November 3, 2009

Wedding Bells and More

Greetings from the Andes Mountains of Perú! As we write this letter, Carla and I are preparing to leave soon to be in the states for our daughter Christa’s wedding. As we have mentioned before, she is marrying a young man whom she went to college with and who now is a youth minister in Texas. His name is Stephen Sapp and we are proud that he will be part of the family. We just hope he will feel the same way. At least he won’t have to deal with his in-laws barging in!

We have been very busy the last two months. In September, our town had a sugar cane festival named “Fiesta de Huanchaco”. It was a great opportunity to reach many people with the Gospel while the city square and surrounding streets filled with people. We passed out over 1500 tracts to the tourists and vendors.

The Men’s Class that we told you about in our last letter went well. It lasted seven weeks and we had several men who attended faithfully. The class was based on the “Love Dare” book. Several of the ladies in our church made comments to Carla that they were seeing a difference in their homes. The men are already asking for another class.

It is a custom for parents in this country to put on a big shindig for their daughters when they reach the age of 15. It is called a Quinceañera (keen see niera). Most of these turn into parties where alcohol and dancing are prominent. We were pleased that the parents of a young lady of our church wanted to have theirs as a church gathering where they invited their family, both saved and unsaved, to attend. It was a beautiful afternoon where the Gospel was presented and Anghela enjoyed good Christian fellowship with her church family.

We had two more great opportunities to use our Mobile Ministry Unit before the rainy season set in. The first was in a town where we have been praying about starting a new work. It’s name? Jesús! What better place to preach Jesus than in Jesús? We took several of our church youth and set up in the town square. The youth knocked on doors and did a drama on the square to attract area residents. Over 200 attended the presentation of the video and 50 came forward at the invitation to receive Christ! While there, God confirmed in my heart that this is where we need to start our next work. We made several good contacts that night. Please pray as we make plans to start a Bible study here at the first of the year.

The second video presentation was at a Catholic school in a very rural farming area called Chin Chin. One of the teachers had heard of our ministry and invited us to set up on the school grounds. The farmers and their families walked long distances to see the video. We had at least 85 arrive for the presentation. At the invitation no one would raise their hand to be saved but we still prayed and saw many praying with us to receive salvation. Only God knows how many. These country folk are very reserved and have a hard time showing their emotion or interest.

In January we have an eleven day mission trip planned for the youth of our church. I have been teaching classes to prepare them to present the Gospel through personal witnessing, tracts, drama, and the Christian videos. We have given them challenges to complete to help them understand that ministry comes with a cost. We will be sharing more on this adventure in our future updates.

Praise the Lord, we recently have had three saved in our regular church services and we are watching our church family grow in numbers and in their walk with the Lord.

Building Program Update – Our contractor was busy on another project and could not return to work here for a while. We now have a contract to begin the second floor roof on Jan. 4th! Please pray that God will provide so that we may complete this building program within the next year. It is all in His hands and for His glory.

May God bless each of you. Don’t forget to check out the new pictures on our web site. www.rich2peru.com
                                                                                          

Serving Him for You in Peru,

                                  Don & Carla Rich