2020

Greetings from Peru!

Let me start off by thanking each and every one of you for your concern, encouragement, prayers, and support over the last several months specifically. I continue to see God working in so many different ways, and while He certainly doesn’t need us, it brings me such joy to know that He chooses to involve each of us, each of you in His work when we want to be involved. Thank you for wanting to and choosing to be involved in all He is doing here.

Over the last two months the restrictions in place to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 virus have eased some her in Peru, but not much. I am now able to use my personal vehicle and restaurants are open, as well as malls (with 40% occupancy), but many other restrictions remain in place. All types of social visits/events are still prohibited (even among extended family who don’t live together), including ministry related events. We are also still under a nightly curfew and full lockdown all day on Sundays except for medical workers.The minister of transportation announced a few days ago that the borders would provisionally open to international flights in October, but then the next day the minister of health announced that it wasn’t a sure thing. In the last week no one has actually clarified the situation.

In spite of the uncertainty and restrictions that the COVID-19 virus has brought, God still has plenty for me to do and I am enjoying every minute of it. Currently my days are full of different types of private lessons, studies, translation work, and spending time with the kids at New Life Children’s Home. Each child is so special and to love on them, letting them know they are valuable to me and even more valuable to God is such a joy. I am teaching private lessons in English to several kids three-four times a week each and I currently have five kids taking private music lessons. I am also doing one on one Bible studies with several different kids and adults weekly, some in person and others virtually in Spanish and English. Each Sunday while our older kids are in the Zoom church service with our pastor, I have a junior church lesson at the home with our younger kids.

Several years ago I wrote a twelve-week Bible study for single, college and career age women called, “The Single Priority,” and about two years worth of guided devotional journals (passages and questions), for junior-highers. I am currently editing them for use where owning a Bible isn’t a given, and then translating them into Spanish. A friend of mine here is helping me by checking to make sure the translations make sense!

I am so thankful God continues to give me work to do, people to love and teach, and different ways to plant seeds of the gospel and the love of God in the midst of this changing world, but my joy is still the greatest when I get to be a part of the moment when someone chooses to trust Christ as his/her Savior.

In early August one of the girls in the children’s home came and sat next to me on a bench in the common area and asked, “What is a testimony?” She had been asked to share a testimony with the other kids a few days later but was too embarrassed to admit in front of others that she didn’t know what one was. Normally there are a number of kids playing outside in our common area at any given moment each day, but that day for 1/2 hour no one was around and I got to share the gospel with her uninterrupted. By the end of our conversation she asked me, “Can I do that now? Can I accept that gift now?” with an anticipation in her voice. And accept the gift of salvation she did!

Now for my plea. Please, please keep praying. Please keep encouraging me. Please keep giving. I have seen God do wonders through your involvement and I beg of you not to stop. I wish I could tell you all the stories. I wish I could tell you all I have seen God do, because He does so much and it is so exciting to watch. Thank you so very, very much for you continued involvement.

~Pam Drout ~

Hi Everyone!

Sometime in the middle of May I had an idea for the central theme of this update; I wrote down the single word, “helplessness,” on a notecard and set it to the side for later.  We were at the beginning of our third month of a very strict quarantine.   We had just lost two men very close to the ministries here (the pastor of one of the churches and our bus driver for missions group season), I personally knew or knew of 8 other pastors here in Peru who had Covid-19 and were really struggling, I was seeing physical suffering all around me as families couldn’t afford food or rent, (a few friends who were working but there wasn’t the money to fully pay them for the work they were doing had to move in with other families as they lost their homes), I couldn’t get to Manchay to check on my kids, nor did I have contact with many of the kids from my other ministries, and on top of all that I was watching my hometown flood and then dams break causing more flooding and many people I love dearly lost their homes and/or most of their belongings.  So, I jotted down the word, “helplessness,” as a reminder and kept going.

