November 5, 2011

Baby, Bibles and Building


To quote an old line from a famous movie… “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no baby!”… But I sure enjoyed being there for the birth of our grandson Ethan!  Carla and I were blessed to be able to be with our daughter and son-in-law in Texas when Christa gave birth to our first grandchild on Sept. 8, 2011.  Mother and baby are doing great!  Our son Shawn also flew down from Oregon to meet his nephew.  We had a great time getting to know the newest member of the family.   There are pictures on our website of our grandson.  He is not part of our ministry “yet” but we are proud to show him off as God’s little gift to our family.

   The trip was not all spoiling the baby and passing him around like a sack o’ taters.  God opened several doors of ministry while we were there.  I was able to preach twice in Texas and once in Florida, present our burden to two churches, gave an update at one of our supporting churches, taught a Wednesday night teens’ class, spoke at a public high school Bible Club, participated in a “See You at the Pole” meeting and taught a youth SS class.

   On our way back to GA to return to Peru, Carla and I had the privilege of being in the missions conference of Victory Baptist, the church whose ministry, Victory Baptist Press, is printing and preparing to send us thousands of Spanish Bibles.  What a blessing it was to actually see the Bibles being prepared and know that one day soon they will be in Cajamarca, Peru where we will distribute them to missionaries and pastors throughout South America!  We get excited thinking of how many lives will be touched and changed eternally through this warehouse of paper and ink being faithfully used for God’s glory!  Take a look at the pictures on our website!

   We have seen five more saved in our church services since our last prayer letter.  Last week we had at least ninety-five in attendance with at least twelve of those being visitors!  We have to get into that new building before we start ‘popping buttons’ on our present one!

   Praise the Lord for our baptistery in the new building.  Even though we are not occupying the building yet, the baptistery is functional.   Another Baptist church recently asked to use it.  It was a blessing to them in the rainy season where it would make it difficult to baptize in a fast flowing muddy river.  Baptizing then is like trying to hold on to a slippery catfish under a waterfall.

Building Program Update -  We have a couple from our church whose profession is painting.  They have been at work for the past two weeks preparing the first floor for paint.  They should have the entire first floor interior painted within two to three weeks.  Soon our foreman and his crew will be able to return to finish all of the tile work in the building and start the cementation of the front entrance and side area.  We will continue with the other finishing projects as the Lord provides.  Please keep this in your prayers.  We need to complete the construction for God’s glory so that we can continue to expand our ministries to a lost and dying world.

   We have been busy contacting pastors for our next furlough.   We are booking meetings for eleven months between May 2012 and March 2013.  God is blessing our calendar and it is filling quickly.  We want to visit as many of our supporting churches as possible and a few new ones as time allows.  Please let us know soon if you would like for us to come by.  You can contact us by phone at 678-921-5116 or at our email:  don@rich2peru.com .

Serving Him for You in Peru,

                                  Don & Carla Rich