Mariesa is in Florida

Sunday, Mariesa arrived in the U.S.  This was a quick decision that we felt was necessary.  We are at the very end of the process of having all of our legal papers finished for New Heart Ministries with the state of Florida.  This means we need to open a bank account in the ministry name.  It also means that Mariesa will be doing all the legal book work for the 501c3.  The laws have changed a lot in the 20 years since we first had our own 501c3.  She needed some training and she will be able to receive it while she is in Florida.
We already had a ticket to Florida and we were going to lose it if it was not used.  So the trip there was already paid for.  Someone has generously offered to pay for her trip back so you can see that God has provided for this business trip.  You can still reach Mariesa at her email address as usual.  (lewandmariesadavis@yahoo.com)
Mariesa plans on returning to Arequipa by May 12th.  She hopes to visit our children while she is in the U.S. also, so please keep her in your prayers especially this month as she travels in the U.S.
CEB, the Bible Institute, is going well.  The students are studying hard and finished the class on I and II Corinthians yesterday.  Thank you Pastor Charles Dean for teaching this class.  You did an awesome job and the students and I thank you for all your hard work.  Thursday we start the class of Epistles IV which includes I & II Peter, James and Jude.  The students seem to have a renewed enthusiasm after the evangelism trip to Camana last month.  Please keep them in prayer.

Our second monthly pastor’s meeting went very well.  We had a group of around 30 pastors and a guest speaker. Pastor Jim Andrews from Lima spoke to the pastors and encouraged them to make disciples by using the analogy of planting seeds and then tending the plants so that they would produce fruit.  If you would like to sponsor a pastor for these monthly meetings the cost is $5 per pastor.  You have the opportunity to make a difference in not only a pastors life, but also the life of his congregation. You can contact us for more information on these meetings.

Bless you for your heart for missions,
Lew

Prayer Request

Please pray for Peru today.  This is national elections day.  They are voting for presidental candidates today.  There are 12 candidates running for president.  In order to win, a candidate must achieve a certain percentage.  That means that there will probably be a runoff between the top two candidates after today's voting.  The top two, according to polls are Ollanta - a candidate funded and supported by Chavez of Venzuela and a christian from the PPK party, Kuchinski.  Some polls say that Ollanta may get a high enough percentage in the first round of voting.  This would totally change Peru.  The candidate supported by Chavez in Bolivia was Evo Morales.  After his election, Bolivia's constitution was officially changed and they are now a socialist country and their constitution prevents anyone from going from one area of the country to another for the purpose of evangelizing.
We want to keep Peru open to the Gospel, so we need your help in prayer.   Thank you!!!

We have also had the pleasure of hosting a MMI (Medical Ministry International) team last night.  There are 8 medical missionaries from Canada and the U.S. on this team. They left to work in the Colca Canyon for a week and then three of them will return to stay with us one more night.  If you are interested in joining a MMI team you can contact them online.  Please pray for this team as them minister to medical needs and spiritual needs in the Colca Canyon.

Bless you all,
Lew 

Visitors

Good Morning Everyone,

Thanks everyone for all your prayers.  It has been a challenge financially the last two months but GOD IS GOOD!  Praise God for all His many blessings.  We include you in those blessings because your friendship and love for missions is what makes the difference. 

This week we were surprised by a visit from friends.  Dean Daniels and his wife, Nina, are visiting us for a few days.  They actually leave for Lima this evening.  Some of you may know Dean.  He is a friend who attends Winter Haven Worship Center.  Last year he married a woman from Lima, Peru and has been trying for a year to get her a visa to join him in the U.S.  This week he came to get her, finally.  It took that long for all the paperwork to get approved by the U.S.  Next week they will be home in Florida and celebrating their first anniversary.  Please pray for Dean and Nina as they face the challenges of a culturally blended family.

Please pray for Mariesa also as she faces the challenges of doing the books and all that is involved in having our own separate 501 (c) 3 ministry.  It’s going to take the patience of Job and the help of the Holy Spirit and probably a friend or two with tax knowledge.

Darrell and Donnia of Alexander Ministries have settled in nicely.  They are a blessing on the mission field and God is already using them in tremendous ways.  I am teaching them Spanish 4 mornings a week and they are learning more and more every day.  Can you believe it?  Me teaching Spanish.  Four years ago that would certainly not have been possible.  The only thing I could have taught them was “taco” and “adios”.  Pray for Darrell and Donnia as they adjust to their new home.

