Growth, Progress and Bibles!

March 15, 2012

   PTL, our church continues to grow and God continues to bless.  We’ve had to move the pews forward and put out more seats to fit everyone in the building!  We have also seen two more saved in our church services recently!

  At the end of January the church had its VBS.  There was a good attendance for each of the five days and on the Sunday after VBS we had 110 in the morning service!

  It is wonderful to watch people grow spiritually and see relationships form between Christians.  Recently a couple in our church who had 2 children but had been living together for years got right and got married!  Also another couple of our young adults announced their engagement.   

  Church fellowship is always fun and interesting, especially in a foreign country.  We were recently invited to a birthday luncheon at a member’s home.  We were served “fresh” duck for lunch.   After a while, some of the more fortunate ducks came waddling through the house from the back yard.  The next day we had a church picnic.  One church member brought enough cooked guinea pigs for everyone to have a little.  Boy, was Carla glad (not).  One Saturday night we had a progressive dinner for our youth.  It was the first time they had experienced this type of event.  We had a great turnout of 23 young people! 

  Many of you have asked about the strike situation.  For now it is calm.  The locals agreed to not cause any problems for the month of February because of the tourist dollars they would lose.  It was the month of the heathen celebration of Carnival (Mardi Gras) and Cajamarca is the capital of Carnival in Peru.  There have been some small gatherings against the mine and more are planned but they are, so far, just an inconvenience.  The government is doing an environmental impact study of the mine in question.  Hopefully this will put to rest the concerns of the locals but many have said it doesn’t matter what the results are, they do not want the mine.  Time will tell what the outcome will be.

Construction update:  This past week we had two men, Bro’s Worth and Jack, from a supporting church in NC who came to paint and to build bunk beds for the Bible Institute.  What a blessing it is to see how close we are to completing the building.   We plan to move in within two weeks and finish the rest as we have the funds.  We have just ordered the remainder of the interior doors.  They should be here in a couple of weeks.

Bible Delivery:  I drove for 14 hours to Lima in February to sign the paperwork for the receipt of the Bibles.  There were rock and mud slides on the mountain roads from heavy rains.  Where the rain water crossed the roads it looked like creeks in some areas.  As we got to the coast we saw a dog riding on the roof of a car as the owner drove through town.  It was an interesting trip.  The container of Bibles was delayed at least three times, 1 week late arriving, then another, then it arrived and some paperwork held up progress.  But, THE BIBLES ARE HERE!... all 22,778 of them, not including the 5000 New Testaments!  They were delivered to us on Tuesday, the 13^th.  We are already receiving several requests for the much needed Bibles in at least 3 different countries here in So. America.  Please pray for this ministry as we work to get them where they are needed.

   Carla and I would like to thank you all for your prayers and support of God’s ministry here.  We couldn’t do it without you.  May God bless each of you.  Don’t forget to visit our web page and see the new pictures!
                                                                 

Serving Him for You in Peru,

                                  Don & Carla Rich