February 2004 Prayer Letter

Dear Supporters and Friends,

Thank you so much for your care and prayers for our family. This has been an incredible last two months. We are now on furlough with a goal of raising needed support for our family and ministry. Please feel free to contact us at (618)410-1756 or jkotvas@efata.org. We would love to hear from you. Pastors, if you would like to schedule us for a meeting, please contact me and we will be happy to do so.

The Family-NEW BABY!

December 30, 2003 at 5:16pm, John Philip Kotvas was born. Mother and son are doing great (so are dad and siblings!) What a great gift from the Lord. See our website www.efata.org for a few pictures! Our first week back, mom and the children were sick with colds and fevers. That was to be expected, coming from summertime Lima to wintertime Georgia. All are well now and thankfully, John wasn’t affected.

Support Address Change

Please do not forget to send support through Macedonia World Baptist Missions. The address is at the bottom and to the right. You can also send it through my home church Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ft. Myers, FL. The church address is at the bottom of this letter. The transition from H.E.L.P. Ministries has been extremely smooth. Pastor Reynolds and the staff of H.E.L.P.s have been wonderful and extremely helpful to us during this process. Macedonia has welcomed us like family and we are thankful for both organizations and all they are doing for the cause of Christ and missions throughout the world.

End of Year Information

2003 was a great year with many deaf and hearing saved, baptized, and being discipled. Efata sent out its first church supported missionary in March, Jorge Pozo, to the city of Ayacucho, We also started a new church for the hearing in Efata Baptist Church, Callao with Rubén Effio, a national pastor. Several new children came into the home and we were able to complete some of our needed construction projects.

2004 started with our Second Annual Missions Conference. Missionary Reed Condra with Silent Word Ministries preached. He did a tremendous job. Our faith promise is S/. 7086.00 ($2036.00) for 2004. Please pray that the Deaf will trust God to provide. We had two deaf saved and five baptized during the week and it was an exciting time. Our challenge this year is to “Press toward the mark”!

Efata Ministries Land Update

Thank the Lord we are nearing the end of the struggle for the land where Efata Ministries is located. We have been working on this for years. According to our lawyer, it will cost us about $20,000 to purchase the land. Once the agency responsible for this informs us of the actual price, we will have 90 days to raise the money to purchase it. If we do not, the land will stay with the government and will make our possession more complicated. Efata has been in our current location for over 30 years. Once we have the official offer from the government, we will formally request a reduction in this valuation. Please pray that we will be successful in this.

New Missionary Help

Please pray for Shane and Kathy Rice. They are filling in for us while we are on Furlough. Working with the Deaf is new to them. They are doing a great job. If you go to our website, you will see a link to theirs. Please get to know this wonderful young family.

Baptist Camp for World Evangelism

Baptists Committed to World Evangelism; a team of like-minded Fundamental Baptist missionaries and pastor all over the world with whom I have the honor of working; are having the Baptist Camp for World Evangelism June 7th - 11th in Trenton, GA. This is for seniors in high-school and college students who would like to commit their lives to world evangelism. BCWE’s goal is to reach the world with the Gospel in our generation. If you know of a young adult who would be interesting in a one-week missions intensive camp designed to challenge young people for the cause of world-wide missions, please contact me and I will get the information to you or go to www.bcwe.org and click on the “camp” link.

God bless you all and once again, thank you for praying and giving that we might work together to forward the work of God among the Deaf of the world in OUR generation!

In Christ’s Service – To Peru

Joe & Lisa
Joseph, Julianne, James, Jared, Judson, Joy, John