October 9, 2006 Arequipa, Peru Wrap Up

Who says you can't have fun on the mission field? Here Dorothy Quijada, one of our e3 Partners leaders in Peru, and I sport some new headwear given to us as gifts by one of our campaigners. Nice look don't you think?

It was another blessed week in the mission field. We saw the Lord take care of all the details. We saw Him work powerfully through the pastors and leaders in Arequipa. We saw both North American campaigners and residents of Arequipa changed by the awesome power of the Gospel.

A few specifics.

Logistics-Our entire Louisville team gets stuck in Atlanta for an extra day, makes it to Arequipa on their own (without bags) in time to serve, and the bags (with all of their clothes and ministry supplies) make it the very next day. (A couple of years ago the bags did not get to Arequipa until after the campaign was over.)

God's Sovereignty-Teams were assigned to the exact areas where they were needed. One team, husband and wife, married for 47 years, were placed in an area where the pastor and his wife along with several church members were having marital issues. Our campaigners were able to encourage them with their secrets to a long and joyful marriage.

God's Sovereignty #2-We had a Lutheran church participate for the first time in one of our campaigns. The Pastor of this church had been praying that the team assigned to him would be a conservative team (either Baptist or Lutheran). The team assigned to his area was made up of Baptists, one of whom grew up Lutheran.

(FYI, none of these facts or needs are known by us as we assign teams. We just trust God as we take the next team and the next site on the list and put them together.

Health-Only one campaigner was sick and only out for two ministry days.

Healing-A man asks our team to read the Bible to him as no one has done this for him for 10 years since his wife died. The next day the team returns to read some more and the man, crippled, tells the team that he walked around the block for the first time in 10 years.

Evangelism, Discipleship and Church Planting-The Lord blessed us by allowing us to see nearly 500 professions of faith during the week, but more importantly, nearly 400 discipleship lessons were started with those 500 new believers. 5 new churches were started and 8 baby churches were strengthened.

Thank you for all of your prayers during the week. I served on a team which kept me very busy from 7am to 9pm. Then I had to do my real job in the remaining hours. Busy, yes. But as I have told some of you, what a blessing it was for me to be a campaigner again. Many times as the leader, I miss out on developing the relationships with the pastors and leaders. This trip, I left a part of me in the field with Pastor Eusebio, Hugo, Teofana, Nathali, Able, Gilka, Jorge and many others. Even though I was unable to send you specific requests due to my schedule, your prayers for us made a huge difference.

September 6, 2006 Yaviza, Panama the End of the Road

The Lord blessed me in a very special way this week in the Panamanian jungle. The Vegas and I left Panama City early Sunday morning for Yaviza, a small city at the end of the Panamanian highway. 1/3 of the 8 hour journey by 4 wheel drive truck was on pavement, 1/3 on dirt and rock, and 1/3 in the mud. However, what we found in Yaviza made the trip well worth the effort.

While much more investigation and research is required, we believe we may have found an indigenous church planting movement underway. We were the guests of Pastor Remigio Moran and his wife Vilka. As we sat in their home on the banks of the Chucunaque River, Pastor Remigio described what was happening in the surrounding jungle. Pastor Moran had planted and was overseeing 16 churches located up one of four different rivers branching off the Chucunaque. All of these had been planted in the last 5 years. Other pastors at our church planting conference shared similar stories, stories multiple church plants resulting in healthy churches.

While I have read about church planting movements, I have never seen one with my own eyes. As we began the church planting conference, I felt inadequate. What could I or the Vegas possible teach a group of pastors that was already doing the job of planting churches? Or worse, would we do or say something that would slow or damage the work they were already doing?

So I asked these questions of Pastor Remigio. His answers as well as all the details of this amazing discover will follow in a newsletter that I am currently drafting. Look for that in the next couple days.

September 1, 2006 The Young Men of the Red Zone

This morning before we began our church planting conference in Panama City, we went out to an area of the city called Pedregal. Specifically, into an area called the "Red Zone."
Last year, e3´s former president and now Prosper, Texas pastor, Phil Hamblin, led a team of hearty high school students to help strengthen one of the churches in this community of 20,000 residents. Now we are back to follow up. We were accompanied on our tour by Alex from Iglesia Roca Eterna (Church of the Eternal Rock). We were met by the three young in the picture above (Gaspar, Alberto, Alberto and Alex from the church). They shared with us their hopelessness. There is no work and no hope for work. Crime is how they stay alive. Sports are their only distraction.

