January/February 2009 Prayer Letter

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

It is a blessing to be able to write to you again. We pray that all is well and that God is blessing in a mighty way.  Thank you so much for your “Christmas kindness” to our family. It was our first Christmas away from family and friends in the US, but we were so glad to be able to spend it with friends here in Perú. It is such a comfort to me to read Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” We truly believe that the goodness and mercy of God have followed us here. It is wonderful to know that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are praying to that end as well. Thank you so much!

Praises:
Language school is now complete for the both of us! We are continuing to develop Spanish every day through reading, conversation, and interaction with the people. I had the opportunity to go to a youth camp in January—a week of nothing but Spanish. During that time, I was able to teach several lessons and have good fellowship with other pastors and with the teenagers as well. Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach my first sermon in the church and to lead in the vow-renewal ceremony. The Lord truly helped me, and I am excited about more opportunities to preach in the future.

We are praising the Lord that Sara and I were able to get our residence visas. Also, we were able to get Josiah’s tourist visa extended for another six months, so that Lord-willing, we will be able to get his residence visa in that time.

Progress:
I have begun teaching a discipleship class at the Faith Baptist Church where we are working. It is the first part of a 4-part discipleship program. The class covers such things as church membership, baptism, spiritual gifts, and what a new Christian needs to equip him to not only grow spiritually, but also to be more integrally involved in the ministries of the local church.

On February 17th, we began English classes at the church. We started with 44 people in attendance, most of which have never been to the church before. Please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom as we go forward with the classes and most importantly that we would have opportunities to share the gospel with our students and see them accept Christ.

Please continue to pray for me as I prepare to teach my class on missions in the Bible college starting March 17th. I am excited about this wonderful opportunity.

Sara has also had the opportunity to teach in several ladies meetings and in the ladies conference in January. She is singing in the church choir and has had the opportunity to play the piano several times.

Family:
Josiah is saying all kinds of new words and his stumbling steps have turned into running all over the place. He says, “Hola!” to everyone he meets and doesn’t know a stranger. We’ve had a lot of smiles and laughs as a result of our friendly little blond “gringo.” Sara is doing well with our new baby boy on the way, due March 13th. Her mom has come to visit us for several weeks to be here for the birth of the baby. We will definitely be posting updates about that on our blog: www.stovers2peru.blogspot.com.

Thank you for your sacrificial giving to the work of God here in Perú.

In the Service of the King,
Robert, Sara, and Josiah Stover