September Prayer Letter

Hello again! I hope all of you are doing well!
Lately, time has been flying by (as usual). I recently finished my History of Latin America class. It was really interesting learning about some of the history of the people here in Peru. I hope that I will be able to understand them and their culture better. We have one class left, and that is Personal Evangelism in a Hispanic Culture. This class is all in Spanish, including the lectures, so pray that we will be able to understand well. Pray that this class would help us prepare to share the Gospel effectively.
This next week, the ARRIBA! Group will be traveling eight hours up north to spend a week in Trujillo. We will be presenting a program in schools for the children. This program consists of a couple of songs, a couple of skits, an object lesson, and a personal testimony. Our main focus is that salvation is not by works, because most of the people we are speaking to are Catholics. I am giving a short personal testimony in the program, so please pray that I won’t forget the words when I get in front of everyone! Also, please pray that God would soften the kids and teachers towards the message of the Gospel, and that He would speak through us. Also, you can pray for our safety as we make the trip up there and back. We will be traveling all night on Saturday night to get there. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach a lot of people, so please remember to keep us in your prayers all week long.
I am still working with the kids in the Chispitas Sunday School class. I find myself loving them more every Sunday that I am with them. I might be able to teach a lesson in a couple of Sundays, so I am excited about that.
I have had the chance to share the Gospel with Noemi. She is a very strong Catholic and she is getting ready for her first communion and things so she is studying a lot. She is a very firm believer in the Catholic beliefs and she knows a lot. Pray that I will have more opportunities to talk to her about Christ and salvation. We are becoming better friends, so this may open up more opportunities for me to share with her. She has come to the church youth group several times and she is very interested in learning English.
The church choir had the chance to travel several hours up to Chancay a couple of weeks ago. We sang for the 14th anniversary of a Baptist church up there. It was great to see another church excited about God. Pastor Manolo, the pastor of the church in Chancay, and his wife were very generous and they were a blessing to me.
This past Saturday we had a special event for the kids of Musa. We had songs and a lesson and refreshments. We were hoping for fifty kids to come, but over eighty showed up. Praise the Lord! We were able to share the Gospel with the kids from around town that we had invited. The event went well and we were able to make connections with more people in Musa and the surrounding areas.
There is a family that lives in Manchay, the town up the mountain from Musa, and they are having some problems with their son. Please pray for them. This past Saturday Seth and I went up to visit him and his cousin, and his mom told us that he had left the night before and hadn’t returned home. To spare some of the details, he showed up the next day. They have had problems with him when he was younger, but things got better after he accepted Christ as his Savior. Pray that he would want to follow God and that he would realize that a godly life is better than the other alternative he has. Pray that the parents would have the wisdom and the love for him that they need.
Just a few days ago, the ARRIBA! Group was shopping for several things for our trip to Trujillo and Annette and I stayed after for a little while. To make a long story short, while riding the bus we ended up about forty minutes past the place where we were supposed to get off. When we found this out we weren’t really sure what to do, but the cobrador, the man who works on the bus, helped us out. While we were waiting to get off in a safe part of the district we were in, we decided to make good use of our time. We got up and gave every person on the bus a tract. We were able to hand out many tracts in many different places on our little adventure. This was a nice reminder to me that serving God is fun, and that He used our mistake to give us a great opportunity to spread His Gospel!
I am becoming better friends with the people in my church here in Musa, and slowly but surely my Spanish is coming. Please continue to pray for my learning in that area, because I would like to be able to share the Gospel clearly and be an encouragement (not only by my actions but also by my words) to the believers and missionaries here.
I am learning more and more that God is my stronghold, and the One that I can count on fully! Many times I am just plain worn out, mentally, physically, and emotionally. It is such an encouragement to remember that God is my strength. He is also teaching me that He is my strength and my joy during the good times in life, not just the hard! The other day I was feeling overwhelmed by many things, and I read Psalm 34. What a wonderful chapter! I love verse 8. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” God is good, all the time. I need Him just as much when the times are good as when things are hard or frustrating!
Thank you for all your prayers and support. All of your prayers make such a difference, and you all are taking part in the ministry down here! Thank you!
Prayer Requests:
*Programs next week in Trujillo
*Sunday School and Kid’s clubs
*Pastor Evelio’s wife- she has been having health problems
*A house for Pastor Evelio and his family
*The rest of my financial support to come in, I am still short several thousand
*Opportunities to witness to Noemi
*Language learning

In Christ’s Love,
Crystal Barringer
Psalm 34