We shared with these young men our desire to help including our plans to help clear a field (currently a dump) and create a soccer field. We shared our plans to return and share the good news of Jesus Christ with the residents of the Red Zone. Alex shared how the church was training its members in the skills of plumbing and masonary. Alex invited them to come and check out a service tonight at the church. Moises and I shared the Gospel and prayed for these boys. Would you join us in praying for these guys?

We then went to visit Mario (seen above at his work as a barber). Mario is recognized, feared and respected by all in the Red Zone. We introduced ourselves and described our hopes and plans for the area. Mario shared his desire to provide hope and a future for the young men there. We shared our desire to introduce each resident to a saving relationship with the Lord. Mario was in full agreement. We left knowing we had an allie for the upcoming campaign next February.

August 28, 2006 New Territory-Darien, Panama

On Thursday, I will join Panama National Directors Moises and Talsy Vega in exploring the remote province of Darien, Panama. Located in southeastern Panama, Darien represents a new unreached area for our ministry. The city of Yavisa, where we are heading, sits at the very end of the Panamerican highway. If you have three or four weeks, you can drive on this road all the way to Texas. As you can see from the blue dots on the map, e3 Partners has done extensive work in Western Panama but none in the east. Recently, the Lord opened the door to some relationships with leaders in Darien. September 4 & 5 we will be meeting these leaders and conducting a church planting conference.

Please pray for discernment for the Vegas and me as we evalaute the ministry opportunities. If it is the Lord's will, we will be back in Darien with an extreme church planting team next March.

August 7, 2006 Mt Misti Climb

The picture you see above is the rim of the crater at the top of Mt Misti with the summit rising above and to the left of the crater. I took this picture at 10:30 am CDST on Friday of last week, lying under a rock in the fetal position at 18,360 feet. I was there because I was too exhausted and too unstable to safely get up and/or go any further. My position is about 200 vertical meters (650 feet) short of the summit. That is as far as I would go on this trip. My buddy Kipp was able to get to the rim of the crater about 100 meters further up while I slept up against a rock and prayed I would not roll all the way to the bottom. (Come to think of it, that would have been an easier ride down the mountain.)

We knew we were in trouble on Thursday afternoon when we reached base camp (4500 meters, 14,764 feet) exhausted. But we could still breathe. At least, that is, until the sun went down. Then the temperature dropped from 55 degrees to 15 degrees. The pressure changed. The oxygen thinned. It was a very difficult situation.

The plan was to sleep from 6:30 pm until 1:30 am, arise, drink some tea, and head to the summit. At 9:30 pm we had not slept at all, I was struggling, and Kipp was starting to show some of the signs of serious altitude sickness. When he asked me to wake up our guide and start heading down the mountain, I knew it was bad. I had been prescribed a type of steriod for this specific problem. Kipp took them and was asleep in 5 minutes.

At 1:30 am, our guide awoke and told us to get ready to climb. I told him we were going down, not up. When Kipp said he was feeling better and thought he could go on, I almost feel off the mountain. Anyway, we decided to sleep 2 more hours and reevaluate.

3:30 am came. We got up and headed up the mountain in the dark. Altough more dangerous in the dark, the benefit to us was we could only see our next step. That made the 2.5 hours until sunrise much easier. (I think there is a lesson there. God only allows us to see the next step or two, but promises that every step will be for the good of those that love him.)

By 6 am, the sun was coming up and the challenge grew. Each step was a struggle either because of the difficult rock formations we were climbing through, or worse, because of the deep volcanic ashe which had the effect pf sliding back one half step for each uphill step taken.

I will spare you the step by step details for now. However, without question, this climb was by far the most difficult physical and mental challenge of both our lives. Thank you all for your prayers during the 11.5 hours of hiking up, our night of camping at 4500 meters, and our 3 hour slide down the ashe and sandy lava flows.

August 7, 2006 e3 Church Planting Conference in Arequipa

It was a real privilege to return for the third year to the city of Arequipa, Peru to work with pastors and church leaders with a vision for church planting. Arequipa is a strategic city (second largest in Peru) and could provide the people that God will use to reach southern Peru and beyond. Arequipa and the state of Texas share a common characteristic, they both half-jokingly claim to be independent Republics!

