We're Here!

Well, yesterday (Wednesday) just after lunch, our plane arrived in Arequipa, Peru. God truly gave us smooth travels here. We were glad to see that all of our luggage arrived with us as well. We attended our first church service last night at the Faith Baptist Church. Bro. Alonso Montenegro preached on how we can know true happiness out of Genesis chapter 2. The true happiness that we know is in God's will; we shouldn't desire things not in His will. Josiah initiated the nursery by throwing up all over the floor as soon as he got there. (I think his full belly just got squeezed to hard.) Today we ventured out into the city with Bro. Micah Smith and his wife Katie to do some shopping and look at some things for our house. Please pray that we will be able to find a place to live soon. We are very excited to be here and are anticipating beginning language school as soon as we get settled in. Thank you for your prayers for our family.

New Contact Information

Once we get settled in Peru, our number will be changing to (330) 238-4944. This will be an Ohio number through Vonage that will ring into our home in Peru. As of later on today, my cell phone number (330) 205-4790 will no longer be in use. Also, we can always be reached by email at rstover22@yahoo.com. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 519, Braselton, GA 30517.

On the Way

We are writing from the Atlanta airport. Yes, we are finally on our way to Peru. After years of praying and planning, the moment has come at last. Josiah did very well on our flight from Charlotte to here. He slept through the takeoff and thought the bumpy landing was fun. As we were travelling along, we discovered that his second tooth is coming through (so much excitement for just one day). Lordwilling, we will leave tonight at 11:30 to fly to Lima, the capital city of Peru. Then tomorrow morning, we will have our last flight to Arequipa. We praise the Lord for three new supporting churches this past month: Landis Baptist Church in Landis, NC; Liberty Ind. Baptist Church in Loudon, TN; and Promise Baptist Church in Ruffin, NC. This brings us up to about 95% of our support. Praise the Lord! Please continue to pray for us as we go. We know that many people have been praying for our safety and smoothness for the trip because everything has gone well so far.

Two Wonderful Years

Praise the Lord for His many blessings to us! He has now given us two wonderful years of marriage. I praise His holy name for such a wonderful wife. She is always such a support and help to me in the ministry. We are so looking forward to serving the Lord together in the country of Peru. Just 8 more days until we leave. Please keep us in prayer as we get the loose ends tied up.

Whatever it takes

We had a great time up in OH last weekend. It was good to fellowship with our extended family, home church, and some folks from other supporting churches in the area on Saturday at our "Goodbye Picnic." Sunday morning, we had our Commissioning Service, and the Lord blessed there in a special way. God has been meeting our specific needs in these past few weeks and we thank Him for that and for those of you who have so generously given. God allowed us to sell all our furniture and get rid of our car before we moved out of our apartment Friday. The timing of it all worked out well, so that the only time we would have been sitting on the floor, we were too busy packing and cleaning to sit down. We are now in NC for pretty much the rest of our time. Our hearts were blessed this morning during the first service of the Missions Revival at Currytown Baptist Church in Lexington, NC. We were surprised to see Bro. Tony Howeth there, and the Lord used him in a special way today. We feel like our spiritual batteries have been recharged, and it is the desire of our hearts to do "whatever it takes" to get the gospel to lost souls in Peru and around the world.

Birthday Wishes

I just wanted to wish a very happy birthday to my beautiful wife Sara (her birthday was June 1). She is such an encouragement and help to me in the ministry. I would definitely wholeheartedly agree with the words of Proverbs 18:22 which says, "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord." Thank you, Honey, for putting up with me and being the most wonderful wife a man could have. I love you very much and look forward to all that the Lord has for us in the days ahead.

Florida

We had a great time being able to visit with our family in Florida. God worked it out for us to be able to schedule a meeting down there at the last minute. It was definitely a blessing to be with Pastor Sheppard and the folks at Tri-City Baptist Church. Josiah's favorite part about Florida was probably the watermelon (which we enjoyed as well). In the past 2 weeks, we have managed to visit 8 churches, drive over 3500 miles, see 3 new supporters partner with us, see Sara's brother Jacob graduate from high school, celebrate Sara's 23rd birthday, and welcome in Josiah's first tooth (which he didn't need to eat the watermelon). Whew! It has definitely been a busy time. Please keep us in prayer as we work on packing things at home this week. We are so excited to be at over 90% of our support. Please help us pray for 7 more supporters.