Lima, Peru, started 7 A M,  Wednesday, January 21, 2004, 

 [finished at 11:40 because of many interruptions, still not mailed till after Thursday A M because I had to work till late last night getting the e-mail addresses corrected and in order.  I had to transfer many from the Atocri office computer to my desktop. ]  

Dear e-mail family, friends, and churches, 

Our www.Atocri.org is ‘up’ but with no Atocri text till next week [Jan.27] when our web worker gets back in town. 

            I just looked at the internet weather report and forecast and saw that many of you are having below freezing weather.  It sounds even colder when I tell our Peruvian friends that it is below 0 centigrade [= 32 degrees Fahrenheit] which is the Peruvian measurement. 

            We’re OK and enjoying the warm 80 degree weather with bright sun all day.  Here, just 11 degrees south of the equator when the sun shines it’s much hotter than in the summer in TN, and it really feels hot outside, but never over 85 inside.  So with just a little breeze or the fan on low, it’s very comfortable. 

            Yesterday, Tuesday, Jan.20, was our regular pray for missions meeting and one of our busiest days since we arrived two months ago.  [The last person left at about 9:30 P M.]  About 30 Peruvian missionaries and pastors and workers were here to pray together.  The theme was “God seeks worshippers worldwide” John 4:23-24.  And Psalm53:2  that God looks down from heaven looking all over the world for people who are truly seeking Him and worshipping Him.  And 1Cor.10:20 What the people offer to idols, they offer to DEMONS and NOT to God.  So their worship is not only not pleasing to God but an abomination to Him.  Therefore, one of the main motivations for missions is to lead people to Christ so they will worship God in spirit and in truth. 

            Also, I presented them our Atocri Mission project to help women form “Women With World Vision” groups in their churches.  My guess is that fewer than half have women’s group meetings and I’m sure that the ones that do, pray very little specifically for local, national, and world missions.  That is because they have very little materials and information for prayer  “ammunition”.  So, our goal is that every one of the about 1,000 Baptist churches in Peru will have a “Women With World Vision” group.  That will mean that if the average attendance is 10 then about 10,000 Peruvian women will be praying regularly for world missions.  I gave each of the several missionaries present another copy of our published list of 65 Peruvian ‘Atocri’ missionaries and reminded then that their name is on that list and asked them how they would feel if 10,000 women had that list and were praying for them.  They began to get the message and began to get enthusiastic about the project and pray for it.  I’m excited about the possibility of much prayer for the thousands of unreached ‘tribes’ and many ‘closed’ countries worldwide. 

NOW, we have to publish and distribute data and literature for prayer for local, national, and world missions to eventually 1,000 churches and to 10,000 praying women.  We’re trusting the Lord to provide the needed $ to pay for it and workers to do it.  Our first step will be to insert on the www Atocri. org page what we already have ready.   

            The main thrust for this first stage is women’s groups, but we’re hoping that it will result in lots of men’s prayer groups, too.  Serious promotion for men’s groups will begin sometime later this year.  Or, maybe it will be wiser to do women and men at the same time.  However, it will be harder because almost no churches have regular men’s meetings.  Please help us pray for these projects. 

            Also, on Saturday our printer brought the 1,000 full color 12” by 17” posters we had ordered [cost $100] to publicize our Atocri Missionary Training conference on 23 to 28 Feb.  Also, we had 500 letters printed to accompany the posters.  We have 5 volunteers addressing and sorting them to distribute them near Lima and send them to the “provinces”.  Please help us pray for the conference. 

            This weekend [Jan.24 – 25] I’m preaching my “Win more souls for Christ and for His local church” campaign.  I’ve got to get all my messages warmed up and my handouts ready and “Xeroxed”.  Please help us pray for this. 

            The Lord bless you and keep you,  Num.6:23 – 27, 

            Missionary Redford Tramell [and Elizabeth

Added By Marcos Sept. 19, 2003

June 2003 Atocri Bulletin 

Please pray for the 2 thousand unreached towns and five unreached tribes in Peru, for the Lord to raise up more Peruvian missionaries to reach them and start the first churches there. Pray for the Lord to bless each missionary, his family, and his ministry. One of the purposes of the Atocri Mission is to inform Peruvian Baptist churches of the most needy places and promote starting churches there. As the Lord raises up Peruvian Baptist missionaries, Atocri helps train them and make them known among other Peruvian Baptist churches for prayer and support.

Most Christians in the world live where there is persecution and limited or no freedom to worship and serve Christ. So, we are especially thankful that in Peru (and in most of Latin America) there is unlimited freedom to worship and serve Christ, to win souls, and to start churches. Even the unreached tribes in the jungles of Peru are not ‘closed’. We have freedom to ‘evangelize’ all the 2,000 ‘unreached’ towns scattered all over Peru, mostly in the Andes and along the rivers in the jungle.

