Dear Friends & Prayer Partners;

This has to be a record for getting newsletters out quickly. Usually I'm apologizing for there being so much time between newsletters. This time, I almost feel like I need to apologize for sending it out so soon. But, I wanted to let you know about my trip to Colombia, and it seemed better to do it soon, instead of waiting till later

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• TRIP TO COLOMBIA

• TRIP TO HONDURAS

• EVANGELISTIC EVENTS

• MY NEW ADMINISTRATIVE ASSITANT… BY FAITH!

• FAMILY NOTES

-- TRIP TO COLOMBIA --

The big thing that happened since I last wrote was my trip to Cartegena, Colombia, South America. This was my first trip outside of North America, so it was a real experience for me; in a number of ways.

The trip itself, as far as getting to Colombia was a disaster. It almost seemed like someone was writing a script for a comedy about a disastrous vacation. To save money, I flew out of Monterrey, Mexico, instead of flying out of our local airport. Since it only costs $20.00 to get to Monterrey on the bus, that didn't seem like any problem to me; especially since I saved $200.00 doing it. In fact, it was the one part of the trip that went well.

Once I arrived in Mexico City (my first flight, after leaving Monterrey) I had to spend the night in the airport. My flight wasn't scheduled to leave till 7:00 am, so I had been expecting this. I had my computer with me, so took advantage of the time to write and study. Since I wasn't the only traveler who was crazy enough to spend the night in the airport, there were plenty of other people to talk to. Being me, of course I talked to them about the Lord. I actually had some great conversations with the people there.

However, once it was time to leave Mexico City things started to go crazy. My flight was delayed for mechanical reasons, then delayed again, and finally canceled. It was now 8:00 am on Saturday, and I had to preach in Cartegena on Sunday morning.

After waiting in line until 12:00 I was finally awarded another seat, on another flight, on another airline; but only to get me as far as Panama. Since the computers were down, they couldn't guarantee me a connection from there. But, on I went, sending text messages to everyone I could, asking for prayer.

Once I arrived in Panama they were quick to get me on a connecting flight to Cartegena. Unlike I had been told in Mexico City, I wasn't going to have to spend the night in Panama. That was the first good news; I would be able to preach in Colombia on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I couldn't contact Edwin, our pastor there, to tell him about my flight changes, so he and his wife ended up waiting in the airport from 5 pm till 10:30 pm, when I finally showed up. Also unfortunately, my suitcases didn't get there with me. In fact, they didn't show up until Monday evening.

Okay, now that we got the bad part of the trip out of the way; let me put it simple; everything else was great! I was extremely well received in Cartegena, not only by our pastors there, but by the pastors of the city in general. Edwin had spoken to several other pastors in the area, telling them I was coming, and had scheduled me to minister in different churches. In all, I preached 19 messages in the 8 days I was there.

Edwin, the pastor who is our spiritual son there in Cartegena also has a pastor who is his spiritual son. That makes him my grandson in the ministry. His name is Erlin and he will be getting married in October to a wonderful woman named Luz (Light). Luz is the worship leader in his church

The whole time I was there we seemed to travel in a flock. Edwin, Erlin, their wives and a couple of brothers from the church went everywhere with me. They were so hungry to receive from me, both in teaching and in anointing that they didn't want to leave my side. It was great having my own team with me when I went to minister in a church. They knew what to expect, especially at the alter ministry time, and were ready to help.

Apparently, there has been a problem in their area with false apostles or possibly true apostles that didn't understand how to be an apostle. Edwin had announced me to the pastors as an apostle, and so they were a little skeptical. However, once I started ministering to them, they opened up very quickly.

Three different pastors came to me from this trip, asking to come under my covering. As per usual, I haven't told them yes, but that we should both pray about it. I also have a new spiritual granddaughter in the ministry (from this trip), who has come under Edwin's covering.

There were two things that were culturally very striking about Colombia, or at least the part I was in. The first was the people. They appear to be a mix of Hispanic and Black. This produces a very good looking race of people, but the most striking thing is that they all look very young. Luz and Erlin are both 28 years old, and I was sure they were about 19, or 20. A young man who was part of the traveling "flock," named Wakiem told me he was also 28 years old. I had been thinking he was 15, or 16! Erwin's mother, who is my age, looks like she's about Erwin's age. This was very surprising, especially since the Mexican women tend to age quickly.

Secondly, the nation of Colombia is very poor, at least by our standards. The average income is 1/3 of that in Mexico; which puts it at about 1/20th of the typical American income. There are very few cars on the streets, although there are lots of taxis, busses, and moto-taxis (a motorcycle which serves as a taxi, taking only one passenger). Almost all of the houses I was in had curtains in place of interior doors, and plastic patio furniture in the living room. There usually wasn't glass in the windows, but just a sort of latticework made of cement blocks.

