theRiggsReport

Missionaries to Peru Training Peruvian leaders for Peruvian Churches

[riggsreport]

Bus trip

Please be praying  as we are going on a trip starting Wednesday night. we will be meeting with people in Cusco and Andahuaylas. Please pray for safe travel (see how wiggly that line gets on both sides of Andahuaylas?) and for fruitful meetings.  Please pray for Mike--he has been having back trouble the last two days.

[riggsreport]

A guide to overnight bus travel in South America offering tips for the long journey. You'll want to pack lots of snacks, warm layers, and toilet paper!

Planning on visiting us?  Just want to know what a bus trip is like, so you can pray better?  It could be ANYTHING.  This article gives some handy tips.

[riggsreport]

Christmas Box Project

Once again it is time to be thinking about Christmas.  We would like to recommend una caja=una sonrisa (1 box = 1 smile) to those who would like to help poor children in the Andes mountains.  This project is run by friends who sometimes work in and alongside our ministry.  

Samaritan’s Purse is no longer distributing Christmas boxes to the Apurimac area.  Sadly, although it is one of the neediest areas in Peru, corrupt administrators abused the system.  Samaritan’s Purse is now doing discipleship work of lasting value in the area. 

We recommend this project because it helps truly needy children and goes directly to the area.  We can personally vouch for the distribution of the gifts. Their Facebook page is here: Una caja = Una sonrisa.  (Due to some crazy Facebook security measure the direct link above may or may not work.)

 For more information contact us or go through their Facebook page.

[riggsreport]

Prayer requests mid-September 2016

Please pray that our trip to Andahuaylas and Cusco will be fruitful for the ministry and safe.

Pray that Mike’s back pain will go away before the trip.

Thank God for the impact the Palabra de Dios Para Todos translation is making in lives.  A young family recently shared with us how they are understanding the Bible for the first time, and how it was helping in their family life.

Please pray that the materials that we are preparing for the conferences with this Bible will make the Word of God even more alive and accessible.

[riggsreport]

New places, new challenges

The biggest news we have right now is a set of conferences that are coming up around Huaraz, in the Ancash region of Peru. These are a chance to work with some new churches and new believers, getting them grounded in the Bible and discipleship.

We’ve been invited by some missionary church planters to work with the churches in the area. It’s kind of like providing plant food and water for those new plants so they can grow big and strong.

It presents some new challenges.  The literacy rate is pretty low in the area, so while the people attending the conferences and receiving Bibles can read, they need to know how to teach others that don’t read.

Meeting the people at their learning level is a goal and distinguishing mark of the RCP conference ministry, so this will be a great chance to put that into practice.

We will be using the newer Palabra de Dios Para Todos translation.  It is much easier to read and understand, but currently is not a study Bible.  We will be unveiling the study manual that accompanies it—which means that we have to finish that!

·        Please pray for wisdom as we schedule this work and finish the materials that are needed for it.

·        Paco Laos, who is doing a lot of the work, is having computer problems, so pray that his computer can be fixed and work reliably.

·        Pray that the conference attendees will be eager to learn and confident that they can understand and learn God’s Word.

[riggsreport]

Quick US trip

We were in the US from July  13 to August 16.  It was a quick trip, but we covered a lot of distance!

We taught VBS at Baytown Community Church, outside of Houston.

We were camp missionaries at Camp Pearl in Louisiana, along with Miguel and Becky Gomez.

We visited and updated Salem Presbyterian in Alpine, Alabama, and Henderson Bible in Henderson, Louisiana.

We attended several Spanish Bible studies with Miguel and Becky, and got to be present for Miguel’s licensing service at Elk Ridge Baptist in Stephenville, Texas.

Click here for Miguel and Becky Gomez’s newsletter.

[riggsreport]

On a personal note

We got to visit most of the family--sadly, we couldn’t get up to Nebraska.

Mandy is doing well, living in Birmingham and attending UAB.

Tim and family in South Alabama. We got to see Andrew off to his first day of school!

Colin and Becca are also enjoying life in Birmingham.

We were able to meet up with Tammy’s Mom and Dad, Annette and David Meeker for a lunch while on the road.

And we were able to be at Miguel’s licensing ceremony in Stephenville, Texas at Elk Ridge Baptist Church (the church is in the process of remodeling in the photo).

[riggsreport]

Prayer requests for end of August 2016:

Pray for much wisdom in planning and structuring this ministry.  We want the RCP conference ministry to be nationwide throughout Peru, so we will need much wisdom in recruiting and training conference teachers.

We will also need wisdom to make the book sales from the conferences affordable for the people, yet providing enough for the speakers to have the freedom to travel and do conferences.