I look back at that little note now, and it was actually hard at first to figure out exactly why I wrote it.   Yes, the tragedies and situations above all happened within the last two months, (along with several others), but some amazing things have happened as well.  While yes, over the last two month my physical reach has been limited, I cannot imagine applying the term, “helplessness,” to these months at all.

Even though Peru’s strict quarantine continued through May and June, I still had several different opportunities to share the gospel one on one with people.   One of the newer kids in the children’s home came up to me one Sunday after our Bible lesson at the home and started asking questions.   Lots of questions.   Eventually we got around to what makes a person a part of the family of God and through that question I was able to share the gospel with him.  We went through the gospel point by point and he acknowledged his belief of each point, but towards the end of the conversation when I asked if he wanted to accept the gift of salvation for himself, he said he wasn’t ready.   He appeared quite distressed saying he didn’t know if he could know for sure it was all true.   I took him back through each point, and again, he said he believed them, but he wasn’t ready to apply it to himself.  Please be praying for him as he has such a hunger to learn and continues to ask me Bible questions on a daily basis.  

In May and June it was still illegal to use personal vehicles (to help the government in preventing people from going places they weren’t allowed to) so I had a government approved taxi driver taking me to the bank a few towns away when needed.  One day something came up so he called a friend of his to take me instead.  This driver knew nothing about the children’s home or our church so through the plastic sheeting separating us we talked the entire way.   As the conversation continued he began to tell me he believed in God that he believed it didn’t matter how or where he served, worshipped, or learned about God, only that he did; mentioning several places he went which taught very differing things and did not at all teach the gospel including Jehovah’s witness Bible studies and even learning from the Israelitas here in Cieneguilla.

That statement led to a conversation on authority, then God’s authority, God’s Word and then to God’s desires for His followers into the gospel.  He said I had given him a lot to consider and he is still asking questions of a common friend of ours.  I don’t mind planing seeds.   The increase is God’s responsibility and I am more than willing to lay that at His feet.  There were several other times I did get to share the gospel in the last two months, in person and virtually, and see God give the increase, but I mention specifically those situations where your prayers are most needed.

I mentioned earlier about associating the feeling of helplessness with seeing the suffering all around me, the people who are struggling to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.  It is true, Peru is full of suffering right now as people haven’t had the chance to work, and yet somehow I focused on how great the need was discounted the things we were doing to help.   Through the Bags of Hope project Chelene Kennedy started and that many of you have given to as well, we have been able to help more than 650 families with food as they need it.   Some of these families live so far back in-between mountains that the help the government has been offering hasn’t made it to them.  Through other gifts you all have given which were not designated specifically for Bags of Hope or food relief, but for my discretion I have been able to continue helping my families in Manchay as well as a few other people I know with food, but also with other necessities such as warm clothing as winter has begun.   While there is so much more that can be done, because of God’s grace and your giving we are far from helpless.

Please keep praying for our ministries here, and the people of Peru.  Pray that we can be a light in the midst of this very dark time, and that we will be sensitive to God’s leading in where to go and who needs food – spiritually and physically.   Please also be praying as I will have to make decisions regarding a furlough I had planned for late this year and early next year to report at my supporting churches.   Pray that our international borders will open here in Peru and that I will make the right decisions regarding the timing of that furlough.   Please also pray as through the Bags of Hope God has opened my eyes to some new areas in Cieneguilla I am burdened about getting into to minister.   Thank you all. ~ Pam Drout ~

Hello!!! This month I wanted to share with you a part of a letter I was writing to a friend about some of the things which have happened here in the last month.  It is a little different than normal, but I didn’t know another way to easily express my heart with you this month.   Thank you for putting up with the strange format.

