09 Dec

December 2020 Prayer Letter

Dear friends and family,

Thank you for your prayers and support throughout this year. I have heard many friends mention that 2020 is a “year best forgotten” or a “lost year” due to the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns. For our family, it has been anything but wasted. 2020 has been full of blessing and opportunity.

Our daughter, Grace Lynn Rose Kotvas, was born on September 8. She is truly a gift of grace for our family. She was born a month before her due date, and so we faced some respiratory issues after her birth, but at three months old she is doing better every week, and is a healthy, happy baby. We dedicated her to the Lord before our church on November 22.

 Esther, our second child, turned three years old on October 16. She is our little princess. She loves her little sister and likes to sit and gaze at her exclaiming, “my baby is so cute!”

Our oldest, Joseph James, is almost five. He made a clear profession of faith in Christ back in July, and it was my joy to baptize him this month before our congregation.

JJ had been asking to be baptized for weeks, but he was afraid of the water. We decided to practice in the bathtub every night so he would not freeze up on his big day. On November 22 he was still afraid, but he took the plunge, and he did great!

The ministry is doing well, and we are praising the Lord that the government has relaxed some of the harsh restrictions that kept us from holding in-person meetings. We resumed services in our facilities on November 15th after eight months of primarily online meetings.

Our Deaf and hearing people have responded well, and it has been such a blessing to see many of them face to face again. We have had visitors and decisions each week.

Last week was a big week for us as we coordinated our first ever International Deaf Bible Conference online.

We had 22 speakers from across the US and South America participate to preach the Word of God in Sign Language and challenge the Deaf to reach the world for Christ. You can view the conference website and each message online at www.DeafBibleConference.com. (Sign Language only.)

We are looking forward to many more doors of opportunity opening before us in ministry here in Peru next year. Pray for wisdom as we plan to serve and invest in souls.

Next week, our family will be flying to the US for a couple of months to do some paperwork and take care of unfinished business from before the pandemic. Please pray for us as we travel with our three young children. Lord willing, we will return to the field in February.

If you would like to have us visit your church in the month of December, January, or February, please reach out to me at joseph@reachandteach.org and we will do our best to work something out.

Sincerely,

Joseph S Kotvas

Joseph and Zulema Kotvas
JJ, Esther & Grace