Brian & Rachel Rich, March 2019

March 2019

We would be naive to think that our enemy would sit idly by and watch us make progress toward bringing God's light to more people.

Until this month, we were happily oblivious to the complaints against us, even though all our neighbors (indigenous and non-indigenous alike) have apparently known for a long time. Ascertaining exactly what the complaints are and who is against us, has proven difficult. It seems to be people from other villages who are jealous of the benefits we have brought to this village. There is also much misinformation that has been propagated, such as us embezzling money that the government intended for them, or that we are growing marijuana. They apparently questioned our presence on indigenous land during some of their big, inter-village meetings, with the presence of some missio-phobic NGOs who need no good excuse to persecute us.

Needless to say, that has been on our minds a lot recently. It is common for missionaries to have this type of thing hanging over their heads. We don’t know if anything will happen, since the disgruntled people are from other villages. But ultimately, God is in control and this is His work.

We had planned on having culture and language evaluations now, but those plans changed. One of our missionaries in a neighboring region was lost in the jungle for 9 days. Thankfully, he was found alive and well. Our consultant who would be doing our evaluations was involved in the logistics of the rescue operation. As the time grew closer for him to come and our friends still had not been found, our consultant decided to cancel the trip. We will have to wait until after home assignment for our evaluations.

Thank you for holding us up in prayer this month!

In Christ,
Brian & Rachel Rich

Praise God
The lost missionary was found
He has allowed us to live here in the village thus far

Please Pray
That we could love those who persecute us
For Mozá to understand salvation by grace
For health and a good transition to the US

Rachel and J visiting at the village

D with his friends

Ed with Mozá after our Bible study
To correspond even while in the village: brian_rich@ntm.org
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