September Prayer Letter

In less than five months I will be heading to Lima, Peru to serve among the poor with Word Made Flesh (WMF). I worked with WMF in Kolkata, India in the fall of 2011 where God began to stir in my heart a desire to devote part of my life to serving in South America. I have spent the last year seeking God’s will for this next season of my life through prayer and conversations with people who love me. In early April, I took a trip down to Lima to meet the Field Director and dream about what life would look like if I joined WMF Peru. I returned home with a full heart and began the discernment process which led me to decide on joining WMF Peru as field staff.

Peru is one of the poorest nations in South America. Today, nearly half of Peru’s disproportionately youthful population lives in poverty. This culturally Catholic nation is religiously divided between Catholic and non-Catholic. Among the most pressing social issues are rampant poverty, corruption at all levels of organization and government, drug trafficking, local terrorist groups and the breakdown of traditional families.

Peruvians are looking for their identity after almost five centuries of exploitation by foreigners in a culturally and linguistically diverse nation, regionally isolated into coastal, mountain, and jungle communities. Populations in the major cities have been increasing at alarming rates due to urban migration from rural areas. I hope to play a small part in helping Peruvians find their true identity in Christ through building friendships with vulnerable populations.

I am seeking prayer partners who will be committed to praying for me as I am serving in Lima. I will be sending out weekly updates on how you can specifically pray for me and the ministry in Lima. Please let me know if you are willing to support me as a prayer partner by sending me your email address so I can send you updates.

I will be raising financial support for my time in Peru, so I ask that you would begin praying about this opportunity to partner with me as I follow God to the streets of Lima. My goal is to raise $1500 a month to cover all my living expenses, as well as health care and travel costs. If you have any questions or would like to see the breakdown of funds, I would love to meet with you and discuss my budget in further detail. You can donate online at Word Made Flesh. Please denote that it is for Natalie Cook Personal Support. You can also send checks to Word Made Flesh P.O. Box 15068 Portland, OR 97293. Please do not write my name anywhere on the check. Instead, please include a separate piece of paper with my name and Peru Field Staff to ensure it goes into my support account.

I am excited to see the ways God will work through me to serve the vulnerable populations as I move to Peru.

Natalie

3 John 5-8

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.