This weekend in the youth group, the girls had cooked up some nice “empanadas de pollo” (kind of like a chicken taco) and had a discussion about the Holy Spirit and the work he does in us.

Following the youth group, there was a Watch Night service and prayer meeting.  Although I wasn’t able to be there, about 60 people showed up and stayed until around 11 o’clock!  It is really amazing to see how excited the people of Santa Ana are about the Lord and His Word.

 Sunday morning, it was my turn to preach, and I spoke on Ephesians 2:1-10.  Instead of focusing on being saved by grace and not by works,  I focused on being saved by grace for good works (vs 9-10),  emphasizing the need for Christ-like testimony in all that we do, so that we can win some for Christ. 

 In our personal lives, Nathalie’s birthday was on Thursday, the 28^th.  Unfortunately I was in San Jose for classes that day, but Friday we were able to get some time to ourselves.  Would you pray for her as she begins another year in her life? 

We also continue to pray (and seek your prayers) as we make the transition to full time ministry.  Pray that we will have the faith to take the next steps in the transition, as well as for our involvement in several different ministries.  Pray that we will always have God Himself as our goal, and that these ministries would be the outward reaction to our personal relationship with Him.

 Also, we are still trying to raise funds.  If you would like to support us financially, please let us know! Information for sending in funds can be found on the Costa Rica page of this blog. Thanks so much, and God bless.

 My (kind of) new email: robbysrichard@gmail.com

Saturday I taught the youth group on the very important theme of Jesus´ lordship over our lives.  I wanted them to understand the total sovereignty that gives us total rest when we fully trust in our Father.  A lesson that will help, I hope, the kids understand who is in charge of their lives.

After the youth group, we had the first class of our leadership course.  It was a basic introduction on the need for leaders with character, integrity and biblical values.  14 people showed up!  They all seem ready and available for taking leading roles in the church.  Our prayer is that God will use this course to help them fulfill their corresponding roles in the community.

Sunday morning it was my turn to preach, so I spoke on one of my favorite passages, Rom. 11:33-12:2.  We are to give our lives as sacrifices in response to who God is and the amazing things he has done for us.  It is a basic but penetrating truth that all believers should understand.  This way, our actions are a result to our beliefs and our beliefs are based on our knowledge. We have TRUTH in our actions, beliefs and knowledge when we accept Jesus Christ, our Rock and the foundation of our faith.

Pray for Naty and I this week as we continue to make the transition to full time ministry.  Naty has not yet left her job, we are waiting for atleast half our support to come in before doing that.  Pray that we have the faith to do what we need to do, and at the same time, discernment in the whens and wheres.    We will also be going together to San Jose, and your prayers for a safe trip will be appreciated!

Well, unfortunately, we haven’t been able to update the blog in a little more than 2 weeks. We have been traveling quite a bit, and, as you may know, when you are traveling, especially in Africa, you never know how available the Internet will be. Currently, we are in Ethiopia, and there is Internet (obviously), however it is quite slow, and we are not going to be able to upload pictures.  When we get home Dec. 3^rd, God willing, we will be able to

put more pictures up of what we have been doing. In these past 3 weeks, quite a lot has happened, including the end of our stay in Malawi, and a tour throughout the 3 major cities of South Africa. 

Our stay in Malawi ended well.  I preached the last Sunday, giving encouragement to the Kairos church through Colossians 1:9-14.  Naty had her last day as the Sunday school teacher, and they had a nice party to finish up.  We were also able to finish up with Ministry of Hope, having a very typical Malawian dinner with Kelvin Kalonga (Naty’s “boss”) and his wife.

The night before we flew out on Tuesday morning, the leaders from Kairos invited us to a farewell dinner at the house of some friends of ours, the Chumias.  It was a sad time for us saying goodbye, but it was also very meaningful.  They told us that they felt as if they were sending us out to be missionaries wherever we end up, and that we have their full prayer support. 

Malawi was really an amazing experience, and Naty and I have started a list of lessons we have learned from this experience (we’re at around 30 so far). If we get time, we will try to post them.  Once again, we want to thank you so much for your contribution to the trip-we could not have done it without you if God had not used you in this way!

 South Africa is a country where the 3^rd world and 1^st world co-exist

together.  The amazing beauty of the country contrasted with extreme poverty of the African population hit us hard as we saw the slums of Capetown with the beautiful Table Mountain in the background.

