March 2015 Newsletter

As I have been posting the Spanish podcast (http://www.surrett.org/podcast), "Guiados por PPP Bíblicos" (Guided by PPP of the Bible), I am learning that doing a podcast is harder than preaching. I never realized how much I depend on the people to whom I am speaking to give me visual cues of when they are understanding, when I need to clarify, when to speed up to maintain attention and when to slow down. Speaking into a microphone in an empty room has been challenging but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. I just need to have more detailed notes prior to recording than I would when preaching. After recording, I then remove mistakes (the major ones), export, upload and post the podcast to the website and social media. It is a little early to tell if it is having much of an impact but I pray that the Lord will use it. I have been asked by a couple people about doing it in English. One of the main reasons for doing the podcast is that I feel that there are not as many good resources in Spanish as are available in English. Since the process is time consuming, I am not currently able to invest doing it in English, however you may find some of the material and listen to Russell Kelfer that has influenced my podcast at http://www.dtm.org.

Prior to coming back to the States, we had been working with Iglesia Bautista La Fe (Faith Baptist Church) as they underwent a pastoral transition. Upon leaving, we were asked if we would come back to La Fe when we returned to Peru. We told them that we would consider it but that it may be possible that the Lord would lead us to help a different church. In January, I received a phone call from a fellow missionary in Peru, Matthew Herrell, who has been involved in the planting of a new in church in Huaycan (on the outskirts of Lima). The church was started about two years ago with a national pastor, Juan, and the missionary working closely together. The church has been growing but is not quite ready to be a fully constituted church. Matt informed me that his family will be coming off the field as missionaries returning for State side ministry. He asked if I would be willing to help the church in Huaycan upon my return to Peru. After talking to Debbie and praying about it, we have agreed to work with this new church. We are already somewhat familiar with the church as we had visited a few times and I have taught the 8-week evangelism course there. During this transition time, I will be communicating with Matt and Juan using Skype and helping as I can from here. Please be in prayer for Iglesia Bautista Esperanza Nueva (New Hope Baptist Church) as they grow in their knowledge and hope of Christ and as they look for property to purchase.