FELIZ NAVIDAD!

 "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

Matthew 1:21

Long did the world await His coming. Long did the people of God pine for the promised Seed. Long did we desire the advent of the one who would bring about the kingdom of God. And He has come! And He has risen! Christ came to earth in sinless perfection, lived His life in perfect holiness, gave up perfection to become our sin, and took up perfection once more in His resurrection! Praise the Lord for His salvation all you who believe!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!  We pray that as we join from around the world to celebrate the the birth of our Lord and King, that we all will take the time to remember and rejoice in the salvation that Jesus brings.  

Here in Peru, we will be celebrating in the traditional ways.  On Saturday, we will host a chocolatada in Carhuaquero.  We will serve the customary hot chocolate drink prepared with sweetened condensed milk and Pannettone, a type of sweet bread prepared at Christmas.  We will share with the children the story of God's love for us as he sent his son to be born here on earth!  We will also host a chocolatada at Refugio for our church family and the community of Baños del Inca on December 22nd.   Please pray that many will come with hearts prepared and enjoy a time of rejoicing as we share the gospel message.

BLESSINGS ABOUND!!

Can you think back to a time when you were super-blessed and knew the Lord was in the midst of it?  That's what the month of October was like for us!  It started off with the arrival of a Missions Outreach Team from Calvary Chapel Lima.  This group of people were such an encouragement, example and blessing to all of us.  On Saturday, October 5th, a group of 19 arrived by bus in Cajamarca after a very long 30 hour ride from Lima.  They arrived late in the afternoon and after dinner, they got settled into their living quarters.  We were able to host a large group in our church building, another 6 women stayed with a family from our church, and we were able to have another 4 women stay here in our home.  Cajamarca is NOT known for having hot water showers, so most of the women showered here in our house where we are blessed to have hot water!  After church on Sunday, we joined the group in the Plaza De Armas here in Baños del Inca for outreach and dramas. The hearts of the people here are very open to the Word of God. 

On Monday we went with the team to a government-run orphanage in Cajamarca.  We were totally blessed to be able to spend several hours with these beautiful children.  We are praying that the Lord opens the door that we can visit regularly in the future!

On Thursday we joined the team for a visit to Los Niños del Hogar Santa Dorotea. An incredible time of seeing how God works in the hearts of his children.  And later that evening, we shared an awesome time of pre-service prayer.

Stan shared the Word of God on two of our Thursday night services at Refugio during the month of October.  We were all exhorted to seek the kingdom of God and taught what it takes to see God's glory!

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

We celebrated 2 family birthdays in October.  Caleb turned 11 on October 16 and let's just say that Stacey's birthday was on October 19!!  We are grateful for our children and grandchildren.   "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

Refugio had our first worship night on Tuesday, October 15th!  We were blessed to have Brandy, Amy, and Carlos from the Bible College lead this evening of praise and worship.  We hope to continue gathering together for these special times. 

We have had lots of "firsts" in October.  Jan and Stacey began teaching English on Wednesday nights at Refugio.  Although we were both terrified and feeling very unqualified, we were trusting in the Lord that he would use this opportunity for his glory!  At our second class we had eight students; several of whom we had never met!  The Lord is faithful when we are obedient to his direction.  This is an exciting opportunity to bring people into our church.

Another first was our Monthly Movie Night!  We showed "Facing the Giants" in Spanish on Friday, October 25th.  What a fun night we had watching this movie with such a moving message. 

And lastly, we were invited to two quinceañero celebrations!  We were blessed and humbled to be included in these two family parties.  

Precious in the sight of the Lord

 "At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;"

Our ministry at Matara continues and last week we had 198 kids!  

On Sunday, August 25th, we were blessed to move into our new church building.  We are now able to have our children's ministry in the same location.    The Lord knew our need, as we were filled to overflowing the previous week.  We can now seat 75.  

More new beginnings!  Our newest granddaughter, Arianna Betty, was recently dedicated to the Lord!


“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

And last but certainly not least, the Brower Family arrived in Peru and they are now here with us in Baños Del Inca. We were excited to surprise them and greet them at the airport in Lima. They were expecting to meet our friend Mesod, who would get them to the hostel and help them navigate the paperwork in Lima. But the Lord provided and we were able to go to Lima to meet them and stay with them that first week! They are getting settled here in Baños and Stacey is ready to start homeschooling next week. Yesterday we took them to Santa Apolonia, which overlooks all of Cajamarca. It is said that the Inca king would sit at his throne, the Seat of the Inca, and review his troops and kingdom.

Looking Forward

With the advent of August, The Petrik Family is looking forward with excitement to the arrival of the Brower Family which is now only 12 days away!  Please join us in prayer for the Browers as they finish up last minute details and say good byes to church, family and friends.  We are looking to the Lord with anticipation of new ministry opportunities!

Ryan and Nicole are back home in Baños with Arianna and getting settled in.  Arianna is well loved by her family, never lacking for attention!

We are thankful for the Lord's provision and the leading of the Holy Spirit for our children's ministry in Carhuaquero.  Relationships continue to grow with the children and recently, with the aid of an interpreter (Cynthia Yohanna Burga), Stan taught on Jesus washing the disciples' feet from John 13.  To complete the teaching, he washed each child's feet, explaining the love and servanthood of Jesus and how this is an example and model for each of us.  This was a very powerful lesson and the children all listened closely.

We are also very blessed by the gift of 2 wooden benches from fellow missionaries, 

Sean and Crissy Heath http://www.heathfamilyjustlovejesus.blog.  

What this means is that our kids won't have to sit on the ground.  They will have a place to sit during the teaching, and they can use the benches as a table during the coloring/craft time.  We are blessed to see different ministries working together here in Cajamarca  for the kingdom of God!  