In the 12 days we were in South Africa, we got to see much of Johannesburg, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and Capetown, thanks to our hosts and good friends Pastor Ronald and Rowena Joseph, and their 2 year old son, Ethan.  In Johannesburg, we also were able to minister a little bit to the leaders of Pastor Ronald’s church, as well as to the youth of the church of our new friend, Pastor Martin.  

We played with lion cubs in a Lion Park in Joburg, saw sharks feeding in the Ushaka Aquarium in Durban, drove through the beautiful Midlands Meander of the English countryside in Pietermaritzburg (Zulu-Natal), and saw whales, penguins, Table Mountain, and Cape Point (the Cape of Good Hope) in Capetown.  It truly was an absolutely amazing trip-a gift from God given to us through our hosts! 

Nov. 9^th, we arrived in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia to await my dad, whom we

will be assisting here.  He arrived Nov. 10^th, and the following day, we flew

to Dire Dawa, and then drove to Harar, in east Ethiopia for the first SIM Pastors Bookset conference. Harar is an ancient city, founded in 700 A.D., and built up around 900 A.D.  It is a walled city, and doesn’t seem to have changed much since those days.  It is known as the 4^th Holy city of Islam,

after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.  One of the traditions is hyena feeding.  Wild hyenas come into the town, and a certain man feeds them.  Before, depending on how much the hyenas ate, it was an omen of how the year would be. Now, however, there is a man that feeds them every night, and Thursday night we were able to participate in the feeding! It was a great experience.

We will be in Ethiopia until Dec. 2^nd, when we will fly back to the States for

a bit.  Hopefully, we will get to put up more pictures, as well hang out with some of you before heading back to Costa Rica.  Thanks again so much for your support, and God-willing, see you soon!

This past week was quite busy.  Naty has been working on finishing up her nutrition classes with Ministry of Hope, as well as doing activities for a double baby shower on Saturday, and the children’s ministry for Kairos on Sunday. On Wednesday, Naty also gave her testimony in our church cell group, and did very well.  It’s amazing to see what God has done in her life, and in bringing her here (with me as well!!)

Wednesday, which was mother’s day, and Saturday were our first 2 missions classes in KLITS.  It went quite well, and we have been able to cover quite a bit of material. Our last class is this coming Saturday and we hope to finish the class.  The students will be having their second exam as well as having to turn in 2 papers….For some strange reason, I don’t think many will have done the work yet though.

I was able to go to the Chipoka farm on Thurday with Pastor Felix, and the church administrator, Raymond-also a good friend of ours here.  We went to check out the new well they had just dug, as well as how the crops were doing.  Also, we had taken along about a hundred blankets that the Uplift team had left for us to give.  We handed out all 100 to orphans from the surrounding villages and to the farm workers children.  Kairos will soon be starting and orphan feeding program there at the farm (which Naty will be leaving a nutritional guide for).  After the census, we found out that just in that village (maybe 200 people) there are 67 orphans. Please pray with us for God’s provision for these kids!

This week is also a busy week for us. We will be finishing up with all our stuff here.  I’ll be giving my testimony in our cell group on Wednesday, teaching the last 8 hour missions class on Saturday, and also preaching in the main Sunday morning service.  Pastor Felix’s bday is Sunday, so we’ll be celebrating that with him as well.  Please pray for a strong finish, and also for our friends here, as our leaving will be tough on us and them.

As I said last week, we were invited by Mustard Seed Ministries to take part in revival meetings and pastors’ conference this weekend in Zomba. Throughout the week, I had been talking with Pastor Chaponda, and he was keeping me updated, but had not yet given me the topic that I was to teach. The night before the conference started, he called and asked me to teach “How to Preach”. I told him that it was not my strong point (the pastors at the conference could probably teach ME on that subject), but offered to teach a missions class that I had been preparing for KLITS.

Friday came, and I headed out to Zomba in minibus (4 hours in car, 6 in minibus, which, by the way, is a truly African experience!).

Naty had been invited to go to Liwonde game park with her friend, Maria Jose. They also headed out Friday morning. The game park was closed to tourists due to an animal census they were taking, but Naty and Maria were part of the group doing the census (counting the animals and number of species, gender etc.) They went on walking safaris, complete with armed guide/guard, and really got to see some animals up close. Liwonde is only about an hour from Zomba, so Naty joined me Saturday afternoon.

