OUR NEEDS --- Prayer --- Construction --- Other
This page will be updated every 60 to 90 days as our needs are fulfilled or change, so please visit us often to see what is current. LAST UPDATE WAS - 2/9/2026
2025 Summary of Major Events
Please read completely as we now have several immediate major needs.
The year 2025 was one of the most unusual 12 months ever experienced in our home base village of Bretana. The oil company that is present here has been required by the government of Peru to take a much more extensive role in providing needed infrastructure. Therefore, for the past several years, quite a few improvements have been made; although some work better than others.
A new 12’ wide main road has been constructed. Several street lights have been installed along this new roadway, but the power to run them is, at times, sporadic. A village-wide Wifi and internet has been installed, but, while better, still needs improvements as the entire village is not covered. A new government building housing employees that are dealing with specifically needed issues is in place. Outside concrete bathrooms have been constructed for every single dwelling in Bretana. The main Middle-School buildings have been significantly rebuilt, and a new Pre-School building has been constructed. The medical facility now operates Monday through Friday, but with a limited staff. A village restaurant has also been built, but with private funds.
While these have all been very positive improvements to the village of Bretana, Mother Nature presented us with EXTREMELY negative challenges. In early 2025, the entire Amazon region of Peru, to include Bretana, experienced one of the worst droughts we have seen in many years. It became so severe that transportation on the river by heavy barges that deliver food and supplies to villages all along the entire river waterway, became very difficult to safely traverse. This created all kinds of shortages of needed supplies for villages all along the extensive river system.
Then, in the fall of 2025, Bretana, and the surrounding villages our ministry supports, experienced the WORST FLOODING we have seen for over 30 years. Very few people could ever remember a flooding this severe. Jose and Larri’s homes, which are built on heavy duty stilts, had water completely up to their porches. Numerous animals, good and bad, joined them as all ground space was under several feet of water. Larri’s Bretana church had 3 feet of water inside the building, with fish swimming within the walls of the building. The SOS structure suffered damage to several doors whose wood was not the heavier type mostly used throughout the structure. An “army” of termites, fleeing the flooding, attacked these doors and several doors now need to be replaced.
EVERYTHING was under water to such an extent that you had to use dug-out canoes to get from one building to another. Quite a few feet of perimeter fencing surrounding our property was destroyed and now needs to be replaced. All vegetable and fruit crops were destroyed and have to be replanted. Snakes were everywhere and had to be carefully exterminated. A large BOA was killed at the school across from Pastor Larri’s house; and an Iguana to match all Iguana’s (4 feet long) decided to visit Pastor Jose. Of their 85 Cacao trees, 80% were damaged, but most have been rescued.
When the flood waters eventually receded, layers of MUD were literally everywhere; and the cleanup has been taking months to complete.
Through all this, the Ministry continued to work, in Bretana as well as surrounding villages. The Bretana church, with the help of church members, has built a new, extremely nice, Alter for worship service use; and the church has been fully repainted. Throughout the year, within our ministry area, we have experienced about 100 people accepting Jesus as their personal savior; and of these about 75 chose to also be baptized. We have held 8 marriage ceremonies. The children’s ministry in Bretana has continued to grow, now to around 70 children. So many kids are now involved that we had to take one of the SOS rooms and convert it into a full-time Sunday school classroom, with appropriate equipment. We also now have a full-time Sunday school teacher that is I the process of preparing to become an evangelist. Several different types of classes have now been designed for different age groups of kids.
In Bretana, we have experienced an increase in young people that are literally possessed with Demons, and have had the joy of watching as Jesus Christ demanded many to depart. Our situation in Bretana is similar to that being experienced in other countries with the shamming use of social media to wreak havoc on young people’s lives.
We have held numerous training sessions utilizing the SOS building, and of major importance, the SOS “Upper Room” has been set apart as a space for very specialized worship experiences that we hope are leading to the Bretana church experiencing a full church revival.
While December of 2025 was heavily devoted to clean-up and replanting of much needed food trees, there was still time to present three special awards to Bretana high school teenagers. One trophy was given to a student for academic excellence, another one for sports excellence and a third one for excellence in arts. Each student received a nice trophy, plus a gift of $200 cash, which is significant to a Bretana teenager.
