I don’t know if you have heard of “Judgement Journey” in the United States, but it is a wonderful ministry that is part of Faith Baptist Church in LaGrange, GA. God has continued to bless this ministry since it inception in 1997 with over 158,000 visitors and thousands of professions of faith. “Judgement Journey” is a live walkthrough drama featuring the events of the End Times described in the book of Revelation.
God has given us the opportunity to partner up with Faith Baptist Church to bring the first ever live drama to Peru. We are excited about the opportunity of seeing God use this drama here in Arequipa. Many of the churches we work with are taking part and sending actors, helpers and counselors to be a part of this huge event. What can you do?
You can pray for us during the whole time we will be running this program. This drama will be done for three consecutive weekends. We have never done this before, so we are learning as we go along. Here are some things you can pray for:
Unity among our team
Safe travel for the Faith Baptist team
For the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of workers and spectators
Wisdom for counselors
Please pray for this event! We know God can and will change lives if we just give ourselves to His service. I will post pictures up soon
This month has definitely been an extremely busy one. We have had many events and groups. We have also had a huge change in our life. It has been good to see how God has provided in all of the spiritual and physical needs during this month. It is truly amazing to be able to share your own stories of God’s provision.
Chloe Elizabeth Jean Gardner
Praise God that He gave us such a beautiful daughter on July 20th at 2:20am. She weighed six pounds 4 ounces and was born completely healthy. I am so thankful for our beautiful and healthy daughter. Katie started having labor pains on the evening of the 17th and by midnight of the 20th there was little progress in her labor. The Doctor finally decided that we should do a C-Section and go ahead and get it all over with.
Be praying for Katie as she recovers from surgery and is getting used to being a mother. She will be returning to language school very soon and finish the last part of that. Thank you all for your prayers for Katie and the baby. As I stated in other prayer letters, her health situation wasn’t the best and the pregnancy was a high risk pregnancy. We are so thankful he has been so good to us.
12th Annual Youth Conference
This month we had the opportunity of hosting and organizing the 12th annual youth conference here in Arequipa. Many of the churches banded together and contributed their support for the conference. Some churches were in charge of decoration, others of food, lodging, reception, etc. It was a great thing to see how great an event can be when people join together as a team. Our guest speaker was Pastor Jeff Bartell from First Baptist Church of New Philadelphia, OH. It was a truly great time and very biblical preaching. We had people all the way from Chile, Argentina and Bolivia attend this conference.
Please pray for the Pastors Conference that will be held in October. It will be a very similar event, but we will be seeing mostly pastors and church leaders coming from all around the country and continent to be helped and encouraged.
Thank you so much for your prayers for our family and ministry. It is our privilege to represent you and God’s kingdom here in Peru.
For His Glory,
David, Katie and Chloe Gardner
Missionaries in Peru
Macedonia World Baptist Missions
Thank you all for your continued prayer and support while we are here in Peru.
God is continuing to do a work in Arequipa with all of the ministries we are involved in.
Medical Clinic
Once again, we had the opportunity to host a group from Pensacola Christian College here in Arequipa. We held a medical clinic at Omega Baptist Church’s facilities. It was a great time and we were able to see plenty of people with so many needs.
We started on a Monday morning and ended on Friday evening. With a group of 30 volunteers from the U.S., and plenty more translators, counselors and helpers from Peru, we were able to give medical attention to 1800 people. Between the medical attention and receiving their prescriptions, we sent them to counseling where we had the opportunity of sharing the Gospel with them. We thank God that there were almost 700 professions of faith during the week.
I want to ask you to pray that we will be able to send workers from the different churches in Arequipa to meet with these people and follow up with the ones that made professions of faith. We are excited that God allowed us to share the Gospel with so many. But it is our desire to see these people that did accept Christ, receive discipleship and grow into mature Christians. We will be handing out their information to different pastors in the city and hopefully we will see some long lasting fruit from this wonderful event.
Youth Ministry
I wanted to ask you to pray for the youth ministry at Omega Baptist Church. It has become one of the most fruitful and fastest growing ministries in the church. I thank God that He is allowing me to head the ministry up, but feel a great responsibility to help these young people reach spiritual maturity. We are studying through the book of Romans right now and God is blessing tremendously. Please pray for a few things with us:
Spiritual growth
Unity
Growth in numbers (We want to see 100 in attendance by April of 2011)
Chloe’s Arrival
Our daughter, Chloe, will come into this world at any time now! The due date is around the 14th of July. Please pray that the delivery will go well and that the doctors will have the necessary wisdom to handle everything correctly.
Also pray that our support will continue to come in, as I am sure that many expenses will increase once she is here to consume formula and the many diapers that are required!
For His Glory,
David and Katie Gardner
Missionaries to Peru
Macedonia World Baptist Missions
Alex has really come a long way and God has definitely been working in his life in great ways since he accepted Christ last year. I thank God for giving me such an awesome privilege of having a part of seeing him grow and also being able to baptize him. Please pray for him as he is growing and starting to bring many of his friends along with him.
this is the second baptism in the church, but the first baptism in the church building. Everyone was excited to see a young man get saved, discipled and baptized all through the church. I can’t tell you how excited I am to just be a small part of what God is doing. I really am humbled and amazed at all that He is doing through us.