Early in April, Pastor David (from the church here in Cieneguilla) and I were talking about the families from our Bible Studies in Manchay, knowing they were seriously struggling to feed themselves, let alone pay any other bills they had.  Some of the families are made up of widows or single mothers and their children, others of women and children with husbands (fathers), who were working in other cities but now can neither work nor travel to be with their families.   Other homes have 2-3 families living together with no one or maybe 1 person working, all working together to survive.   The restrictions for the quarantine here in Peru are quite strict so getting to Manchay to truly see all the needs, to take food to people, or even connect with some of my kids who don’t have phones or parents who participate in the studies wasn’t (and still isn’t) possible.  I was concerned for these families, so Pastor David and I were able to get money to a trusted friend up in Manchay who then met several of the women at the market to, “shop at the same time but not together,” and they were able to get food to several of these families in need.   I will readily admit it wasn’t much, but it was what I had on hand at the time. At the same time, Chelene Kennedy was fervently laboring to raise money to help buy food and feed families in our church and community here in Cieneguilla.   A few days later we had the first batch of “food baskets” (bags really but every here calls them baskets), ready to go out.   Each one values between $25 and $30 and can feed a family of 4-5 for a week.  We had 34 baskets to give to families within our church, one of the bus routes (in Cieneguilla) and a few from the community we knew needed help.   Special permission was obtained from the police here in Cieneguilla to allow us to be out in a private vehicle (which currently is against the restrictions) to deliver food. The first few houses were not super close to one another so we arrived, delivered the food, and then we left without much commotion.   But then things changed.  We came to an area with 4 houses very close to each other.  People in the neighborhood began peeking out their windows because they heard a vehicle, then coming to their doors, then sitting outside all with looks of hope, hope that we would stop at their house next.   Then people began leaving their houses and approaching the van or each of us, pleading for food, telling us in tears how little they had.   The baskets of food had already been designated for specific families, each of which was struggling to survive.   Each of us had to look into the faces of people hurting to tell them that week we couldn’t help them.   As the van drove away, shoulders sagged, hope left faces, and people went back inside.  Each of us in the van fought tears.    It is so hard to describe because it was an immense blessing.  Through the support of people in the States, churches that support the Kennedys, churches that support me, the Kennedy’s friends and family, as well as my friends and family,  we were able to feed 34 families who were starving.   Seriously, I am so thankful for that.   And I knew more money was still coming in, it provided such joy; BUT, it also opened the door for great heartache.   Within the walls of the children’s home the need still existed, but I only heard about it, and I only truly heard about the need from people I knew.   Now I was seeing it, seeing the need, the hope, the relief from people who received a basket, and then the hurt, and disappointment, and hopelessness from those who didn’t receive anything.   My heart broke.   That night I cried for hours.   There were other stories.   We were in one area full of shanty homes that extended hundreds of feet up into the mountains.   We were at the home of a lady from the church and a woman high up on a mountain about 450 feet away (seriously!) saw us at the house and immediately knew what was happening.   She came running all the way down the mountain.   I had seen her as we were still at the house, but it was so far away, she looked like a child running outside to play or go to a little corner store for a parent, but as we were getting in the van to drive away we all realized, it was short, older woman coming to plead for food.   She had run so far, in hope.   Thankfully, we had an extra basket we could give her, but we then had to turn away the crowd that was gathering behind her.    We stopped at one house and as we delivered the basket the lady couldn’t even look at us, she just wept and didn’t stop.  My eyes are tearing up just thinking of her now.   It isn’t another world, she lives across the street from the children’s home.   Before the quarantine I saw her daughter every day.   

That’s my story.   I am so thankful for the work the Kennedy’s have done to raise money to help these families.   The next week we were able to take out more than 120 baskets of food, and we expect to do the same this week.  Many of my friends and family know I get horrible headaches and migraines from too much motion, especially being in a vehicle when someone else is driving.  Through different tasks related to this project, I have had several in the last few weeks.   I’ll tell you what though, I would live everyday with a migraine to be able to help others in this way and to be continually reminded of the need by seeing it.   Receiving messages from Manchay was one thing but seeing the need, the hope, the hopelessness, the relief and the tears, all of that has changed me more than I can express, and then to compound that understanding that this is just a small, physical representation of a world starving for the gospel – I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Once again, thank you for your prayers.   Thank you for your help.   Thank you for your support.   Thank you for your friendship.  Thank you for the chance to be here and to serve. Just – Thank you.

