In the summer of 2009, this newsletter published the improbable story of a pescador named Ray Skaggs. The story starts in 2004. Broke and desperate after a business bankruptcy, Skaggs signed on to drive an eighteen-wheeler for a company he had once worked with as an international executive. Listening to a tape of Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life while on the road changed everything. As he put it, “Possessions no longer mattered. . . . The joy of doing everything that God wants you to do is more valuable than anything you can imagine.” His decision to support the emerging Tres Dias community in Lima, Peru, was a way of “doing what God wants.”  For the story of what happened after that, including the first trip down the headwaters of the Amazon to deliver Bibles and literature to seven churches, see the Summer 2009 issue. For videos of more recent trips on the Amazon, as well as a colorful and inspiring photo gallery of the outreach to children in the isolated regions of Peru, see the Web page for Words of Life Ministry. When Ray Skaggs felt God’s calling to Peru, little did he know how God would expand his ministry beyond Tres Dias, or that God would send him a helpmate. Martha and Ray were married in January 2010. As an award-winning elementary school teacher, and a person fluent in Spanish, Martha has given a new dimension to their combined ministry. Martha has developed workshops to train Christian teachers to share the Good News through puppetry and flannel board stories, supplies constructed by pescadores in Texas and brought to Peru. Together, their mission work brought them to more than 30 churches this Christmas Season. As Martha says, “Children are the future church, with its pastors and teachers. What will our churches in the future be if we do not teach these children now?”

Asked about their future plans in Peru, Martha explained that they are praying for land with a clear title at an affordable price for a Christian Center, with a campground format, so they could reach more people.

Meanwhile, work with Tres Dias continues apace. Ray and Martha are looking forward to Lima Tres Dias #14 in February 2016. That community served as sponsor for Chiclayo Tres Dias, which will hold weekend #4 in April 2016.

The invitation is always open for pescadores to come to serve.

Contact information for Ray and Martha Skaggs http://wordsoflifeministry.org/