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Dear Friends and Family,
What an incredible first quarter this has been. We greatly rejoice in what the Lord is doing in our lives and ministry. Our desire is to walk in Christ as we serve the Lord here in Peru, truly making Christ known in ourselves!
In this letter:
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Dear Friends and Family,
We praise God for allowing us to share the truth with others here in Peru! The year-end holidays bring many extra opportunities to reach out as people’s hearts are more tender and sometimes very lonely. The true Gospel transforms lives!
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Dear Friends and Family,
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. - 2Cor 4:3-4
Over the past few weeks I have been encouraged in the work of the Lord to know that the “Light of the glorious gospel of Christ” is definitely no going out. Amidst all of the trouble and economic struggles our country is facing, God is still moving and working in and through his people. Though our support continues to decline and the exchange rate continues to drop out of our favor, I am reminded that God is in control and provides for His work.
Ministry News
I had the tremendous privilege to be a part of a wonderful international mission conference in San Luis Potosí, Mexico at the Bible Baptist Church of San Luis Potosi. This church is pastored by one of the most humble servants of God that I know – Pastor Luis Ramos. He is a pastor with a vision and a heart for people all over the world and has a stunning ministry. It was a distinct honor to share the pulpit with many outstanding Spanish national and American pastors and missionaries working all around the world. Presenting their fields of service where Mexican missionaries that represented 21 foreign mission fields such as Israel, Turkey, Equatorial Guinea, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Columbia as well as others.
I was able to see how God is moving amongst Spanish speaking nationals to shine the Light of the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. I have been in many missions conferences in the United States and other countries, but never have I seen the burden, passion and commitment that I experienced in this conference. I thank God that I was privileged to participate. 115 young people were called to missions and 105 pastors and missionaries from all over the world pledged together to pray and do all we can for world missions.
My desire here in Peru is to continue to preach and encourage our Peruvian national preachers and missionaries to have the same passion and drive to reach this world. As God wakes up the Spanish world to become a leader in world missions, we have a great responsibility to continue to train and work side by side with our Spanish brethren as EQUALS to reach this world for Christ. American missionaries are becoming more and more marginalized in the world and we do not have the access and influence in many countries that we once had. We all know the reasons for this and I am not here to focus on that. My point is, we need to do more to invest in our very capable and spirit filled Spanish brethren while we still have the economic ability to do so, that they may develop the infrastructures necessary to train and equip their national missionaries to go to the world; especially countries that we as Americans are hindered from going.
My dear brethren, sadly many of our American pastor brethren do no look upon Spanish pastors and missionaries with the same respect and quality that they look upon our own. Our Spanish brethren have the same God, the same Savior and the same Holy Spirit. Many are doing incredible works in very difficult spiritual and economic circumstances that rival our American churches. It is time they were looked upon them as spiritual and ministerial equals in the work of the Lord. It is my personal opinion that the torch of the Gospel is passing from America to Spanish speaking America and God is blessing with a great spiritual moving in the Spanish speaking world.
Here in Peru, we continue to see people saved and baptized and the church is steadily moving forward. Pray as we are moving in the next few months to start a new mission church from Efata in an area of Lima called Tablada de Lurin. We have a bus route there are currently hosting cell groups for adults and young people in that area.
The Lord has privileged me to preach in several conferences and anniversaries here in Peru. I am doing all I can to encourage pastors, missionaries and church families to be active participants in God’s ministry of reconciliation and to have an intense passion for souls, missions and solid Christian families.
Family News
The family is doing well. James is greatly enjoying his studies at Baptist College of Ministry in WI, and Joseph is working hard in our ministry on many fronts, in the school, with music and training and with interpreting.
Thank you so very much for your continued support and prayers for the work we are doing amongst the Deaf and hearing of Peru and beyond.
Please feel free to follow me on Twitter at @JoeFKotvas, the only social media I like – Short & to the point!
God Bless,
Bro. Joe & Lisa,
Joseph, Julianne, James, Jared, Judson,
Joy, John, Joel, Jessica, Jennifer
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Dear Friends and Family,
Mark 7:37 states “he hath done all things well…” God does all things well! We are so thankful that He has saved us, and chosen to use us in His ministry.
