Peru: The Gospel Continues to Spread

UPDATE
Most of the remaining $600 I needed has been provided. Praise be to God who always provides. If you would still like to give, teams will be returning to Peru in the future, so please contact me. For now, I am taking down the Paypal link below.

Blog readers, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, brothers and sisters,

The purpose of this post is this: to present you with an opportunity to partner with your fellow worker in the Gospel for the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ. Let me give you a brief history of my connections with Peru.

I traveled to the nation of Peru in 2007 (2 weeks) and 2008 (2 months). This year, from June 28-July 13 I will return to Peru. In 2007 I and others traveled to a small village called Huancapi and in 2008 a team stayed in a village in a different region: Laramate. Laramate and the surrounding towns have been “adopted” by a consortium of Baptist churches in the Central New York region. The team I was on in 2008 was among the first groups to visit Laramate and establish significant connections there. At the end of our stay in 2008, we recorded around 50 confessions of faith in Christ. In the time since my return from Peru, I have not had the chance to gain much information regarding the spiritual state of the people in Laramate. Multiple teams have visited Laramate since my departure in 2008. I am not sure how much fruit has been borne to God’s glory, simply due to lack of information. That said, I am eager to return and see how the Spirit has been moving in Laramate and also eager to proclaim the gospel and encourage the saints in Laramate.

When I soon return to Peru our team will continue the primary work we have done before: engage the people there in conversation and relationship and plant seeds of gospel teaching in their lives. We have previously done this through one on one meetings and Bible studies, often walking through the gospel of John.

Having now explained the trip and some background, I could tell you all the biblical reasons to give financially and pray for this endeavor, but I trust that you are familiar with those passages and teachings. More than anything, I want to give you a chance to:

1. Partner with me in spreading the gospel
2. Express generosity and pray with impudence (Luke 11:8)

That said, I plead for your prayers for the people of Laramate and the visiting missionaries more than anything. I am convinced that God moves when we petition him with our prayers in a shameless and frequent manner (Luke 11:5-8). Please pray frequently.

I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I am bringing a small library in Spanish from Desiring God set to present as a gift to a seminary in a city near Laramate. I am friends with the director of the seminary and I am really looking forward to surprising him with this gift.

The nitty-gritty:

 - Any questions? Please email me (trevormarsteller at gmail dot com). If you would like to talk with me, I can arrange a Skype call.
 - At present I am unsure of the ability to use these donations via Paypal as a tax-writeoff. If you have questions about this, I can dig into it further.
 - Paypal charges some fees for using their services (2.9% per transaction + $.30). I will personally add money to the Peru fund to make up for these charges.