We’re thankful for the good reports from the 60 Atocri missionaries (29 couples and 2 singles) who are starting two churches in Columbia, 28 churches in needy places all over Peru, and one new couple headed to Spain. They are seeing people get saved, baptized, and discipled. Their churches are growing, and Christ is ‘calling’ many Peruvians to serve Him.

Please pray for the Peruvian missionaries, their ministries, their health, their families, and for their needed monthly support. Nearly all their monthly offerings come from Peruvian churches (average $350 per couple per month), and Atocri tries to give each ‘family’ at least $1 a day ($31 monthly to 30 ‘couples’ = $930 total) needed every month from Atocri which helps a lot. The Lord is blessing His work here, so each year there are more and ‘bigger’ churches to be able to help Peruvian missionaries. Part of our ministry is to help Peruvian Baptist missionaries ‘connect’ with Peruvian and USA Baptist churches for prayer and monthly gifts. Please pray for the missionaries, the Peruvian churches, and this Atocri ministry.

Atocri has not been receiving enough offerings from USA churches and Christians for Peruvian missionaries and the Atocri administrative budget, so we have not been able to give $31 each month to every missionary ‘family’. Please help us pray for the Lord to supply this need.

We’re thankful for the $1,500 monthly offerings the Lord is providing toward the Atocri $3,000 monthly budget including $1,000 offerings to Peruvian missionaries. Please help us pray for the Lord to provide the $1,500 monthly still lacking in offerings from Christians and churches in the USA. (We try to channel all offerings from Peru to needy Peruvian missionaries.)

We are thankful for God’s blessings on the annual Atocri Missionary Training Week “Seminario Misiológico Atocri” from Feb. 17﷓22. More than 140 Peruvian missionaries, pastors, and leaders attended. We helped nearly all the 60 Atocri missionaries and candidates attend. But the conference and help to Peruvian missionaries cost Atocri more than $1,000 which put us in deficit that has not been made up yet. Please help us pray for the Lord to send gifts to cover our deficit, and to continue working in the lives and ministries of the missionaries

The main preacher-teacher was the Mexican pastor of one of the largest Hispanic Baptist churches in the USA and an effective soul winner. The theme was “How to win more people to Christ.” He preached/taught 18 times. It was very helpful to all and is already resulting in more missionaries and pastors winning more Peruvians to Christ.

One of the best results of the conference is that Peruvian pastors and USA missionaries are leading “Conferences on Soul Winning” in Peruvian Baptist churches. These conferences are not ‘evangelistic campaigns’ but are about why and how each church and Christian can win more people to Christ. Lots of good materials by Missionary Tramell and others are now available in Spanish. Please help us pray that more pastors and churches will catch the vision of active soul winning, and that every one of the more than 1,000 Baptist Churches in Peru will have a “Conference on Soul Winning” every year (which we recommend). That would result in many thousands of Peruvian Christians becoming more active in soul winning, many more thousands of Peruvians getting saved, hundreds of them ‘called’ into the ministry, and hundreds of new churches started. This could become one of our most fruitful projects. We will need MUCH PRAYER and about $75 a month for labor and materials to promote it.

The "To every town and village" project is progressing slowly, mostly because of lack of funds. There are still thousands of needy places. Please help us pray.

The www.Atocri.org web site is continually being updated in English and in Spanish. We’re always adding more info and news about Atocri and Atocri projects, introductions to all the Atocri missionaries, our “Conference on Soul Winning” and “Conference on World Missions Vision”, and copies of our materials in Spanish and some we’re adapting to English. Please help us pray for our web site that it will help the readers and the Lord’s workers.

Virtual Biblical Library “Biblioteca Bíblica Virtual”: These days, in web sites on the internet there is a whole ‘library’ of good Bible study, research, and theological material available free. Our neighbor, German, has a High Speed connection and is sharing it with us. So, our latest project is to place a computer in the Atocri ‘Library’ and offer the use of it free to Peruvian missionaries and pastors for researching Bible materials on the internet. It will be a great blessing and help to the Lord’s workers and their ministries. We’re researching and indexing a list of good web source sites to facilitate finding the materials. The cost will be about $600 for the computer and about a dollar a day upkeep. Please pray with us that the Lord will provide the money and bless its use. We don’t have the money now.

Please help us pray for our “Continual Training of Missionaries and Pastors”. We see the need and interest growing for training Peruvian missionaries and pastors, but this ministry has slowed down. This is because of limited funds. Also the Continual Training Director (Segundo) has accepted the pastorate of a growing Baptist church in Lima. Therefore, he can give less than half his time and effort to Atocri. Please help us pray for this ministry, for the Lord to send an assistant director, and $500 monthly gifts from the USA to pay them and expenses.