After arriving Friday night, I went to the first revival meeting. Unfortunately, there was a black out, but Pastor Chaponda spoke and it went quite well. I then went to where I was putting up, Annie’s Lodge. Saturday morning, the official conference began. There was also a group of 5 teachers and pastors from South Carolina that were giving classes. Bishop Alfred Jackson and his church (I think its Tabernacle of Praise church?) are part of Kingdom Covenant ministries in South Carolina. He and his group teach and preach once or twice a year in Malawi and Liberia. It was great to meet and serve with them.

Saturday, we divided into 4 groups and I taught a 1- hour session to a group of about 15 pastors from the villages. It was challenging to bring the class level down to something they can understand through an interpreter, but it was great to bring the class down to a basic level.

In the biggest meetings there were about 400-500 people packing out the hall, with around 200 of them being pastors. Sunday, I had a chance to speak to the whole group, and they had told me that it would be about an hour to an hour and a half of teaching. Unfortunately, I was only given about 40 minutes, so I had to cut an already short class even shorter (it’s the same 8 hour class I will be giving to the KLITS students). Afterward, I felt that it could have gone better, but we trust that the Lord did what he wanted.

One of the more interesting experiences was the Healing (for physical health) and Deliverance (from demonic forces) meeting. Saturday, I did not get to attend because I was teaching at the time, however, there were several testimonies afterwards. One older man came up (carrying a cane-not using it), and said that he had been crippled and was now healed and he started jumping around. He was also blind, and started to point out things that he was seeing (a bag, a microphone etc.) Even his helper came up and testified for him (many of these people come from far away villages, so they need help to get there). I was still a bit skeptical. However, we also saw something that impacted Naty and I greatly.

That Saturday, a blind woman came up to testify that her foot had been healed. Someone helped her to the stage, and you could clearly see that she was blind (her eyes were sunken in and discolored). After testifying, she also said she was seeing some flashes of light, something that normally did not happen. After this, the meeting was over and everybody went home. Sunday, we came back to the meetings, and after a long morning, the same woman came back to afternoon meeting. She could see! Her eyes were completely normal, and we could see a physical difference in her face! It was really amazing to see something like that, and Naty and I could only give glory to God!

For us, this experience could only be compared to a spiritually blind person having their eyes opened by the Spirit of God and recognizing their Savior. Salvation (bringing a person from spiritual darkness to spiritual light) really took on a new, more real, perspective for us after seeing a physical healing of a blind person, and the change that it brought about in her life.

This coming week I will start the missions’ class for KLITS, on Wed. and Saturday. Please pray for clarity and strength. Naty will be finishing up her work with Ministry of Hope, as our time here is coming to an end! Thanks always for your prayers!

This week, we had the privilege of going to Blantyre, the next major city after Lilongwe. It is known as the commerce capital of Malawi. We went to visit Pastor Willie Chaponda, his wife, Doris, and their family. Pastor Chaponda has a ministry called Mustard Seed Ministries, and Doris also has a ministry called Women of Victory.

Mustard Seed is a ministry that mainly works in the villages. Pastor Chaponda told us that real need in Malawi is in the villages, not in the cities. What he has done, as of now, is plant about 85 churches in as many villages, with about 15,000 members total. Another big part of the ministry is his radio ministry. Many people (around 20 million) listen to his radio program throughout Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. The amazing thing is how God is using this program to change lives. They have heard stories of whole villages converting, coming together to form a church, and then sending a leader to Pastor Chaponda so that he can train him and send him back as a pastor of the church. Because of this ministry, Pastor Chaponda is quite well known, and many doors have been opened to him, even in Muslim areas. Besides these ministries, they also have an orphan feeding program and private school, and pastoral training program. In 2004, there were reportedly more than 11,000 orphans in the part of Blantyre where they live, which is not a large area.