Thought you might like this guy that we met yesterday as we were out.  His picture is below.  May God bless each of you.  Lew

Missions Projects 2011-2012

Arequipa, Peru
Dr. Lew & Mariesa Davis
Sponsor a Bible College - $1,570. monthly (or any portion thereof)
We have budgeted a total of $1,570. per month to run the Bible institute in Arequipa. We have 4 regular teachers plus visiting teachers and an administrator. Our biggest expense is rent. (Budget information is available upon request.)

Sponsor a Bible college student - $500. annually
The majority of students are unable to pay for college classes and we must come up with alternate means of funding their tuition. We use tuition work scholarships which helps some students but does not provide funding to run the college. Some students need extra help. If they are from a pueblo away from the city then they must also have funding for living in town. We expect to win the indigenous people most effectively by training them to be the evangelists, teachers, pastors, and missionaries.
College Library - $2,000. (or any portion thereof)
Students at El Centro de Entrenamiento Biblico Internacional need to have access to Bibles, books and study tools in their own language. This will help prepare them for taking the Gospel to the nation of Peru.
Buy a Bible Project - $10. per Bible
This cost includes the shipping (in country) as well as the Bible cost. In some cases the shipping costs can be greater than the cost of the Bible itself. Most new Christians have never owned a Bible. By the time a Christian comes to Bible college he generally has a New Testament but has never had a copy of the complete Bible. Every student needs a complete Bible. $10. provides a study Bible for students.
This project is also designed to make Christian material available for the community of Arequipa and the pueblos in which we minister. There is a lot of good material in Spanish but most people are too poor to afford to purchase even a Bible. About one third of the population speaks Quechua as their native language. Bibles are available in Quechua but rarely can these poor indigenous people afford to purchase one.
Buy a Cuy or Chicken Project - $15 per pair
Cuy is one of the major sources of protein for the indigenous Quechua. You can purchase a breeding pair for a family or the orphanage. Cuy (Guinea Pigs) breed rapidly and one pair is a tremendous blessing for anyone who receives them. Chickens also provide eggs as well as meat.
Feed a child project - $5. per child per week
The town of Arequipa has a population of 1 million inhabitants but around the city in poor pueblos are about 300,000 poor people living in terrible conditions with no electricity, no indoor bathrooms and no running water. We work with two excellent feeding programs. Children are fed and presented the Gospel in these poor pueblos. They receive fresh fruit, oatmeal and other nutritious items that they would never receive otherwise. For a small price we can provide meals for these children and insure that they don’t have to go hungry just because their parents are unable to provide for them.
Evangelism trips - $350. per trip
There are hundreds of indigenous villages in the mountains around Arequipa. Many of these pueblos have not had the opportunity to hear the Gospel message. They vary in distance from less than an hour away to 3 long days up into the mountains. Many pueblos can only be reached by walking for hours or riding donkeys. These are not easy trips and neither are they inexpensive. One must rent a vehicle (at $100 per day) and donkeys, hire a driver and guide, provide food and water for the team, and provide gifts for the leader of the village. But regardless of the expense, each soul won to the Lord makes it worth the arduous journey as well as any expense.
Sponsor a child in an orphanage - $75. per child monthly
We work with two Christian orphanages which need help providing for the children. The government does not provide funding for non-Catholic orphanages. In Peru every child must provide their own school supplies, textbooks, transportation and uniforms. This can cost hundreds of dollars so sponsorship helps make it possible for them to attend school as well as provide the necessities of daily life.
Help sponsor The Center in Bolivia - $500. per month
The Center includes a Bible Institute, indigenous outreach programs, weekly youth and children ministries as well as daily after school programs. This project is now run by a Bolivian national couple, Deysi and Franz Caprilles, who are full-time missionaries and field associates with Missionary Ventures.
Mission Vehicle Project - $9,500. (approx.)
We need transportation. A van would be very helpful for both the college and to transport teams. Local van transportation costs $50 per day to rent and is often unreliable. A vehicle will increase our opportunities to minister especially in more remote areas. There are some areas in which we minister where taxis are unavailable at times especially in the evenings. Not having a vehicle limits our ability to minister in these remote areas.
Help build a Christian School - $100. (buys 15 bags of concrete)
Pastor Mitacc, one of the local ministers with whom we partner, is building an elementary school in one of the poorest areas of Arequipa but he needs your help His kindergarten has been a wonderful blessing to the community and he would like to expand the school to include all the elementary grades. This will make it possible for many children to receive a Christian education who normally would be unable to attend any school. Children who go through his kindergarten are at the top of their classes when they enter elementary school.
Help build a church for the Quechua - $5,000. (or any portion thereof)
This project located in Peruarbo is a ministry to the indigenous Quechua (descendants of the Inca). A national pastor/missionary runs a feeding center as well as a church and youth ministry in one of the poorest areas on the outskirts of Arequipa, Peru. They need property and a building in which to meet.
Sponsor a Pastor - $5 per month per pastor
This project makes it possible to continue pastor’s meetings in the city of Arequipa. About 100 pastors meet every month to pray, fellowship and learn. For the price of a Big Mac you can make it possible for a pastor or his wife to attend these meetings and get refreshed.

