LTSP

New Students, Fall 2001

Perucy's journey

Perucy N. Butiku's call to serve the Lord is rooted in her upbringing. She was born and raised a Mennonite in Musoma, East Africa where her father was a local pastor. "Our home was a place of prayer and faith in God," she remembers. Perucy's dedication to the Lord has been a lifelong decision, brought on in part by witnessing her father's devotion to God. "That left an important imprint on my life," she says. One testimony to her strong faith in God and family comes from recalling a 75-mile journey by bicycle she and her father made to a hospital in Musoma. She was 5-years-old, seriously ill and near death. Her father both rode and pushed the bicycle, with her sitting on it, over terrain not suited for travel. They traveled in scorching sunlight and rain. No villages or towns. Through it all she recalls her father's singing, praying and humming hymns. Perucy became increasingly weak during the journey, and Perucy says her father began to pray "a surrender prayer from his heart." Both cried as he spoke emotionally charged words, asking to know God's will. "Now I find myself here at Seminary because I believe it is God's plan to equip me to proclaim and teach his word, with confidence in him." The diverse community at LTSP inspires Perucy to learn how to minister in a variety of settings. In the past she has assisted the Long Island Jewish Hospital in ministry and in translating Swahili for a sick child from Kenya and her mother. She has also offered support and prayer for a Congolese immigration detainee in New York. "It is my way of trying to help the needy and the lonely and encourage them always to believe in God's miracles, because I am one of them," Perucy says.