Please join us in prayer and anticipation as we plan to open our new church location on 
August 25th.  We are so blessed to be able to have our church and children's Sunday School now in one location.  The remodeling has been ongoing since May and is just wrapping up.  We just put up the Refugio Iglesia Cristiana Calvary Chapel sign yesterday!!  

Prayer and Praise for August:  praise for our new location and the new ministry we trust the Lord to bring, praise for the Brower Family's arrival, praise for the gift of benches for Carhuaquero, praise for our new granddaughter, Arianna, now being home here in Baños.  Please pray for health, continued language acquisition, new ministry opportunities as we will now have more servants.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support which is vital to our ministry.  We rejoice that we can partner together in the work the Lord is doing here in Cajamarca!

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."  -  Galatians 6:9

REJOICING!

Our hearts are rejoicing as we thank the Lord for the birth of our 6th grandchild.  Arianna Betty Petrik was born on June 25 at 3:14 pm.  She is "Itty Bitty" as her mommy and daddy call her (4.2 lbs and 17 inches).  Please join us in prayer; that the Lord would have her grow and thrive.  

Jan is now an official resident of Peru.  We went to Lima in late June and picked up her carnet.  So blessed and happy to have this done now.  Nicole was in Lima preparing for Arianna's arrival when we went down and because the baby needed to be born and the doctor would be inducing, Ryan came down also.  We all laughed and asked the question:  how can all four adult Petriks be in Lima and all three children are home in Baños?  Thankful for Mariel Huanay Figueroa and Deborah Troncoso who took good care of the ninos.  Mariel and Deborah are living with our family through July, ministering with us here and we have so enjoyed getting to know these young women.  Ryan, Nicole and Arianna will be returning home on July 21.  We are so looking forward to holding baby Arianna.

We are counting the weeks now until the Brower Family joins us.  Six more weeks and they will arrive in Lima.  Our household will grow to include 6 adults, 6 children and 3 dogs!  Never a dull moment!  We are looking ahead to what the Lord has in store and humbled to be a part of His work here.

We continue to unpack the boxes from our crate.  Our puppets have been unpacked and we had our first puppet show at PorCon with 25 children.  Stan will be building a portable stage that can be packed and carried to Matara, Carhauquero and others.  Thank you Calvary Chapel Santa Cruz for providing this great tool!

Please continue to join us in prayer for the Lord's leading in our ministry, health, language, and that our church family at Refugio will grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Do you ever feel that time just flies?  We sure are feeling that way!  It's hard to believe that we have now been in Peru for 2 1/2 months.  We have seen the Lord provide in so many ways and He has been faithful and sustained us when we are weak.  We continue to minister twice a month in the village of Carhuaquero which sits in a beautiful location at 12,000 feet.  And we have been blessed to join another missionary family, Sean-Crissy Heath, each Wednesday afternoon in Matara.  It is amazing as we drive into town, as the van driver honks his horn and the children run out.  Last week there were about 100 children.  Now that the rainy season is ending, we meet at a soccer field where we play with the kids for about half an hour.  We then have a time of worship, Bible lesson and a nutritious snack.  This week the girls even got to paint our fingernails!  Take a look at their beautiful faces!

We had our first Baptism at Refugio which was an amazing testimony of God's saving grace as it was held at a public pool at a local restaurant.  Many from our church came and we celebrated afterwards with Pollo a  la Brasa.  We are also moving our church to a better location across the street where we will be able to have our Children's Ministry in the same location.  We laugh at how it seems that the Lord always has a remodel project for Stan!

Stan is now an official resident of Peru and Jan should receive her residency card in June.  The language barrier is difficult as we long to be able to have deeper relationships.  However, we are excited to start private tutoring twice a week.  We hope this will help us to become more conversational.

We all look forward to when the Brower Family will join us.  We hope to begin teaching english classes to adults and children as another opportunity to share the gospel.  There has already been an interest expressed by several locals.

WE'RE HERE!!!!!!!

  We arrived in Lima, Peru on March 8th where we stayed for 8 days. While in Lima,  Stan submitted his residency application which included a trip to Interpol.  In one month we will return to pick up his residency card and start the process for Jan. We are praising God that the whole procedure went smoothly.  Four days after we arrived, our dog Mia flew in and the process to bring her into the country was MUCH harder than ours!  She arrived at 10:30pm and after a very long , grueling process, we finally left the airport with her at 6:30am!  We are settling into our new home and environment. We were very blessed to attend our first church service at Iglesia Calvary Chapel Refugio. This upcoming Saturday we are planning to join an outreach team to the small village of Carhuaquero at 12,000 feet. We will be involved with the children’s ministry team.

PERU BOUND!!
Why "More Than We Deserve 316"?  Because that is what the Lord has done for us.  He has given us more than we deserve and the 316 is for John 3:16,
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Last year at this time, we visited our son Ryan and his family in Banos del Inca, Peru.  We were drawn to the people and culture and the Lord began stirring our hearts.  Also this last year, the Lord led Ryan and Nicole to start a church in their neighborhood and a Children's Ministry, Refugio de Amor.  By the Lord's grace, both ministries are growing but the workers are few.  At the same time, God was teaching and preparing us in the area of Children's Ministry at our home church of Calvary Chapel Santa Cruz.  We believe the Lord is now leading us to move to Banos del Inca and serve Him alongside Ryan and Nicole.  We are very excited about this season of our service to Him and would like to ask all of you to pray for us and for the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in the hearts of the locals and the children.
We will be flying out on March 7, 2013.
We hope you will follow us and watch and pray as the Lord changes hearts in Banos del Inca.