July 5, 2010

Fruit Harvest! Patience and Persistence Pays Off

Hello from the sunny valley of Cajamarca, Peru. We are now in our dry season and enjoying sunny warm days (highs in the 70's) and cool nights (lows in the 50's). Not bad, huh? We wish you were all here enjoying it with us.

There is still hope! How many of you have ever prayed for the salvation of someone and it seemed that they would never yield to the Holy Spirit's pulling? Recently Omar received Christ as his Savior. He is the oldest son of the landlords where we began our church. The entire family had been saved through our church except for him. We have been praying for him to be saved and join God's family. Five years later, Omar is our brother-in-Christ! In a past prayer letter we mentioned Omar's mother sacrificing a good paying job to have a good testimony for her son. It paid off! Including Omar, we have seen FIVE souls saved in our church since our last letter.

On May 30 we had a high attendance record in a normal service. There were 98 present and boy was it crowded! We consistently have between 75-85 attending each Sunday morning. We definitely need to complete the building program.

We have baptized three more into the church since our previous letter and there are more ready to be baptized.

As mentioned in our last letter we had visitors from our home church in May. CJ and Amanda and their son Jaxon were a blessing to have with us. They helped us pass out tracts and invitations in Jesús, the city of our new work. They also helped invite hundreds to a video presentation we had in a pueblo called Shaullo Chico. There were SIX saved that night! The ladies of the church enjoyed as Amanda spoke at our ladies' meeting while Carla translated. CJ preached on Mother's Day and we had a baptism afterward. They left with the promise of returning again soon.

I and our national pastor José were invited to preach and teach at the first anniversary of a national missionary's church in the mountain city of Bambamarca. When we arrived we were told that a family member of one of the church members had died. That night, instead of having a service at the church, we went to the 'wake' for the deceased. I led three songs for the service then pastor José preached. There were SIX who made decisions for Christ that night!

Bro. Randy Maddox from our home church came to visit at the end of June. While he was here we returned to Bambamarca where I taught on the Tabernacle and that night we had a video showing on the city square. After the video, the Gospel was preached and TWO more accepted Christ as their Savior!

We have been taking advantage of the good weather and keeping the Mobile Unit busy. We have had presentations in three locations including Shaullo Chico, Cajamarca and the one in Bambamarca. We have seen a total of over 330 present and FIFTEEN decisions made for Christ in the past 2 months in this ministry alone!

Building Program Update- THE ROOF IS ON!!! The sewage lines are in! Cement floors are done in two pourings here. The second pouring of the first floor cement will begin soon! We can see light at the end of the construction tunnel. Please pray that God would supply the needed funds to complete this building and allow us to begin using it for His glory.

There are new photos on our website. Please take a moment to see for yourself what God is doing. www.rich2peru.com May God bless each of you for your prayers, support and encouragement.

                                                                                          

Serving Him for You in Peru,

                                  Don & Carla Rich