Encouraging Sports Baseball Clinic Jan 2012

We just had our second baseball clinic with the Encouraging Sports missions team. God Blessed and allowed all the team members to come back this year and we added an additional coach. The week flew by but we had a great time.

Jacob and Luke along with a young man (D) who accepted Christ as the result of the clinic last year worked as translators. The Baseball Federation meeting was very gratifying. The Baseball Federation leaders were all very pleased and happy that the team came back a second time. This has really opened the doors to the baseball families in Lima.

The team does a great job with the clinic. At the end of each clinic a coach shares his testimony and another coach shares a story from the Bible. On the day of the last clinic this year we added an opportunity for the players and coaches to respond. There were about 300 kids from the ages of 8 - adult and about 25 Peruvian coaches that participated in the clinic. There were five groups and thus five different invitations. In total we had 42 decisions for Christ this year.

One simple key that allowed us to easily begin sharing the plan of salvation were the wrist bands that say: Encouraging Sports Juan 3:16. Every child recieved a band and heard the Gospel. This was truly a great week: of sharing baseball, our faith and fellowship.

This all started with a conversation while we were on a stateside church visit on a saltwater fishing trip in Tampa. A pastor, simply asked do you have a need for a baseball clinic in Lima? I had no idea and started sending emails to the three Nikkei friends that might know if there was baseball. God truly works in mysterious ways. This is truly a great highlight of our year. The coaches really do a great job putting ona a great baseball camp that is overflowing in love for the kids. The parents, coaches and kids are able to see God's love lived out.

thanks guys
plus a special thanks to the moms, wives, grandkids, kids etc that have to share their family with us for a week)

Watch the recap video here! Copy and paste this link into your address bar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92QAgpBydZ4

Japan Trip Jan 2011

We were able to see a great deal of Tokyo and Karuizawa. We attended a missions meeting that had many issues on the agenda. We had a very good meeting, strategy sessions, worship and prayer times, etc. We also got to touch base with Christian friends, Japanese friends and Nikkei friends. God opened doors for us to meet and share with many different people. We also did a few vacation days.

Please enjoy the pictures.

Christmas in Georgia

Please note a few pictures while we were in the states. It is always good to be with family and friends.

I personally always enjoy the first worship service in English. Thanks for your prayers.

Computer problems, Trip to Japan

There has not been a post for a while becuase my lap top died. It has now been resurrected.

We have three key events in the past five weeks. We were in the U.S over Christmas and then in Japan for various meetings. Then we had our second baseball clinic with the group " Encouraging Sports". The last five weeks have been very busy and very good weeks.

God's Blessings and Peace, The Mitchell's

Nov 11, 2011 Connections

The Prince Mission Church in Miraflores had 11 people baptized in October and we have just scheduled another baptismal service for Nov. We have 10 more candidates for baptism. One of these young men is M that we told you about last month.

We have started a new TH night Discipleship class for these new believers. We had a big English Sports Camp at Union last weekend. There were 33 Union students that attended. We also started some English Conversation Classes for the Seniors at Union to help them with their test in Dec. They must pass certain test to enter their colleges. Then there is our work at La Victoria. All of these help build relationships.

This is the month of Matsuri festivals in Lima. These are traditional Japanese events where people have celebrations which include singing, eating and traditional drum and Japanese dance performances.

Our ESL work is paying off in some of our events we are having some really good Bible Studies and opportunities to share God's Love.

Please pray for all of these students that they would be open to God's word and that they would respond to His love.

Thanks for your prayers. We have had a major problem with our laptop and distribution list. (Hopefully this will be fixed soon.)

God's Blessings and Peace, Tim and Joy Mitchell

October: News in Lima

Family and Friends,

Thanks for praying for Lima and specifically the Nikkei people.

This was an exceptionally good week...

We had an ESL student accept Christ this week at our Wed night group.

And this morning (Sunday, Oct 1) at our coffee shop English Bible study group we had one of our Nikkei friends share that he has made a decision for Christ. M was in our first ESL class and we have been friends ever since. God has really been working in his life this past year and it has been a blessing to see this happen.

Pray for both these new believers that God will work in the discipleship process of their lives.

Also, Luke has been sick with gastritis. Our doctor told us that this is fairly common to get this illness in Lima. Luke now has medicine and is getting better. (For those of you who don't know about this, it is a bacterial infection in your stomach. Many people in Lima have gastritis and eventually it leads to them contracting stomach cancer. Apparently, stomach cancer is one of the leading causes of death in Lima.)

