Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,
PRAY PRAY PRAY for us in Peru right now. It seems the enemy is trying his best to harm the work in Peru. We are going through trials and troubles that we have not known yet in the 20 years of ministry that God has blessed us in. The economy is really hitting hard and missions is one of the first place that this is seen. Pray that the Lord would allow us to raise the needed funds to keep everything moving here as it has so far. I know that God has a purpose and a plan for all that he is doing, we are praying that God will show us what we need to do every step of the way. Pray for funds for the ministry and for wisdom in knowing how to do what we need to do.
One of the biggest problems that we are dealing with right now is that a man in our church has been running a Maddoff style scheme and made his investors think that the church was one of the main beneficiaries of the money he would get from people. He spoke of God, the church and me so much that everyone thinks that we are a part of what is going on. He waited until I left for the states and it appears that he has left the country. With us leaving at the same time people thought that I had fled the country as well. This has impacted the name of the church and my name as well. I am in the middle of many lawsuits and the name of Christ has been hurt a whole lot. I ask that you pray with me that I might be able to work through all of this and stay in Peru at the same time. It has even gotten to the point that we have received death threats if we do not return close to 5 million dollars that he fled with. As you know, this is far beyond my responsibility as well as my ability. Pray that God will help people to calm down and seek for their money by the law not by force. Pray for much wisdom with this. Our church has been in national newspapers. Pray for wisdom and that God might do a miracle with this guy. Many of our church people placed money with him as well and they are hurting and praying for a miracle as well.
This month we also had someone break into the Bible College and steal $2000. This was devastating seeing that we were already short. I honestly have no idea how we get to the end of the month some times, God is amazing at showing his hand in these problems in incredible ways.
Although all of this is going on and it has caused major stress and problems with us, God is still blessing and doing great things here in Peru and around the world. The Bible College has continued and we have seen many young men being prepared for the ministry. We are excited, we have many great ministry opportunities coming up. The summer months are always full of Americans coming down to visit the mission field and this year is no different. We also have a medical clinic coming up now in the city of Callao. Medical Missions Outreach in Ashland, Ohio along with the founder Bradley Edmondson are bringing a group of doctors down and we are sure that we will be able to help many people while also leading many to the Lord.
We know that through all of the trials that God has a purpose and plan. This is not always easy but we know that he is on the throne even when things aren’t going like we wanted. Pray that God will help us and that we will see him move in incredible ways. We want to thank you for your faithfulness in supporting us and allowing us to do the ministry here in Peru.
Yours for Souls,
Chris, Andria, Jacob, Hannah and Andrew Gardner
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