The only really bad part of the trip was saying goodbye. They didn't want me to leave, and want me to come back soon. Please pray with me that God provide the finances and time that I can go back to Columbia regularly and minister to "my kids" there.

-- TRIP TO HONDURAS --

Just a quick note about Honduras. In the fall of last year I was contacted by a pastor there who was just opening a church. He had found me through the Internet, and wanted to talk to me about spiritual covering. We communicated by e-mail for a few months, and in January of this year, he came under our covering.

I am planning to go visit him and his church in March of next year. Please be praying for this trip, that God would provide the means, and the timing would be perfect.

Since the ministry is growing more international, I'm having to do more international traveling. I have confidence that God will provide for these trips, but would like you to connect your faith with mine in this petition for provision. Also, if you know anything about donations of frequent flyer miles, or have miles you'd like to donate, please contact me. I have heard about this, but am unsure how to proceed.

-- EVANGELISTIC EVENTS --

Last month I mentioned that I've been very busy planning evangelistic events. Since I had never organized an event of this type before, I had no idea what to expect, or how much work it was to do. The good news is that I'm learning a lot that I'm sure will continue to be useful to me in the ministry. The bad news is that the day hasn't gotten any longer.

I don't have any problem with putting my time into the work of the ministerial alliance, because I see it as an extension of our apostolic ministry. The pastors who are members of the alliance are just more pastors under our covering. Granted, in a slightly different way, but it's the same thing. By investing time in these evangelistic events, I'm investing time in their ministries. That's no different than investing time in the ministries of the other pastors who are under our covering.

There is a potential from this to build something that would allow Deborah to quit teaching in the public schools, and come back to working full time in the ministry. Please be praying for this, that God show us clearly His plan, His purposes, and His will in this.

-- MY NEW ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT… BY FAITH! --

I've been asking for some time that people would pray for God to bring me help in the ministry. More than anything, I've needed help in the office, to relive me of time consuming details. In recent months, between the increases in the ministry, the traveling I've been doing, and the work for the ministerial alliance, there literally have not been enough hours in the day to complete everything I've got to do.

My son, Joshua, who's in his third year at the local university, has been working the last two years as a "work-study" student in the financial aid department of the university. Unfortunately, he isn't allowed to work enough hours to give him the money he needs for his expenses.

The solution we're come up with is for him to start working part-time in the ministry office. Since CompUSA just had a great sale, I bought another computer for the office… by faith! Joshua hasn't started working with me yet, and I really don't have the money in hand to pay him, but we're believing for this money. Specifically, we're believing that the money will come through what we're doing in coordinating the evangelistic events.

Please agree with us, in faith, that this can be worked out, and Josh can start working with me in the work of the ministry. This will be a great help in completing what I need to do, and also give him a better job, with more flexible hours.

-- FAMILY NOTES --

I'm planning on leaving in about a week to go up to Ohio and bring back the things we have in storage there. Ten years ago, when we left the house in New York, to live on the road in the motorhome, we had put the things we wanted to keep into a self-storage place near Deborah's parent's home. It's been a long time since we've seen that stuff, but some of it (especially the books) is important to us. Now that we have a house again, we want that stuff with us.

Everybody is in full-swing here with the new school year. The only problem is a car shortage. Even though we were given the car I mentioned in the last newsletter, that still leaves us short. We've lost two cars in the last four months due to serious engine problems. Since those two cars are old, and it requires a lot of time and money to replace the engines, we've decided it's not worth the effort to repair them.

So, that leaves us with only two running vehicles, one of which is the van. Praise the Lord that the van's still running, but it needs some work before I can really say it's in good condition. Even so, we're using it just about every day.

Many days, the kids take the van to college. Sometimes, they don't use it, because a friend has been loaning them a car. If I need to go anywhere (most days), that means that I need to take Deborah and Rebekah to school, so that I can have the car. Unfortunately, that takes extra time and gasoline.

So, please keep praying for our vehicle situation. Both Jenni and Josh are thinking about buying cars with student loan money. If they do that, it would solve their problem. That means that we only need something for me to drive, so that I don't have to drive the van all the time. I have a Subaru which I bought for $50.00, but I haven't had the time to repair it yet. Somehow, or other, either it needs to be fixed, or God needs to bring us another vehicle. As I said, please pray.

Be blessed in the Lord. I expect that He is moving in each and every one of your lives. We covet your prayers, as any ministry is based upon the prayers of the saints. Please pray for everything that's going on here, and that God keeps us in the palm of His hand. More than anything, pray that His divine will is accomplished in and through our lives.

Blessings in Jesus,

Rev. Rich Murphy