March 2009

Thank you for making all of these ministries possible! Without our faithful supporters and prayer warriors, none of this is possible.

Love, Laurie & Billy & Sarah

We have been blessed to host several folks from the USA during the past few weeks. We had four supporters from Missouri (Halltown Baptist Church) come down to visit with us, scout out the area for future missions, and boost our morale. They were able to share ministry time and testimonies with a local youth group and also with our cell group/open bible study group. They visited the closing celebration of a local VBS, where they graciously helped serve hot chocolate and fresh bread to over 300 children. They visited Laurie’s school on opening day, met many of our ministry partners and friends, and learned a lot about the culture of the Peruvians in the high sierra. We are so grateful for their visit and eagerly look forward to their return (possibly as soon as August to work with a medical team to the jungle).

As soon as the Missouri group left, the next group landed at the airport in Lima. We are currently hosting a group of 15 college students from the Wesley Foundation at the University of Georgia. They are energetic, hard working young adults with a passion for Christ. While they are here, they are serving in a variety of ways… Kid’s Club ministries, street evangelism, covering the city in prayer, ministry to the elderly, working in an orphanage, etc. And on top of all of those plans, they are holding 3 live con-certs this week to share praise and worship music in the city.

Our other ministries continue while teams are on the ground here: we still host bible study and discipleship groups in our home each week and Laurie is teaching full-time at Colegio Cristiano El Camino. Billy continues to work on the details for the new North American Language Institute (opening in Fall 2009) while working with the short-term teams while they are here. Sarah started back to school this week, too, and we are committed to teach-ing English there once a week.

USA short term teams in Peru March 2009 Volume 4, Issue 3

Vacation Bible School for 300+ children!!! We are so proud of one of our bible study girls—she was the director of the VBS and it was AWESOME!!!

Some of Laurie’s students perform a traditional dance at school.

March to the beat… Daily life with The Drums Page 2 La Luz de Cris to para Perú Volume 4, I ssue 3

There is a superstition/belief here that you shouldn’t sit on the ground, specifically rocks. I found this out the hard way… I sat on the rock hearth around a fireplace one day at Sarah’s school and was quickly reprimanded and moved to a chair. The director of the school was going on and on about how bad this was for me and how it would ruin my fertility (which only made me want to sit on a giant pile of rocks!!! ☺). I also like to sit on the floor, especially at school when I’m teaching children, but this is also a no-no… only acceptable if you are sitting on something like a towel or a jacket or a piece of newspaper, etc. So, I began my quest to find out what the deal was with sitting on rocks. Turns out that the rocks have spirits and are “gods”. This is a throw-back from the original Wanka people who worshipped the god of the rocks. If you sit on rocks, you will offend the rock god and the spirit will steal your fertility. But what is funny to me is that if you put down a piece of paper or a towel or a jacket, then the

rock god can’t get you???!!! I watched a lady put down one square of toilet paper one day before she sat on a rock - evidently, this god is not as strong as a piece of toilet paper. According to this belief, this god has no more power than a square of Charmin! I don’t know about you, but I’m really proud to say that MY GOD is much stronger than toilet paper! MY GOD can create the universe! One of my favorite sections of the Bible is in Job… to remind yourself of who our God is, read Job chapters 38-39. I’m pretty sure that I can’t defeat His power with a square of toilet paper.

Cult

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Lear

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Walking alongside Peruvians

♦ The new school year has begun! As USA schools are beginning Spring Break and the rapid countdown to the end of the school year, we have just opened our new year. The school year runs from March through December. Lau-rie is teaching full-time in Colegio Cristiano El Camino. She is teaching Math and Science in 2nd and 3rd grade, English to K-5th grade, and is responsible for chapel once each week. It is funny how, after a lifetime of school in the USA, your internal body clock is set and your mind feels like the first day of school should be in August! I’m really having a hard time keeping my months and seasons straight now that school starts in March and March is in the late summer here!

♦ Billy is working hard on the North American Language Institute (opening in Fall 2009). We are really excited at how things are shaping up for this ministry! We have been given the use of a building for classes (thus allow-ing us to defer the cost of purchasing a building until we outgrow the donated space). We have found a curriculum to use and are finalizing plans in that regard. And we have sent out the call for interns and short-term teachers from the USA. If you are receiving this newsletter via email, please see the attached flier for more information. We would love to have you partner with us in this venture!!! You do not need to be a teacher or speak fluent Spanish to come and serve with us in NALI. Give us a call at 979-985-5268 (USA phone number) for more info.

Children at Kid’s Club perform a choreographed dance for the 80+ children who attend each week. This week, we were blessed to also have 15 students from the University of Georgia Wesley Foundation in attendance to teach a lesson, do a skit, and share Christ with the kids.

Peruvian support people who translate for, cook for, and ac-company the American teams while they are here. Pray for the Ivey family and for our family as we struggle to balance our full-time mission responsibilities, our short-term team responsibili-ties, and our own personal family needs… this can be a stressful time for the full-time missionaries and we need your prayers.

♦ Pray for our friend Liz and the Chavez family.

