“‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ God would not have you bind about his precious work with unbelief; He would have you go forward, making progress continually in the building up of His cause upon the earth. You should not fix your eyes upon unfavorable circumstances and surroundings that will bind you in unbelief and in discouragement; it is your privilege to believe that God has ways and means to do His work. The great message of truth must go to all people, and nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and then shall the end come. We should ever keep this in view, and try to spread the knowledge of the present truth. You want faith at every step you take. You should engage in the work as though all depended upon you, and yet with perfect trust. God has entrusted to us the great work of warning the world of the coming judgment. We are to act our part in bringing this truth to all we can. We must pray God to water the seeds sown, that they may spring up and bear fruit to His glory.” Review and Herald, July 8, 1890.

Year after year, the Lord is blessing people in Peru, fulfilling his promises for the time of the end. Our prayers are being answered. Year after year the network of brothers and sisters willing to cooperate and work in one way or another is increasing. I remember well traveling to Peru for the first time, several years ago, after our baptism and meeting Brother Jose. He was the first person that I met that showed interest in God’s work. He had been working in a dedicated way and had often worried for the lack of resources and material to work the cities. By God’s grace, one container of tabloids finally arrived in Peru in 2007. Brother Jose immediately found some helpers: Brother Abad, an accounting major in college; Brother Carlos, a computer technician; and Brother Marcos, a young mechanic. These were all dedicated to preach on the streets, inside buses and traveling to the mountains of Peru to share the gospel.

During a trip in 2008 to Peru with Brother Bob Henricksen and the Bell family for a seminar, I met more people who expressed a desire to work for the Lord—sharing material and distributing tabloids and giving home Bible studies with the Steps to Life series. That seminar led to several baptisms.

One of them, Brother Juan, whose father is a pastor in a Pentecostal church, chose to be baptized in spite of family pressure and his strong Pentecostal background. The Holy Spirit touched his heart and he committed his life to Jesus and the truth in the Bible. He made his final and full commitment to Jesus, when he saw that his many questions could be answered straight from the Bible. I keep in touch with him over the phone or e-mail to review some questions. He keeps going to one of the local Adventists churches and continues battling with the trials and tests that comes to every one that accepts the truth.

While on this trip, we saw the need for Spirit of Prophecy books at an affordable price to the people. We found a local print shop that was reasonably priced and started the printing of three thousand copies of Testimonies for Ministers, Messages to Young People and Last Days Events.

We also saw the need to use other means to spread the truth, so we started searching for radio airtime to purchase. The Lord opened the door to get one hour at night on a local radio station in Chiclayo. When the owner learned that we were Seventh-day Adventist, he mentioned that his father was also an Adventist and that he would help us with advertising, provide one more day free-of-charge and give us a discount after several months of broadcasting. He mentioned to me that he would like our programs to be broadcast on another radio station of his and he was so very generous with the price that I agreed. In the city of Chiclayo, Peru, we now have programs on AM and FM, with a coverage of nearly one million people including surrounding areas. Very soon he will open a local television station and wants our programs to be on it, as well. We are working on gathering sermons in video format to be prepared for television broadcast.

We have also opened a web page: http://www.elmensajedelos3angeles.com to broadcast our radio programs, have many links for studies and offer free material. Gradually more and more people have shown interest and requested the tabloids. We have shipped tabloids as far north as Ecuador. We have also shipped to the mountains and jungle areas of Peru. We are redoing the web page and hope to have English on it soon too.

Sad to say, as always Satan does not rest. Some of the local pastors started to threaten the brothers and prevent them from participating in the home bible studies, or distributing material or to buy the books. Some of the materials were confiscated, with the argument that it is not approved by the conference and stamped by the local mission. Unfortunately several other brothers and sisters are in a list to be disciplined and/or disfellowshipped for distributing Spirit of Prophecy and other truth-filled literature.

This year (February, 2009) our family traveled again to Peru. The multiple contacts added through the webpage, books and materials, lead us to know of a local church in Lima, Peru, where a group of young faithful brothers had reviewed the books, tabloids and showed interest in having the material for their outreach activities. By God’s grace, it became a reality and it was possible to ship another container with more tabloids that finally arrived this past February. Now Lima is another center of distribution.

I did a two-day presentation in their church in Lima where I had the privilege of meeting more people. One of these was Sister Susana from the southern part of Peru. After we shared with her about the work that the Lord is allowing us to do, she offered to purchase radio time in the city of Arequipa, Peru, if we would provide the radio programs. At the same time the Lord allowed us to purchase a computer in Chiclayo and now the radio programs are edited by brother Abad to meet the requirements of time, so a new radio station in the south of Peru is helping with the mission of spreading the gospel and present truth.

We have also found several other brothers and sisters from other cities asking for material to hand out. We have shipped many boxes to the mountains and to the jungle. The Lord has now opened even more doors in other cities on the east side of Peru to purchase radio time and to broadcast truth-filled programs over the airwaves. Now we have cities like Cutervo, Santa Cruz, Nuevo Cajamarca, each one with radio programs that run one hour a day, six days a week in addition to the Chiclayo and Arequipa stations already mentioned. We are praying and working on getting a program in Lima, the capital of Peru and also in Trujillo, the other major city of Peru. It is our hope that one day the whole of Peru will be covered with the final message. We would like to kindly thank Brother Roberto Valenzuela from Tennessee for providing the majority of the programs for radio.

Even while we are home in America, our work in Peru does not stop. This year three thousand more new Spirit of Prophecy books are being printed. This time it will be Counsels on Health and Diet, Adventist Home and Christ’s Object Lessons. Thank you to Spanish Herald for making this a reality. Pray that all this material will be able to reach needy and hungry souls for the truth.

The youth in Peru are now traveling to the farthest eastern rural areas of Peru to distribute literature. We are thankful for donations that have helped to cover their traveling expenses, so that many more doors are being opened. These youth are spreading the literature, preaching the true gospel with the final message and sharing their personal testimonies of how the Lord has convicted them and why they have committed their lives to Him. They teach that the work is very soon to be finished so we must all get involved.

There are other cities where we would like to start broadcasting the radio programs. There is also a Peruvian pastor who has requested materials for some churches in Costa Rica and Guatemala. There are more Spirit of Prophecy books to print. There is still much work to do and we are praying that the Lord will continue to lead.

Please keep those dedicated brothers in Peru in your prayers. They face many trials. Pray for their love of the truth and convictions to continue to grow stronger. Pray for the people receiving the tabloids and books. Pray for the Lord to extend his grace to Peru and the rest of the world and add more laborers and resources to the work so everybody can have the chance to know the precious truth. Your prayers are needed.

By Franco Monteza. 

Donations can for this work can be sent to:
 Spanish Herald, PO Box 143, Dillard, OR 97496.