PERUSING PERU

March, 2011
"Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." John 4:35
 
This scripture couldn't be more true for the people in the village of Santa Clara as the Lord gloriously brought ten more of His loved ones into the Kingdom! This last trip to visit the two villages of Santa Rosa and Santa Clara proved to be an incredibly fruitful one, especially for this village.

Santa Clara is a small village of 11 families, several of which are the village leader's children and their families. The women in this village speak more Spanish than others and so they have had the advantage of hearing the Gospel presented in both Spanish and more recently in Shawi, several times over the past four years. Since November, however, they have been able to hear the Gospel in their own language on various occasions through the Shawi pastors who have been traveling with me since then. Although the Word has continued to go forth through the pastors' preaching, Christian films and an audio dramatized version of the Bible the hearts of these villagers were not moved enough to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.that is until Monday, March 14.

On this night we showed a Christian film as we had done in the past, followed by a brief preaching by Pastor Algusto, whom they have heard before. When it was time to close the meeting Pastor Algusto asked me if I had anything that I would like to share and so feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit I asked if anyone would like to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Although we had done this before as well this time something of what they heard in the preaching clicked and before I could finish the invitation several hands went up! I thought for sure they couldn't have understood my Spanish so I repeated it again but this time with more detail and again before I could finish hands went up wanting to know Jesus!

Finally convinced that this was real we invited those who raised their hands to come forward so that we could pray with them individually and to my amazement it wasn't the men who responded at all. It was the women and the children! I knew I had seen a miracle in Santa Rosa when the first person to respond to a salvation message was a woman but this was just as incredible. A total of ten people, consisting of women and children finally came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the village of Santa Clara! God is truly at work in these villages and the time is now for the harvest to be brought in.
 
The next day the village leader (upper left hand corner in white tee shirt) and his son-in-law (blue tee shirt squating next to him) came back from hunting in the jungle all day with a wild boar and some other animals they had killed and invited us along with the rest of the village to feast on the kill. It was a special and joyful time since this much meat meant that everyone could have at least one healthy meal for the week (or weeks to come).

The impact of the Word of God was so great on these people that as we were preparing to leave several people strongly asked the pastors if they would please stay in the village to teach them the Word of God. Even some of the teenage girls asked Pastor Jonas' daughter to live with them so that she could teach them about God! The hunger is so great in these communities and their hearts are so open to receive all that the Lord has for them. Our goal is to provide them with discipleship training and material that can be left for them to continue studying when the river is too dry for us to get in. As the Lord leads you please keep the villages of Santa Rosa and Santa Clara in your prayers so that leaders can be raised up from within the communities that can pastor their people.

With that in mind we are planning another trip to these same two villages on Tuesday, March 19 until Monday, March 26. My prayer is that since so  many families have been impacted with the Truth of God that this Easter will have a deeper meaning to them. Please join with me in praying for these new believers and for this trip according to the following points:

• Safety as we travel on the river.
• Wisdom to know how to minister according to the needs of the people as the Lord directs.
• The hearts and minds of the people will continue to be open and hungry for more of God.
• No opposition from the enemy in any form that would hinder God's Word from going forth.
• Anything else that the Lord lays on your heart to pray.

PERUSING PERU
February, 2011

Faith Becomes Sight in the Villages of the Shishinahua River! (See photos below)

Several God-appointed things happened on this last trip to the Shishinahua River. We went to minister the Word of God in two Shawi Indian villages named Santa Clara and Santa Rosa as well as check on the water filters that were done this past November. The answers to prayer came before we ever left the town that I live in, Yurimaguas, in the form of not one but two Shawi Indian pastors and their Shawi-speaking wives agreed to travel with me on this trip. One of the pastors also brought a new convert from his church, which made our team a total of five Shawi-speakers that could minister to the people in their own native tongue! I can't begin to express to you how tremendous this was since I have been praying for four years to have people travel with me that can minister in the Shawi language.

After the 12-hour boat ride it took to reach these villages we started our work in Santa Clara by visiting house to house to check on the water filters. This not only gave me the opportunity to see how well the water filters were being used but also gave us the opportunity to share the Gospel with each family. When we got to the house of Ruberto, an older gentleman that had just recently finished making his thatched-roof home, we checked his water filter and saw that it needed to have some adjustments. We explained that we would do this when we returned on the next trip and then proceeded to share the Gospel with him. The two pastors spoke to him in Shawi and then gave him the opportunity to respond by asking Jesus to come into his heart. Because he had heard this on different occasions through the Christian films that I had brought in the past, the audio New Testament, and my own sharing of the Gospel with the community he was very ready to make a commitment to the Lord and so on February 20, 2011 Ruberto became a son of God!

