the father is away from home. Their father works as a farmer so he leaves the home before the girls are awake, and comes home late sometimes if there is work. They live in a rented shed behind the church in Satipo (“Castillo Fuerte”). While our mission team was doing VBS, somehow Araceli’s father stayed home that day. A few of the missionaries, along with the pastor, visited his home. It was evident that he was still grieving the loss of his beloved wife, and he didn’t understand why she was taken away so early. However, when the missionaries shared the gospel, the Holy Spirit touched his heart, and he received Jesus as his Lord and Savior. From that moment on, his face lit up, and he was filled with the joy and peace of Christ. God restored his broken heart and gave him a new hope. Immediately afterwards, he came out and served the church and the missionaries by cleaning, preparing coconut water, and helping out wherever he could. When we shared this good news with his children, Yuvaly, the second oldest daughter started to weep. This was the prayer that she had been waiting for to be answered. And God finally answered. As the Lord uses us to continue to support little Araceli and her family while on this earth, this family now has the hope of once again reuniting with their beloved mother in heaven, to praise the Lord day and night, forever and ever. It is our prayer that we will continue to witness and testify of God’s amazing goodness and grace to the ends of the earth.

UPDATE (11/10/2020): Last month, we shared a story about a family who faced the tragic loss of their beloved husband and father. Just a couple weeks later, we received love offerings from sponsors whose hearts were touched by God to respond to the need of this family – God is faithful! The mother, Sister Beatriz, was able to repay the loan that was taken out for her husband’s funeral expenses and bought some clothes and a chicken and two lambs for her children. By God’s grace, her health has also been recovering. The children dearly miss their earthly father, but we trust the faith they have that their Heavenly Father is always watching over them has grown through the expression and gift of love from their sponsors in Christ!

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