♦ Pray for Beto and his influence in the ministry. Pray for his wife, Karen—she just found out that she is pregnant.

♦ Pray for missionary children who are in the USA without their parents (Ryan, Miles, Benjamin Ivey…)

♦ Pray for all of the people who support us in this mission

♦ Praise God for his daily provision in our lives

♦ Pray for the new North American Language Institute. The plans are going well and we foresee opening the doors on this venture in Fall 2009. Pray for discernment and wisdom as we continue to plan and work out the details.

♦ Pray for interns and volunteers to come forth and support us with short-term service in Peru. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few…

♦ We send up special prayers for our former field of service—Reynosa, Mexico. Drug cartels and violence has escalated there and missionaries/teams are pulling out of the region. Our hearts break for the people who live there … they won our hearts many years ago and a huge part of us remains in Mexico.

♦ Pray for the children in Kid’s Club ministries and for the street children of Peru who don’t have Christ in their lives yet.

♦ Pray for the abandoned and abused population here

♦ Pray for God’s Word and His Light to shine in the darkness in countries all around the world. Pray for missionaries around the world. Praise God for calling and sending people to share His love in every nation.

Prayers: (one for each day of the month)

♦ Pray for the leaders of the disciple groups in Peru

♦ Pray for the MANY people who are seeking to know Him and are studying each week in disciple groups

♦ Pray for Ryan and Miles as they study in Texas.

♦ Praise God that Miles has acceptance offers from 3 universities. Pray for wisdom and discernment has he chooses which one to attend.

♦ Pray for Laurie as she learns about the education system in Peru and how to best teach her students.

♦ Pray for God to continue to open doors for us to minister to the people of Huancayo.

♦ Pray for Maria and her children—pray that she can continue to find work to support her family. Pray that she sees Christ in the people who are helping her and loving her family.

♦ Pray for Colegio El Camino (where Laurie teaches). Pray for the teachers and the students as they begin the new school year. Pray for the director, Javier, as he works to facilitate education with a Christian emphasis.

♦ Pray for Laurie & Billy to find ways to grow and learn and strengthen each other in their faith and in their relationship

♦ Pray for Sarah as she begins the new school year and makes new friends, learns new things, and shines her light on all who come to know her.

♦ Pray for the USA short term teams as we begin facilitat-ing their missions this month. Pray for the short term missionaries coming to serve in Peru, and pray for our

Page 3 La Luz de Cris to para Perú Volume 4, I ssue 3

Contact information for The Drums

You can email us at: [email protected] or [email protected]

Our physical address is:

Laurie and Billy Drum

Jr. San Jose 230

Urb. San Carlos

Huancayo, Peru

We have a USA phone number! You can call us at 979-985-5268 and it will ring our phone in our home office in Peru!

Please check the blog for updates at www.drumsfrochrist.blogspot.com

To see the newsletter in color, get the pdf edition online. Go to the website and click “Newsletters” to download the newsletter in color! www.drumsforchrist.org

To donate to our ministry account, please mail in the form at the right, or visit The Mission Society website and donate on-line to our personal ministry sup-port account #5/321. http://www.themissionsociety.org/people/drum

Regular mail takes 7 days

from USA to o

ur door!

Awesome!!!

Pray

ers &

Pra

ises

DEAR BILLY AND LAURIE, I will pray for you. Please send me your prayer letter. Update me by e-mail: ___________________________ As God provides, I plan to partner with you by giving

$ _________ Per month / quarter / year for _____ years. I would like to donate a one-time gift of $ _________

Name (PLEASE PRINT) ______________________________________ Address _________________________________________________ City____________________ State__________ Zip _______________ Phone _____________________ Home Church __________________

TAX DEDUCTIBLE GIFTS MAY BE SENT TO: The Mission Society

PO Box 922637 Norcross, GA 30010-2637 USA

DESIGNATE GIFTS: “DRUM SUPPORT 5/321”

Laurie & Billy Drum 3907 Old Oaks Bryan, Texas 77802

Visit us at www.drumsforchrist.org

E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

Serving Christ in Perú

The Drum Family

Sarah baking Christmas cookies.

High school kids in the parade

PRESRT STD US POSTAGE

PAID BRYAN TX

PERMIT #102

“Missions was not made for the church. The church was made for missions.”

Reflections of your Christian values: How you treat people, how you spend your money, and how you spend your time.

(from a Peruvian worker at the orphanage) “I didn’t think that the USA had any Chris-tians in it. I thought that all they thought about was money. That’s not very Chris-tian.”

(from a recipient of missionary help in his country) “You have given us every-thing— hospitals, schools, churches… but you have not given us the thing that we wanted the most. Friends. We wanted to be your friends.”

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.. ~Ashanti proverb

Joyfulness & grateful-ness go hand in hand. You cannot separate joy from gratitude. If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distrib-ute jobs and organize the work—rather, teach people the yearning for the wide boundless ocean.

Memorable Quotes

Visitors from Missouri: Dan & Becky Ross and Beth & Rick Conway.

A young boy (8 years old) works the loom in the family textile workshop.