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A Camp for Peru from Rebecca Pettit on Vimeo. October Camp Events In October, we ran two all-day camp events for youth here in Lima. Between the two events, we had over 275 young people participate. Segundo Rodriguez preached for the teen event, and I preached for the older-youth event. There were some great spiritual decisions made at both events. We are now taking a look at what camp programs we want to add for next year. Those include a couple’s retreat and a youth retreat along with the regular youth camp we’ve run for several years now. We want to keep adding camp-type programs each year. When the Lord provides us with our own camp property, we should be in position, Lord willing, to keep right on increasing the programs we can offer for churches. Camp Property Status As far as camp property is concerned, we continue to receive offerings toward the purchase of the property. What we have received so far is not enough for us to make an offer on the piece of property that we would love to have. I’m continuing to pursue options which include other property possibilities as well as communication with potential donors. We recognize that God is in this project, and we will continue to work at it and wait on Him until He makes it possible for us to operate on our own site. Camp Scholarships Last year, in one of our updates, I mentioned that we’d like to have camp scholarships available for unsaved campers to be able to go to our youth camp in February. We received the funds to cover 40 scholarships ($30/each) and we ended up using 30 of those. Of those 30 unsaved young people that came to camp because of the scholarships, almost half of them made salvation decisions during the week. For the camp this February, we’d like to do the same thing. We have the funds available for 10 scholarships, and I believe we could use between 30 and 40 total scholarships for this camp. If you’d like to participate in this way, the instructions for how to give are included below. $30 will cover the cost of camp for one unsaved camper.
Anytime a person does missionary work, it must fit with what God is already doing in that place. In Peru, God has raised up over 1,000 independent Baptist churches. As new churches are started each year, the majority of that work is now being done by Peruvians. As we step into the big picture of what God is doing in Peru, we see that the country is ready for the ministry of a New Testament evangelist. I know of only one full-time evangelist currently ministering in Peru, my friend, Segundo Rodriguez. Evangelistic Meetings I plan to begin preaching evangelistic meetings for local churches as soon as God gives us opportunity. I am committed to local church ministry and I believe that local church evangelistic and revival meetings are an important part of a church's spiritual growth and well-being. The encouragement this can be to the Peruvian pastors is tremendous. The addition of new converts and the revival of believers is our goal as we seek for long-term fruit in the churches in Latin America. Church Planting As a New Testament evangelist, I plan for our family to be very involved in starting churches. Our plan is to connect with Latin American men who desire to start churches and pastor those churches. I envision our setting aside up to two months, going into the area where the church will be located, and directing evangelistic crusades and personal evangelism until a small group of believers has been gathered. We will then begin some basic discipleship with those new converts. By the time we leave, the new pastor has a group of believers to continue discipling, and he has hundreds of contacts to work with. Camp Ministry Cheryl and I have been involved with camp ministry for many years. We have a great desire to be involved with camp ministry in Peru as the Lord opens that door for us. There are several good camps that are running in Peru right now. I would like to preach in camps during the summers. I would also love to be involved with an individual camp some day helping the camp take steps in the areas of program and facilities. City-wide Meetings The Lord has already given us the opportunity to do a successful city-wide meeting. There are 15 fundamental Baptist churches in the city of Sullana. By the end of the week most of them were participating with us. We met in an outdoor arena. We finished the week with over 800 people in attendance the final night. There were over 60 adults that made salvation decisions during the meetings. The greatest blessing and confirmation of God's working was to see several of those who professed salvation during the meetings in attendance at the churches I visited the following Sunday. I believe God will open the door for us again to be involved with city-wide evangelistic meetings. Discipleship I have a burden to have young people travel with us in ministry. There is a great Bible college operating in Trujillo, Peru, and I have a good relationship with the leadership there. I believe God will work it out for us to have young people from the Bible college travel with us and participate in our evangelistic meetings. Besides my father, my greatest influence has been Evangelist Steve Pettit. It was his influence on me during the years that I traveled with him that God used in a great way to change me and give me spiritual direction. I would love for God to use me in that same way to help other young people. |