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March - May 2009
Dear Partners in Prayer,
"A man’s heart deviseth his
way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Proverbs
16:9). We can and do make our plans, but the Lord
has the last word. He wants us to trust Him and not
try to figure things out by ourselves and He
promises to direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The Lord has brought many things to pass in our
lives since our last letter. We had hoped to get a
letter to you since March, but at times the changes
made it difficult to write. Our situation is much
more settled now and it is a joy to write and share
with you what the Lord has done!
It has been very encouraging to see how the Lord
works things out for us even when we don’t do the
right things. It’s not that we try to do the wrong
things, but life goes that way sometimes. For
example, as you remember, the last time we wrote, we
were living in Miraflores. Sometime earlier this
year, Bruce was talking with the fellow who worked
as a go-between us and the lady who owns the
apartment in Miraflores. Either Bruce gave the
fellow the wrong information or the man
misunderstood Bruce, or Bruce simply miscalculated
how long we would need this apartment. Anyway, it
turned out that the owner of the apartment had
rented it to someone else starting in April, but we
were still going to need a place to live in Lima. We
received this information early in March, but we
really didn’t have time to look for another
apartment since we were still in school, and the
apartment we already had was as cheap as we could
find where we didn’t feel overly cramped. We
mentioned this situation in prayer to our home
church family and, of course, the other BMM
missionaries here in Lima knew of our need.
The Lord provided for us in a very special way. The
BMM missionaries had planned a potluck for Friday,
March 13th. We had thought about not going because
language school was keeping us busy, but decided to
attend anyway. That night at the potluck, John Poe,
the missionary who helped orientate us to Lima
mentioned to Debbie that something happened earlier
that day that had never happened before at Fetzer
Memorial Christian Academy. Fetzer is the BMM school
for the children of missionaries who live in Lima
and many of the BMM Lima missionaries are teachers
at the school. John shared that a lady had come to
the school that afternoon, mentioned that she had an
apartment for rent and wanted to know if they knew
of anyone who needed an apartment! The apartment was
furnished, something hard to find in La Molina, the
district of Lima where the school is located. The
owner of the apartment wanted Barb Perrine, who is
another BMM missionary and the administrator of the
school for this academic year, to go right then and
see the apartment. Barb did and we were able to see
the apartment later that night. Long story short, we
moved into the new apartment on Saturday, March
28th. The apartment was brand-new, so new, that it
did not have telephone and Internet service
installed. It has three bedrooms, just like the
apartment did in Miraflores. We see this move as a
stepping stone to get us prepared to live in
Urubamba. La Molina doesn’t have the hustle and
bustle of Miraflores, but it isn’t as rural as
Urubamba. Since this area is less congested with
traffic, Jonathan has the freedom to go for walks as
he pleases, something he could not do in Miraflores.
Joshua and Josiah have also adjusted to living in La
Molina, although for them it is not nearly as
interesting as Miraflores. Josiah loves to
skateboard and has made some friends here as a
result. Joshua and Josiah have taken buses to
Miraflores and back for visits. Another advantage of
living here is that we are much closer to most of
the other BMM Lima missionaries and to Fetzer. When
we lived in Miraflores, it took a good 45 minutes by
taxi to get to La Molina, so our contact with the
others was pretty much limited to special trips.
Now, Fetzer is a 5-minute walk from our apartment.
We had hoped to be finished with our formal language
learning the early part of April, but the BMM
missionaries in Urubamba thought we should look into
getting more schooling. Initially, this idea didn’t
set that well with Bruce, who wanted to press on to
move up to Urubamba and start getting involved with
the radio ministry. However, the Lord used the open
door to getting the apartment in La Molina to help
him see that it was God’s plan that we study more.
John and Debbie Poe had studied with a tutor, Zulema,
after they came to Peru for their first term of
service and they recommended her highly. She has
been a tutor for over 25 years and has taught scores
of missionaries. We finished our classes at El Sol,
the language school, on April 3rd and started
classes with Zulema on April 14th. She is a
believer. She is teaching us Spanish grammar and
conversation, which includes having Bruce read and
discuss items from the Bible, and having Debbie
learn terminology and phrases of interest to a
homemaker. Zulema is helping to fine-tune our
Peruvian-style Spanish. Jon is also picking us some
Spanish as he listens when she teaches.
