Ruth's Progress

Ruth is very faithful in doing her workouts all throughout the day. Her therapy is demanding, but Ruth does well and it has paid off. She has recovered most of the motion in her right arm and shoulder. Now she has to work on regaining strength in it. The lady in the picture below is Elizabeth, who worked closely with Ruth in therapy.
Ruth and Elizabeth

She really knows her stuff and has done an excellent job. Notice in the picture how high Ruth can raise her arm. Before the surgery, she could barely raise it to her waist. We praise the Lord for His healing.

The Group Near the Radio Plant

We started having church services on Sunday afternoon in the home of Luz. Luz is our first convert who lives across the street from the radio plant. She has stayed firm in her decision to follow Christ and is such a blessing to us. Sadly, her children are not interested in the gospel. We now have a small group that is coming fairly regular now. There are five adults plus Ruth and I.
The five who are attending our church services on Sunday afternoon.

Ruth and I also have a children’s club on Sunday afternoon. One sweet little girl named Betsaí attends the Bible club faithfully. It is our prayer that we can reach her heart for Jesus. This would be a thrill to lead this little girl to Christ. Ruth and I love her to pieces.
Luz is on the left and Betsaí in the middle with Ruth.

First Steps of Church Planting

Almost every day, we thank the Lord for Jorge Avila. He is the caretaker and all-around handy man for our radio station. The Lord definitely guided us in choosing him. He is an electrician, carpenter, plumber and general repairman. Jorge is such a blessing to us. He has built a workshop at the radio plant.

Jorge with Bro. Peters from Baptist Mid-Missions in the work shop at our radio plant.

We have two containers. One houses the computer room and transmission equipment. The other is the tool shed and living quarters for Jorge. On Saturdays and Sundays, I go out to replace Jorge so he can be with his family and attend church. While I am there, I evangelize and visit people in the area as much as I can. I cannot go far because I have to watch our equipment. Before surgery, Ruth came out on Sundays to join me. She will soon be well enough to join me like before.

Jorge and I in the living quarters of a container

We have a small group started and every Sunday afternoon, we meet to worship the Lord. We have four who attend with us. Luz, our new convert, offered her house to have services. We also have a children’s club where we teach them the Word of God. Both the children’s club and the service are held in Luz’s house. This is the beginning of a church plant in south of Lima where our radio plant is.

Ruth took this picture on the first day we had a Bible lesson with the children. We had the class on the street. These children now attend our Bible club.

During the week, we hold Bible studies all over the city with radio listeners who do not attend a church. Our plan is to unite the small cell groups and begin services together in Lima. This would be a second church plant. We will see how the two church plants unfold as we progress along.

On the Air 24 / 7

We are now on the air 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is another big step forward! The Lord’s hand of blessing is upon the radio ministry and we praise Him for all He has done!

Recently He blessed us with new equipment. We were able to purchase a much needed stabilizer. It took three months to build and import it into Peru. Then it took three more weeks to get it hooked up. But it now sits at our radio plant, doing exactly what we hoped and prayed for.

Bro. V. W. Peters, our administrator from Baptist Mid-Missions and Bro. Jorge Avila, our caretaker admiring the stabilizer

The function of this unit is to keep the electrical current steady. The electricity is horribly unstable in the area where our radio plant is located. At night when everyone in the community uses more electricity, the current drops drastically. Sensitive radio equipment cannot tolerate the drops or fluctuations. This forced us to turn off our equipment and only transmit in the daytime.

Now with the stabilizer, we can leave our transmitter on and keep the Word of God on the air. We have been transmitting non-stop for more than a week and everything is working well. Needless to say, we are thrilled to reach this point! We praise God for providing the wisdom to solve the problem and the resources to cover the need.

At the present, we are transmitting at 5,300 watts and reaching maybe half of the city in the daytime. In the evening, the signal goes further and reaches more people. Our plant is located 25 miles south of Lima proper. This is the capitol city of Peru and one-third of the nation lives in the greater Lima area. Our transmitter is simply not powerful enough to reach the entire city. It is a little more complicated than simply raising our power, but the transmitting power is the main factor.

