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Testimonies from October 2012
Hi there! It has now been almost a week since Jaime and I arrived back from our holiday in South Africa. It really was a wonderful time and above all I am most thankful for the very special moments I was able to pass with my family. Perhaps it is only as one becomes a “grown-up” that you start realising just how much your parents have done and continue to do for you. God really has blessed me with such a supportive family and for that I am most thankful. During our trip I also had the opportunity to preach at the 11am service of His People Baxter. It was amazing to be back again and in a strange way never really felt like I left. God so used the leadership of that congregation to form me into the person I am today and it was a great privilege to be able to share all that God has been doing since being “sent” from that congregation. Our baby is growing by the day and is healthy and strong. I am now almost 15 weeks and thankfully have had a relatively easy pregnancy so far. Thank you for praying for us and for our new little one, it is wonderful to be able to share this new adventure with you. Thank you for the part you play in making our ministry here in Peru possible. Jaime and I count it a privilege to have such faithful people standing with us in faith and prayer! We are so thankful for you! Much love Jaime and Kim
Saints in Cells... While in South Africa I received the shocking news that all but 7 of our ladies from both Santa Monica and Fatima had been transported to a new super maximum security prison almost three hours outside of Lima. Piedras Gordas (literally means “Fat Stones”) is traditionally known to house the worst of Peru’s criminals, political terrorists and murderers. It is situated to the north of Lima and is surrounded by desert. It is difficult to understand why they moved our ladies there. I can only think it is because they are hoping to close the other two prisons as the land they are on is now prime real estate. Unfortunately the move has made it a lot more difficult for us to visit the girls and as yet we have not been given the necessary permission to see them. Beatriz, Anita and I will be meeting next week to try to plan a way ahead and to see how we can be given permission to hold a women’s bible study in Piedras Gordas. Please pray that God will give us divine wisdom and favour to know how to proceed. For now we will continue to visit the remaining girls in Santa Monica (those who are ill or who have children with them) as well as our bible studies for the girls who are on the outside.
Fe en
Fe en Accion...
Next Wednesday I have been invited to accompany Jaime and the team from World Vision to Ayacucho as they continue with the “Fe en Accion� training there. We will be sharing in three different towns, Huamanga, Huanta and el Tambo and to a total or around seventy young people from various churches in the area. The last few training sessions have gone exceptionally well and the youth are really excited about how God can use their lives to bring change through their churches to their communities. One of the primary reasons that I am going will be to build relationships with the lady facilitators from World Vision as well as with the young ladies who are attending the training sessions. Please trust with me that God will enable me to see the gifts and talents that He has placed in their lives and the ability to stir up their faith and God given destiny. We will be travelling by bus in to the Andes mountains. Please pray that God will protect us and keep us safe and that He will keep my usual motion sickness at bay.
A thank you letter... .
Earlier this year, Jose Luis Ochoa, the director or the World Vision office for sustainability asked if he could send a thank you letter to all those who partner with us in ministry. Below you will find the translation of the letter that he sent… Lima, May 2012 To my dear brothers and sisters in South Africa My name is Jose Luis Ochoa Gamboa, I am the director of the Office for Sustainability of World Vision International, a Christian organisation whose mission is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, by working with the poor and oppressed in Peru. I would like to give thanks to God for the way in which He is using you to support the Ruiz Caro family. Jaime and Kim are an immense blessing for us and for what we are dreaming of doing in our country. We dream of uniting many churches that desire to express their worship through service, giving a testimony of unity, and we have started with the youth; at the moment we have 185 young people who have responded to our invitation to be a part of the movement “Faith in Action”, a youth movement that involves those young people from churches and who have a call to social service. We are going to be working with them in the coming months and we desire that they strengthen their relationship with God in their churches through their service to communities, so that later we can serve those churches that are involved in this process. Jaime decided to support us with all that he has, giving much more than anything that we could cover in this initiative. On the other hand his wife Kim is an inspiration to us, she speaks of the missionary passion and love that are able to pay the price to make that which she loves a reality. Kim has served as a volunteer with us for many months and now intensely supports the formation of a group of young people who desire to develop the potential of children and teenagers so that they can be change agents in the communities in which we serve. We are sending some bracelets from the movement (these I gave to my ministry partners now in SA), when you put them on, please don’t just remember us in prayer, but please know how grateful we are to God for your obedience and that part of the fruit that we are staring to reap for the Kingdom here in Peru, is because of people such as yourselves who are a part of what is and what will happen in our nation. Blessings,
Jose Luis Ochoa
God’s Faithfulness... On our way back to Peru, I had the wonderful opportunity to stop off in Johannesburg and spend an evening with some of the young women that I used to disciple while they were students at UCT. I cannot even begin to describe how it filled my heart with joy to see how these special ladies are now starting to walk in the dreams that they had as students. Amanda is about to qualify as a charted accountant, while Michelle is pursing a second degree in medicine after already having graduated with a degree in microbiology. Natasha is married (to a wonderful Christian man) and working in an established PR company and Rumbi has a successful career in IT. Above all, they are also all still wholeheartedly following God and are involved in their local churches. It is so wonderful to see the fruit of the time we spent together studying God’s Word and in prayer. God is so faithful!
Please pray...
Please keep Jaime and me in prayer as we travel to Ayacucho on Wednesday night. We have a 12 hour bus journey into the Andes. Please also trust with us that it will be a fruitful time of teaching the young people involved in Faith in Action there. Please keep the girls in the prisons in your prayers. Trust with us that God will give us supernatural favour and wisdom as we seek to find a way to minister to the ladies in Piedras Gordas. Please continue to pray for the health of my mother-in-law. She is now at home recovering after an initial operation. Please trust with us that God will do a supernatural working of healing in her life.
Jaime and I would love to hear from you: please write to us at kimmysol@gmail.com or you could call on +51 990 50 1552. My skype name is kimmysol.