December 8, 2006

Dear Friends,

Anita and I hope all of you are enjoying the blessings of the Lord in your lives.

November was a month of blessing for the ministry here in Peru. I helped with the organization of the mission work in Chillan (about two hours from Huánuco). This work had been a mission for twenty-three years! It is in a very small community supported mainly by growing coffee. The Lord has blessed this small work with a fine young man as pastor, Jose Berrocal. He has shown a genuine calling to the ministry and will probably be ordained sometime next year. We appreciate your prayers for him, his wife and two babies.

As many of you know I do a lot of one-on-one counseling here in Huánuco. I firmly believe in the power of the God the Holy Spirit to heal broken lives and hearts, oppressed spirits, and wounded souls. However, in some cases people suffer from organic problems or medical maladies, and sometimes these are triggered by traumatic emotional experiences. Such is the case of a fifteen year old young man here in Huánuco. He has been diagnosed with passive schizophrenia. He dialogues with imaginary voices and goes in and out of deep depression. There is a history of this with male members of his family tree. He has started taking medication for his symptoms, and they are helping, but his main problem is still spiritual due to a traumatic experience in his life a few years ago. He trusted Christ as his Savior at the age of nine but was traumatized three years later. Please pray with me for Deivis, that God will restore this young man to a victorious life in Jesus. Anita and I have seen the power of the Lord miraculously change so many lives over the past several years. Thanks for your prayers.

On a personal note, we were able to spend several days in Lima (the Capital of Peru) with Jason and Rebecca Reinhardt and the twins, Kathy and Carol. Anita and I had custody of the twins for seven months in 2005 until the Lord provided Jason and Rebecca (a young couple) to be their parents. We went to the zoo one day and had a great time. They are now two years old and four months, jabbering all the time and very, very, happy. What a blessing it was for us to see how they have grown and matured. What a blessing it is to see how much they are loved by this fine young missionary couple. Anita and I are now as adopted grandparents (Papaw and Nene). Though seeing the girls was our motive for traveling, Anita wound up in the dentist chair most of the week with some very unexpected (and expensive) dental work! But we praise the Lord that her dental problems were discovered in time and corrected! HE is so good!

We hope all of you have a very blessed and happy holiday season this year! May the Lord continue to bless each and every one of you as you remain faithful to HIM.

Serving Jesus in Peru,

Sheridan and Anita Stanton