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June 12, 2008
Dear family and friends:
DON'T FORGET to view this report in pictures by going to this website: http://picasaweb.google.com/pabloNsarah/AprilMAYJun2008Report
To view the medical team and family pictures go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pabloNsarah/MAY 2008
It has been more than a few weeks since we sent you our last update! We must say that life has been busier than usual but
as rewarding as ever. We concluded the month of April with a return to the earthquake zone down south. There a fellow colleague
and Pablo were invited to speak at the reopening of one of the churches that was destroyed by the quake. With great joy we
all joined in thanksgiving to our great God for having displayed His faithfulness to His people in the midst of a tremendous
tragedy. The new building is a much better construction than the one before and definitely better looking. Our desire was
to share the Gospel with newcomers and encourage the ones already walking with our God. In the process, the Lord used Pedro,
the most outspoken leader of the church, to give us a great lesson on faithful Christian service. We knew he had been struggling
with pancreatic cancer for about 8 years. As we mentioned before, he goes around preaching with a surgical bag attached to
his stomach containing his colon. It was a sobering moment to actually see the bag with our own eyes. Lord, we have no chronic
illness, we are young, let our bodies be well spent for the glory of your great name!!
As we returned home after seeing the brothers in the south, it was about time to make our round trip to the church plant site
on a mountainside three hours away. Pablo looked around here for a new believer to be his companion so they could get a feel
of the work outside our city. Unfortunately, at the time everyone seemed to be busy. So he came home and eyed one of our own.
Hannah was barely three but was more than eager to go on her first official missions trip with daddy. A warm feeling of emotions
flooded Pablo’s heart as he held her little daughter’s hand and began the trek down the streets to share the love
of our God in Cascas. He prays that this first trip will be the beginning of many more to come. Pray for all 3 of our girls
to learn to love people for the glory of our God.
Shortly after returning from the mountains we headed over to our city's little airport on the west side near a popular beach
town. There we were welcoming our first medical missions team headed by Pastor Iggi Choi from Hope Chapel in Baltimore, Md.
Being our first experience hosting a team of this sort, we weren't quite sure what to expect. We prayed and decided to go
full force knowing that His love was the banner over us. Well, after three full days of work in four different towns outside
Trujillo and coming in contact with nearly 1000 people, we felt tremendously exhausted but fully satisfied with the kind of
work the Lord allowed us to do. As the doctors took care of physical needs, we had a team of evangelists from our assembly
sharing the message of salvation in every large gathering of people. Besides the direct contact, local TV stations came around
to interview the team asking the reason why we would be doing such a work... there couldn't be a better question to ask!!!!
So, overall, we can't say how many people heard the message of God's love, but we definitely know we gave the message to more
people than we thought we would have the opportunity to. We have many contacts to follow up with and we pray we can have our
second medical team next year... for the glory of His name!
Halfway through our medical team's visit, Merardo, an elder of one of the little churches in the jungle, and another believer
finally arrived to get eye treatments. We mentioned Merardo in our last letter. Several years back he suffered a head injury
that led to the loss of one of his eyes. This past January we invited him to visit us in Trujillo to get his "good"
eye taken care of. Thank the Lord He provided for his surgery and a months stay here. Pray for him as he continues working
in extending the Lord's kingdom in his church far away from us. We hope to bring him back in a month's time for his check
up.
Just as Merardo was about to leave we welcomed Mark, a student of Capital Bible Seminary (the same school Pablo attended in
Maryland). He heard about the work we are doing here and wanted to come and get involved. We immediately had him speak in
various places and even managed an escape to Cascas to do more teaching. We even had him help us lay some bricks at the site
of our new church plant (Wichanzao) and visit the local women's prison. His 4 days with us was definitely well spent. Thank
the Lord for those who come with a heart to serve with us!
For five good months we had a young man living with us while helping teach English at our Christian school. Moses Lee did
a great job as he committed to teach in our school and also develop a passion for missions and evangelism. He completed his
time and left our home last week. We miss Moses and pray for him as he returns back to the States to finish his studies and
pursue a field of ministry. Lord willing he will be back with us this August leading a team of 6 people. We are eager to see
him back.
After two of our guests left our home, Pablo also traveled up north for some preaching and teaching with a group of churches.
He was joined by one of our local missionaries and both shared with the believers on Spiritual Growth and Christian Stewardship.
Our time with the brothers from the little churches is always well to praise the Lord for His faithfulness... at the end the
body feels fully exhausted but the spirit rejoices seeing the eternal investment.
So, that pretty much sums up our last 2 months. As we have embarked onto another month we are grateful to each of you for
your loving prayers on our behalf. Please pray for our family, our Gabriela had a third bout of e-coli lately and in the process
we learned she's allergic to a certain antibiotic. We continue to pray for more English teachers for our school. The church
building in Wichanzao continues to go up, thank you for your support. Also we wait on the Lord to continue leading the large
project of the Elliot Christian School... so far the walls are standing and we wait for His guidance and provision. Pray that
our teaching and the sharing of His love through the Gospel will continue to bring forth fruit.
We are now on Skype which is a way to call between computers free, even internationally. If you have Skype and would like
to talk to us and see us, our screen name is: cenepo.torres or you can find us through our email address: pct17@yahoo.com.
Skype is a free download and works great with high speed internet.
Your prayers and support sustain us in the Lord's work here in Peru. Thank you for your faithfulness to Him and to our family.
He is our everlasting Father, resting in His loving arms,
Pablo and Sarah Cenepo-Torres
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