Hello Friends!
I know this update comes a month sooner than my regularly scheduled letter, but with so much going on I decided to go ahead and let everyone know about some of the different things going on in this corner of my universe.

March began with the outlook of an extremely busy schedule. Classes began at New Life Christian School on March 5th, and for the first several days of the new school year I was helping out in the 4 & 5’s class, and then as the young kids got used to being in school and away from home I spent some time during recesses with the older kids. But, 5 class days into the new school year, on March 11th, the government suspended classes and on March 15th called for a strict nationwide quarantine; closing the borders not only to the country but between provinces and departments (like states), instituting a national curfew (currently 6pm-5am), prohibiting the use of personal vehicles, limiting the number of people who can be out and why (only groceries, banking or medical emergencies), limiting the ages of people who can be out (no one under 18 or over 60), and then recently limiting the days each gender can be out. This week for instance, the only days I can be off the children’s home property are Tuesday and Saturday. Currently these restrictions are valid through Easter, however our government will decide on the 9th whether they will be extended once again.

I certainly have been blessed in the midst of everything to be at New Life Children’s Home. Unlike many people I am close to here, I have a comfortable home, a bed, a refrigerator, and I am not worried about whether I will have water tomorrow. (On top of everything else Cieneguilla, Manchay, and La Molina have been dealing with water shortages.) Unlike many people I am close to here I have the ability to step outside the walls of my apartment to walk, exercise, enjoy the fresh air, and spend time with the 30 other people who live here. Unlike many people I am close to here, I have enough food and am not worried about what I will eat tomorrow.

In the midst of the restrictions which limit where I can go and what I can do, God has not left me bored or without work. Being at New Life Children’s Home, I have had the opportunity to do a Sunday Morning lesson for the kids and tutoras (guardians) who live here as well as devotions as different times throughout the week. The kids continue with school virtually, online or through messaging apps, so I help with homework as well, and then we spend time playing together in the afternoons. This slower pace has also allowed me to help several churches in the United States with their children’s ministries by talking with different pastors or leaders regarding curriculums or specific lessons, staffing for different kinds of programs, helping them connect with the children in their churches virtually, and planning for the future as churches are able to meet again. I have also been able to focus on writing devotions and “have at home” material for the future for my kids in Manchay and other areas where church attendance is difficult and owning a Bible is a rare privilege (especially for a child or teenager).

As April continues, most likely with an extension to our national quarantine, I have several prayer requests to mention to you all. The first is I would beg of you to be praying for those I minister to in Manchay. I know they are struggling to feed themselves. Even before the stay at home orders began, there were several families I was working to help as I could see the kids getting skinnier and skinnier each week. With the restrictions on travel and where we can go, I haven’t been able to get up there and check on them, and kids don’t have cell phones to be able to communicate with me. Pastor David and I are working on different ways we can get food to the families there through people we trust who live in the area. But please be praying as I know several families that made it through each day based on the money earned the day before in jobs that are no longer available. Please also be praying for the families in our church and school. People are doing what they can, but it isn’t much.

Finally I would ask you to be praying regarding my “future plans.” Next week will be my three year anniversary upon arriving in Peru. It is hard to believe it has been three years but I am so excited to continue. Before the quarantines hit around the world, I was making plans to be in the United States for four months between December and March for a furlough, in order to present updates to the churches that have been supporting me through the years and to raise a bit more support; however with the return to whatever the new normal will be still a few months away, I am needing to decide whether I will postpone that furlough a little bit longer. It is still somewhat early to make that decision, but many churches plan out the missionary presentations a year in advance, and no one is making any plans right now. So please be praying as I am regarding when I can visit and update my supporting churches.

Thank you all so much for you care, prayers and support. You all mean so very much to me and please know I am praying for you all in the midst of these events as well. Thank you.

