Hello My Dear Brothers,

I want to tell about Walter. He is a Peruvian man in his 40's who is living in United States, but he was spending two months in Perú due to a serious time in his marriage. He and his wife were going through a difficult time and after many arguments as couple he decided to abandon his home because the situation was unbearable. Suffering from a severe depression, he came to Peru to visit his parents and go to a psychologist. He was having treatment for his depression, but he got worse.

His mother was very concerned about her son and she told our sister in Christ Rocío V. about her son, because she thought the psychological treatment was not helping. Our sister told me about Walter and asked me to go to visit him. I went to his Walter’s house and he told me all  the details about his situation and we were speaking about the Gospel for a long time. We were speaking about the purpose of marriage too and he realized he was not living for the glory of the Lord and he decided to leave his psychological therapy and began to read the Scriptures instead of his book of metaphysics which was recommended by the psychologist. I was speaking about sin and the necessity of God’s righteousness instead of self-righteousness in order to be saved.

After a long time, I went to my home and a few days later our sister Rocío V. came to our service along with Walter. I saw his face when he entered the chapel and it was totally different, he was not upset, but smiling. I talked to him and he told me about the work of Christ in him. He was confessing his sins to the Lord, asking for forgiveness in realizing how prideful and selfish he was. He recognized he was acting that way because he was living apart from God and his commands, but now he found peace in the Lord and is praying for the Lord to give him the strength to carry on. He is repentant for each of his acts, because he realized he was not thankful to God.

I praise the Lord for Walter’s life and I pray the Lord continue doing in his life marvelous things, persevering and preserving His work until the day of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Walter’s mother was astonished in seeing the change effected in Walter and she told Rocío her desire to attend the Church of the Savior at Barranco. Walter’s mother talked to him and told him that if he began to walk on this path he has to persevere without leaving this way. She thinks that something worked for good in her son and even though she is not a Christian and maybe she cannot see the spiritual reality of this change in Walter, she realized that it was something good for Walter’s mental health, because it caused him to come out of depression, that is why she urged her son not to abandon this way.

I am really joyful for this great salvation the Lord has performed in Walter’s life and I pray for him to cling to Christ every day of his life, knowing the Lord is “powerful and able to keep him from stumbling and to present him blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy”. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen. Walter went back to United States and is living in New York. I would like to put him in contact with a solid and biblical Church there and please pray for him because he will going to talk to his wife when he returns to the States. Pray for forgiveness and for him as he is going to talk to her about the Gospel. He wants her to know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ too.

Gina is a girl who came to Church invited by one of the youth who is studying here. She was a former Jehovah ’s Witness but she is not currently gathering together with them. The Lord brought her and when we began to talk about the deity of Christ she was presenting a lot of arguments trying to make invalid what the Bible says about it. I went through different verses, especially in the Old Testament which present Jehovah as the only Savior, as the One who effects salvation among the people and then we moved to the New Testament where Jesus Christ is showed as being the One who saves, the only Name given to men in whom we can find salvation. The Bible spoke and she had no arguments against the Bible.

After talking about the deity of Christ we began to speak about the justification, if it is by work or by faith ALONE. I went through different verses and I was showing with the Bible that man is in need of the righteousness that comes from God because of his state of sin, injustice and ruin, because he is dead in trespasses and sins, and he cannot be justified by his works, because by the works of the Law is the knowledge of sin. Our God will not justify any man by his works, because our best works are filthy rags before him. We are in need of an internal change, a work of regeneration, a new birth. The righteousness we need is not external but internal, and it is to be received by faith not by works.

I told her she was trying to understand in order to believe when the Bible says the opposite: we have to believe in order to understand. The way of the Lord is not the human way. Man cannot comprehend the ways of the Lord unless He reveals Himself and He does so in Scriptures, His special revelation and He sent His Only Begotten Son to reveal the Father to us. She began to cry and said it was the way she was trying to please God. She was trying to understand in order to believe and she was trying to please God by means of her works. She understood that her works are not the righteousness she needs, but this righteousness is only found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is God incarnate.

I praise the Lord for His Gospel, because it is power from God to salvation. The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. Please pray for Gina. She is going to live for a year in a city named Juliaca, which is in the southern part of Peru, 20 hours away from Lima. Pray for the Lord to guide her to a biblical local Church. I rejoice in the Lord for his mercy and grace.

In Jesus' Name,

Walter I.