We continued to have church meetings in Santa Clara where the Word of God went forth in the same ways as mentioned above except instead of me preaching the Shawi pastors shared the Word in their language resulting in a hunger for more of God and teaching on Christian principles. We completed our time in Santa Clara and then made our way about 30 minutes down river to the village of Santa Rosa where we followed the same procedure of checking the water filters and presenting the Gospel house to house followed by church services in the afternoon. In this village however there was a much stronger response to the Gospel. The people in this community were very open and respectful when the Word was going forth and so allowed the Holy Spirit to touch their hearts with His Truth. Pastors Rufino and Algusto took turns preaching the Gospel and on alternate meetings we showed Christian evangelistic films.

On the last night of our stay Pastor Algusto preached a message on Lazarus and the rich man. He explained how real heaven and hell are and that when we die there is no possibility for one side to cross over to the other and then made the point that after death there is also no longer any opportunity to receive forgiveness or redemption. He shared many other things from this passage but this point seemed to be the one that pierced the hearts of the people.

As he was in the process of ending his message and giving an invitation to accept Christ a woman from the back of the room raised her hand before he could finish. My first response was concern because quite often when the women and children are disinterested in what is going on or don't understand what is being said they can be very disruptive and so I thought that she was going to distract from this very crucial moment. As I watched her try unsuccessfully to get Pastor Algusto's attention she finally leaned over to the wife of Pastor Rufino and whispered something in her ear. When I asked Eloisa what she said she explained to me that the woman wanted to know how to get saved! Eloisa told her to listen to the pastor and he will explain and sure enough in the next moment he invited anyone who wanted to ask Jesus into their hearts to raise their hand. Instantly her hand was up and so Pastor Algusto called her forward. In the Shawi Indian culture, like so many Indian groups, one does not draw attention to themselves but this is especially true for females. Therefore for this woman to be the only who raised her hand in a public meeting and then to respond by coming forward in front of all her peers is nothing short of a miracle and evidence that the Holy Spirit was truly working in her heart strong enough to cause her to do this. With just as much boldness she had when she raised her hand twice before she defiantly got up out of her seat and marched down front before all of her neighbors and friends risking their comments and snickering and patiently waited as Pastor Algusto completed his invitation. Instead of the expected teasing the woman's boldness triggered an avalanche of response from the others and immediately several other women also got up from their seats and came forward as did several of the men. The reception of the Word of God and the open hearts to His saving grace left all of us who where Christians speechless and awestruck over what the Lord was doing. Tears of joy filled our eyes as we watched a total of 11 Shawi Indians from the village of Santa Rosa invite Jesus Christ into their hearts as their personal Lord and Savior! What a moment. Although the five people who traveled with me were clearly effected by what they saw they could not begin to match the inexpressible, overwhelming joy I was experiencing at that moment as I watched faith become sight right before my eyes. Four years of plowing the field, planting the seeds and watering had now finally manifested into a ripe and golden harvest of souls. Can you rejoice with me my fellow labors in this glorious soul-gathering for the Kingdom? This is just as much your reward as it is mine for you too have labored in prayer to bring in the lost. It is for this that all the hardship that brought us to this point seems little compared to what is happening in heaven right now for all of our new brothers and sisters in Christ.

The blessings of what happened that day do not end here however. The woman's name, who was the first to respond, is Presentaciòn and is the wife of one of the village leaders named Miguel who also came forward to accept Christ. There were two other couples, another village leader and some men and women that were included in harvest that day. Potentially a total of three families have the Spirit of God working in their family unit and two of the three village leaders can now be influenced by the Holy Spirit as
they direct this community of 14 families. My prayer is for the growth and development of this community in their new found faith and that one day soon they will take on the burden of evangelizing their neighboring villages.

Will you continue to pray with me for the villages of Santa Clara, where Ruberto accepted Christ and several others were clearly affected, and Santa Rosa where 11 people accepted the Lord and countless others had seeds planted in their hearts? I will be returning to these villages on March 12 for 7 to 10 days to do follow-up on the conversions in the form of discipleship classes and preaching with another Shawi Indian pastor (not of the ones that traveled with me this last time) and his daughter. Please pray for the following prayer points as together we establish the Kingdom of God in these villages:

1) Strong safety as we travel as this is the rainy season and so makes river travel more risky.

2) Wisdom in preparing the discipleship material since most do not read well or read at all.

