Berry, mark

My name is Mark Berry and I am a sinner saved from hell by the precious blood of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me even while I was yet a sinner.  I delight in the amazing truth that by God’s grace I am no longer a slave to sin, but a child of my perfect heavenly Father, all thanks to Jesus!  Since childhood when I believed this good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and later when God rescued me from false teaching in the university that almost caused me to lose my faith, I have loved Jesus and felt a strong calling on my life to serve him and help others to come to know him.  I love Jesus, because he first loved me. I love my wife and my children, I love God’s people the church, and I love my country and the nations of the world, especially our beloved Perú, and I long for all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth:  Jesus, the only mediator between God and men.  

God blessed me as a young man by calling me to be a minister of his gospel, and I was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in July 2000.  I have served the Lord as a pastor, evangelist and missionary in the US and in Latin America for 22 years.  God has helped me serve alongside other precious saints to plant churches, train and mentor national pastors and church planters, minister mercy to very poor and needy children and adults, preach the gospel in prisons, and lead and shepherd missionary teams and team leaders.  With my wife of 25 years, Lori, and our five children, Emmett, Anna, Taylor, Abigail and Hadassah, we have lived and served in Costa Rica, Chile and Perú.  I have also had the privilege of doing mission work in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Paraguay.  In Perú, in collaboration with dear brothers and sisters from different walks of life and different countries, the Lord helped me plant and pastor the Luz de Vida Presbyterian Church in Salamanca for six years and oversee the founding of the House of Glory shelter for abused teen moms and their babies for ten years.  

Lori and I and our youngest daughter, Hadassah, currently reside in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, having returned in March 2022 after serving a four year term in Chile and Perú.  I believe God has called us back to the US in order that we might continue our missionary work from a US base.  He has given me a vision to continue to advance his kingdom through evangelism and missions, church planting, church revitalization and contributing to the spiritual growth of local churches through the ministry of the Word and prayer.  I believe Jesus’s vision for me is the same as Paul’s charge to Timothy’s in 2 Timothy 4:1-5:  “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will wander off into myths.  As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

I will do this by:
  1.  Continuing to mentor and support church planters and their church planting efforts in Latin America
    1. Meeting virtually for discipleship, counseling and training of pastors, church planters and their wives
    2. Preaching and teaching virtually in churches and church plants 
    3. Raising funds to support church planting efforts and associated diaconal ministries
    4. Mobilizing short term teams to support church plants and diaconal ministries in Latin America
  2. Support Hispanic church planters and church planting efforts in the US
    1. Preach and teach 
    2. Mentor and counsel
  3. Support English speaking church planters and church planting efforts, as well as local churches without pastors
    1. Providing pulpit supply, needed teaching, and pastoral care
  4. Evangelism and Missions
    1. Evangelistic Preaching in Churches
    2. Street Preaching and Evangelism
    3. Leading Mission Trips within the US, and using them as a means of discipleship and training of future evangelists and missionaries

Lori and I welcome your partnership in the gospel, and thank you for your prayers.  If you would like to sign up for our prayer updates, please subscribe here.  God bless you!