It is our prayer that we can increase our power and make the other necessary adjustments to cover the entire city. This is one of our goals for the coming year.

Printed Literature

Pastor Todd Grover is the shepherd at Marantha Baptist Church in Hayesville, Ohio. His church recently helped us with printing literature.

This is Pastor Grover in Peru when he visited us.

With the offering they sent us, we printed up 200,000 fliers. We want to thank Pastor Grover and Maranatha Baptist Church for their sacrfice and generosity. We pray that many will come to Christ through this gift.

One side of the fliers announces the radio station. It has the Bible with a speaker mounted inside it and the words “God has something to tell you” written beside it. The station name and frequency also appear at the bottom. It says, “Radio Integrity – The Voice that Glorifies God – 700 AM”. In Spanish it sounds better because the words rhyme (“La Voz que Glorifica a Dios”). On the back of the flier is the gospel along with our contact information.

This is the front of the flier for the radio station.

Our radio listeners are passing out these fliers by the hundreds. The publicity for the station comes from our own listeners who are interested in God’s Word. They are the ones who get the word out. Their interest is not in us as a station per se, but in the gospel and the Word of God.

The goal for our station is to become self supporting in 5 years from the free-will offerings of our listeners. We do not have advertizing spots. All the programming is dedicated to giving out the Word in message and song. While we encourage our listeners to give an offering to the ministry, we discourage tithing to us. We teach listeners to tithe to their local church.

The offerings have increased greatly in the last three months. They now cover the salary of my assistant pastor and part of the salary for our care taker at the radio plant, Bro. Jorge. This has exceeded our expectations at this point in our ministry.

Of course there are many other maintenance costs besides the salaries of workers such as the electric bill, internet, rent, etc. As we grow, we trust God will supply these needs through those who are blessed from the ministry. We have no debts and are moving forward at the pace the Lord allows. God is supplying for His work and we want Him to receive all the glory.

New Office for Radio Ministry

Dr. Medina is an orthodontist who has his offices on the fourth floor of a complex that is centrally located in Lima, Peru. He found our frequency on the radio, began listening and loved the messages and music.

At the same time, another listener, Nelly Rojas, discovered our station too. Nelly contacted us and we began having Bible studies with her. Nelly learned about our need for a small office where we could receive listeners. She spoke to her friend, Dr. Medina, and mentioned the need. He became excited about our ministry, wanted to meet us to see if he could help the radio ministry.

In our first meeting, the Lord put it in the heart of Dr. Medina to offer us the use of one room in his offices along with the two desks, chairs and a book shelf. His motive for doing this is aid the ministry so that people will hear the Word of God on our station. The only charge is for the electricity we use. He also wants to begin a Bible study with us!

The location of his office complex is excellent. Also, by working within his offices it provides safety for our worker and those who visit us. This turned out to be a great answer to our prayers.

We have employed another young man to help us in the office. His name is Jairo Villegas. He greets listeners who visit us, receives their offerings and gives them fliers that announces the radio station and has the gospel on the back.

Jairo in our new office.

Jairo knows we do not have the resources to pay him full time. But he is willing to work for us at a lower salary because he wants to do it for the Lord. This job also allows him important study time which he needs as a college student. We are thrilled to have Jairo helping us.

Language Training

Three days a week Ruth has a Spanish class with her professor, Ana Conde. Ana is a believer and comes to the house for the instruction. This is a big help since Ruth is not able to get around real well in public transportation because of her shoulder. Ruth and Ana have been studying together for about two months.
Ruth with her professor, Ana Conde

Each class is for two hours. Ruth is working on vocabulary, training her ear to hearing Spanish, and practicing her speech in the language. Ruth minored in Spanish back in college and studied at Rio Grande Bible Institute and Language School in Texas for four months before coming to Peru with me. This training is to help her continue perfecting her communication skills in the language she now uses to give the gospel.