A Busy Year Completed, What’s Next?
A Busy Year Completed, What’s Next?
January 1, 2025
Another year has passed, and an eventful one it was. We finished the last two months of 2024 with a flurry of activity. It was a blessing to see many souls saved this year and a total of 12 baptisms. One of those was just last Sunday. On top of that, we had many special activities.
For Thanksgiving we invited round 20 people from our churches come to celebrate with us. Carla prepared a great meal, and it was all gone at the end of the day. Peruvians of course do not celebrate our American holiday, but they enjoyed learning about it. Before the meal, each took turns giving thanks for how God had blessed them. It was a great time of fellowship.
It is always great to see our church members be used by the Lord. Around the middle of November, I taught again on soul winning. A couple of weeks after, one of our members visited her brother in Lima. She said she took the notes from the class and shared the Gospel with him. After four hours of sharing and answering questions, her brother Enrique prayed to receive Christ as his Savior!
In December, we had a “Singing on the Square”. We obtained permission from the city and a big group from our Calvario church gathered to sing Christmas music for a couple of hours. We passed out over 700 John/Romans booklets to people in the park as they passed by to listen. The next day, Sunday morning, a lady and her son visited and have begun attending our church!
The next weekend we set up our canopy and sound system in front of our other church, Iglesia Bautista Ancla (Anchor Baptist). As we sang, a group passed out tracts and invitations in the street. Again, God blessed our efforts. A neighbor family came to church that week and has begun attending. The next Wednesday night they had an attendance of 71 at their Christmas service!
On Thursday, December 12th, we drove for an hour and a half back into the mountains to a small village named Cumbico where we had obtained permission to have a Christmas Kids program. We did a drama, sang, had a chocolatada (sharing hot chocolate and fruit bread), and gave each of the 171 children in the school a Christmas gift. The school parents blessed us with a delicious meal afterwards that they cooked over an open fire. While eating, one of the teachers told us that they had been praying that God would provide a way for the kids to have gifts this Christmas. We praise the Lord for our supporters who took part in this answer to prayer by giving a special offering. It was a big blessing to this small community.
The following weekend we had a Christmas service for the youth in our Calvario church. We had teaching out of God’s Word, then we had some games for fellowship. To top it off, Carla grilled hamburgers that all enjoyed.
The next week, on December 19th, we visited a kindergarten in a small pueblo called Llacanora. One of our church members is the director and a teacher. She invited us to be part of their Christmas program. We provided a presentation for the kids, then Don preached the Word of God to the parents and teachers. Afterwards, the children sang for us and their parents. We were able to provide gifts for each of the children and gave John/Romans booklets and tracts to the adults.
On December 22, our Calvario church celebrated Christmas in both services, with the focus on the kids’ classes in the morning. That night we combined our two churches and had a service of musical praise and shared a meal. It was a blessing to have around 120 in attendance.
We are glad to announce that help has arrived! Missionaries Darren & Rachel Townsend, along with baby Julianne arrived yesterday to begin serving full-time here in Peru. They plan to work with us for at least their first year here as they settle in. Also, our new assistant pastor, Fredy, and his wife Merry are scheduled to arrive this evening and will begin training. 2025 will be another busy year!
* Please take a look at several NEW PHOTO ALBUMS on our WEBSITE, www.rich2peru.com.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support,
Don & Carla Rich
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