September 1, 2003

Dear friends,

All good news for the month of August! My wife, Anita, saw the doctor (about the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in her hands) while in the States during the month and he said that she can wait to be operated on until March when we return to the States for a short furlough. He gave her some cortisone shots to help her until March. We thank you for your prayers for her during this time.

We just finished three days of special services here in Huanuco and the Lord blessed with several souls saved, two coming to the church by letter, and I baptized four on the last night, Sunday 31! The church here is doing very well and we seem to be in a season of numerical growth as well as spiritual. We praise the Lord for his many blessings.

Our mission work in Huariaca had special evangelistic services also during the month and the Lord blessed the folks up there with five trusting Christ as their savior. The young pastor there, Jonel Quijano, and his wife, Yudy, are doing a great job. The folks there have come to accept and love them as their pastor.

The mission work in Chasqui is back on track. I reported last month about our losing the worker there. Another man of our church, Teodosio Valverde, has felt led of the Lord to go and teach and love those folks. At present he is traveling back and forth each week-end. We hope soon he and his wife will be able to move up there and live and work among the village residents. He is an elderly man and has had some minor health problems, but the church feels that if he is willing to go, God will protect and provide the needs. Please pray for Teodosio and his wife, Eugenia.

While Anita was in the States I traveled out to the Central Jungle town of Pucallpa for the annual Thanksgiving Conference. There was a very good spirit among the brethren present, although the conference was not very well attended this year. The teacher strike that caused so much "unrest" in the country a few months ago, has caused the school vacation schedules to be changed this year. This was the reason that so many could not attend the conference because the schools were still in session.

Last year, Anita met a lady and her twelve year old daughter on an airplane flying from Huanuco to Lima. The young girl was going into Lima for medical treatment. Anita helped them out and asked that when they returned to Huanuco to please come by our home so we could see how the girl was doing. Months went by and we never heard from them and thought we never would. Then one day the doorbell rang and there they were. They had been in Lima, in the hospital for four months. The mother slept in a chair beside her daughter for all that time. They started coming to church and Anita began working with them about their need to know the Lord. In a short time both the mother, Sony, and her daughter, Judith, had trusted Christ as their Savior. Sony brought all her children to church each week and her husband, Dyer, even began to come. The first several weeks that Dyer came he reeked of alcohol! He stayed drunk about all the time and kept the home in a constant state of fear. But the Lord worked on him and he stopped drinking. Sony told us the change in the house was a miracle. Two weeks ago Dyer came forward publicly accepting Christ as his Savior and he was one of the four I baptized Sunday night! Isn't the Lord wonderful? He is still changing lives and restoring homes and marriages. Praise His name. Until next month.

Serving Jesus in Peru,

Sheridan and Anita Stanton