More news

Just wanted to update everyone on how Suhjey wife of Pastor Wilber Hallasi is doing. She is doing somewhat better today but please continue to pray that her body will be able to fight off the infection that is attacking her lungs. Their baby girl, Pamela, seems to be doing better in ICU. Thank you for praying; I know that this dear family appreciates it. In Christ, Robert

Update

Thank you for praying. The baby girl that was delivered last night is doing well as far as the doctors can tell (Thank the Lord for that!) However, Suhjey, the mom and wife is being given a 70/30 chance of surviving; the 70 meaning that she won't survive. Please continue to pray for Pastor Wilber and his family as they go through this difficult time. God bless. Robert

Update on Sujey

Wanted to write and let you know that Sujey, Pastor Wilber's wife, made it through the night. Thank you for your prayers. They did the C section and got the baby out as well. The baby has been intubated and needs our prayers. Will know more about the situation at 1:00 EST. God bless. Robert

Urgent Prayer

Just wanted to inform everyone of a very urgent prayer request. One of the young pastors that works with us here in Peru has a wife that is very seriously ill. She is expecting a baby and developed pneumonia during the last couple of weeks. We just received news that she (the wife) may not make it through the night. Please pray that the doctors would be able to stabilize her condition and that she would begin to recover. THIS IS VERY SERIOUS. PLEASE PRAY WITH US. God bless. Robert

More Pictures from Chivay

The Church

Sunday School

Chivay

Thank you so much for your prayers for us during our trip to Chivay this past weekend! The Lord truly worked in a marvelous way. On Saturday afternoon, we held a children's Bible club in La Iglesia Bautista "La Esperanza" (Hope Baptist Church). We started out with just a few, but by the end had close to 40 children and mothers. There were no decisions made, but the gospel was clearly presented. Sara had the opportunity to teach them Romans 10:13. We pray that the message they heard was understood and that many of them will "call on the name of the Lord" soon.

Robert had a chance to share his testimony during the youth meeting at the church on Saturday night. We were excited to see several new teenagers come. There were about 25 teens there. The Lord worked during the invitation time, and 4 young ladies were saved. Several young men also raised their hands during the invitation, but did not make a decision. The Lord was working on the hearts though, because they returned Sunday morning. During the invitation time that morning, Robert had the opportunity to lead 5 young men to the Lord. How exciting to be able to lead someone to the Lord in Spanish for the first time! In total, there were 12 people to accept the Lord this weeked. Praise His Name!

Youth Meeting (Several of the young men in the background were saved the next day.)

Children's Rally

There is much to be done in Chivay. The Hope Baptist Church is the only Baptist church in the town of 10,000. Right now, they are without a pastor. There is a young man, Braulio, a seminary student, who travels there each weekend to fill in. Please pray that the Lord would give them a full-time pastor soon.

Trip to Chivay

We will be leaving in about an hour or so to go the city of Chivay; Chivay is located about three hours outside the city of Arequipa (the city that we live in). A group of about a dozen or so people will be making the trip including Sara and I and our two boys. During our time there , we will be helping with a children's rally, a young people's rally, as well as participating in the services of the church on Sunday. I will have the opportunity to preach on Sunday night. Please be much in prayer for us as we travel and minister in Chivay. Pray that people would be saved and that lives would be changed for the glory of God. God bless you all. Robert

Preaching Opportunity

I had the opportunity to preach at the Victory Baptist Church in Arequipa tonight. Pastor Pablo Villegas invited me to come and preach the last service of his missions conference. The service went well with hearty singing and fellowship. The Lord allowed me to bring a message out of John 9 concerning the blind man that Jesus made whole; I was able to preach about the power of a personal testimony for Christ no matter what others say. There was definitely a good spirit in the meeting as right about 50 people were in the service. Thank you for your prayers as well concerning the preaching at the birthday party of the 100 year-old man. The Gospel was preached and the seed was sown. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to deal with those that are without Christ. Thank you for praying. It makes a difference in eternity. Everybody here is well and growing by leaps and bounds (Josiah and Caleb). In Christ, Robert