Christmas gifts were delivered to the village of Las Palmas, Pastor Victor’s church, and were well received. We had hoped to do the same for several other villages, but the lack of available funds regrettably kept us from being able to do so.
While it’s safe to say ALL of our financial needs are of a high priority, in that we still have so many things that need to be done. Our three top desires, as we enter 2026, are:
1) To build a kitchen and dining area attached to the Bretana Church. The church is growing well and everyone desires to hang-out after every service just to further Christian relationships. Due to this, it would be extremely beneficial if we could have a luncheon meal available that everyone could participate in as they get to know each other better. Currently, to do this, requires an outside fire pit with outside tables; so when it rains we just cannot do this. An enclosed area would make this possible every Sunday; plus we could use the dining area for any special classes that might arise; outside those already being performed within the SOS building. The kitchen and dining area are planned to be 84’ long by 21’ wide, when constructed. With 10 tables and benches, we need $3200 to complete this need.
2) We have finally reached that point where a fully stocked chicken-coup would be a major asset. For weather and animal protection, the coup will be built on brick, with wire mesh around the sides, and a tin roof. We hope to start with 80 to 100 chickens, and 1 roster per every 10 chickens. The eggs produced would also be extremely beneficial. The costs for this is $2400.
3) As mentioned earlier, we had major damage to quite a lot of the fencing around our property, due to the massive flooding. Therefore, our third major need is to replace a number of the posts that hold the fence in place and repair the damaged fence material itself all around our property. As we regrow various food items, this is necessary to keep various animals out. The approximate cost to fix all the fencing issues is $3000.
We continue to thank God for all HE has done to further our ministry efforts in this part of the Amazon; and we remain extremely thankful for any and all donations that continue to come in via our Website; especially those to help with these three major immediate needs.
ONGOING PRAYER NEEDS
Our prayer needs are constantly changing. God has demonstrated to us over the years that He is faithful in answering our needs because we are faithful in responding to His direction for our ministry. These needs will change over time, so please revisit this page over-and-over again and ask your Christian friends to hold our list up in prayer. And may God bless you for doing so.
As of July 2025, we still have a few needs to totally complete the SOS (School of the Supernatural); but it is operational and several ministerial events have been held there. A list of final needs to complete the facility is listed below. Please refer to ALL our financial needs below and then pray how God may have you participate - and God Bless You for doing so!
In June of 2023, our area of the Amazon Jungle was under severe circumstances as "local" versus "national" factions were in complete disagreement over the management of funds that had been set aside by a near-by oil company's operations for use throughout this area. We were under a great amount of pressure for trying to be good citizens and help the local police to maintain law and order within the villages affected our ministry. Over the past three years, your prayers have server mightily to help the authorities get this situation under control. There are still differences of opinions, but for now the serious threat of violence has subsided.
But, our MAJOR prayer needs remain:
1) Our health. The Amazon Jungle area is beautiful but opportunities to get hurt or sick abound. Your building start in 2015, continual daily prayers for the safety and health of Jose, Clara, Larri and Jazmin would be greatly appreciated.
2) Family Unity. As with any Christian team, or Christian church, family unity is so very important. Please pray that in all things our family unity remains strong and God-centered.
3) Wisdom. Every day we are faced with monumental decisions. At times they can almost become over-whelming. Wisdom is needed to make the best choices that God desires us to make.
4) Revelation. It is one thing to find and put in place a remote village river-pastor. But then the process of training that pastor to understand the revelations and directions from God becomes paramount.
5) Spiritual growth. As with any church body, spiritual growth is very important. In the Amazon, there are so many distractions just in daily living that it’s quite easy in this environment for our villagers to lose focus on spiritual growth. Pray that we continually find ways to prevent this from happening.
6) Leadership growth. This is applicable for ourselves as well as for our remote pastors. The key word here is growth. As we establish new pastors through-out our remote village churches, it’s a major challenge helping these men mature and helping them to grow in their faith and in their leadership abilities. Even in the smallest village, that pastor develops others to assist him, which requires tremendous leadership skills.
