Reporting From Punchana: June 4, 2008; June 6, 2008; June 13, 2008

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EMM Report from Punchana Iquitos Peru

The crowds worship Jesus with Radical People Stoves were distributed  More stores distributed  Villages are being fed using the stoves that you helped to provide.

June 13th

Our fourth-day of ministry in Punchana brought even more blessing to our team and to those we ministered to. Team members Floyd Roseberry and Adam Weatherby were the featured speakers at the conference for pastors and church leaders. Adam's wife Brenda Weatherby was the featured speaker at the conference for women in the churches. They all three told us that the ministry with these church leaders was a wonderful time.
 
Most of the others on our team visited an orphanage called Hogar de Menores. This is home for many children whose parents have died or have abandoned them. There are more than 700 kids in the facility ranging in age from just a few months up to seventeen years old. Many of the girls have been kicked out of the home by their fathers because they were pregnant and are living there with their babies. The regional government runs this home, but their resources are very meager. Our team enjoyed a time of singing with them and then shared the love of Jesus with the kids through puppets and a message. Then they gave us a time to just visit with them and show them some love. The surprise was when the kids in Hogar challenged our team to a soccer match! So many of our team members took to the field and played the national pastime of "Futbol" with the kids in Hogar. The match ended in a draw but everyone had a great time. Nobody wanted to leave!
 
Others on the team had an opportunity to visit the Manuel Clavero School for Mentally Retarded Children. The conditions affecting these kids were all over the map. Yet they were all excited to see these people from the United States come to visit with them. The team gave them a simple Gospel presentation but spent most of their time playing various games with the kids. One of our team members, Chet Akins remarked later, "I grew up very poor and I had this perfectionism thing going on and would never, or very seldom touch or even look at a down syndrome person or others like that. I guess it reminded me of where I came from. I was sent to the school for Down syndrome kids and I thought, Oh Boy! I am really going to have to step out now, and I did. Janet started this game where the kids got in two lines and each line of kids passed a ball over and under to each other and then the kid at the end of the line would run to the front and the game would start again. Well I looked over to the side and there were these two kids in wheel chairs not able to play the game. I went over to one of them and took him to the end of one of the lines. When the ball came to him, I pushed his wheel chair running to the front of the line. The boy was crying and carrying on so much I thought I had hurt him. But the teacher said he was having a great time and then I saw that he was laughing and having a great time!" Chet finished telling his story with tears in his eyes and a quivering lip. We always do a lot of planning in setting up these ministry opportunities but we never know how the Lord will work in the lives of those we are ministering to. Often times it is the teams members who receive the greatest blessings!
 
When we arrived at the all age event at the San Martin Sporting Field on the second festival night there was an even larger crowd than on the first evening. The music was playing and thousands of people were singing and dancing to praise music that was glorifying our Lord! This was followed by the Christian rap group Radical People who really did a great job of getting the people pumped up to hear Dan's message of hope in Jesus Christ. God anointed the message that Dan used and we saw more than 400 people come forward in response to Dan's invitation to accept Jesus into their lives!
 
That same night was the first night of the satellite Festival at the Progresso grounds where Adam Weatherby gave the Gospel message. Adam reported about one thousand people attending and the response to the Gospel message was a blessing as scores of people, men, women and children swarmed forward to pray for Jesus to change their lives!
 
Our ministry in Punchana was full of blessings. This will be our last email report on our trip; but we will be sending out a full report of the festival by mail soon and we will post the report on our web site as well for those of you who are not on our mailing list.
 
Thank you again for supporting the ministry in Punchana through your prayers and finances! Your partnership with EMM is what makes it possible to reach all of these new brothers and sisters with the life-changing message of the Gospel!

Serving Him together,
 
Carl Dawson
Ministry Director 

Mayor welcomes us to Punchana Dan gives message of hope People come forward for Jesus A new life in Christ begins   Cheryl prays for sick woman Stoves are distributed at festival

Radical People rap to the crowd The invitation is given  New believers receive counseling  Family steps forward together Steve ministers to hurting woman

June 6th

The first night of the all age meetings was a wonderful surprise! Usually the first night at many of our festivals is quite low in attendance. Mainly because it is typically on a Thursday night and many people do not want to come out on a weeknight. However, as we turned the corner to approach the San Martin sporting grounds we saw thousands of people waiting for our team to arrive.
 
As the team climbed out of the busses, the mayor of Punchana greeted Dan and thanked him for bringing this ministry of the Lord and humanitarian aid to his district in Iquitos. The mayor joined Dan on stage to offer him and the EMM ministry team an official welcome to Punchana and said that we are welcome back anytime.
 