Birthday Party

Just wanted to write and ask you all to be praying for me. There is a man in the church whose dad is turning 100 years old and we are celebrating his birthday today. He has asked me to come over and start the party with prayer and also to share something from the Word of God. Please pray that the Lord will speak to hearts as there will be people attending who do not know Christ as their Savior. The party will start at 3:00 (4:00 EST). God bless you all. Robert

Busy Days

Just wanted to let everyone know what is going here in Arequipa, Peru. I started teaching in the Bible College three weeks ago; the classes are going well as I teach about Missions and Islam. I have ten students in my class. The discipleship classes that I have been teaching in the church are going well; we should be finishing up our series of lessons in two weeks or so. Many of the folks in the class are very faithful and are excited about putting into practice the important concepts that we are learning from God's Word (serving in the church, tithing, witnessing, etc.). The Bible study in the house on Fridays is going well and people are being encouraged by the teaching of God's Word as well as fellowship with the brethren. Also, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, I have the opportunity to teach English classes in the church. This has been a great tool in the past to reach people with the Gospel and get them into church. We have consistent groups of 30 people or more in every class. I have the opportunity to give them Bible verses to learn every week and the verses that they are learning right now are verses from the Roman's Road (Rom. 3:10, 3:23, 10:13). Each class, I try to take the time to emphasize the Gospel message. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would convict these people as they memorize these verses in English. As can be expected, things are very busy for Sara especially with our new baby Caleb. He eats well and continues to grow; he is definitely a joy to have around. Josiah is doing well as he goes through the adjustment period of having a new little brother. Thank you for your prayers and support of the ministry here in Peru. In Christ, Robert

Pictures of Caleb

We wanted to let everyone know that our baby boy has arrived. He was born on March 6 at 4:44 P.M. ; he weighed 6lbs. 9.5 oz. and was 20 inches long. The Lord blessed the delivery in a special way as he was born very quickly once the labor started. Mother and baby are doing fine. We feel so very blessed to have another son to train up in the way of the Lord. Thank you so much for each and every one of your prayers on our behalf. In Christ, Robert

Greetings to all. Praise the Lord for his goodness to us every day. Thank you for your prayers as I preached this past Sunday. The service went well as I challenged the people from the Word of God in Ephesians 5. I preached about our submission, sacrifice and solidification for and with the Lord Jesus. There was a good spirit in the service and God blessed in a special way. Our Bible study in the house continues to go well; it has been a good source of fellowship and learning from the Word of God. Please pray as I continue to prepare for the missions class that I will be teaching in the seminary starting on March 17. We thank God for your continued prayers on our behalf. Keep up the "good fight". In Christ, Robert

Preaching

Good evening to everyone. Hope that all is well with you in your place of service. I just wanted to ask that you would be much in prayer for me tomorrow as I will be preaching Sunday morning at a church here in Arequipa. The pastor will be out of town and he invited me to fill his pulpit for the morning service. I am looking forward to this opportunity. Please also remember Sara in prayer as she comes down the home stretch with Caleb (our new little one who is due in 2 weeks or so). Have a great evening, Robert

Good Trip and Good Class

What a busy last two days it has been. Monday, we went to Chile to get more time for Josiah because his visa recently ran out. We took a 6 hour bus ride to Tacna, Peru, which is the border city with Chile. Then, we took a taxi across the border into Chile. We thank the Lord that we were able to get the maximum time for Josiah's visa of six months. Because the process to get the residence paper takes so long, we wanted to get the maximum time possible. Thank the Lord that we simply asked for the time and they gave it to us (it doesn't always happen that way)! After we had crossed back into Peru, we asked the taxi driver to hurry to the bus station because our bus was to leave at 5:00 p.m.. We got there right at 5:00 and managed to get on the bus with 2-3 minutes to spare. Needless to say, we were quite exhausted after we arrived back in Arequipa at 11:30 at night. But it was 14 hours of travel well-worth it as the Lord allowed us to get the whole process done in one day. Tonight, we had our first English class on the church and 44 people attended. We were thrilled to have this number of people because it was such a wet and rainy night tonight. There were a number of visitors there tonight that do not attend the church. Please pray that we could form relationships and share the Gospel with these people. The classes will be every Tuesday and Thursday night for one hour.

