Dear Praying Friends,

Drug traffickers, armed to the teeth, loaded with money and surrounded by bodyguards, are making Huanta a new Cartel like Medellin- Colombia.

My former comrades of the Shinning Path terrorist movement are making their comeback – too close for comfort. They used bazookas to attack a police station not far from here (where they killed five people.) Helicopters have been flying over our heads for the last five days and nights.

The congregation is facing a tough disciplinary problem of adultery in the leadership. Measures have been taken to excommunicate, to remove from our fellowship and to erase names of certain ones from the book of membership. A move to split the church hangs like dark clouds over our heads.

Apostasy among the faithless
Betrayal among the shrewd
Laughter among the wicked
Criticism among the Pharisees
Discouragement among the weak
Courage and determination among the few faithful

A feeling of loneliness, abandonment and lack of trust surrounds me like threatening waters. Yet I can confidently say, “I am not alone” – though literally I have no one beside me in this. I even want to feel sorry for myself, as the work of my hands seems to exploding right before my face. It seems right to look for sympathy among the living, yet when I get it, I feel false and somehow hypocritical; because the peace of God that comes from knowing the God of peace has been in my heart along with the crisis.

In fact, I consider this to be my hour of witness. Not only that, but also I see all my circumstances, and I have them just where I wanted them to be. I feel like I am on top of all these mad lions, bears and gorillas. You see, I have been witnessing on spring – next to still waters and green pastures. I have been like a German shepherd or more like a junkyard dog – over protective of the herd and trusting hired shepherds, who were wolves in sheep’s clothing.

This is our first winter storm, and as cowboys of the West, we will take our losses and go on with life. Time to really teach as we get our boots wet and our hands dirty.

Therefore this needs more than “prayer”!! It needs real intercessory and vicarious aggressive prayer.

For all practical purposes, we have failed.

But I intend to come out on top. “How?” you may ask. I don’t know. It will require of me new dimensions of abandonment to God, new renunciations, new levels of trust, new expectations, new shapes of peace and confidence, new degrees of humility.

You may say,” These are just religious words Gerry”, to which I will respectfully answer, “No! It is Gospel truth!” For I will see Spring again!! As Luther said: “Progress in Christianity is beginning again and again in the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. Though strange even to myself, I see that the best is yet to come. We will come through the Valley of the Shadow of Death with Jesus beside.

It is necessary to go through this valley. It is His will for us to go from green pastures and still waters through the valley of darkness and narrower paths full of danger -- with determination. Jesus resisted temptation and angels came to serve Him. Psalm 23 reminds us that God Himself will prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies right after we cross the Valley of death. Our heads are still to be anointed with oil. His mercy and love are still in hot pursuit of us. The closer to heaven, the more abundantly our cup will run over. We cannot fear evil. God never meant for us to have fear as part of our lives. He did not give us the spirit of fear.

I was once a shepherd boy of a small flock belonging to my grandparents. I had a rod, which I used on the back of our neighbors’ dogs when they came after my sheep. It was necessary to defend the sheep from dog bites on their legs. That same rod, I used on the legs of the straying and willful sheep to keep the flock together. A rod brings comfort, for it protects one from enemies – foreign or domestic. Those carefree days of green pastures and still waters are over. We have already entered into the valley of death. Pray that we continue trusting Him and His rod and staff. Pray that we not think of the “onions” of Egypt but of the clusters of grapes and pomegranates of the Promised Land. Pray that our mind be focused on His companion for his “name sake”. Surely goodness and love will “pursue” us all the days of our lives and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple”

Together in His name to the end.