3) That the Spirit of God will continue to work in the minds and hearts of everyone in both villages to assure a full salvation with the clear conviction of the love of God for each one.

4) Any opposition from the enemy to stop or hinder the work of the Lord will be thwarted before it ever gets started. There are two strong religious groups on this river that could be used by the enemy to do this.

5) Anything else that the Lord shows you concerning this work.


Words seem too lame to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who have stood in the gap and sacrificed for this work through your prayers, love, encouragement and financial giving. Because we have joined together souls have been snatched out of the fires of hell and added to the Kingdom of God forever. God bless each of you in your labor of love for this ministry and thank you again for joining with me.

Together with you in the Harvest,
Sharon Malcolm

Dear Partners:

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! In a few weeks, this will be the theme in many communities across the world. While some may celebrate the reality of His coming into their lives as King, Lord and Savior, there
are yet many around us and in distant lands who desperately need to hear of Jesus the Christ. He alone deserves our total devotion. The impetus for our work remains the promise made by the Lord Jesus in John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" and we are grateful for the support you have provided towards this end.

Next month, Jonathan Young (MD), Jerrice Prince (RN), Sinthia Perez, Peter Akufongwe, Madison Ngafeeson and JNE will join our team in Cameroon for evangelistic and medical outreaches in the villages of Lysoka and Maumu, and the town of Muyuka. We have been warned of a prevailing forces of witchcraft and satanic worship in the areas we feel led to and we are confident that the Lion of Judah will roar once more and His Light will shine so bright and dispel darkness.

We will also be involved with the children at HOTPEC Orphanage. This month, the orphanage will be dedicating a new baby unit donated by a foundation in the UK. We would like to offer a Christmas meal to the entire HOTPEC family - please consider sending a Christmas gift for a child at HOTPEC.

We are happy to report that the two containers shipped to Cameroon arrived in good time. The first container was released within a week and the removal of the second container is underway. Customs officials have advised us that without the waiver granted by the Cameroon government, duty would have amounted to over $15,000 for the first container. Provisional estimates for the second container already exceed $10,000. We are thankful to all those
who prayed, donated items and assisted with loading them. The Lord also blessed us with 14 men in Buea who took 4 hours one night to empty the first container. Yeah God!!!

As we prepare to head to Cameroon, we need your committed prayers and your support towards expenses associated with air tickets for the team, funds for the outreaches, Christmas meal for HOTPEC and Pastors children ,etc. All gifts to HOIM are tax deductible. Online donations at www.hopeoutreachinternational.org are appreciated (Paypal deducts a fee), even better, gifts can be sent to:

HOIM
10993 N Harrell's Ferry Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70816

We are confident that the Lord will continue to watch over you and yours and we pray that you keep your focus on His unchanging faithfulness amid changes in and around us. May His love and compassion steady you and your family during these closing hours and may our hearts hunger for His return as we devote ourselves to the expansion of His Kingdom.

In His love, Julius N. Esunge

Dear Trusted Prayer Warriors,
This prayer update comes with a note of praise for the Lord´s goodness but also with a note of sobriety and a call to fervent prayer for the work of the Lord. This is an account of what happened as four of us went to do follow-up visits on the 27 stoves that were done by two teams from Pennsylvania and Virginia in three villages during the month of August (these are the teams that you prayed for).

Our trip began with visiting all the homes that received a stove in the first village of Nueva Papaplaya. As we went from house to house we were very pleased to find that after five weeks of use many of the people were no longer using their open fires to cook on but have completely transitioned to use only the chimney stoves for their meal preparations. This is a huge victory because it will eliminate the dangerous smoke that the women inhale on a daily basis that causes upper respiratory problems and fire accidents.

While the success of this project along with the incredible ministry of the Holy Spirit to the three villages while the teams were here were direct answers to our corporate prayers and a great cause for rejoicing I believe that the enemy retaliated because of it through what happened during this trip.  It started this way:

On Saturday, August 21 we started our 11-hour boat ride to the villages on the larger river of the Huallaga and then onto the smaller river of the Yanuyacu where all of these villages reside. The Yanuyacu River has many tight curves and is especially narrow when there is no rain because of the low water level. On the day that we were traveling there was an unusual amount of river traffic and some of the boats were going quite fast for such conditions. This proved true when all of the sudden as we were starting to take one of the turns another boat seemed to come out of nowhere dangerously fast to take the same turn. Without realizing that someone else was there the opposing boat driver had intentions of occupying the same space that we were in until, as he rounded the corner he could see that he was nearly on top of our boat. In a frantic, split-second reaction the two boat drivers grabbed each of their steering handles in both hands and with all their might pulled their 30-foot boats away from each other in just enough time to avoid a collision.

