06 July 2021
|Dear ones,
YES! July is a "flying" month for us. We are in the U.S. now for 5 weeks. We had to escape to Lima a few days early because the government decided to put a "fence" around Arequipa, no one could come in or go out of the city for some 15 days. We already had tickets for that week to go to the U.S. so we had to spend 3 days in Lima. Now we are with our daughter Terri and family. What a blessing to meet our first GREAT GRANDdaughter, Eliza Lynn! She is a really bright, happy and beautiful little gal, almost 14 months old! Well, great grandma's version, but it is true. Her parents are lovely servants of the Lord and we are so very thankful for that home.
We are with Terri and Josue at a missionary training center with a group of youth from their church for a missionary challenge camp. Bob has preached some at their hispanic church and also will share some here. Then next week we will head up to Indiana for the wedding of one of our grandsons, Ben. He and his fiancee, Andrea, met while serving the Lord with CRU (was Campus Crusade) during their college years. They will continue to serve God together. We are very thankful for this marriage and pray for God's Rich est blessings on their home.
Sadly, several of our brethren in Peru have suffered seriously with Covid. Some are hospitalized with oxygen. The country is in sad shape as oxygen is scarce and expensive, the hospitals lack ICU units and beds to attend to the many who are sick. Please help us pray for these dear ones and for the families of the grieving with the loss of loved ones. And please pray this whole pandemic will end. True, the Lord has used it to draw many to Himself. As one comes face to face with death, it is even more urgent to seek Life, with God.
We remain limited in our church services, with only 20% of the capacity permitted at one time. We have the 2 weekend meetings, Saturday afternoon and Sunday mornings, and we ask our believers to only come to one of them. We are ok with the limit on Saturday afternoons but Sunday mornings are too full. Folks just can't come Saturday, some for work reasons, some because transportation on Sundays is limited and no private cars are allowed out Sundays. Most of the churches we are responsible for outside the city itself are able to meet but covid has appeared even in the most remote areas and is hitting hard to some of them. Thank you for praying!
Please pray for the school. Our dear teachers are faithful in teaching God's Word to all our students. We still are only doing school virtually, and it appears that the rest of the school year will have to be that way, with the most fervent prayer for us to be able to return physically to the classrooms next year. Please help us pray for the churches and the school to be able to function! I can give a 15 minute devotional by google meet to all the primary students each month and that is a blessing. It is so very important to reach this generation for Christ! Much of what they hear in public school and the influence of their modern companions there is anti-God. Please help us pray for freedom to continue to teach our Lord's truth and message.
Peru's political situation now is not good. It appears the Communist candidate for president won the elections, but by a very narrow thread. So votes are being recounted and nothing is sure yet. Protests, fear and unrest are way too frequent.
So please help us pray we can "fly" the 27th of July back to Peru. We need another negative test for covid to get on the plane.
Thank you so much for praying for us. Our support address is:
Christian Missions in Many Lands, Inc.
P.O. Box 13,
Spring Lake, NJ, 07762-0013 with a note: for Bob Rich, Peru
God's Richest blessings for you dear ones, Noel for us