Faith Story - Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey

Challenge: Use this May 09 letter as a prayer guide for missionaries Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey, Huancayo, Perú

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord Jesus Christ for all He is doing in our lives and in the ministry here in Peru, for filling us with His Holy Spirit to guide and direct each of our steps, and for pouring out His grace upon us...

In April, Billy, Genaro, and Arthur traveled to Panao to make preparations for the upcoming medical campaign that will take place in July. A team from Asbury United Methodist Church in Kentucky will be coming to work with us on this project. Panao is a small town in the middle of the Pachatea region outside of Huanuco. The people of this area are Quechua Panao speakers. We currently have ten to twelve discipleship groups functioning in this area, and the ministry is growing. We have been working to translate the discipleship materials to the Panao dialect, and hope to have the first small book ready for use in this medical campaign. This is very important because the Bible has not yet been published in this language, and is due to be released in late 2009 or early 2010.

These medical campaigns require months of planning, but always result in a great harvest. We are expecting to treat between 1500 and 2000 patients, and based on past experience we expect to see around 500 or more professions of faith. Three churches in Panao and the discipleship groups will all be involved in the event and the follow up of these new believers. Please be in prayer for us for everything to be planned and in place for this event, and for the Lord Jesus’ will to be done. Please pray that God will prepare the hearts of the people in Panao to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord. Please also pray for our local workers in Panao: Manuel Villar, Pablo Villogas, and Edmin Leon.

We were also blessed to have John Pearson, and Chris and Angela Mitchell from Roswell United Methodist Church with us to conduct a workshop on micro enterprise. We taught 13 students the basic concepts for analyzing a micro business idea, writing a business plan, and starting and running a small business. A number of the students were some of our national missionary workers. We are hoping that this will help them to find ways to sustain themselves in the ministries in their respective areas. Three of our national workers are already involved with us in two small businesses. One is a restaurant in Lima, and the other is the soft drink bottling plant in Puerto Bermudez. Please be in prayer for each of these students, that the Lord Jesus would lead them and guide them though this process, and that he would bless them with means to support themselves in the ministry.

Pastor Alberto, Karen, Arthur, and Mary Alice held another leadership retreat for the discipleship leaders in San Ramon. The participants received the teaching well, and seemed to grow in their relationship with the Lord. They were excited about continuing the work of discipleship. Please pray God will give wisdom to these leaders as they lead their discipleship groups, and that Christ will change the lives of each person involved in the groups.

Please give praise to the Lord for bringing us additional persons called to be part of the missionary team in Peru. Covenant with us to continue in prayer for the young adult leadership team and their continued ministry to the spiritually lost and dying youth of Huancayo. Please pray for the leaders of the churches in Peru, and for their spiritual protection and growth in the Lord Jesus. Also be in prayer for Billy and Laurie Drum, Ash and Audra McEuen, Martin and Tracy Reeves, Louise Reimer, and their families. All are missionaries with the Mission Society that currently or will soon be working in Peru. Pray also for Obed and Cynthia Alvarez, the head of NEWMA, as well as their other leaders and national missionaries. Please pray for our safety as we travel, and that we will boldly speak God's Word wherever we go.

We pray that Jesus will continue to give you hope to live each day for Him, and we also pray that God is drawing you closer and closer to Him every day. God bless you. We love you.

Yours in Christ,

Arthur, Mary Alice, Benjamin, Joshua, and Mary Beth Ivey

Write for a picture and prayer card of the Ivey family: The Mission Society Missionaries to Peru, P.O. Box 922637 Norcross, Georgia 30010-2637

"Take the teachings that you heard me proclaim in the presence of many witnesses, and entrust them to reliable people, who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:2 (Today’s English Version)

The Privileged Planet

Recently I watched The Privileged Planet. Contemporary scientists, were challenging the so called scientific theories of the past that the earth is just an insignificant planet rotating around an insignificant star. They concluded that all the present day knowledge of the earth and the universe reveals that the earth is uniquely placed in the universe by an intelligence for a purpose. Therefore, I want to share their conclusions.

There is an opinion, common among purely secular scientists, that our earthly existence is not only rather ordinary, but in fact, insignificant and purposeless. An accomplished astronomer, the late Carl Sagan, typifies this view in his book '"Pale Blue Dot". He took the position that a space photo, showing the reflection of sunlight on the earth, making the earth seeming to be sitting in a beam of light, can be misinterpreted as if there were some special significance to this small world. Dr. Sagan, momentarily stepped outside his scientific discipline, to say that a photo of the earth sitting in a beam of light is just an accident of geometry and optics. "Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe", was challenged by Dr. Sagan( Sagan, Carl,1994. "Pale Blue Dot": New York: Random House). He claimed our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint('except in Biblical revelation, such as the star of Bethlehem', -this writer's observation ) that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. However some present day scientists, sharing their expertice on The Privileged Planet documentary say "unprecedented scientific knowledge acquired in the last century, enabled by equally unprecedented technological achievements, when properly interpreted, contributes to a deeper appreciation of the earth's place in the cosmos."

In The Privileged Planet modern day scientists explore a striking feature of the natural world. A feature as widely grounded in the evidence of nature as it is wide-ranging in its implications: the conditions that allow for intelligent life on earth also make it strangely well suited for viewing and analyzing the universe. The fact that our atmosphere is clear; that our moon is just the right size and distance from earth, and that its gravity stabilizes the earth’s rotation; that our position in our galaxy is just so; that our sun is its precise mass and composition: all of these factors (and many more), are not only necessary for earth’s habitability; they also have been surprisingly crucial for scientists to measure and make discoveries about the universe.

According to the producers of The Pivileged Planet, "Mankind is unusually well positioned to decipher the cosmos. To put it more technically, 'measurability' seems to correlate with habitability. But is this correlation between the existence of complex life and our ability to make scientific discoveries simply a coincidence or the result of blind chance? Or does it point to a deeper explanation? The Privileged Planet examines these questions in a remarkable search for evidence of design and purpose within the universe. Utilizing stunning computer animation and the visual archives of NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope Institute, the European Space Agency, and leading observatories throughout the world, the program present a spectacular view of our planet, galaxy, and the entire cosmos."

Scriptural Guide: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were created by the Word and without the Word was not anything made...and the Word became flesh and lived amoung us."(John 1:1, 14).