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!

Christmas Greetings

Just wanted to write a word and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We thank you for all of your prayers and support throughout this past year and look forward to a wonderful year this coming year full of the Lord's blessings and lives changed by the power of the Gospel. I had the extreme blessing this past Sunday morning of preaching in a drug and alcohal rehabilitation center here in Arequipa. There were about thirty to forty men in attendance as I had the opportunity to preach about the "Greatest Gift Ever Given" speaking about Jesus Christ and his birth; but also, most importantly, his death on the cross. After the message, we distributed sweet bread to the men as a Christmas gift. Please pray that the seed of the Gospel would take root and cause these men to realize their need of a Savior. May the Lord bless you this Christmas season! The Stover Family

New Opportunities

Just wanted to let everyone know how things are going here in Peru. Our family is doing well as Josiah continues to grow and is close to learning how to walk (he already knows how to climb the stairs Uh-oh). Sara is doing well carrying the new little one but she does get pretty tired with carrying a baby at the altitude that we are at (8,600 feet above sea level). I am doing well and getting accustomed to the schedule. A couple of weeks ago, a part of the roof on the church where we are working at fell in. Fortunately, no one was hurt but there were quite a few repairs to be done; including replacing almost the whole roof. We were very blessed to be able to find a place to meet very close to the church building. It is actually the municipal building in the district and the people have been letting us use it free of charge. What a blessing! Please be praying as we have a goal to be back in our regular building by December 7. This is the day of our 6th anniversary of the church and we are praying for 500 in attendance. Thank the Lord that even through the difficult times with the church roof, the attendance in the church has stayed very consistent and even increased on some Sundays. Pertaining to the languauge school, I was able to finish about a week and a half ago and Sara has just a couple more weeks until she will be finished as well. Thank you for your prayers during this important time of language learning because it seems that our worst struggles are now behind us as we become more and more comfortable in the language every day. Our Bible study group continues to go well as we had ten people that attended last night. We had a great time of food and fellowship and I was able to teach the Bible lesson as we started a series of lessons on Christmas out of Luke 2. Speaking of Christmas, my wife has done an outstanding job of decorating our house for the Christmas season. Even though we weren't in the States for Black Friday, we still have been able to find some good deals on Christmas gifts for one another here in Peru. I am so excited about this time of year. What a precious time it is to be able to celebrate the birth of our wonderful Lord and Savior. I am so thankful that Jesus was born to die on Calvary for my sins and that we can joyfully compel others to share in the faith that we have in Jesus Christ. In Christ, Robert

Travel

Just wanted to write and thank you all for praying for the connection on this past Friday night. We had four people that came and we had a great time together. I had the opportunity to give my testimony and to share a few thoughts from the Word of God. Also, on Saturday night, I had the opportunity to go to another connection meeting at the house of one of the men of the church. I was able to share with them out of Genesis 18 how that Abraham interceded faithfully in prayer on the behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had a burden that these men be saved even though they were very wicked people. We ourselves should desire to have an "intercessory prayer life" like that of Abraham. We are planning to go to Chile tomorrow so that we can get the necessary stamp in our passports so that we can stay for another 90 days. Lordwilling, we will go to Tacna, Peru on Wednesday where we will attend a church that is being pastored by a missionary friend of ours Jonathan Earnhardt. Thursday, Lordwilling, we will go to the border city of Arica, Chile. We then plan to return to Arequipa on Friday (hopefully in time for our connection meeting). Please pray that all will go well. Hasta el proximo (until the next time) Robert

It's Another Boy!

An ultrasound today revealed what we were already suspecting...Josiah is going to have a little brother. The baby is doing very well, weighing in at a whopping 124 grams (3.6 ounces). Our due date was set for March 13th. We are thankful to the Lord for this blessing. Please continue to pray for Sara and the baby.