The Lord has also helped us as we travelled by bus a
couple of times by bus between Miraflores and La
Molina. When we had trouble finding our way, He
always provided the help we needed to get to our
destination and back. We have been very conscious of
God’s guiding hand during the last three months!
We celebrated Jonathan’s 11th birthday on March 20th
by going bowling and having cake and ice cream.
Thanks to those of you who sent cards.
A huge answer to prayer is the sale of the former
house where we lived in Xenia! The Lord sent along a
buyer and the closing was held April 20th. Thanks so
much for your prayers on this issue. We are thankful
and relieved to have the sale behind us and we
appreciate the help of folks at Grace Baptist in
Cedarville, OH, who worked in our behalf to get this
done!
Speaking of Grace Baptist, the church had a special
offering around Thanksgiving last year, called the
Harvest Offering. Some of the funds from this
offering went to buy an expensive piece of test
equipment for Radio Chaski. We had wanted to get the
equipment down here for a while, but working out the
logistics took some time. A former BMM missionary
here in Peru was able to bring the equipment down
from the United States in mid-April, but it was held
up in customs. A Peruvian who works with the radio
ministry in Urubamba came to Lima to help get the
equipment out of customs and Bruce made several
trips by taxi to and from the airport over about a
week’s time. The Lord ultimately gave the victory
and we are convinced that it was because of the
prayers of God’s people. We have heard that some
missionaries here that had things shipped ultimately
gave up on the customs process and had their things
returned from where they were shipped. We’re keeping
the equipment with us until we head up to the Cusco
area, which now looks to be sometime in late August
or early September.
Another answer to prayer is regarding the boys’
visas. We had thought we would need to cross the
border into Ecuador or Chile and re-enter Peru to
get the visas, but the laws here apparently changed.
The Monday following the move to the new apartment,
Bruce and the boys went to Immigrations and returned
with the visas. Thank you, Lord!
We ask you to thank the Lord for the opportunities
He gave us to be a testimony for Him to teachers and
other students while we were in Miraflores and while
we went to school at El Sol. We made a lot of
friends at the school. Half of our classes were
communication classes and many of the topics were
controversial. We were able to share what the Bible
has to say about some of these things. Bruce was
able to give copies of Bibles in Spanish to his
barber, Juan, to Gloria, a retired literature
teacher whom he met walking home from language
school, and to Alberto, a handicapped fellow in a
wheelchair, Bruce met in front of a supermarket near
the apartment where we used to live. Please pray
that the Lord will use His Word in their lives. We
are thankful for the Lord directing us to Miraflores
and for the opportunities He gave us there, but we
are glad to be where He has us now.
Here are some other items for prayer:
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Bruce’s
aunt, Sue Maddux, was recently diagnosed with
stage III/stage IV ovarian cancer. The cancer
has spread to the liver. She started
chemotherapy and has a peace that God is in
control of her and the situation. She has been
able to share her testimony and the gospel with
a number of people. Pray for her to continue to
be a testimony for Christ and that His will be
done in her life.
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Debbie’s
dad, Bob Mowrey, as he has had high blood but
now it is extremely low. He is seeing a doctor
to try to regulate his blood pressure. You may
remember he had successful surgery January 26 on
his leg to improve blood circulation. Please
continue to pray for the salvation of Debbie’s
dad, and mom, Lois.
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That the
Lord would give us opportunities to build
relationships with people here in La Molina.
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For all of
us as we continue to learn Spanish: Bruce and
Debbie as they study with Zulema, and for
Joshua, Josiah and Jonathan as they pick up
Spanish by watching TV, at church and as we
speak it at home. We are all coming along, but
we can always learn more.
We hope you’ve been encouraged
as we’ve shared these answers. Thanks for thinking
of us and remembering us in prayer!
Sincerely in Christ,
Bruce, Debbie, Joshua, Josiah, and Jonathan Maddux
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
Field Address: Casilla 138, La Molina Lima 12, Peru
011-51-1-368-5495 (international from the US)
(937) 919-5231 (domestic from the US)
brucendebbie87@gmail.com
Sending Church: Grace Baptist
Church, PO Box 12, Cedarville, OH 45314
(937) 766-2391
gracecedarville.org
Station Information: Radio
Chaski 5980 kHz SW and 630 kHz AM Radio Mensajero
94.9 MHz FM, Calle Belén 600, Urubamba, Cusco-Perú
http://home.att.net/~greatcommission/RadioChaski/
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