The experience was still fresh in our minds even after we finished the first village visit to Nueva Papaplaya three days later. However, the assaults of the enemy didn’t end there because en route to the second village, while we were not far away, it happened again but this time the outcome was more tragic. Once more we were rounding a tight, right hand curve and once again without warning another boat came rushing towards us at a speed to fast to reduce and at a distance too close to correct. Even though both drivers tried desperately to put space between their boats it was to no avail because within seconds we collided with all the force that 1 1/2 tons of boat can carry.

I braced myself and watched in horror as our boat crashed into the broad side of the other boat and scrapped the head of one of their men named Edwardo, dragging him through his boat before throwing him into the deeper part of the river. By tenacity and sheer will to live Edwardo started moving his bruised and battered body to keep himself afloat and finally make his way to the side of the river where the water was shallower and he could hold on to some river plants until we could get to him.

When we did we found that he had a head injury, bruises on his arm and a very badly broken leg. He was in a great deal of pain but we had to pull his boots off as quickly as possible before the swelling in his leg would make it nearly impossible. We cleaned and bandaged his wounds and even made a splint with a pole that we had in the boat. We then made our way to a nearby village that had a health post where we ran to get the health technician. She came quickly and after doing what she could with the limited medical supplies on hand she advised us that he had to be taken to the hospital in Yurimaguas as soon as possible and so with that we were on our way.

We made it to the hospital six hours later where Edwardo was admitted but not before having one more close call with an oncoming boat. This time however, the other boat driver was able to see us and swerve his boat out of our path in barely enough time to avoid another collision. Passing us just inches away it seemed so unjust that the other driver could appear so detached from the consequences of what a hit would incur. Nonetheless we were enormously relieved to see that we were spared another accident.

Since his admittance in the hospital Edwardo has had stitches in his head and an operation on his leg to have five, 10-inch pins put in to hold it together since it was broken in 4 places. He was told that he would be in the hospital for a month and that he would not be walking for about a year. While this is devastating news for a single, poor farmer supporting his elderly parents I am believing for the divine intervention of the Lord for a quick and miraculous recovery. Already, after just two weeks Edwardo is being released to go back to his village. This could be a very positive motivation for him to heal quickly so that he can resume his life much sooner than expected. Gloriously, during his stay in the hospital my pastor and the pastor from Nueva Papaplaya, Pastor Roger, came to visit him and were able to lead him to the Lord.

Edwardo and Daniel, the other boat driver, are from a village named San Eugenio (St. Eugene) where we had done a water filter project with an evangelistic outreach. It was during this ministry that Daniel, the boat driver, had also accepted the Lord and has shown interest in growing in his faith.  Pastor Roger of Nueva Papaplaya, has had a burden to minister to the villages on the Yanuyacu River with the Gospel including the one where these two men are from. He has since sent teams out to San Eugenio and a neighboring village called Santa Sofia to present the Word of God and disciple new believers. Some have responded very favorably and have even started building a church in their community.

I share all of this with you for two reasons:

1) To let you know that your ministry of intercession for these recent trips has produced a glorious outcome in the lives of many people in these three villages both physically, through the stove projects and spiritually through the work of the Holy Spirit.

2) To remind you that the fight we are engaged in is real and that we are fighting for real souls that could make huge differences in the lives around them when infused by the Holy Spirit.

As intercessors I know that you are very aware of the spiritual battle that rages all around us and of the tactics of the enemy to try and stop the work of the Lord just as he tried to do this time. Therefore, I encourage you to press in with me and claim the ground that the Lord has given us in His Name. Let us join together in praying for the following points and anything else that the Lord would show you.

1) Edwardo’s quick recovery and growth in his new found faith.

2) Daniel’s growth in his faith so that both he and Edwardo will be a powerful influence on the rest of the community.

3) All of Edwardo’s medical and living expenses will be met during his recovery period.

4) That the community of San Eugenio will be powerfully impacted by the Lord through this accident and that everyone will help Edwardo and his parents while he is recuperating.

I want to thank you again and again for your faithfulness to stand with me in this ministry through your intercession. I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me. I pray for each of you by name and as a team for the Lord to do mighty things in your lives and to meet every one of your needs.

God bless you my precious co-laborers as you walk faithfully before Him in all that He has given you to do.

Standing with you in prayer,
Sharon Malcolm