The image you are seeing here is a view of the city of Arequipa/AQP in the southern-most part of Peru.  While AQP is the second largest city in the country it is still very provincial and quaint with a grand plaza and also some streets that are wide enough for ox carts but not vehicles meeting each other.

Kathy and I had the privilege of living and serving here during our first term as missionaries and still refer to it as our favorite place to live.  Spring time year round and a wonderful atmosphere for families.

It will be the site of where a team of hikers from the U.S. and Peru will be setting out from to spend 7-8 days trekking through several distant villages in the province of Castilla.  Our task will be to gather demographic information while testing the receptivity of the locals to the Gospel.

Join us in prayer as we prepare for this great adventure and opportunity!  More later...

This past weekend Kathy and I had the opportunity to travel to NC for a couple of reasons:

1. ...to visit our son Shane and his wife, Megan, and for Kathy to attend a shower for their first child.  Michael Isaac Weaver is on the schedule, according to the Dr., to arrive around April 1st.  We enjoyed some sweet fellowship and also loved being part of their weekend's activities.

2. ...for Mike to facilitate a strategy assessment and development training time with a NC/SC partnership move forward.  A new addition to their partnership was introduced as 2-3 churches from Alabama and one from Georgia will be joining them in the next few months.

This new portion of the Peru/Arequipa/Castilla/Viraco & Machuguay Quechua engagement team will be part of a vision-casting/training weekend March 18-20.  I look forward to meeting with their leadership on Friday night, taking members of the 2-3 Alabama churches through the basic church planting training on Saturday and speaking/vision-casting in two of the fellowships on Sunday.

Pray the Lord will move in a mighty way throughout the weekend.  Two members of the NC/SC portion of the partnership will be introduced to them as they come to share an update of what the Lord is doing among that population segment of the Arequipa Quechuas.

Kathy and I just returned from a weekend missions' conference in the Sumter Baptist Association in south central Florida.  Seven local churches hosted missionaries from Africa, South America and ministries in the U.S. We had a wonderful time and met some precious saints.

One of the host churches was FBC, Bushnell where Bro. Billy Ray is the Evangelism & Administrative Pastor.  Over a year ago he introduced me to a work that his church has taken the lead on and we wanted to share it with you as well as ask your prayers for the advancment of the Kingdom through their efforts

Project : Ruta Boaco-Siuna

Stretching across the mountains of Central Nicaragua is the primary road from Managua to Puerta Cabezas. In the last few years missionaries from the International Mission Board identified a section from Boaco to Siuna as an area where there are NO Baptist churches. The IMB partnered with Bethel Baptist Church of Managua to start a church planting work in this area. Not long after this work began the missionary who began this project was transferred to another country. This left Bethel Baptist without international partners to help continue the work. Within the last couple years five Baptist churches from the U.S. have joined Bethel Baptist in this effort to plant churches in this area. There is a need to plant over 500 churches in this region but many more partners are needed.

The distance between these two points is nearly 150 miles through the heart of this nation without any viable witness in the villages along the route.  Brother Pablo Garcia and his wife Claudia have taken on the local supervision of this work as they seek to train national leaders to accept the challenge to become church planters.  They are living in Rio Blanco which is about half way from Boaco to Siuna.  This is also where the training center is being built to service the church planter training and development.

Billy Ray is serving as the International Partner Coordinator for the Ruta Boaco-Siuna Project. 

Please be in prayer for this work as well as the Garcia family, Bro. Billy Ray and the five U.S. churches as they seek to reach this area of lostness in the Americas.  Pray that the Lord will call out many more and that they will respond.

Great Beginning!!

The very first HOPE 4 the Americas Partnership Training was a huge success as individuals from six different churches from the Summerhill Baptist Association in south central Georgia gathered Feb. 6th at Calvary BC, Dawson, Georgia to learn more about how to plant indigenous...non-dependent... reproducible churches where the Lord has called them to serve cross-culturally.  This particular group has already been on their vision trip to Ecuador where they visited the village/area of Nono.  Nono is 19 kilometers north-northwest of the nation's capital Quito.  Here is a map where it is located:

Please pray for this endeavor and their leadership.  Curt Hampton is their director of missions and lead the vision team.  Ted Dewett and his family are our SBC/IMB missionaries providing leadership for this engagement in Ecuador.

2016 is quickly moving forward and with it opportunities to prepare for service.  Let us share some of those with you for your prayerful consideration to be involved.

HOPE 4 the Americas Partnership Training Events

March 5...8 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Location: Pleasant Valley South BC, 702 Pleasant Valley Rd SE, Silver Creek (Rome), GA To register contact Billy Fricks at billy.fricks@pvsbc.org or (706) 331-9661 or call the church at (706) 234-1841.  Cost is $30 which covers materials (plus 1 flash drive per church with digital materials, powerpoints, etc.) snacks and lunch.

April 16...8 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Location: Goldsby BC, 153 W Center Rd, Washington, OK  To register contact Steve Roach at sroach@goldsbybaptistchurch.com or 404-990-3342 or call the church at 405-288-2514.  Cost is $30 which covers materials (plus 1 flash drive per church with digital materials, powerpoints, etc.) snacks and lunch.

Other Training Opportunities

On-line
Biblical Basis of Missions...provided by the Training Team of the American Peoples' Affinity..to register go to their info page. 

Welcome!!

Welcome to the "HOPE 4 the Americas" blog!  It is our hope and vision to see this be a place of dialogue and learning!  About what?  How the Lord IS working and how He WANTS to work among the indigenous of the Americas!!

We look forward to hearing from you!  Send us your testimonies of the movement of the Lord.  We want to hear how you are seeing darkness being puhed back among your people group.  Also, please send us your questions and insights about engagement activity as well as any challenges your partnership may be facing! What is the Lord showing you?

As the conversation begins we will want to pray for your ministry...your leadership...your teams traveling to serve...those living onsite from your partnership plus any needs among your nationals. 

We look forward to seeing this bring much glory to the Lord as He moves and brings the lost unto Himself!!