Please help us pray for God’s miraculous intervention in raising up ‘laborers’ (Mat.9:38-38) to start and pastor churches in thousands of needy places. Pray for their monthly support, and for gifts to help pay for renting a place, and/or for land and a simple building for starting meetings. Most Peruvians are poor, so new ‘mission churches’ can’t pay rent or buy land, and most of the sponsoring Peruvian churches are young so can’t give much. Also, it is almost impossible for Peruvian churches to borrow money in Peru for land or building, and when they can, the interest is about 25% yearly. So, in order for Peruvian missionaries to start churches especially in urban locations they need help for rent, or to buy land and build a simple building. Atocri has received requests from churches and missionaries for a total of more than $150,000 to help buy land and/or build simple buildings, or for needed expansion. Atocri could use this almost immediately in starting new churches. We’ve been able to start most of our churches by helping buy land and/or buildings, but hindered when we lacked funds. The salvation of thousands of Peruvians depends on churches being planted in their neighborhoods. Please help us pray for the Lord to ‘miraculously’ supply.$150,000 for land and/or buildings for new churches like the following:

Starting the La Floresta Baptist Church (mission) near the Lima International Airport has been delayed because of lack of funds. A Christian sister is offering to ‘sell’ her empty lot in La Floresta at less than half price A Baptist church in Lima is ready to adopt it as their ‘mission’, so with about $4,500 they could start immediately. Please help us pray for the Lord to provide the funds and bless this project.

Everything is ready for starting the La Cumbre Baptist Church (mission) on the eastern edge of Lima. But it is being delayed for lack of funds. We could start meetings by investing about $2,500. Please help us pray for the Lord to provide the $2,500 and bless the ‘planting’ of this church.

The Ollantay Baptist Church near Lima has started an ‘annex’ in Ollantay Bajo. The owner of the land and building is selling it soon and has offered it to the church at about half price. The church can’t borrow any money, and Atocri doesn’t have it. Please help us pray for $4,000 for this mission church.

Pray for the Tambo Viejo Baptist Church in Cieneguilla on the eastern edge of Lima: The legal action has finally been resolved in our favor. So we expect that soon we’ll have to pay the Government Land Office about $3,000 for this large choice lot. Please help us pray for the eviction of the illegal occupants, for the Lord to bless the starting of this new church, and to provide $3,000 in gifts to pay the land office.

Proceedings for title to the land for the Bethesda Baptist Church in Villa El Salvador near Lima haven’t been resolved yet. Please help us pray for this and for the $3,500 we’ll need to pay the Government Land Office.

The ‘Messiah’ Baptist Church started by Atocri Missionary Santos in urban Lima has out grown their rented place. All appropriate lots nearby cost about $40,000. Their church can’t move far because most members don’t have cars. Please help us pray for $40,000 for the ‘Messiah’ Church.

Puerto Nuevo Colán near Piura on the coast way up North near Ecuador is Lima Pastor Raul’s home town, but there is no Baptist church there. Please help us pray for starting the FIRST Baptist Church there, for the Lord to raise up a Peruvian missionary to go there and his support and a meeting place.

Tarapoto (population 50,000 people) in the jungle is the home town of Lima Pastor Wilmer. He has offered to lend his house there for starting the Third Baptist Church. There is ‘room’ for 20 more Baptist churches in Tarapoto. Please help us pray for starting this new church. Pray that the Lord will send a Peruvian missionary to start the church and pray for his $500 monthly support (part from Peruvians and part from USA).

Please help us pray for the First Baptist Church in Jeberos deep in the jungle northeast of Tarapoto. Atocri missionary Ang. started it in 1998. It doesn’t have a pastor now and each visit by a pastor from ‘nearby’ cost about $100.

We are very thankful for the Lord’s continual blessings on Missionaries Rafael and Gaby starting the First Baptist Church in Lircay at 11,000 ft alt, 200 miles east of Lima, deep in the Andes. They’ve requested $3,500 to buy the only other building on the lot. They need it. Please help pray.

We are still making progress on helping the Peruvian Baptist Efata Deaf Mission promote and help many ‘hearing’ churches start ‘deaf’ ministries. Maybe by January we’ll see some begun. Please continue to pray for this project and the more than 300,000 deaf in Lima and about a million in Peru. Only three hearing Baptist churches in Lima have deaf ministries. NONE of the largest Baptist churches do.