Mariesa’s Trip to Puerto Maldanado

Well, I (Mariesa) finally (sort of) figured out how this blog thing works.  Lew has been asking me to update you on my trip to Puerto Maldonado since I got back and I finally figured out how, so here goes.

     We left Arequipa in the Medical Ministry International van around 6:30 pm.  Among us (4) we had a box of cookies, water enough for all of us, 3 pieces of fruit and 6 sandwiches.  It had been raining here in Peru for the past 2 1/2 months and many of the rivers were swollen and flooded.  Roads had been washed away and we arrived in a small pueblo where we were informed the bridge on the main highway to Puerto Maldonado had been washed away.  We had come too far to turn back, so we followed the directions of one of the local people to a back road they said was still open.  Well, yes, it was open, if you didn’t mind rock slides, crossing raging rivers without a bridge (yes, we drove through them) and with no hotels or restaurants at which to stop.  We had to stop several times and wait for the heavy machinery to come and clear the rocks, fallen trees and debris from the road.  In one place they were building a bridge across the river but had not finished it yet.  In the photo you can see where a truck has gone to the bottom of the hill and is plunging through the river to go up the hill on the other side.  Yes, we crossed that too, in the van.  I want to thank you all for your prayers, as I believe we would never have made it through some of those rivers without those prayers.  Yes, that picture of the river behind our driver (Vicente, my hero) we had just driven through.

After 22 hours of driving we finally arrived at Sue and Jim Brannen’s house where we ate, showered and fell into bed.  The next day we began the preparations for the mission trip in May.  We met with pastors, presidents of associations, health care personnel and missionaries in order to set up for the medical clinics which will run for two weeks.  Doctors, nurses, dentists and missionaries will converge on Puerto Maldonado along with local pastors who will do follow up work after the evangelism thrust.  We are believing the Lord for many souls to be saved and many medical and dental issues to be resolved as a result of this campaign in May.  Please join us in prayer for the people of Puerto Maldonado who need Jesus in a big way.

When I called Lew to tell him we had safely arrived in Puerto Maldonado, I must have sounded really exhausted as he suggested I fly home rather than coming back with the young folks in the van.  It was an awesome adventure for this adrenalin junkie missionary, but this time, I readily agreed.  I guess it’s time for me to leave the rough stuff to the young’ens.  I must admit, however, that it was an amazing time and one I will never forget.  Like the jungle?  Email us for information on this team, or another one soon.  All for Jesus!!!

Evangelism Trip to Camana

Dear Partners,

Thank you so much for the prayers for Camana.  The trip was a great success.  I had three main goals when I planned the trip with students in the Bible Institute.   I wanted to win souls for God’s kingdom.   I desired the students to get some experience in door to door evangelism and support three churches in their efforts to evangelize and the third reason was to encourage three pastors in Camana.

Students gathe

red at the Bible Institute (CEB) Friday afternoon at 4:00 to start the trip.  Everyone was on time

Children with their first Bible

except one student who was delayed at work.  By the time he arrived twenty minutes late, everyone was excited to depart Arequipa for Camana.  The three hour drive across the Andes desert mountains was exciting for those who had never made the trip.  For me it was just scary but God is giving me grace for these trips.  Darrell Alexander and I had a good time talking and getting to know each other a little better.

By the time we arrived in Camana, it was nearly 8:00 p.m.  We unloaded the bus and walked with the students to our motel which was just two blocks away.  When we got to the motel one of the students asked, “Where is Ismael?”  We looked around and realized one of the students was missing.  We went back to the bus and no one was there.  We went down each of the streets nearby and did not find him.  After about thirty minutes of frantic searching and wondering how in the world we could lose someone in just two blocks, he drove up in a taxi.  Ismael explained what happened and we all had a good laugh and teased him about being a lost sheep.  He had told his wife that we would arrive in Camana by 7:00.  We were about an hour late and he knew she would be worried so as soon as he got off the bus he stopped to make a phone call to his wife.  No one noticed that he was not with the group as we turned the corner headed to the motel.  He did not see us turn the corner so we were separated.  Ismael knew we were going to a church after leaving our suitcases in the hotel so he took a taxi and headed to the nearest church.  After visiting three churches and finding no one, he returned to the spot where we originally unloaded from the bus and it’s there we found him getting out of the taxi.  The lost sheep had been found and now the parable of the lost sheep has a different meaning for all of us.

