Through it All God is Always There

January 4, 2012

   As many of you have heard, on Thanksgiving Day thousands of local farmers and government leaders (mayor, regional president, etc) staged a protest against a new gold mine that is opening up in our area.  The protesters closed all major roads with rocks, trees and old tires not allowing any traffic movement in or out of our city.  Thousands more joined the protest from other cities in our area. 

   All of this caused a shortage of food, gas, natural gas for cooking and money in the banks.  The situation became volatile.  We contacted the American Embassy and were told that all foreigners had been evacuated and that they did not know we were here.  This was a data input error in their system.   We sought the help of the embassy, the military, the national police and an aviation missionary association to help us get out but to no avail.  After 10 days of being confined to our home for safety sake we heard that the National Police had come in with bulldozers one night and cleared the roads.  We were already packed for evacuation along with fellow missionaries, the Rice family.  We loaded into our van and headed to the coast.  As we arrived we heard that the president had declared a State of Emergency for our city.  We drove on to Lima where we stayed for two weeks at the Children’s Home started by Missionary Mike Kennedy.

   The protests lasted a total of 22 days.  When we were told that everything was calm once again and that the five thousand police and even more military that had been called in were being dispersed, we returned home.

   I have now been asked to be a warden for the US Embassy.  I will be notified directly by the Embassy of any problems that they know of and of future evacuations.  I will be responsible to pass that on to Americans living in our area of Peru.  This should prevent another problem in the future of us being left “out of the loop”.

   On Monday, Dec. 19, before leaving to return to Cajamarca, we were awakened by an earthquake of 4.8 magnitude.  Its epicenter was 10 miles offshore.  The building rumbled and shook but there were no injuries or major damage reported.

   After returning home, Carla and I became sick for over a week with severe stomach infections, probably from poorly cleaned or prepared food eaten on our way home at local restaurants.  We are doing well now after taking antibiotics. 

   Through it all, we know that God is still on the throne and still in control!  Even with the problems in our town, we had a high church attendance in a normal service of 104!  We were not able to be at our church for the Christmas services but were told that there were 160 total in attendance, 110 of which were adults.  TWO were gloriously SAVED!  During the past two months we have seen SEVEN MORE SAVED!         

   Praise the Lord, the first floor has been painted in our new building!  There is much more to be done to complete the finishing touches (paint, wiring, doors, etc).  Please pray if God would have you help so that we can complete the construction and concentrate more on ministry!

Furlough -  We have very few dates available.  I have contacted all supporting churches and have not heard back from some.  If you would like for us to come by please contact us at don@rich2peru.com or 678-921-5116.

Serving Him for You in Peru,

                                  Don & Carla Rich