Dave and Michele Mahon
December 2024
Happy Days Are Here Again
Depending on when you read this, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. As we left Trujillo, many sisters and brothers prayed for us, patted us on the back and expressed their desire to see us again very soon.
We helped our mission team from Trujillo Baptist Seminary to prepare for their second trip this year to teach the Awahun community in Kuyumatak. Dave wrote some teaching material about the ministry of the church in the community and the power of personal testimony. The team are pictured below. Their names (from left to right) are Emil, Yuniled, Horacio, Jenny and Nilton.
Please pray for the team to stay healthy during their time away, and that the Holy Spirit will enable them to be effective in their teaching, evangelism and ministry among the wonderful Pastors, women and children.
In our final week before travelling to England, we visited Chiclayo again, both taught at Emmanuel Church and stayed with Pastor Fernando and his young family.
This is our fifth Home Assignment. It's good to be back again! Seeing family and friends again is such a delight, though the cold is always a shock to the system, as it requires a determined mindset to swing those legs over and leave the warm and comfy duvet in the chilly mornings. Nevertheless, we press on with a smile in the strength that God always provides.
Our son Jonathan's baptism this month is a significant milestone for which we are so thankful. Our faithful God has drawn another one even closer to His heart. This is amazing.
Looking back over the year, we are grateful for the many mercies we have been shown by our gracious God. We have good health, the ministry of BMS continues to move forward in small steps with an even greater emphasis on strengthening what our Peruvian sisters and brothers are doing, and we look forward to a favourable year ahead.
We recently secured some funding for a missions fair organised by our Seminary for the region of La Libertad which will take place in a few weeks' time. At that time, many churches will gather to play sports together, share food, pray and raise money for missions trips to share the good news of Jesus and teach the bible.
The Peruvian Baptist Convention has also recently sent a couple, Francesco and Lili Quispe, to Sao Paolo Brazil to plant a church there among a diaspora group. Would you pray for them as they start off? For favour with the people, good health, stamina, perseverance and good fruit.
We are planning for 4 weekends of training to take place in 2025 at the Nauta Integral Mission Training Centre, with all of them to be supported by local funding and teachers.
Pastor Pepe Flores (pictured in the middle with Dave and a visiting missionary from France called Michael) from the Baptist Convention has also proposed a water filtration project that has the potential to financially support local and national mission. We pray this great idea will develop into a strong pillar for kingdom work here.
The pastors in Loreto are still in need of great prayer support and visits to encourage them in their service to the Lord as they are often pessimistic about their ministry.
'No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.' Philippians 3:13-14, NLT.
May 2025 be a year filled with grace and mercy for you and yours. Thank you for being our backbone! Love from Phoebe, Ruth, Jonathan, Michele and Dave Mahon