Dear Friends and Family:
As many of you may know, I have been blessed with another incredible opportunity to travel to Peru. I will be gone from May June 18-26, 2016 and work with a team from Roswell United Methodist Church in a town called Sungaro.
I would like to invite you to partner with Chris and I in prayer as I embark again on this adventure. It will be very challenging for me physically and emotionally, but we know that this is a great opportunity to serve Christ! In order for my trip to become a reality, I need to raise $3,000 to cover the expenses of airfare, food, lodging, and supplies.
This year is especially close and dear to my heart. My youngest sister, Kayela Wintjen, will be joining me this year. This will be her first mission trip and I am delighted that she felt the desire to go and that we get to experience this together. For something that once seemed liked a once in a lifetime opportunity for me has shown to be a passion and desire to use my calling (Nursing) to help those with both physical and spiritual needs.
The purpose of our mission is to show the face of Jesus and to grow God’s church there. The church’s missionary partners in Peru are Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey. RUMC’s partnership has resulted in dramatic growth of his ministry organization. The Ivey’s have 4500 Peruvians on their leadership team and over 1300 children in their weekly KIDS CLUBS. Also working with the Ivey’s are Billy & Laurie Drum who have established three schools in rural villages, and Ash & Audra McEuen who have established a library and teaching ministry. Also, Three years ago they developed a farm to teach the village agriculture. Working with us (a team of 20 from the States) and the Iveys on our trip will be 30-35 Peruvian missionaries.
Sungaro is a town of about 4,000 people in the Middle-Eastern area of Peru, two hours from Pucallpa, a city of almost 500,000 people. Arthur and Mary Alice Ivey were in Zungaro in September, and report a great medical and spiritual need there. They had observed open homosexual activity and prostitution in the short amount of time while they were there. And they saw evidence of drug abuse along with other delinquency. They met with the head nurse at the medical post and he indicated that there was a lot of need. Medical problems related to sexually transmitted disease are high, along with parasitic infections such as leishmaniasis (tropical skin disease from sand flies), malaria, gastrointestinal and female issues are also present. The medical post there will welcome the team in their facility. The Ivey’s have several good contacts there to help us to get started.
Our daily itinerary is planned to the fullest to be able to reach the most people (spiritually and physically out of our short amount of time there.
~SATURDAY JUNE 18TH: Fly to Lima
~SUNDAY JUNE 19TH: Fly to Pucallpa early in the morning. Iveys will meet us there with bus taking us to Zungaro. Check into rustic hotels there.
~MONDAY JUNE 20—THURSDAY JUNE 23: Operate clinic
FRIDAY JUNE 24th: Tourist time in Pucallpa—good things to see there. This evening we will fly to Lima, spend night there in Mira Flores
~SATURDAY JUNE 25th: Free time in Lima to explore and/or rest.
~SUNDAY MORNING JUNE 26: 1:10 AM: Leave for Atlanta
I will be participating in a medical mission composed of doctors & nurses, dentists, optical, and children’s ministry. My main focus will be women’s health. As some of you may know, I have worked for Dr. Brian Glass OB/GYN now for almost 11 years. I have seen so many things working here, but in the town of Surago I will face many challenges as a women’s health nurse. I will be working mainly with the women and young girls for general women’s health and pregnancy related problems. The last two years when I went I saw approximately 100+ patients a day. We would work from sun up to sun down. I treated patients from young and old. Men, women, boys and girls. There I wasn’t just a Women’s Health Nurse, I was a humble servant.
Please pray regularly for us as we prepare and as we go:
⦁ for safety for our travel
⦁ for good health
⦁ for the families of those of us going while we are away
⦁ that the Holy Spirit will work powerfully through the Iveys and our team to reach the town of Sungaro
⦁ for us to learn from them and to bond with them
⦁ for help with the language translation from Ashaninka to Spanish to English and back again
⦁ for them to see how we treat women and children
⦁ that they will start a village church teaching and preaching Jesus Christ
⦁ that we help teach them to sustain themselves through farming and other work
⦁ for cooperation and teamwork among our team
⦁ that the Holy Spirit would protect us from evil forces that will try to use spiritual warfare against us
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. I truly feel blessed to be a part of this ministry and to share it with you.
If you feel God is leading you to contribute financially to this ministry, we invite you to share this service opportunity with us. Please make your check payable to RUMC and mail it to me no later than 5/22/2015 or you can mail it directly to R.U.M.C. no later than 5/25/2015. We thank you in advance for your prayers and financial support. We truly feel blessed to be a part of this ministry and to share it with you.
Yours in Christ,
April Stewart
april@stewartscorner.com
The group from the States and most of the Peruvian Missionaries from last year in Yoyato. ( I am in the middle wearing purple scrubs)
Checks should be made payable to Roswell United Methodist Church. The IRS does not recognize checks to individuals as Tax Deductible Contributions.
Also note: IRS regulations require that in order for a donation to be considered tax deductible, nothing should appear on the memo line of the check. Instead, the check should be accompanied by a response card (detach below) or a note of some sort indicating that it is for April Stewart’s Peru mission account.
Yes, I’m excited about being on Peru Medical Mission team of supporters for the RUMC mission trip to Peru. Please return this form to me at my address. All contributions are tax deductible.
_____ I Commit to pray for you regularly
_____ I want to contribute $______toward the cost of the trip. My check is enclosed (Please make payable to Roswell United Methodist Church) and send directly to me or to -Staci Graham
April Stewart
april@stewartscorner.com
I am treating a 2 week old infant. She was covered with herpes lesions obtained through the birth canal during delivery. The lesions became infected and she then developed a secondary infection- MRSA.
Donations can be sent directly to Director of RUMC Missions, as follows:
Roswell United Methodist Church
Attention: Staci Graham
814 Mimosa Blvd.
Roswell, Georgia 30075
Letting a young mother hear her baby’s heartbeat for the first time.
~Sweet Irene's Kitchen 