Greetings from Lima,

The Panaggio family has moved into a new house and is settling in.  We moved at the end of October and are finally feeling at home in our new place.  Moves are never easy, but when one lives in a different culture it can be especially interesting, frustrating, etc.  We were without internet for about 3 weeks and thus felt incredibly disconnected from the rest of the world (Wow even the sound of that is weird!), but we are now cyberconnected!  You will notice below that we have a new address, new phone number, and a new Vonage phone, a phone that works through the internet and provides us with a US number that can be called at the cost of a long distance call to Michigan.  

The kids are winding down the first half of the school year.  They really enjoy being just a few blocks away from school and thus being able to walk or ride bikes.  Actually the kids are studying part-time at the International Christian School of Lima and part-time at home.  So far it is going well for them.  They continue to be very busy with all the activities of school, church, basketball, etc.  Also, Mark and Andrew are both doing well at Hope College in Michigan.  Mark is looking at research opportunities for the next semester and summer has two great possibilities.  Andrew will be coming to Peru for Christmas.  They are living in the same dorm and continue to be friends despite the proximity!

Jim has had a fairly heavy travel schedule, something that is not normal for him.  He was in Miami in September for meetings of the leaders of our Latin American fields, then went to Mexico for 8 days in early November.  The following week Jim and Kay traveled on mission business to Pennsylvania.  In just a few days Jim will return to the US to visit several missionary candidates and one missionary family that is on furlough, visit a church that is sending a medical team to Peru, and preach in a Hispanic church service.  He will also take advantage of this whirlwind trip to visit Mark and Andrew for 2 days and his parents for 3.

Tomorrow Jim will head off for three days with the other missionaries and the Peruvian pastors for our annual planning retreat.  This is the most significant time of the year for our association because it is at this retreat that we make all our plans for the new year, where we discuss (and sometimes debate) ministry priorities, and where significant decisions are made.  This year is especially important because we will be discussing the placement of all the missionaries as well as what is the role of missionaries in our association.  This could result in significant ministry changes for many.  Jim, as director of the mission in Peru, especially needs wisdom.  There are strong feelings by many and certain relational ties that could be affected by difficult decisions that will surely need to be made.  Nonetheless changes are necessary if our association of churches is to experience greater growth in the years ahead.  We covet your prayers for these meetings.  We will share the details in the near future.

Last night was the final meeting of the year for Jim’s mentoring group.  They celebrated by going out to dinner together.  The group started with 14 people and ended with 10.  As they ate together the group talked about how the meetings together had impacted their lives.  It was so encouraging to listen to the grateful responses of these men and to see how they were challenged in their spiritual lives.  Several mentioned how their thinking about God, about the world, and about their spiritual lives had been deeply impacted this year.  There was much positive fruit evident, much about which to be encouraged. The group members are anxious to continue in the new year, but this will depend greatly on the response of the pastors at the planning retreat.  Pray for God’s direction in this!

Kay has been active in discipling a lady from our church.  They meet weekly to talk, to pray, and to study the book of Romans together.  Kay is wanting to teach Enith to be able to study the scriptures on her own, to learn how to dig out the meat of the word, and to become a “self-feeding” Christian.  Kay has also helped her settle a recent dispute with another lady of the church.  Progress is being made in her spiritual life.  Kay is also busy making long-range plans for the children’s ministry of our church.  She is seeking to pass the baton on to Veronika, hopefully within the next 6 months or so.  Veronika has shown a real eagerness to learn from Kay.  She has seen the blessing that the children’s ministry has been in her young son’s life and wants the ministry to continue as it is.  Our pastor has also been really encouraged by the impact of the ministry and has urged Kay to establish materials and a long range plan that will ensure that the quality of the ministry continues.  Please pray for Kay in this difficult labor.

Jim will be devoting the next several months to developing materials for the adult Christian education program of our church.  He is the director and needs to help train new teachers and have quality materials in place by March.  There is a great amount of work involved in this, but the need is also very great.  Jim will be revising all our basic level studies as well as putting together a few courses for our more advanced studies.  He is anxious to turn the Christian education ministry over to someone else by June at the latest.  Guess what, he needs prayer for this one too!!!

Finally, we need to urge you to pray for our church plant in Condevilla.  The challenges there are so great that we often feel discouraged and sometimes defeated.  Summer time (now) is especially difficult because the people sit outside playing their very loud music and drinking.  This often happens on Sunday nights, right when we are meeting in our service.  Or, as happened last week, someone has a birthday party (birthday parties are really important in this culture, especially in poor areas like Condevilla) and half the church feels obligated to go, even if it means missing church.  This is one of those cultural practices that we think needs to be confronted and changed.  Priorities need to be altered.  But this is difficult and often painful.  The church continues to average about 20 adults, but we are not reaching the men of the community.  We really only have two complete families in the church, but in both cases the husband’s job makes it impossible for them to be present together for church activities.  We need a miracle of God to be able to reach this dark and needy community.  We need God’s grace to penetrate the drug addiction, the alcoholism, the broken families, the irresponsibility, the poverty, and so much more.  The needs are enormous; the laborers are way too few.  Lucho Duarte, the Peruvian who is pastoring this church plant is doing well, but more help is desperately needed.  Pray, pray, pray!!!

There is so much more to say, but time won’t allow for more.  We are busy, generally way too busy, but we are content.  We believe God has called us here and desires to use our lives for His glory and for the building up of the Peruvian church.  We are totally inadequate for this job.  We depend upon Him knowing that only He can make us competent for this work.  We depend upon your prayers as well because you are often the instruments that God uses to bring before His throne our needs, our inadequacy, so that He, by His unlimited grace, might act through your prayers to help us.  It is a wonderful partnership, one that is so very important to us.  Don’t let down!  Don’t forget to pray!  We need your help in this vitally important work.

Thanks for holding us up.

Blessings,