We ate dinner at one of the churches involved in the weekend evangelism and all the students introduced themselves and gave a short testimony.  After the evening activities we went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.  The next morning we were up early to pray before knocking on doors.  The students were split into two groups.  One group went to one neighborhood and the other group visited two different neighborhoods.  I was so proud as I watched the students boldly presenting the Gospel message to every person they came in contact with as the walked down the dusty roads.  We knocked on every door and explained God’s love to everyone who answered a door or even if they only came to the window.  We left tracts at every house where no one was home.  We gave over two hundred Bibles during the weekend.  We saw souls won to the Lord including our bus driver and his son.  You should have seen the change on their faces after they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior!  Everyone was exhausted by noon. (The sun can be unmerciful here.)  We had a wonderful lunch of Chupe de Camarones.  That’s a big bowl of river shrimp  and vegetables  cooked into a soup with a special spice.  (They look more like crayfish to me.) This is a very typical dish in Peru.  After the Chupe, they brought out the main dish of fried fish, rice and salad.

In the evening we had an open air meeting at the main plaza near one of the churches.  We went around the neighborhood inviting everyone to attend.  We had a good crowd as we sang, did skits, had two clowns for the children, gave testimonies, preached and gave an invitation for salvation.  I believe we left the plaza about 10:00 p.m. to eat a light dinner then drove back to the motel tired but excited about all that God had done during the day.

The next morning after a breakfast of fried shrimp, bread and cheese, we attended church service at one of the local churches.  One group of students worked with the children while the other worked with the adults in the regular service.  I was privileged to deliver the message and I talked about how a Christian should look and behave.  The basic message was how to live in such a way that we will be a reflection of Jesus in our daily life.  After church we gave out more Bibles and tracts and encouraged the congregation to be witnesses to all of their neighbors.  During the weekend we gave out more than 3000 tracts.

We arrived back home in Arequipa about 6:oo p.m. on Sunday night exhausted but content.  Upon evaluating the trip, I asked myself if it was worth the expense involved.  It was a fairly expensive endeavor.  Each student gave a short testimony on what the trip meant to them personally.  After hearing their comments I was assured that it definitely was worth the cost.  Of all the students, only one had ever done any door to door witnessing in their whole life and she had only done it when she was 13 years old.  Since then she said she had been too shy and scared to do it again.  Some said it was the first time they had ever talked to anyone about becoming a Christian.  Their tears as they shared said a lot.  The experience gave them confidence and opened a whole new world in their walk with God.   We used two methods of evangelism that the students studied at the Bible institute (CEB).  The Roman Road to Salvation and the Color Method of the Salvation message.  The students studied the methods in the school and then as they used the methods, they put into practice what they were learning.  With the help of the Holy Spirit I saw all of them blossom with boldness.  We didn’t win thousands to the Lord during the weekend but we did win some.  The ones that excited me most was our bus driver and his son.  We have known Roberto since we arrived in Peru.  We have always used his service when we needed a bus for our teams.  We have been gently working on him for over two years.  Praise the Lord!  He finally made his decision for the Lord along with his son during the weekend.  As he stood and told what the weekend meant to him, I couldn’t help but have tears in my own eyes.  

The pastors we visited were so animated by the end of the week.  I believed we infused them with encouragement.  They were all begging us to return soon.  We also met others who want to have us come to their areas and help evangelize.  One man who works in a more remote pueblo begged us to come there and teach because they have no pastors and no one to teach them about Jesus.  Hopefully, some of the students will catch the vision of serving in the more remote pueblos in Peru also.  We will be praying about visiting many places during this year but one thing we have found is that the weekend trips are expensive because of the cost of travel and the food and hotel expenses.  We need your help.  As you pray that God will send workers to the harvest, please also pray that those with the means to help will give financially toward these projects.  It takes all of us together to win people to the Lord.  Every person here in Peru who accepts the Lord has you to thank also for your part in this ministry.  You will reap the same rewards as we who are on the field doing the actual ground work.  May God bless you as you continue to pray and support the mission work in Peru!

You are a blessing,

Lew