Please pray for Elias Acevedo Llactas, (shown below) a pastor and trainee with RCP . Elias especially asks for prayer for his family’s economic situation. He asks also for prayer for their spiritual lives and that God would take control of all that they (and we as a group) are doing in His name.

Please pray for David Cleavinger, who is planning to come to Peru as a missionary intern.

PLEASE NOTE due to changes at Gmail, the Riggs Report prayer letter will soon be coming from the email address [email protected]  

Please add this email address to your address book.

[riggsreport]

A good prayer for all missionaries.

[riggsreport]

Prayer requests

Please pray for travel safety as we continue our U.S. travels and fly back to Peru on the 16th. Praise God that things are really coming together to make the Bibles available for conferences.

[riggsreport]

Good News!

We have been very concerned at the limited supply of the Study Bibles that our conferences were built around. Yesterday we received the good news that the Bible League can print a run of 5000 Bibles for us, and the Peruvian director regards it as “no problem.”  This is great news.  As the people from the first conferences are talking about them, more people want those Bibles.  This supply should last us until the new modern language study Bibles are available.

[riggsreport]

The first two conferences went great.  The attendees were grinning as they were leaving with their Bibles, and one pastor commented that the teaching on the Bible was pure gold.

[riggsreport]

Things to pray for

1. We are training a new conference speaker.  He is a young man with a lot of experience and a heart for the country people of the Apurimac region (where we were living for the last 8 years).  He speaks Quechua as well as Spanish and will be able to bring Bibles and teaching to areas where we cannot go.  Please pray for Elias as he starts this ministry.  And pray for us as we are working out how Bible and book shipments will work, etc.

2. Please pray for our trip to the US.  We leave today! Pray that it will be safe and fruitful. (And for all those last minute details!) We will be back in Peru next month.

3. Please pray that the printing of Bibles for our conferences would be approved at the international level in August.  The limited supply of the study Bible had been a serious concern.  Everything looks good, but keep on praying!!

[riggsreport]

On your mark, get set….after weeks of this kind of work...conference the 25th!

[riggsreport]

Pray for humble pastors trained in biblical theology who reflect Jesus to a watching culture.

http://prayercast.com/peru.html

[riggsreport]

Thank you

First of all, thank you for reading this prayer letter or reading our blog. There are lots of things you can do and read, and you chose to do this.  Thank you for your attention.

Thanks to all of you who are praying.  That is what really makes it all possible.

Thanks to those who are helping out.  That includes those in the World Outreach Ministries office. You are all a great encouragement.

Thanks to those who are supporting financially. We are so grateful for your support.  We recently received an anonymous donation, and we are thankful to the givers of that gift as well.

[riggsreport]

Scrappy Pastors Who Need Help

The Cono Sur, where we are living for the rest of the year, is part of the vast, teeming slum-burbs of Lima.  These were begun by people who came in from the rural areas of Peru during the time of terrorism in the 80′s. At that time Lima grew immensely because the country wasn’t safe. But the country people just set up homes without access to utilities on whatever land that they weren’t chased off of, usually on the hills surrounding the city.

Time has improved the area.  Only the very tops of the hills are now without electricity.  Many places have water.

We are finding lots of fairly small churches here in the Cono Sur, with scrappy Peruvian pastors who have studied wherever  and however they can.  These pastors (and their churches) want to evangelize, train their congregations in the Bible, and plant other churches. They want Christian books and resources. They want to cultivate new church planters and send kids to seminaries.

For example, this is the area known as Pamplona Alta.  It is part of the Cono Sur. The church, shown below, is actually only a pavilion. Like many Peruvian churches, they are building with cash and most of the work is done by people in the church. They are very proud of their church.

About 100 people attend, but churches here need to be within walking distance. Just like in the US, people attend church much less frequently if it takes more than 20  minutes to get to church.

Out of their poverty, they have already bought two more lots to plant other churches so they can reach more of the area.

This is a pattern.  These churches are buying extra land for the spread of the gospel, in spite of their poverty.  It reminds us of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8, who gave beyond their means and of their own accord.

God has really opened our eyes to this need.  We are used to thinking of Lima as “done,” already evangelized and equipped. But the Cono Sur of Lima has about 1,500,000 inhabitants, and is under-churched and under-evangelized. These small churches are under-resource.  But they have an overwhelming desire to reach everyone.

They are just about lining up to arrange conferences.  The system is exacgly what they need.  Please pray for God’s provision of strength and finances for these pastors and their ministries, and for our ability to help them, as well as the rural pastors of Peru.