7) Praise and worship. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will grant us more and more anointing as we do our best to develop the attitudes of praise and worship among our congregation in Bretaña as well as help our remote pastors to do likewise in their villages.
8) Youth leadership. We start at a very early age to teach our children about the love of Jesus. As they mature into young teenagers, it becomes very important that they have older teenage role-models they can rely on for all kinds of support. Identifying and training these older teenagers is vitally important. As we entered 2025, we felt an "immense" desire to reach out, even more, to all the teenagers within Bretana
9) Evangelism teams. Our ministry is headed by the four of us, Jose, Clara, Larri and Jazmin. To spread the gospel of Jesus Christ even more effectively, it is truly important to find and develop others that can form evangelism teams closer to their individual villages.
CONSTRUCTION NEEDS
As we enter 2026, we are so very thankful for all the donations that were received in 2025, and we are now focused on our 2026 immediate needs. to include those causes by the recent major flooding in Bretana.
IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE TO OUR MINISTRY AS WE ENTER 2026
1) Add a kitchen & dining room w/ tables & benches to the church $3200
2) Build a chicken coup & stock it with 100 chickens & 10 roosters $2400
3) Repair the fencing for damage caused by the recent major flood $3000
4) Replace damaged SOS building doors $ 400
5) Gate for new repaired fence - once fencing is fixed $1000
Previous items still needed prior to 2026
1) Build-out the dining room and kitchen in the SOS building $6000
2) Add 2 more bathrooms to the SOS building $3000
3) 16 bunk beds for the SOS facility $3840
6) 32 mattresses for the beds at $50 each $1600
7) 20 tables $3600
9) Smart TV to record and play training sessions by other pastors $1000
10) 5 laptop computers $3000
10) 1 printer $1500
OTHER MINISTRY NEEDS
1) Pontoon Boat House to secure two missionary boats $5000
2) Annual fee - security guard - protect pontoon Boat House at night $ TBD
VILLAGE CHURCH NEEDS
1) 500 small bibles for villagers $1500
2) Total materials & labor required to build a new small village church $3500
3) Total materials & labor to enlarge one existing village church $2000
OUR NEEDS - Handled in 2022
2022 Donations
1) Concrete base for one elevated water tank was built with donated funds - Aug----$1000
2) 20 windows for the SOS building purchased with donated funds - Aug---------------$2400
3) 8 doors for the SOS building purchased with donated funds - Aug--------------------$1760
4) New village church at Manco Capac was built with donated funds - Dec------------$3200
5) 60 plastic chairs were donated for the new Manco Capac church - Dec -------------$ 900
6) Regulation volleyball court was built for Manco Capac church - Dec ----------------$ 450
7) A gasoline powered high quality weed eater was donated for garden area - Aug---$ 900
8) A new 75hp boat engine was donated -Jul-----------------------------------------------$12000
9) Repairs to our larger boat was needed - funds donated - Oct--------------------------$1000
10) One 100hp boat engine had to be rebuilt - funds donated - Nov---------------------$4000
2022 donations Photo Gallery
OUR NEEDS - HANDLED IN 2023
2023 Donations
1) In February, funds to pay for toilets, fixtures and two 2500 litre water tanks for the SOS building were donated ----$2000
2) $1800 was donated in the spring to paint both ministry boats, which was completed in June
3) Everything needed to complete the Upper Room in the SOS building was donated in June - $2700 - and the work was completed in November
Pictures of all these donations are presented below.
2023 Donations Photo Gallery
OUR NEEDS - Handled in 2024
2024 Donations
1) In February, a $900 donation was received so that the windows of the 1st story of the SOS building could be finished out with appropriate screening.
2) In May, $4800 was donated to construct two bathrooms within the SOS building to include septic tanks.
3) In May, $1000 was raised to purchase new fencing material for the property. Labor cost to install the fencing is still needed.
4) In June, a noise reducing headset was donated for when Jose has to use the noisy weed-eater.
5) In July, $2700 was donated to install new chain-link fencing around the SOS property.
6) In July, appropriate funds were donated to install a beautiful front door onth the SOS building
Pictures of these donations are presented below as available.