The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians these words: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Anita and I have been busy in the Lord’s work during the month of May. I started the month off with a revival meeting in the mountain town of Huariaca. Only the Lord knows if revival was accomplished in this small mission work we helped get started several years ago. There were many rededications, two asking for baptism and one young woman trusting Christ as her Savior.  We give the Lord thanks for his graciousness to those dear saints that live high up in the Andes mountains where the air is cold and crisp.

The next week-end I preached two nights for the youth group of the Calvary Baptist mission church here in Huánuco. It was not as well attended as I would have liked but I did have a good time with the kids that came. Brother Enrique Castillo is our youth minister and he does a tremendous job with these young folks. We had four trust Christ as their Savior during the month and they are now in discipleship training. We had hoped to baptize these four but their parents are not in favor of their being baptized at this time. These kids come from a rough area of Huánuco and their parents do not attend church.

Since these youths are between thirteen and seventeen we ask the parents for permission. This shows respect for the parents and helps keep the door open for continued witnessing to them.

On the fourth week-end I traveled to the high jungle town of Oxapampa where Brother Carlos Gonzales is the mission pastor.  It takes eleven hours on the bus, over terrible roads to get to this town. But the Lord blessed and we saw the church strengthened, evidenced by the decisions made. You might remember that Carlos lost his wife to cancer a few years ago and he is now in need of an operation to remove a large gall stone. Please remember to pray for him and the work in Oxapampa.

June the fourth, Anita and I were in the capital city of Lima in order to receive, Andy Norris; a young university student from the States that has come down to work and help us for a few months. He has already been a great blessing to us. Andy has designed a template in Microsoft Access for a library data base. He is in the process of cataloging and organizing my entire library and when his is finished I will be able to search all my books, pamphlets, microfiche, and electronic books just by typing any word, topic, or author. Pastors, he is good, maybe some of you in the States would like to have him come and do the same for you!

This past Sunday, the seventh of June, Anita and I celebrated thirty-five years of marriage.  We had a wonderful day rejoicing in the Lord by reminding ourselves of the many, many wonderful things HE has done for us over the years.  The Calvary Church surprised us on Sunday night with a special gift and anniversary cake.  Sunday morning I also had the joy of baptizing a young man, Alan, into the fellowship of the Calvary mission church.

Andy and I will be traveling to Lima this weekend to receive a mission group from the Berea Baptist Church of Hiddenite, North Carolina.  The group will be coming to help us build a security wall around the property of the Grace Baptist church here in Huanuco.  Anita and I are staying very busy, making the preparations for this group. They will be in Peru for two weeks and we pray the Lord will greatly bless their time here with us.

We were saddened this past month to hear of the passing of Brother Wallace York and Sister Betty Creiglow. They both were great examples of service to our Lord and they will be greatly missed by all who knew them. Write us or call, we always enjoy hearing from those we love.

In HIM by HIS grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton

The month of April marked twenty-six years completed in Peru for Anita and me and thirty-one years since my being ordained into the ministry. However, the month could best be described as TRAVEL for me and TEACHING for Anita. One weekend I preached a three day meeting in the jungle town of Cayumba on the theme of marriage and family. It was a real blessing with several couples asking for baptism. One of the highlights was learning that Anita’s series of Sunday School books she has written over the years are now being used as textbooks for religious education in some of the public schools in that region. You just never know how the “small things” you do will be used of the Lord one day!

The following weekend I was out in the Central Jungle town of Pucallpa where we lived for seven years. I was asked to help coordinate the organizational services for the Hebron Baptist Mission. The organization service was very well attended with many sister churches being represented. David Olortegui is the pastor/missionary there. I had the joy of pastoring him for several years (he is from Huánuco), conducting his marriage ceremony and ordaining him to the gospel ministry a few years ago. The Lord has blessed his ministry and his hard work. The new church is now officially called “La Iglesia Bautista Monte Horeb” – the Mount Hebron Baptist Church.

I finished out the last weekend in the town of Huariaca, nearly two miles high up in the Andes Mountains. It was a three day evangelistic meeting with one of our Baptist missions and the Lord blessed with two trusting Christ as their Savior and two “cold hearted” church members repenting and asking for the churches forgiveness.

Anita stays very busy teaching her literacy classes four afternoons each week. So many of the people in this region of Peru cannot read or write; have no math skills and are taken advantage of all the time by unscrupulous merchants. Teaching them is very slow, repetitive work (and sometimes aggravating when they don’t practice at home)! But she is dedicated to this ministry and loves the ones she teaches. It thrills her to see her students get excited over such simple things are learning to read and write their names.

Besides the literacy classes she also prepares the Sunday School lessons for our church and then teaches the teachers how to teach! This Sunday she has asked me to participate in a skit for the Sunday School children. I get to play the part of Jesus receiving all the little children. I guess having my beard helped me get the role! She continues to feel good physically; she claims she feels better than she has in years. We continue to give our gracious God all the thanks for His healing her of cancer.

We thank the Lord for all of you; for your thoughts and prayers; the cards and letter; your support and encouragement.
Until next month.

In HIM by HIS grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton

Anita and I are busy packing and getting ready to return to Peru in two days! Time has slipped away quickly the past couple of weeks and it seems no matter how prepared you think you are there are always last minute details to take care of. We are so anxious to get home and back into the work the Lord has called us to do. We will be out of communication for a week or two until we get our internet service up and running again. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude to our great God for His manifest mercy in healing Anita of cancer this past year.  We thank each of you for your love and concern that you showed to us by your prayers, cards, phone calls and gifts.

Besides getting back into the normal ministry activities that we do, we are also planning on expanding our Bible Institute to include online classes. It will probably take a few years to get a complete curriculum available online but we are looking forward to the challenge. Anita is anxious to get back to teaching the women in Huanuco and also to start helping so many of the ladies learn to read and write. We also have four (maybe five) mission groups coming down this year and we are praying that each group will be encouraged in their walk with the Lord and will receive a long lasting burden and passion for missions. As the apostle John said in his 3rd epistle, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth”, this is our prayer for each of you. Our next letter will be from Peru!

In HIM by HIS grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton