Saturday, November 27, 2010

Pictures of People We Love and You May Know

We thought you might like to see some pictures of people who were at the wedding. Friends and family came from great distances to show their support for Ben and Amy and celebrate with us. Many of you know and love Steve Fulks and his wife Judy. They are pictured on the left. Steve and Judy served for years in Peru and now serve the Lord in the Home Office of Baptist Mid-Missions (although Steve does extensive traveling). Pray for Judy's health. My parents are pictured on the right. Both are in good health and were able to travel to Pennsylvania for the wedding.

Jesus and Tracy Altuna were also at the wedding. Jesus faithfully served the Lord in our church in Trujillo. Tracy came to Peru many times to serve the Lord. She coached and encouraged Amy through her senior year of High School. Jesus and Tracy are married and have long range plans to return to Peru. This couple has been an incredible blessing to our family. Please pray for Tracy's health. She has severe problems with her back.
The following picture is of our three grandchildren.
Nathan and Audrey's two are on the left. They are Aurrie and Carson. Bayne is Deric and Jessica's and he is on the right. We love our grandkids!








Amy's Wedding

On November 6, my daughter Amy was married. It was a beautiful time in the Lord with all the family together once again. We all rejoiced with Ben and Amy as they were united in marriage.
Our new son by marriage is Benoit Guillot. We thank the Lord for Ben. He plans on serving the Lord in his home city in Quebec, Canada. A few days after Ben and Amy were married, they drove to Quebec with a car load of Amy’s things to begin their lives together in Christ. They are now all settled in their new apartment.

Pray for Amy as she adjusts to her life in Quebec. She will need to learn French and was working on the language for quite some time. There will be many adjustments from language to culture to climate. Canada’s weather is very different than Peru´s!

Our family just loves Ben. He is a godly man and an answer to our prayers. We are confident God is going to use them for His glory. The Templeton Tribe at the Wedding

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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 BetsaĆ­ 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 BetsaĆ­ in the middle with Ruth.

Friday, October 8, 2010

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.

Friday, September 24, 2010

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.