Dear Friends,
It has been a wonderful, exciting couple of months in the lives of the Kokubuns! As you know, July was THE month. All the hours, days, and months of preparation for our new lives in Peru were finally becoming a reality. Early on July 3, we boarded a plane headed to Peru. I could have never dreamed what the next month would bring.
In the past month, our team has started our first church plant. The morning after we arrived, my wife and I jumped into the vehicle with Dan Hubbard, Zach Foust, and Junior Martin. We were going to look at a storefront property that would eventually house our first church, not knowing how soon that would be. (This was on a Wednesday, July 4.) God moved. We signed a contract on the storefront, and that next Sunday we had the first service of Iglesia Bautista International.
We had over 30 people in our first service! The church is only four weeks old as of this writing, and the church is booming. Where the pulpit sits in our church is geographically right smack in the center of Chorrillos, a district of Lima. For the last four weeks, the Gospel has been preached at the heart of Chorrillos, Lima, a town we have come to love. There have been dozens of salvations and lives changed. The people God has called us to are eager to hear the good news of the cross.
There are so many stories of God using Iglesia Bautista International to reach the harvest. Here are two:
One Wednesday night before church, I walked down the street inviting people to our new church. As I came to the end of the block, I found a soccer park with dozens of young people playing soccer. I walked over to the bleachers and sat down just to watch. My heart was truly broken for the youth. As I was sitting there, a couple of curious teenagers walked over to say hi. As I began in my broken Spanish to talk to them, they were curious about what an American was doing in their park. Before I knew it, two young men grew to twelve young men. We all talked and laughed at my accent. I invited them all to the service that night. Many of them have received Christ as their Saviour and attend church often.
One boy in particular, Jorge, has a special place in my heart. I handed Jorge a tract the first Saturday we were inviting people to church. Jorge was sitting on a bench watching his friends play soccer. Zach Jr. (my teenager from the team) and I approached him and invited him to church. Having a language barrier, we simply gave him a tract and prayed he would be in church the next morning. To my disappointment, he did not show on Sunday morning. I did not think another thought about it until Sunday evening while I was playing the prelude. In walked Jorge with two of his friends! All during the preaching, I was excited that they came, hoping that Jorge
would get saved. During the invitation one of the Spanish pastors who had been helping us approached the young men and asked them about salvation. When he asked Jorge if he knew he was going to Heaven, Jorge gave him a confident, "Yes!" When asked how he knew, Jorge explained that he had taken the tract that I had given him home and had asked Jesus to save him! Hallelujah! God truly is working here in Chorrillos, Lima, Peru.
I cannot thank you enough for your continued support and love. We love hearing from you through all your comments and letters. You are in our hearts and prayers; we love you very much. If there is ever anything we can do for you, please contact us. Now that we have settled in our first apartment as a married couple, we hope to connect more with you. We will be blogging and updating our Facebook much more in the future.
Here is our information:
Phone: 919.407.8668 (Call or text anytime; it's a USA number, so you will pay no international fees.)
Address:
Daniel y Heather Kokubun
Urb. Las Brisas de Villa
HB Lote 7 Costa Norte
Lima 09
Chorrillos, Lima, PERU
Serving Him,
Daniel and Heather Kokubun
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