December 3, 2007

Dear friends,

November was a great month of blessing for Anita and me here in Peru, South America. The Holy Spirit manifested His presence and power during the month during three different weekend meetings that I was privileged to preach. As I looked over my records yesterday, I calculated that during the month we saw: 1) five souls saved; 2) three men manifesting God's call to preach the Gospel in full-time ministry; 3) nine asking for baptism; and 4) 98 saints repenting of sin or consecrating their lives to better serve the Lord (two of these were preachers). Yes, it was a very good month! To God be the glory!

From the 15th-18th of November, I was with Pastor Jorge Dianderas and the Iglesia Bautista Jordan in the Capital city of Lima. Anita and I helped start that work fifteen years ago. They now put up a tent in the street in front of the church to hold the overflow crowd. The men have gotten quite good at putting the tent up before services and taking it down after each service. They leave enough room for a car to get by, so the neighbors don't complain. Can you imagine being allowed in the United States to set up a tent halfway out into the road in front of your church building? Lima is located on the Pacific coast and has a population of about nine million inhabitants. Jordan Baptist certainly has their work cut out for them!

The weekend of 23-25 November, I had the privilege of being with pastor/missionary Alberto Fabian at the Mision Bautista Sion de Tingo Maria. We had a great three days with the saints there and all of the preaching was broadcast live over the radio. Their radio signal reaches other towns and villages within a fifty mile radius of the hot and humid jungle town of Tingo Maria. The Lord really blessed our time with Alberto and his wife, Soccoro. I believe we left them a bit more encouraged than they were. They have been dealing with some tough emotional trials in their lives due to some serious rebellion against them by their oldest son. Please remember Alberto Fabian and his wife Soccoro, in your prayers that God will give them strength of faith and comfort to their hearts.

Friday night the 30th of November, I traveled down to the jungle village of Quezada, where missionary Roosevelt Hermitano is the pastor of the Mision Bautista Hebron. The purpose of this meeting was to help them in the dedication of their new building. Several month ago, a few churches in the States helped us by sending donations for them to be able to buy the property. Since the purchase of the property, they have been very diligent in remodeling the place as a suitable meeting house for the church. They have done a magnificent job and the building was freshly painted with a nice sign on the front. On Saturday, December 1, we had the dedication service with overflow crowds there, mainly from visiting churches that had been invited to attend. Quezada is a small village alongside the central highway route to Tingo Maria.

Our Bible and Literacy classes are going very well. The other national missionaries around Peru have also reported good services during the month of November with souls trusting Christ as their Saviour and more being baptized. I would like to give a special thanks to the Hardman Fork Baptist Church in West Virginia for their donation toward the purchase of the land in Oxapampa, Peru. We still need $7,500.00 more to be able to buy the property there. Oxapampa is where pastor/missionary Carlos Gonzales and his family started a new work last year. The work has grown and they are renting a building for services. This place is frequently full and the work needs a building of its own. We still pray that some of you might take this on as a mission project for your church. Carlos has been a faithful servant of the Lord for over twenty years in Peru and the Lord has used him to start three churches in that time. He has been down recently since his wife, Maria, passed away at the end of August. Please pray about helping this work with the purchase of the property they desperately need and please pray for Carlos as he seeks to continue on without his wife.

Anita and I will be coming to the States on a six-month furlough beginning the end of January until the middle of July. If any of you have special conferences you would like us to participate in, please let us know as soon as possible so we can work it into our schedule. Our purpose for furlough is to return to the States and give a personal report of the mission work here in Peru to our supporting churches and friends. Several dates have already been taken, so contact us soon. I have already agreed to a few three-day Revival meetings and Anita is available to speak to women's groups, etc. We are your servants for the cause of Christ Jesus. Hope to hear from you soon. May all of you have a blessed Holiday Season, filled with God's blessings in your lives.

Your servants in Peru,

Sheridan and Anita Stanton