Thanks for your prayers. We just wanted to share with you a praise report about how God is answering prayers in Lima.

The Mitchells

PS note: please don't use the earthlink email address.. you need to use the pobox, yahoo or gmail address....

Prayer Requests: We have several ESL classes that where we teach English and the Bible. We also have some Book study classes that we are currently using to build relationships and help people learn about God and help them with their practical issues of life. A couple of the books we are using are: The Purpose Driven Life and The Five Love Languages. We are using ideas like this to engage and build bridges to Nikkei people. We have several people that are reading these books or are studying the Bible with us. Please pray for them that they will not be trapped by the business of their lives. Many people in Lima are caught in a difficult place financially. There jobs demand a great amount of time and they work many long hours because of the fear of loosing this job. There are many things that the enemy uses to keep us trapped into a difficult situation and separated from God.

FYI: Our Sunday morning group is studying the Purpose Driven Life. This is the study that God used to touch M's heart and mind. He has been close to a decision for a long time. (We are extremely grateful for your prayers. This was truly an answer to prayer.)

Please pray that all of our students and friends will be open to God's word. Especially right now please pray for: A,K, E, P,S M,C, L, C, V.

Pray that we would be able to clearly present God's love and the plan of salvation and that each of these people would respond.

Thanks for praying....

The trip to the North

In July we had the great opportunity to return to Huimbayoc. Three members from Prince Ave in Athens came to Peru to participate in this trip: Jerry, Carlos and Mike. This trip was a little different because Joy and Luke were able to go and be members of our mission team and Jacob was in Iquitos with a REAP team and several members of our Prince Mission Church in Lima were also able to go on the trip.

We had a very ambitious plan. We were divided primarily into two teams. A team of ladies from our church went to teach adult leaders how to lead VBS and teach Sunday School and then in the second half of the day to actually do a VBS program with the student teachers helping and learning.

The teaching team of men went to teach on stewardship and evangelism in the mornings and go out in the surrounding villages and share the Gospel in the afternoons. Then in the evenings we sere scheduled to have Evangelistic meetings in Huimbayoc every night...

Travel: We flew to Tarapoto from LIma, we went by van from Tarapoto to Chazuta, we took a boat from Chazuta to Huimbayoc about 3 hours. We used this boat to travel to the nearby villages during the week. On our return trip we had to go a different path that was less river travel and more traveling through rough terrain.

God worked in a mighty way. Four people who came with their family to church to receive the stewardship and evangelism training accepted Christ. Each day in every village people made decisions for Christ. The VBS had roughly 90 children every day. The people who came to the Bible studies were very faithful to come every day. They were interested in how to have access to more Bible study.

In a village called Navarro we met a lady named Jessy. She had only been living there a short time. She was married and has two children, but she was very sick. Possibly she is very close to death. She had recently made a decision for Christ. The day we visited her village her 14 yr old daughter accepted Christ. We were able to talk to some EMT/ nurse type people in the jungle and they were aware of this ladies condition and told us what medicine she needed. We were able to take the pastor of Huimbayoc with us back to Tarapoto to buy the medicine she needed. Please pray for her recovery. She also has a son who is 4 yrs old. When we met Jessy she was not able to stand. Pray for her physical healing.

God worked in many ways on this trip. We had a few more difficulties and moments where we needed flexibility. Some of our issues were with transportation, not having enough translators, difficulty in procuring food and water, etc. But God used the people we had and the means we had to make a difference. For example: Luke was able to translate for Mike and Jerry during the day and Elisa who was one of the VBS leaders translated in the evening services. We had team members who purified the water we drank and cooked with. Our return trip did not go as planned but we made it back to Tarapoto in time to catch the plane to Lima.

Huimbayoc is a little difficult to get to and it is hard to live in this spot in the world. Huimbayoc has a generator to provide electricity from 6:30 - 9:30 at night. There are no fans or Air Conditioning or modern refrigeration. It is hot night and day. Many of the people do not have a balanced diet, but we saw church leaders hungry to learn more about God. We saw many decisions for Christ and we saw Hope. Please pray for these people in these villages. Pray that God will raise up Bible students and turn them into leaders. Thank you for making adventures like these possible.

In His Name and For His Glory, The Mitchell's

PS Our Japanese house guest returns to Lima today from her visit with her family. Please pray that K and her family will open their hearts to God's word.

Pray that we are open and sensitive to God's direction for our ministry.