God has supremely blessed our August and September beyond what we could have imagined. After two years and nine months, we were able to take a three-week trip Stateside for a mini-furlough and to visit family at the same time. Our church in Peru demonstrated strong faith in our absence.
During our trip Stateside, I preached 12 times in 9 churches in 4 different states and traveled more than 3,000 miles. The pleasure was ours to visit some of our great supporters and friends, as well as our families. Sarah had the privilege of spending some quality time with her last living grandparent, Pawpaw. Marion Franklin Rogers went to be with the Lord on September 23, just one month after our visit. Please pray for the Rogers-Davis family.
While we were Stateside, our teammate, Abraham Avila, took oversight of the church and preached Sunday evenings and Thursday evenings. The fact that he was already obligated elsewhere for Sunday mornings provided an opportunity for two men of our church. This was definitely of God. The men of our church rose to the challenge. Able and his Grandpa William taught Sunday school, and Julio Durand preached Sunday mornings. His wife Kim said that he was extremely nervous the first week, but he preached better and better the following weeks. We received many compliments about his preaching as well. Julio also led our Saturday soul-winning meetings, and two out of three weeks, souls were saved. Rachel was very helpful with the music and has continued to help with the organization of our song service.
We arrived in Peru late Saturday night, and Sunday morning we arrived at the church an hour and 15 minutes early to be well prepared. Well, we didn’t do much preparing, because half of our church was already there with a big welcome banner to surprise us, and surprised we were! They had not only prepared a surprise and a big meal, but they had also scrubbed all of the white chairs clean, polished the auditorium and office floors, and painted and decorated the children’s classroom. WOW! What a great group of people and an even greater God we serve!
Thank you to the churches we visited for your love offerings and great friendships. Thank you, Bethel Baptist Church, for your donation for Bibles. Thank you, Believers Baptist Church, for making us a part of your missions family. Please continue to pray that God will continue to work through us here. Also, we have a few big opportunities to evangelize in these next few months. Please pray that God will allow us to see many saved. Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers. God bless you.
In Christ in Peru,
Mark, Sarah, Savannah, Paul, & Samuel Rader
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- Our teen meetings are always fun!
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- Mark, Sarah, and Berenice as a team led Raul, Mario, and Americo to Christ.
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- Julio Durand did an excellent job preaching on Sunday mornings during our absence.
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- Heather Kokubun spoke at Sarah’s “Joyful Ladies” meeting.
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- This is the team of our church members that helped with our church signs from start to finish.
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- This is the team of church members that painted and decorated our children’s classroom.
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- Sarah and Ashley led Rosa to Christ.
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- Our family had the privilege to meet our new home pastor for the first time. Thank you, Pastor John Wilkerson, for all that you do.
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- Thank you to Bethel Baptist Church for your donation for Bibles.