Written by Noél Rich | 02 June 2013

Hi y'all!

Well, yes, it is June and we still are not moved!! Several bags have gone over, and some furniture, but the painting is still not completed, (should be this week) and one room still needs a door, window, lights installed, etc. And the truth is: I don't have time to move!! Like right now I am writing a letter and not working at it! Our support was low this month but the Lord is supplying.

Here we are having the coldest winter on record in ten years! We had a freak rain in mid May, and the mountains around the city still have their snow. Very pretty. It is really cold nights especially now, and my fingertips and toes are splitting up again. Super ouch.

Well, God is wonderful, and we do desire to serve Him as long as we can here. At the school we had a good Mother's Day program, which honored Christ. We are thankful for the opportunity to continue to take God's Word to these students, homes, and teachers.

Bob has had a couple sessions with the teachers, and also spoke to the parents of the elementary school last week. One family came to our main church here as a result of that meeting, and we hope they will continue. Thanks so much for praying and helping with this ministry. We have more students this year and are splitting the first year of "secondary" school, 7th grade, to two groups.

Bob also has had some good trips this past month. He is starting to encourage a meeting in the center of the Majes Valley, town called "Centrál". There are believers there who have been visiting other towns for meetings, but that has been sporadic, and they wanted their own church. Bob goes every two weeks there for Friday evenings and visits Saturday mornings. Please help us pray for this effort too.

Another young gal who graduated from the school wants to be baptized. Her folks are believers from Chuquibamba and Cotahuasi, though they are separated. Her older brother is working in Brasil now but he is a good believer. Our people do have their problems, though God is at work in many lives. Bob continues full schedule preparing, teaching, and discipling while in the city here.

Thanks so very much again for praying and sharing with us in God's work here. You are very special to us and we pray God's richest blessings for you too.

Written by Noél Rich | 03 May 2013

Hi y'all!

Yes, May is here already and maybe gone too soon! April sure flew by fast! God is working here and we are so thankful. Bob has had some profitable trips, some special meetings in different churches and places, we have had guests who have blessed us, and more.

The Romanian brothers who visited us were a huge blessing and challenge to the churches and brothers where they were able to minister. Our dear people here do really need to let the Lord work in their lives, we all do, really, in being a fully consecrated church, 100% dedicated to the Lord. Just getting a lot of people together isn't the goal, the goal is that we be like Christ and see the world through His eyes. We pray for God to work in all our believers this way. There is so much mediocrity and half heartedness it seems. This leads to sin and excuses for it.

Which brings us to the sad part of April. We have had to discipline another believer from here. This is always sad, but sadder as he is from a Christian home and family from birth. We sure pray the Lord will get a hold of him and bring true repentance and change.

On a brighter side, God is working in the youth here, and some more of them are wanting to serve the Lord. Our elder in the main church here, Fortunato, works with the older youth and has seen fruit. A couple of the older youth help me with the adolescents, and though few show up for that, sometimes more come and we are seeing God work in their lives.

Seems like these are difficult days for youth. So much of this technology, great in many ways but temptations and just plain badness in other ways. The breakdown of so many homes affect our students at school too. Too many from broken homes, and thrown around from relative to relative, lack of direction and purpose, and lack of God in their lives. Help us pray for the school, how we long to see the students and teachers truly know Christ, and His hope for them. As a bumper sticker said once: Know God, know hope, No God, no hope. True, seriously.

We are preparing for the Mother's Day program at school, please help me pray that this will glorify the Lord and challenge Moms to teach their children of Him, early, not only in words but in works too. In lives. We are also in testing time which is tons of work. But in that too, we pray for the Lord to be glorified.

Thanks so very much for all your prayer for us and God's work here. God is working in the home Bible studies Bob has, and in his teaching of God's Word. Thanks for sharing with us too. We are working on getting the tiny apt. ready for us to move into, hopefully yet this month of May. We do lack some to finish it, seems like everything is really expensive, the dollar is low, etc. But God has His time.

Trust you Moms will have a good day May 12, (and every day, really) and MAY the Lord really bless you all!

Written by Noél Rich | 09 April 2013

Hi again, friends,

Last month went way too fast! But good things have happened, and we thank the Lord for each day. Bob had several good trips, mostly to the Espinar area. There were baptisms there and also here in our Arequipa churches. Some more of our youth followed the Lord in baptism, and last Sunday an old man who had come to one of the home meetings also was baptized. So age is not a factor, God's time is eternal.