The atmosphere at the grounds was exciting as we began our first night. The people were still and attentive as our band led them in a time of worship. This was followed by the Christian rap band, Radical People. Radical People are well known in Lima, but out here in the Amazon region they aren't as well known, and their style of music is really different from what the people are used to. But by the time their set was finished the people were dancing and having a great time.
 
Then Dan came to the stage and began his message of hope in Jesus Christ. Usually at open-air grounds like this one, many people will stand toward the edges of the crowd and mill about, and some will even leave. However, last night the crowd was still, attentive and they stayed to hear more. They were hanging on the words of life that Dan was sharing through the Holy Spirit.
 
When Dan gave the invitation for people to respond to the Gospel message, at first they came forward by ones and twos. Then the Holy Spirit seemed to break a spell and they began coming by the dozens. By the end of the evening, more than 260 people came forward this first night to make decisions for the Lord! In fact, there were entire families who came forward to surrender to the Lord and begin a new life in Christ.
 
We are excited to see how God will continue to work over the next two nights. Please keep praying for our team to be effective ministers for the Lord. Also, pray for our luggage with eyeglasses to arrive soon as our entire team is scheduled to do eyeglass clinics tomorrow and we cannot do them if the glasses don't arrive.
 
What a blessed time we are having here in Iquitos. We could not be here if it were not for the generous and gracious support that each of you provide in finances and prayers. Dan, I, and our team want you to know that your support is leading to the salvation of hundreds so far, as well as providing health for thousands of children through the parasite medicine program, and the stoves for the glass of milk program. I pray that you are blessed to be a part of the team.

Serving Him together,
 
Carl Dawson
Ministry Director

Mayor welcomes us to Punchana Dan gives message of hope People come forward for Jesus A new life in Christ begins   Cheryl prays for sick woman Stoves are distributed at festival

Radical People rap to the crowd The invitation is given  New believers receive counseling  Family steps forward together Steve ministers to hurting woman

June 4th

Thank you so much for your prayers and support of our ministry. Here is a brief report of how things are going so far. The team all arrived safely in Lima during the wee hours of Monday morning. There were some challenges as three team members arrived missing all or part of their luggage, so we were delayed in getting to the hotel. We finally arrived around 3:30am. We postponed our team meeting until 11 the next morning so that we could all catch up on some sleep. We had a great time of worship and prayer. We then went to the airport to make our flight to Iquitos. We arrived in Iquitos at about 6pm on Monday evening. After everybody checked into the hotel, we headed out to a news conference where we had several radio, TV and newspaper reporters in attendance. There was about a 1-hour program, Dan answered questions, then we all had a nice dinner at the conference. The reporters were wonderful and are planning to give good reports of our ministry.
 
Ministry Begins
Yesterday was our first full day of ministry. It was in the village of Barrio Florido where we distributed parasite medicine, eyeglasses and food packets. Our team members shared Christ with the primary and secondary students as well as in the main town square. While in Barrio Florido Dan preached at the Father of Miracles Catholic Church.
 
Praise God
There were over 100 decisions made for Christ from our first day of ministry!
 
A Special Treat and More Praises
The Navy of Peru treated us to a special gift as they provided a naval vessel to transport all of our USA and Peru team to Barrio Florido. When they heard about the humanitarian aid we were bringing to the people, they offered to help by providing the transportation for free. That was a huge savings to us as there were nearly 200 people on that ministry team.
 
We were able to provide medicine for the entire village helping nearly 3,000 children and adults to get rid of the parasites in their bodies and vitamins to help build them up. About 400 pairs of reading glasses were distributed in the village. Adam Weatherby preached a gospel message at the town square while others were doing ministry at the schools and ministering at the eyeglass clinics. It was a wonderful day!
 
Request for Prayer
Please pray for the team members from Grants Pass that lost their luggage. Both suitcases contained eyeglasses. The bags are in Lima, but Peru customs department does not want to allow them to pass because they contain glasses. They want the owners to return to Lima to pay duties before they will release them. The team members cannot return to Lima alone, and we need the glasses here for our ministry. We are working on a solution, but ask for your prayers for God to intervene so that customs will release the suitcases and forward them to us in Iquitos.
 
Please continue to pray for the team members and for the thousands of souls that God is calling into His Kingdom.
 
Our ministry schedule is posted on the EMM website at http://emm.gospelcom.net/PunchanaMinistrySchedule.htm.
 
Thank you again for your continued prayers and support.  We will be sending more reports during our trip.
 
Serving Him together,
 
Carl Dawson
Ministry Director