It was our privilege to participate in the Wednesday night services of 2 such village churches. The first church meeting was in a house, and about 50 people were packed into the house, almost all leaders in the local church. I was asked to give a 30-minute exhortation to the people, and it went quite well. Immediately afterward, Pastor Chaponda took us to the church that meets in his house, where there were about 60 people. He had told me that some would be non-believers, so I gave an evangelistic message. By the grace of God, 18 people accepted Christ for the first time, and another 5 people rededicated their lives to Christ! The Pastor and his wife will now plug them all into churches in their own areas and villages. It was really an amazing experience and we thank God for letting us take part in it. Once again, straight from this meeting, we headed to another meeting where we met up with some other church leaders to talk about putting together a RREACH conference for Malawi. By default, I was the one who presented it, and afterward everyone seemed pretty excited about it.

Thursday, we visited their private school. It was originally set up like any other private school, however, the kids could not afford it. So, they decided front the bill and have an orphan school. There are around 100 kids that they provide for uniforms, books, and lunch everyday. Naty was able to give a lesson during their meal. We also visited another village church, and were able to give them a word of encouragement. This particular church has around 150 members and is praying for money to buy land to start a hospital in their area. The nearest hospitals are 4 kilometers on each side, and by the time the people are sick enough to need to go to the hospital, they are not able get transport and resort to “traditional” healing or end up dying.

Even though we had so many opportunities to minister, we also had time for some tourism. We were able to visit a small game reserve, where we saw giraffe and some other animals we hadn’t seen yet. We also visited Mt. Mulanje, which is the second largest mountain in Africa, after Mt. Kilamanjaro(sp?) in Kenya (I think!). In that area there are large tea fields and it really is a very beautiful place.

We thank everybody for their prayers. We did not experience any witchcraft, although it is very apparent that it is a very real thing in that area. We heard some very crazy stories of what they have gone through and experienced in these villages. This coming weekend, we hope to go to Zomba, another southern city, where Pastor Chaponda has invited me to participate in a conference and evangelistic crusade. Once again, we ask for your prayers of safety and that God will continue to give us courage, strength, and boldness in the witnessing of His gospel.

This week was the Fresh Fire conference at Kairos.  It was supposed to start Wednesday night, but the son of the headmaster of the school where we have the church passed away and we were not able to start that night because of the funeral.  So we started Thurday night, and had meetings Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning and afternoon.  The highlight, I would say, was the meeting Saturday afternoon, which was a show put together by some of the youth in the church.  It was hip hop show, and then Pastor Felix spoke.  There were probably around 175 young people, and most of them were impacted alot by the show.

Some of the guys from the church are pretty good; they have just come out with a new Christian hip hop cd.  One of them, David, was actually a recording artist before becoming a Christian, and had recorded and written songs with 50 Cent and for Playstation video games.   I played guitar with the Kairos Praize team, and also gave a short message on Friday night. Naty was in charge of the kids.

This coming week, Naty and I will be heading to Blantyre to be with Pastor Willie Chaponda of Mustard Seed Ministries.  One of the things we will be doing is working in the villages in a predominately Muslim part of Malawi.  We will need your prayers for protection, both physical and spiritual.  Pastor Chaponda has told us that witchcraft is very present in these villages, so I’m sure we will have some interesting experiences to share afterwards.

This week we were finally able to purchase the plates for Ministry of Hope.  Thanks to all the generous contributions, we were able to buy 700 plates!! Praise God!  On Wednesday morning, Naty was able to go and buy the plates, and Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, we were able to pass them out to 6 different centers.  They gave 116 new plates to each center…after 8 YEARS of using the same ones.  They were very thankful for 2 reasons: the new CLEAN plates, and also some of the centers did not have enough for all the kids, so some of the kids would have to wait for others to finish.

Most of my week was spent helping prepare for  the “Fresh Fire” conference coming up this week, and going to the feeding centers with Naty.  Saturday, I finished teaching the English class.  It went well, and we were able to get through the 600 page book in the 2 days that we were given.  I did not lose my voice this week! Sunday, we went to church, and I was able to play guitar in the afternoon service.

Thursday, Naty finished up her last Nutrition session with the cooks from the last center.  On Saturday, Naty was able to give a women’s bible study at the church.  About a week ago, we met another Tica (Costa Rican) on the street here, and she and Naty spent time together Saturday, including going to the Bible study.  Sunday, Naty again did Sunday School for the kids and 17 kids came…about double the normal attendance!