Last month Bob recognized our dear brother Fortunato Morales as an elder in the main Arequipa church here. We have been and still are praying for a solid team of leaders to help here, thanks for praying with us. Please do pray for Fortunato and his wife, Sandra, and their two precious little girls, Tayra and Kristel, and for more godly leaders to help in the Lord's work here in Southern Perú.

Also we are enjoying the visit with our former co worker here from Rumania. Aurel and another believer from Rumania are here for about 3 weeks. They had special meetings over the Good Friday weekend in one of our churches here, but believers from several churches here and from other towns came. These were all day Thursday and Friday, and were a real blessing to all.

Now the Rumanian brothers are spending a week up in Cotahuasi and will come back through Pampacolca where Aurel and his family worked before they had to leave Peru because Lumi, Aurel's wife, developed Lupus while here. She has been in treatment in Barcelona and in Rumania, and it is controlled, but it does limit her activities. She couldn't come this time to Peru.

Last week we had a good Holy week program in school too. I think the Lord was glorified in that as we remembered what Jesus did for us to save us and His commission to us to share this good news everywhere. School is in full swing now, and we are in the first month's testing. So I am very busy with that. We have more students this year than last year, somewhere between 260 and 300. Please pray for Spiritual fruit in these precious lives, and in their homes. Thanks so much!

The little apartment next door is getting the finishing work on it, but it will be probably another month before the carpenters are finished and we can paint and get over there. It sure has cost a lot more than we had hoped, but should be nice when finished. We think we will have enough, Lord willing, for that. Thanks so much to all who have helped us here and thanks mostly for the prayer behind God's work here. Truly we appreciate all of you and are very grateful.

Guess our rains have gone for a while, but it is still warm here. Many streets are blocked off because they are getting fixed after the flood damage. Traffic is a mess. Well, thanks again so much.

Written by Noél Rich | 02 March 2013

Hi to you all!

No sooner had I sent last month's letter that it hadn't rained much here than it started to pour. And we have had a lot of rain. Feb. 8 we had like floods, with the big drainage ditches (torrenteras) coming in from the higher places with tons of garbage, big rocks, and mud. There were landslides and a lot of damage done to property and vehicles. 6 people were killed and others hurt. Arequipa is declared in an emergency state for a couple months.

Good news though, José Mamani was freed, along with the other Peruvian and the two Colombians who were also being held hostage by a guerilla group in Colombia. The Canadian boss of the mining company is still being held captive. Thanks for praying. Bob has talked to José. He sure was scared there in the jungle, but in spite of realizing that God truly did permit that these hostages be freed, José still isn't ready to fully commit to Christ. His wife in Lima is Catholic - maybe that is part of the problem. José came to church here last Sunday and is staying in Arequipa one more Sunday, then will return to Lima. He does come to the meetings here and sincerely thanked the believers here who prayed for him and the whole situation.

Bob has had a couple good trips this last month, one was up to the highlands (Cuchocapilla) - a little ranching area that used to have meetings with their few believers and now want to start these again. Believers from a couple churches here in Arequipa and some from other areas close went for a united meeting to encourage them. Several of the leaders from here spoke in Quechua, which is the main language up there. Now Bob is gone to Puno and ranching areas there for meetings and Bible teaching this weekend.

Here, school starts Monday, March 4! We are praying for a good year and to see many lives influenced for God through us. Please pray for this - we are so very thankful for the opportunity to teach God's Word here.

The little apartment we hope to move into is getting built, still has a ways to go, and it is involving a good bit of expense. Thank you for helping us pray for all this, and thanks so much for sharing with us. Truly we are grateful to have the freedom here to share Christ. God's richest blessings for you, Noél for us.

Written by Noél Rich | 04 February 2013

Hi all!

Yes, February already! Here it is the rainy season. We had a couple days of a lot of rain when we got back Jan. 12, but since that it has not rained. It gets cloudy and very warm sometimes. They say it will rain, maybe ?

The believers here for the most part have done well the first month of 2013. Our prayer still is for the needed elders to really be able to take charge of the main church here in Arequipa. Bob is faithfully preparing them, and they are coming along. Thanks for praying for this with us.

As soon as we got back we learned that the dear sister who lives in our ex guest apartment had a very serious health issue, got trichina in the brain and it caused an aneurism. She convulsed and her little daughter found her that way, in time, praise the Lord. She then had treatment to kill the trichina but then had to have a very dangerous, high risk operation, in Lima, to dissolve the aneurism.

