February 10, 2003

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

   It’s with great joy and excitement that I write our letter to you this month.  And the reason for the exuberance is that God has blessed us with 11% more support promised in just the past five weeks!  As a matter of fact, as I was sitting here typing this letter, another pastor called to say that they had voted last night to support us.  Praise the Lord for His goodness!

   It is exciting to watch God at work as we see our support level take off here at the first of the year.  We now will have 72% of our support when it all comes in faithfully.  And God has brought it in within 16 months.  What an awesome God we serve!  That only leaves 28% to be raised!

   We can’t begin to express our thanks to God and to all of those who are standing with us in prayers and finances.  We are encouraged daily by the “missions-hearted” people whom we’ve met and the support they have shown.

   This paragraph is where we have to let our needs be known.  I will make it brief.  We still stand in need of the funds to purchase our airline tickets for departure, pay for shipping of our personal belongings, set up house in Peru, and hopefully be able to purchase a vehicle for transportation.  Please pray if God would have you help in any of these areas.  If so, send the funds to our support address at CMC and include a note as to how you want it used.  Any and all will be appreciated.

   We have narrowed our departure estimate to the second or third week of July, Lord willing.  If I may, I’d like to take a moment to share Carla’s and my own heart with you.  I know that we have told you that we want to be in Peru before Christa’s school starts in August.  That sounds like logistics, but there is more to it than that.  As you know, our son Shawn will be staying in the states as we leave for the field.  Leaving him here is one of the sacrifices we have been called to make.  Christa is anxious to get to Peru with us. She wants to learn and help us on the field.  By arriving in July, she will be able to complete one full year in the Christian MK (missionary kids) school and will not be forced to “catch up” with the others if we have to place her in the middle of a semester.  It also allows her more time to experience the missions’ way of life.  But more than that, we will have Christa with us for a complete year before placing her in college back in the states.  That means a great deal to us.  We love both of our children and want to spend as much time with them as possible.  We are willing to make the sacrifices, but that does not make them easy.  Please continue to pray that God will place us there at that time.  As I have said before, our heart is just to know and do His will.

   

Your missionaries to Peru,

                                                                                           Don Rich & family