Here is the video. Enjoy!
Well, I didn’t wake up this morning thinking that it was going to be too unusual, but it turned out to be quite out of the ordinary. I have been asking God to provide a vehicle in some way before Chloe came along. I didn’t really know how he would do it or, get this, even if he would do it. After a few months of waiting and praying, an awesome opportunity presented itself today. A friend of a friend was needing to sell his car for financial purposes, but also wanted a small motorcycle, which I had. After some conversation and negotiations I handed him my motorcycle as part of the payment and I will continue monthly payments to him for about a year.
I know it doesn’t sound like that awesome of a deal, but paying for a car every month is unheard of here. With anyone else I would have had to pay cash up front for the whole thing, which I could not do. I’m just excited that God has provided something for the three of us to ride in once Chloe arrives.
I just need everyone’s help with the following: A Name! What should I name it? Rico Suave? Grover? Antonio Banderas? Blue Steel?
Send in your comments and we will take a vote on it and see which ones we like or which ones are voted for the most. If I only get one comment, I’m naming it something really stupid, so help!
Philipians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Hands down, the most exciting thing that I have been able to witness and be a part of here in Peru is the transformation of lives! I’ve never seen anything like it and it thrills me!
I was talking to “Chorri” (Alex) today after he had visited one of his lost friends. He explained to me that his friends had asked him about all of this Christian “stuff” that he was doing now and he was able to share a little bit of his testimony with his friends. In the beginning he had mentioned to me several times that he didn’t know what to answer people when they kept bombarding him with so many questions about God, christianity and church. But now, he is able to share, in a very limited way, his testimony!
Later in the evening, he came over to my house and we started going through discipleship. The lesson said to look up a verse in 2 Timothy. All of the sudden I hear Chorri saying it out loud “Galatians, Ephesians, Philipians, Colossians, Thesalonians aaaand Timothy.” He had already memorized a great portion of the books of the Bible without me even telling him to or teaching him!
I have only taught him to “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” and the Holy Spirit has taken care of the rest.
The wonderful thing about a person being saved, is that I don’t have to play the Holy Spirit in his life! I don’t have to tell him what to do or what not to do! I don’t have to make him adjust to my definition of a good Christian! The Holy Spirit works the work!!!! How great is that? All I have to do is teach the word of God, teach him to love God and mentor him in the things of God. I am completely amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s word. I am more convinced now than ever that His word is alive. It IS sharper than any two edged sword.
All of that to say this: Discipler, don’t force your disciple into growing. We would all find it odd to see a three year old toddler walking around in an adult sized suit. Let God perform the good work he begun. Guide them in love, bring them along in the love of their Savior. Christian, let God perform the good work he begun. Stop trying to change yourself. Stop trying to make yourself better. Let Him make you better, let Him change you, let His word penetrate the deepest part of your soul and find everything in you that needs to change, and let Him remove the things that you don’t need, the sins that you hold onto and let it all be replaced with the wonderful, abounding, never ending love of your heavenly Father and THOU SHALT GROW!
One of the most frustrating events that has transpired since arriving here In Peru has not been the language (obviously) or the culture (even though I have had my bit of culture shock) or even the massive groups that come down to Peru with every question under the sun concerning Peru. Where are we going next? As if they would have an idea when I tell them Paucarpata or something. Don’t get me wrong, I love having groups, but it is frustrating to hear those questions 24/7.
The most frustrating time for me has been caused by one person alone. I have stayed awake at night asking myself what I am doing wrong. I find myself constantly praying for this person, asking God to do a work In his life.
If you have seen my Twitter or Facebook status you have seen updates about a young man that accepted Christ a few weeks ago. Sadly, things have taken a turn for the worse with him. He started out very well, reading his Bible, growing, attending church, asking tons of questions and showing fruit of his salvation. But now, things are different. Things started getting busy at work and soccer tournaments started taking up his weekends and he has no time for church, his Bible or most importantly God.
I’ll try to explain what I see in his life in the next few posts, and it might help you see the same happening in someone you know or even yourself. I don’t know what I am doing, but I am asking the Lord for wisdom concerning this situation.
Thanks for reading.
Chris and Andria Gardner are going to be in the States for twenty days in some missions conferences, etc. God is doing a lot of great things here with the new church plant and the Bible College here. He will be in the US from Nov. 4th through the 24th. Here is their schedule:
November 4-Wednesday evening
November 5 Booked
November 8-Sunday AM
November 8 Sunday PM
November 11 Wednesday evening
November 14-17 Booked
November 18 Wednesday evening
November 22 Sunday AM
November 22 Sunday PM
They will also have time on non normal service days to preach or present the work. The Peru Bible College and Omega Baptist Church are very worthy of your support. You will be blessed to hear all that God is doing.
You can contact Chris here: gardner@uttermost.net or by phone @: 770-456-5620