Efata Baptist Church in Peru was blessed to celebrate its 35th anniversary on the 20th of May. Though we are in the states on Furlough these five months, I was able to fly back and share in this special time. We saw about 5 saved. Praise the Lord for fruit. We really enjoyed Pastor Joel Marsh - Spanish Pastor of Westgate Baptist Church, Tampa, FL and Dr. Bill Schutt - Former Deaf Pastor of First Baptist Church, Hammond, IN, coming down as our special speakers. When we think about the growth that God has given, it reminds us that He is Lord of the harvest and we thank Him for the laborers that He has sent.
Through the vision of a deaf man many years ago, God has worked and continued to bless and has allowed us to build upon this foundation and many deaf and hearing Peruvians have been gloriously saved. We thank God for the faithful Peruvian and American Staff we have laboring with us. Our labor is not in vain because it is in Him.
We ask your prayer for a Peruvian couple, Pastor Henry Vasquez and his wife Mirian. He took a work last January in the jungle of Pucallpa, and did a tremendous job working with the Deaf and hearing. His wife is suffering some very serious health issues, and her doctor said that she should not even be alive, her heart is very weak. We ask that you intercede with us in prayer, that she might be able to get strong enough to have several tumors removed that have caused her much pain. Please pray that God will give her a full recovery, and that they might continue to serve God together if it is His will. They have two teenage children.
The Christian school has had many adjustments to make, yet we have seen more fruit this year alone in families through the labor in this ministry. Over 30 parents have come to know Christ.
We thank God also for the fruit that we see in the children’s home, residential school ministry as well. Over the past four years, we have seen five children adopted into Christian families, and they have experienced a marvelous picture of what God does in our lives when we come to know Christ. We were reminded of this recently when a little girl received a birth certificate, a brand new name, a new life, hope, and joy. The other children are doing well, and we love being able to care for them as God would have us to do, sharing His agape love with them. Laboring, but, NOT in vain.
We thank God for the Pregnancy Crisis Center. We have a couple with their beautiful baby daughter who now are saved, baptized, and worship God with us in Efata Baptist Church, whose newly formed family is a God-given picture of the mystery that is Christ and his church. Praise God for the influence that our Pro Life Center has had, and please pray that God will extend this influence.
Our family is very excited to get back to Peru the 11th of July. These five months have been a great blessing, to be able to visit some of our supporting churches, and present our ministry in some new churches as well. It will be hard to go back without our daughter Julianne, 20, and James, 18 who are staying up in Mukwonago, WI, preparing to go to Baptist College of Ministry this fall. We love them greatly and are glad that they are preparing to serve the Lord.
Joseph, our oldest has decided to come down with us to Peru to work a 2 year internship in Efata. He graduated with honors in May from College and is excited about coming down and doing hands on in our Christian Deaf School, and with the young people in the church. Our other children have enjoyed their travels in the USA but are all looking forward to getting back.
I have taken the plunge into this new modern social networking world. I now have a twitter account and you can follow me at @JoeFKotvas. Efata Ministries has a Facebook page at Efata Ministries. It is updated fairly regularly but mostly in Spanish. However, there are always pictures being posted so you can see what’s going on.
Thank you all once again for your care for us and the ministry of God in which we are privileged to serve.
Blessings to all,
Joe & Lisa
Joseph, Julianne, James, Jared, Judson,
Joy, John, Joel, Jessica, Jennifer
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We had a WONDERFUL church anniversary the 20th of May. The Lord blessed, and we saw five souls saved last Sunday. We had three days of preaching with Joel Marsh and Bill Schutt. Many people’s lives were touched by the messages. Our staff did a tremendous job. We thank God for blessing Efata Baptist Church, and we pray that He will continue to bless and use Efata until His coming!
Ephesians 5:25b: Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it.
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This has been a very busy time for us, both at Efata and now as we are in the States until July, reporting in many of our supporting churches and presenting the work in Peru to several new churches.
In January we had our Fires of Evangelism conference. This year, the focus was on the family - and what a conference it was! Many good decisions were made and several received Christ as Savior. In February we had several meetings with the Ministry of Education to help collaborate on Deaf education here in Peru. These meetings were positive but we still need much prayer for this country in this area. We have 5 new students in the school which started again in March. Pray for them and their families!
On Feb. 18th, we arrived back in the States and hit the ground running. We truly enjoyed spending a few days with our Pastor and home church. We love our church and are so thankful for our pastor and his tremendous help as we prepared to come to the States for this furlough.