Residence Papers Secured

Well, it has certainly been a busy week this past week or so. We went to Lima, the capital city in Peru, to pick up my mother-in-law last week. Everything went well and she arrived in good time with our field director Chris Gardner and his family; she will have the opportunity to visit us for six weeks. We are very thankful that Bro. Chris and his family are now back living permanently here in the country. Also during the time in Lima, I went to have the LASEK eye surgery performed. I have worn glasses since the sixth grade and had checked out the possiblity of my eyes being corrected back to normal. It is a procedure that can be done here in Peru at a tremendously lower price than in the States. My vision is now back to "perfect" and I am loving it. We also have been trying to get our residence papers so that we would not have to be constantly going out of the country every three months. We had been expecting to get a date sometime in the March or April, but we were pleasantly surprised to learn on this past Tuesday that we had gotten a date for yesterday to get the papers done. Thus, we went to Lima yesterday and got everything situated. Thank the Lord we got everything done in one day (which here in Peru that is saying something) in Lima and were able to fly back to Arequipa in the evening. Thank you for your prayers concerning these things. Please continue to pray because we still have to get Josiah's papers done and this process could possibly take a long while On another side note, I think that I mentioned that the exchange rate for the dollar and sole was at right about 2.80 when we arrived back in July. As of yesterday, the rate had gone up to 3.21 soles on the dollar; this is a tremendous blessing to all the missionaries here. Praise the Lord and thank you for prayers. May the Lord bless you with a wonderful day. Robert

Great Camp Time

I had a great time at youth camp this past week. We had a group of about 100 teens that attended the camp along several pastors as well. The pastors taught classes in the mornings and preached during the evenings. I had the privilege of teaching two classes and thank the Lord for the help that He gave me in the language. Thank you for your prayers concerning this. Many decisions were made as young people responded to the messages by giving their lives more fully to the Lord. Also, this past Sunday, I had the opportunity to begin teaching a discipleship class in the church. The Lord blessed as we saw more than 20 people attend the class. I taught on the subject of becoming a member of the church, believer's baptism, and how a member of the church should behave himself both in the church and outside of the church. The Lord loosed my tongue as I taught and I definitely praise him for that. Please pray that the people in the class would continue to grow in their Christian lives. Sara is doing well carrying our new little one. She has now passed seven months of expectancy and both baby and mom are doing great according to the doctor. Josiah is now walking very well by himself and talking up a storm, too. We thank you for your prayers and faithfulness to the Lord of the Harvest. In Christ, Robert

Teen Camp

Today I'll be going with a group of teens from our church for a week of camp in Canama, a city about 3 hours from Arequipa. Please pray for safety in travel and that the Lord would bless mightily in the week. Camp is always a great time for teens to get away and let the Lord speak to their hearts. I have the opportunity to teach on Thursday and Friday and am excited about the opportunity to be using my Spanish. God is really helping Sara and I both to be able to communicate more and more every day. Thank you so much for praying for our family! Our trip to Lima went very well. We have to go back again in about 2 weeks to complete some more things. Please pray that all our visa matters will be able to be settled before Baby Caleb arrives in March. We were excited to welcome a new missionary here this week. Beth Homan arrived on Wednesday. We know she will be a great asset to the ministry here. Please pray she would be able to find an apartment soon and that God would help her as she gets settled and begins to study Spanish.

We're getting ready to head out on a long bus ride to Lima, the capital city of Peru, at 6:30 tonight; we will be returning, Lordwilling, on Tuesday night and should be back in Arequipa by Wednesday morning. The purpose of the trip is to begin the process to get our residence visas. Please pray that the Lord will keep us safe. I also would like to wish a very Happy New Year to each and every one of you. Thank you for all that you do for our Lord and Savior.

Merry Christmas!