This coming week Kairos Ministries will need your prayers as they are having a conference from Wednesday through Sunday.  The “Fresh Fire” conference is being held to empower the people to be a witness here in Lilongwe.  There will be 5 or 6 different praise teams and speakers and we need your prayers that the people who go will really be encouraged to be bold witnesses in their different spheres of influence in this part of the world.  After the conference, Naty and I will be returning with one of the speakers, Pastor Willie Choponda, to spend a week in Blantyre, a city about 4 hours south of Lilongwe.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support! God bless!

This past week has been a week of firsts.

Tuesday, I attended a typical Malawian funeral.  It was held first at the house of the person who had passed away, then moved to an Anglican church.  It’s interesting that death is much more evident here than anywhere else we’ve been.  Everyday, we hear that so and so’s relative has died, or that there is a funeral that needs to be attended.  When someone passes away, it is normal for the whole community to come out, especially in the villages.  If someone does not attend who expected to attend, it is seen as though that person had something to do with the death (it has to do alot with witchcraft etc.).

This week Amibilike, Pastor Felix 6 week old son, had to have an emergency hernia surgery.  We praise God that all went well and he is back in the house.  Ambilike was born about 5 weeks early, and had been doing well. Last week, however, he started crying and didn’t stop for almost a day and a half.  When they took him to the doctor, they diagnosed it as a hernia, and he went into surgery that night.  We thank everybody for their prayers this week.

Another first for me was teaching a class at Kairos Leadership Institute and Theological Seminary (KLITS).  It was the English class, which I’m not too passionate about, but it is needed for these guys to be able to write papers that make sense to the reader as well as the writer.  It seemed to go well, and we had fun.  However, my voice is not used to speaking for 8 hours straight, and when Sunday came around it was completely gone.  This morning (Monday) it still hasn’t come back.  As Pastor Felix put it, “You’re getting your preacher’s voice”.  Anyways, this next Saturday we will be having English class again, then I will have a break for about 3 weeks before starting the Foundation of Missions course.  Please pray that my voice will come back and we will be able to continue with the classes.

Naty was able to continue writing her menus for Ministry of Hope, and once again was teaching the children in Kairos Christian Center (the church we are working with).  We praise God that we have been healthy and have been able to keep busy.  We are both learning so much about ministry and it has been a great experience, as well as growing closer to each other and to God.  Thank you all for giving so generously in God’s work through us!

We probably saw around 50 different species of animal.  It is know as the only Game Park that you can see the Big 5 (Elephan, leopard, lion, buffalo, and rhino).  Unfortunately, we were only have to see two: the elephant and the buffalo.  The last time the saw a lion was about a year ago, but they do still hear them roar every once in a while.

Highlights:  I have never seen so many animals in one place.  You could look around and at the same time see elephants, impala, warthogs, bushbuck, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos, and all kinds of different birds!  It was obvious there is a lack of predators in the park, just because there are so many other animals.

The first night, one of the other guests came running in saying that there was a huge snake not letting her husband cross the path.  The guides were hesitant (no one likes snakes here), so I went to check it out.  It was a baby African Rock Python, non-venomous, and about 5-6 feet long.  He was not very happy, but I was able to catch him and move him out of the way.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any pictures.

Two different times we had an elephant mock charge us.  The first time it stopped about 6 feet (2 m) in front of the boat, and was one of the most amazing things that we have seen.  Also, the second night we were there, the elephants came into the camp and were right outside the bedrooms.  We were hoping they wouldn’t smell our apples and knock down our chalet (which they do in the villages when there is food inside).  Thank God, they didn’t do anything, and the next morning the guides said they would only do something like that if they had smelled oranges!

We had a great time, and besides a run in with some corrupt cops that wanted money from us “azungu” (white person) and a flat tire, it went really well.  We were back by thursday night, when I was able to play with the sports ministry bball team against a team called the Veterans.  We were winning the first three quarters, but lost in the end. It was a close game, but we only had 5 players against their whole team.

Sunday, Naty was in charge of the kids again, and it went really well.  She taught about the Good Samaritan and did several activities with them.  I also played guitar in the afternoon worship service.

This week we will need your prayers as we continue to do ministry and get back into the swing of things after the safari.  I start giving a two week English class this Saturday, and Nathalie will be putting together a menu for Ministry of Hope.  God bless and enjoy the pictures!