Well, the Lord miraculously brought her through this, and we are all truly thankful. There was a slight problem with the insurance company the airline where she works uses, as it was a very expensive operation. But it finally all worked out. We are all overjoyed and thankful to see Karla back home here. She is still on medication to keep her blood thin, and still hurting in places, but is recuperating, slowly but surely. She too is very thankful to God and more than ever committed to Him. Her former husband was here taking care of her daughters during the whole time she was in Lima, and our prayer request is that this home be restored. The girls really love their Dad, Tito, so please pray for Tito and Karla, and their two daughters (both in our school). Time will tell, and the Lord knows.

So after that praise - and prayer request, we are faced now with another very hard situation. The son of Miguel Mamani and his wife Tomasa, José Antonio Mamani, works for a mining company in Colombia. José, along with another guy from Arequipa, 2 Colombians, and a Canadian with this company, were kidnapped by the National Liberation Army ("ELN") on January 18. Some of you may have heard this news. Anyway, José's Dad, Miguel is a believer who has helped in the work here and in some of our mountain churches. His wife, Tomasa, and some of their other children are also believers.

They are really distraught over this. Miguel comes to pray with us and some of these churches here and in the mountains are rallying around the family and praying for them. José himself came to church here while he was here, but has not yet made a commitment to Christ that we know of. He was recently married and his wife lives in Lima. Please help us pray for José, for his salvation and for his release, along with the other hostages. All this brings back very difficult memories for us, but we know God is in control, and somehow Miguel knows that we do understand and are praying.

This month Lupe and Marino are evaluating teachers for the school year which starts here March 4. Please help us pray for the right Christian teachers - so needed and vital.

This is long, but I must mention one more need for us here. Bob decided (rightly) that it is time to get the church property and our apts. above it out of our names. We plan to make an association for the church, and put the whole front part including the meeting room, store room, etc. in the name of the association of the believers. The apartments will, Lord willing, be bought, little by little, by Karla's parents, Mario and Gladys Soto. This also has to include the Sunday School rooms and Bob's office downstairs, and the guest room, as they are attached to the back part of the property.

The property here is terribly expensive right now, and of course Mario can not pay what it would be worth, but we would not sell it to anyone else really. Mario was an elder here before moving back to Puno, where he was a university professor. He now has a masters degree and a doctorate too, besides being geological engineer and dean of faculty in the university in Puno. Anyway, he is getting his retirement, and the great part of his family lives here in Arequipa, so wanted to buy a place here anyway.

The best part is that Mario will respect the church in everything, indeed he is an important part in it, and the Sunday school rooms and all installations used by the church here will remain for that use. He and Gladys are currently living in the guest room while Karla and family are upstairs. We are a lot of people in this place now, sometimes have shortages of hot water, etc. but all is working out well. However, we ourselves need to move, and eventually when Mario's situation works out in Puno they will have to move here where we live.

They are currently kind of "renting" to buy, that is each monthly they give us of about $275. goes off the sale price. However, they are not able to pay us a lot at once. So our need is of a place to move to! God is so good! Marino and Lupe are very thankful for all we gave for the school and are giving us back all they can. They have begun construction of a small apt. on top of the front part of the grade school, on top of the garage, by the school's yard.

In back of this is the grade school, second and third floors which some of you have helped to build. This light construction for the third floor grade school is almost done! We are very thankful. Marino has run out of funds and construction is terribly expensive, so by faith we are finishing it, Lord willing, praying it will be done by April anyway. Thank you for praying for this with us, we are thankful and trusting the Lord to just lead us step by step.

Last week I went with Bob up the Ocoña valley to visit the believers in two small churches up there. On the way going and back we were able to visit the beach for a little while. That was really nice!! The believers up there are doing pretty well, and wow, did the car ever behave wonderfully!! We went on the very difficult road and dike going, (road in horrible condition), so decided to take the old high road on the way back, and test the 4wd and car's power. I felt like the old song, "you take the low road and I'll take the high road and I'll be in Scotland before ye". Anyway, the car just was amazing in strength and getting up that steep dirt, and we weren't going to Scotland but sure got back faster than the other way. Car even said thank you, I'm sure.

So, thanks so very much, you dear ones.
God's richest blessings for you!
Noél for us