Hitting the Ground Running!

July 5, 2013

What a blessed and busy two months! There is not enough room here to tell it all. I will begin by saying that God continues to bless. We were able to get a contract for painting our building, complete some cement work and construct a grill for the church to enjoy. We also were able to have the warped doors repaired (our wood is not kiln dried), sand and seal the wooden bunk beds, purchase the mattresses, install closet and shower rods in the dorm rooms, install echo panels in the church and begin construction on the sound booth.

God is also opening new doors! A few weeks ago two men from Bambamarca, a city about three and a half hours from our valley, came by and asked me to start a church in their town. The time was planned and, taking the two national pastors whom I am working with, a visitor from the US and a fellow missionary, we had a meeting with the group who had sent to ask for our help. They had been under poor doctrinal training by a national pastor who had since left the ministry. After a fruitful meeting to discuss starting a church, we had a service for them. I preached on the responsibility of each church member to each other and in the family of God. I then presented the plan of salvation. The wife of one of the leaders prayed to receive Christ! These people are hungry for the Word of God. We have provided them all with Bibles and hymnals. We will be returning soon to start doctrine and discipleship classes. On our way back from the meeting we gave one family a ride to our town. The wife brought a package with her… four live chickens in a bag. We were to find out that one of them was meant as a gift for Carla and me. The others were gifts for their family members. You just never know who/what is going to hitch a ride with you!

Less than two weeks ago we were privileged to have a group of three visitors from the US, including one of our supporting pastors. While they were here we were able to take two trips to deliver large quantities of Bibles. On the first trip we delivered 630 Bibles and 660 New Testaments to the coastal city of Chiclayo to fourteen pastors who have twenty four different works.

The second was a four day road trip crossing the Andes Mountains four times to deliver over 2000 Bibles to a jungle river port on the Haullaga River. From there the Bibles were sent up river to be distributed to between 15-20 Peruvian churches. We saw two saved on this trip! God gave me the privilege to lead the captain of the boat and the shipping company's employee to Christ. We also passed out many Gospel tracts and John and Romans booklets. We enjoyed seeing God’s beautiful creation all around us and had a blessed trip. In all, we delivered Bibles to at least 29 pastors for 39 different works. We are planning a second trip back into the jungle to send more up river to another group of pastors who have contacted us.

We were able to get the mobile unit out while the group was here also. We set up one night near the coast and showed a video in Ferreñafe where there are two independent Baptist churches. We were able to encourage the national pastors as this ministry allowed them to reach some young people in the area and a young couple.

Our national pastor, José, has reported at least three saved in the past two months in our church in Los Baños del Inca. We continue to pray and make plans for a transition in the work we inherited from our missionary friend who left his work with us. We will share more of this in our next letter.

This past week I sent out a special email letter about our need for a Christian School director. If you do not receive our email letters but would like some info on this please let us know. Email: don@rich2peru.com Also, please let us know if you would like to sign up to receive all future email letters/updates.

As you can tell, God is truly blessing and we are very busy. I have placed new photos and albums on our website. Please enjoy them and know that we are very thankful for your support and prayers.
                                                               

Serving Him for You in Peru,

                                  Don & Carla Rich