The Atocri ‘Free Clothes and Things for Peruvian Missionaries and Pastors’ is functioning and helping lots of Peruvian missionaries and pastors, but we still owe $1,000 on the big room we built for it on our flat roof. Please help us pray for God’s blessings on this project and for the Lord to provide the $1,000 needed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SUPPORT: Send gifts through and made out to ‘B.I.O.’ at:

Baptist International Outreach Mission
P. O. Box 639
Maynardville TN 37807
note “for Atocri”
B.I.O. phone: 865-992-0999, fax:865-992-4999
bio155@aol.com , www.BaptistInternationalOutreach.org 

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July 2003 Personal Newsletter

Dear Friends,

My mother’s Newspaper Obituary:

[ Alice Cherry Tramell, age 100, died April 27 in Atlanta GA where she resided since 1993. She is survived by son Redford and daughter in law Elizabeth who are Baptist missionaries to Lima, Peru, and her daughter Alice Ann Sage of Atlanta and seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. She was born in Bardstown KY, graduated from Randolph Macon Women’s Collage, married attorney Herman K Tramell of Jellico TN in 1928, and lived in Jellico till after his death in 1972. The graveside service will be (was) in the Jellico cemetery at 2 P M on Sat. May 3 , her 101st birthday. Memorial gifts to BIO Mission, Box 639, Maynardville TN 37807 “for Atocri Peru church planting projects”. Or through or to the church of your choice. ]

We try always to give thanks in EVERYTHING for we know it is the Lord’s will for us (1 Thes.5:18). We’re especially thankful that we arrived in Atlanta early Sunday morning April 27, in time to be at my mother’s bedside and holding her hand when she died that night. She was born on Kentucky Derby Day and buried on Derby Day 101 years later. My father died in 1972 at age 75. I am very thankful for my very good parents. They were baptized members of the First Baptist Church in Jellico. They were always very encouraging and supportive of us and our mission work and ministries. Their generous donations were part of our being able to start 33 churches in Peru and obtain land and/or buildings for them.

My and Alice Ann’s family were together for the funeral. We were very thankful that our oldest son Jonathan and wife Junnita whom we hadn’t seen in 3 ½ years were here for 5 days. They live in Los Angeles (Glendale) CA.

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Before we left for Peru on Feb.8 we were very thankful finally to get gravel driveway, lights, water, septic system, decks, and underpinning installed and move into our home (in the snow).

We’re thankful for the Peruvian Atocri Mission’s ministries and effectiveness. [See enclosed Atocri Bulletin.] We’re thankful for the $1,500 monthly offerings the Lord is providing for Atocri toward the $3,000 monthly budget. Please help us pray for the Lord to provide the $1,500 monthly still lacking in offerings from Christians and churches in the USA.

Feb. 17﷓22 was the Atocri Mission’s Annual Missionary Training Week. We were thankful to be able to make it back to Peru in time to help. Also, we helped nearly all the 60 Atocri missionaries and candidates to attend. More than 100 other Peruvian pastors and missionaries and leaders attended. The training week cost Atocri more than $1,000 which put us in deficit.

Several pastors have already requested me to lead the conference in their church when we get back to Peru. Please help us pray that the results will multiply and that more Peruvian pastors and USA missionaries will preach and use handouts in “Conferences on Soul Winning” in other churches. There are more than 1,000 Baptist churches in Peru, so it will take a lot of us a long time to help them all, especially if each church begins having a ‘Conference on Soul Winning’ every year (which we recommend). Now that I have the handouts ready, I hope to lead the conferences in Hispanic churches in the USA.

I have translated the materials to English and am ready to lead Conferences on Soul Winning in English in churches in the USA. Also, I’m updating my World Missions Vision Conference. Please pray with us for our ministries when we are in the USA (representing the Atocri Mission and missionaries, missions conferences, soul winning, preaching, writing, etc.). We really do want to be useful to the Lord, His work, and his people.

Look on the Atocri.org and Tramell.com web sites in English and Spanish for more about our “Conference on Soul Winning” and “Conference on World Missions Vision”. Copies of the materials in Spanish and English are being inserted in our web sites. Please help us pray for these web sites that are continually ‘under construction’.

On June 16 - 20 we participated in the Training Week for BIO missionaries hosted by Oak Hill Baptist Church in Somerset KY.

I was 72 last month. Elizabeth and I are well but tired. We hope never to retire.

We are thankful for all we are able to accomplish at our age for our Lord (getting people saved, churches started, discipleing, training leaders, and Atocri ministries). We hope to return to Peru soon. Please pray for us that we’ll “understand what the will of the Lord is” Ef.5:17, and “stand perfect and complete in ALL the will of God” Col.4:12. We pray this for you, too.

Serving the Lord with gladness,

Redford & Elizabeth Tramell