The pastors and leaders we found at the e3 Church Planting Conference this year included many familiar faces. These pastors continue to pursue the planting of new churches. Pastor Javier Berrios, newly appointed as the e3 mobilizer for Arequipa and surrounding area (and pictured above with my partner Kipp Cheek) has already made an impact on the indigenous church planting work that is happening in southern Peru. We heard about plans for missionaries from Arequipa going out to nearby states to work with local churches in those areas to plant churches. Under Pastor Javier's leadership and working with my long-time friends Alejo and Dorothy Quijada, we believe that God will work in a mighty way before, during and after the September 29th e3 Church Planting Mission trip. The Lord has already provided 23 North Americans for this trip (and still there's room for more!).

A healing miracle was documented during the conference. An elderly woman, Josefa, wife of a pastor in Arequipa, approached our national director Dorothy Quijada at our lunch break on day two. She said that the Lord had directed her to Dorothy. She began to share the tragic story of her life. Raped as a child by a relative. Physically abused by her husband during the early years of their marriage. Then, the salvation of both her and her husband. Him going on to become a pastor. Although the abuse stopped after their conversions, she had being experiencing horrific physical pain (headaches, ear troubles and joint aches) for nearly 50 years. (I watched the woman nearly fall to the ground from pain early in the conference while simply trying to sit down in her chair.)

Dorothy was led by the Holy Spirit to have this woman pray to forgive those that had hurt her in the past. Then she instructed the woman to pray for her own forgiveness for the anger she felt towards her abusers. Josefa prayed passionately and tearfully for those things. In the middle of the prayer she stopped suddenly and shouted, "I'm Healed!" I watched her move around the rest of the conference, pain free. Praise God for healing the woman, but also praise Him for showing us what a powerful and detrimental force resentment can be in our lives.

July 24, 2006 An Adventure in Arequipa, Peru

My partner, Kipp Cheek in the red hat, and I will be traveling to Arequipa, Peru on August 2nd to train the pastors and leaders we will be working with during our upcoming e3 Church Planting campaign later this fall. The latest report from the pastors in Arequipa is that 23 churches will be sending representatives to the training (which could mean 23 churches that want to plant more churches, praise God!). Please pray that:

• the Lord of the Harvest will raise up North American campaigners to go and make disciples and plant churches alongside these Peruvian pastors and leaders,
• the Lord will use both of us (and our National Directors in Peru, Alejo and Dorothy Quijada) to encourage these passionate Gospel workers,
• that the hearts of these pastors and leaders will be open to mobilizing their churches to plant more churches, and
• we will be able to transfer all the ministry of e3 Partners to these pastors and leaders so that they will be able to iginite and maintain a church planting movement in Southern Peru.

For a copy of our daily prayer calendar, click here:

http://www.toddszalkowski.com/uploads/06-07-11_PE6A_LDC_prayer_calendar.pdf

We have one other prayer request. Immediately prior to our training session in Arequipa, Kipp and I will be hiking to the top of the volcano you see pictured above (Mount Misti). Standing a little over 19,000 feet, Misti provides the backdrop for the city of Arequipa (population of roughly 1,000,000). We have been told that it is a moderately difficult hike and that we will be able to complete the climb and descent in less than two days. We are both working to get in shape to survive our little adventure. We would greatly appreciate your prayers.

Remember to check this site http://toddszalkowski.blogspot.com regularly between August 3rd and August 5th for updates, prayer requests and praises.

March 17, 2006 Area Posita (Teaming up with Ron)

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being a campaigner for the day. A couple of our team members returneded home to Dallas a couple days early (as planned) and I was able to fill in. My team leader, Ron, quickly assigned me to the pastor, gave me a translator and off we went to work through discipleship lessons with a few of the residents that had professed Jesus as Lord earlier in the week.

In the photos above, you see Ron leading the children in a discipleship lesson at the evening cell group meeting. Also you see a 13 year old girl, Katherine, who came to the Lord on Monday. Here she is leading her mother, Maria, through a discipleship lesson that she had herself just completed the night before.

Prayers needed for today. The work needs to be fully transitioned to the pàstor and his members today. Saying goodbye will be an emotional experience for the team. Pray fr our campaigners. Finally, pray that many will come out to out closing rally tonight to celebrate what the Lord has done in David this week.

Todd Szalkowski