His Word is Going Out!
His Word is Going Out!
July 6, 2015
Is it really time to send out another prayer letter? Wow, time is cruising by! In just nine more days, Carla and I will celebrate being on the field here in Peru for twelve years! Then, in August, our church will celebrate its tenth anniversary! God has been more than good to us and continues to bless. We want to share some of those recent blessings and happenings in our ministry in these next few paragraphs.
In May, Carla did a great job organizing a women’s conference. It was a lot of work, but there was a great attendance and all of the ladies went away blessed and encouraged.
In June, we were able to have another men’s Bible study breakfast in our home. It is great to have this time when the busy men of our church can meet together for fellowship and the Word of God.
Since our last letter, Carla and I have made another trip back into the jungle. We were told the roads were great now to reach an area where we’ve never been able to drive before because of ruts, deep mud holes, washed out dirt roads, etc. Well, they were partially correct. They have improved the roads greatly. But, as you can tell from our website photos, it was a good thing we had the four-wheel drive for this trip. We were able to drive until the road ended at the Marañon River. Along the way, we distributed over 2500 Bibles and over 20,000 tracts to jungle pastors and missionaries. These will reach deep into the jungle where many have never had a whole Bible, including pastors. At the farthest point on our trip to the deep jungle, we ran into a young man (Juan Carlos) whom I led to the Lord and baptized when he was twelve years old and living in our area. He is now twenty-two years old and is in the Peruvian military, serving on the Peru-Ecuador border. What a small world! While on this trip, we were treated to fresh coconut milk and a delicious salad made of a palm type plant. There is always something interesting to try. Carla was so pleased that we weren’t offered “suri”, the large grub worm. At one place, I was served venison! What a blessing to meet these humble people who are so appreciative of the opportunity to have their own copy of the Word of God!
One day in June, we shipped 169 cases of Bibles and tracts by bus to many locations in Peru. That was the most we had ever shipped in one week. But, that record was broken the very next week when we sent out another 238 cases (almost 3000 Bibles and 25,000 tracts) in one day! We have very few cases of Bibles left and less than one-third of the tracts left to distribute. We will be surprised if all of the Bibles are not gone by the time we come in for our furlough in September. Of the over seventeen hundred cases that we received, only around three hundred remain, with orders coming in weekly. Please pray for a new opportunity. We are working out the details to get Bibles into Bolivia to pastors who are asking for them.
Praise the Lord, we have seen at least one more saved recently and baptized four, including one young man who says he wants to be a preacher when he grows up! We’ve also seen several new visitors in our services.
Our furlough calendar is now full, except for one Sunday morning. We would like to thank those pastors who called or returned our phone calls and asked for meetings. We will try to reach our other supporters on our next short furlough in a couple of years. We appreciate you all so much for standing with us as your missionaries in Peru.
Carla and I will be busy the next couple of weeks preparing for the celebration of our church’s tenth anniversary and for our upcoming furlough trip. We are looking forward to both but there is much work ahead. Please pray for us during this busy time.
* Don’t forget to take a look at the photos on our website! www.rich2peru.com
Thanks for your faithful prayers and support,
Don & Carla Rich
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