Hello!
I must tell you I love the summer, I always have. Not for the heat, I admit, as I find myself looking at friends’ posts on Facebook and longing for the snow, but I love summer because of the various opportunities for service it brings. This summer here in Peru has been no exception. Various vacation Bible schools, camp, Bible memory clubs, and other events have provided no shortage of opportunities to share the gospel, teach the Bible, and love on my God’s many creations.

Treasure Hunters Bible Memory Club: The past three summers the children here at New Life Children’s Home have participated in a Bible memory club called Treasure Hunters. It is specifically written for shorter periods of time such as summer vacation when the kids don’t have as much school work, as opposed to most programs which are written for the school year. This year, due to the dates of camps, VBS and even Christmas, the program ran for 6 weeks. Each week the kids said their verses, we had a devotion, game time, and award/achievement time; and then at the end of the program we had our annual ice cream party. At the party we acknowledged each team, the Lions and Spirit, how many verses were said by each team, and then the kids who completed the most sections in their books. Sections contain 1 or 2 verses and some deep thought questions depending on the age of the child. The first place winner this year said 68 verses (52 sections) and the two children that tied for second place said 60 verses (48 sections). Overall, 20 kids said 452 verses this summer. I am so very proud of all of them!

Vacation Bible School: This summer I got the opportunity to assist with two different Vacation Bible Schools. At New Life Baptist Church we ran VBS on a Wednesday – Friday with the closing ceremony then on Sunday during junior church. The theme was Galactic travel, and throughout the program more than 75 kids learned about calling on God, responding to God, and obeying God through the story of Moses. On Sunday during junior church we reviewed what we had learned from the story from Moses through the week, what we had learned from our skits with the astronaut and robot, and then awarded prizes to all the kids as we announced the winners of the week. Because VBS closes out on a Sunday here, we had many different visitors, kids with their parents, to learn the results of the week and who heard the gospel, some for the first time. Praise God!

The last few years I have also helped out some good friends of mine with their VBS in a very small church up in the mountains of Manchay. This year their church was under construction so they have been meeting in the home of one of their church members a little over a kilometer and a half away from their church. Most of the church members were able to bring their children the distance to VBS throughout the week, and many new children from the neighborhood of their temporary location came. In a room smaller than my apartment here in Peru we were able to cram 35 different kids along with about 6 mothers and 10 workers. It was tight, but so much fun. The theme was “Conquering with God’s plan” and throughout the program I taught on Gideon, Deborah & Barak, and Saul (good examples, and not so good examples). Many kids who had never heard the gospel before, and some who had heard it once again and several accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Such a joy!

Youth Camp: This year we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to find a place to do youth camp (teens and singles), as our normal campground is under construction and other places in our area have sky-high rates. Right as we were going to have to announce that we couldn’t do camp at all this year a couple in the church mentioned friends of theirs who had a location we would be able to use close to the river. It was basic, some sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the 2 cabins, others in tents, but it had an outdoor, covered dining area where we could eat, cook, and have services, room for games and to play, and was right next to the river. It truly was a God-send. Approximately 50 teens and singles from New Life Baptist and Calvary Baptist in Pachacutec got together for camp over a Thursday – Saturday right at the end of February. We had games, contests, food, fellowship and preaching. I got the opportunity to help in the kitchen, with the games and then to teach a girls’ session. It was such a wonderful end to the week and to the summer, allowing our youth to kick of the next year with a fresh mindset and closer relationships one with another.

School has started up again at New Life and I enjoy being involved in the lives of the kids and the teachers wherever I can. Throughout the summer my regular ministries and classes continued along with these extra opportunities. Please continue praying as I seek to share the gospel, minister, serve, teach, and love on people wherever I can. I am not sure of much in this world, but I am very sure of my God, and sure that your prayers to Him on my behalf make a difference. Thank you. Thank you so very, very much.

~ Pam Drout ~