Latest Event Updates
BUSY?!
Busy?! I may have to send this letter in a tiny font just to fit everything in!
As we mentioned in our last letter, on July 15th Carla and I celebrated 14 years on the field in Peru. Wow, how time flies when you enjoy what you are doing! I think a song we sing at church says it best. It is called “Anhelo Trabajar por el Señor”, which means “I deeply desire to work for the Lord”.
Near the end of July, I made one of our two recent trips to the jungle. On this trip, I took our national pastor in Guadalupe and two young men from our Cajamarca church. One of them has mentioned a desire to serve the Lord full time and is just praying for God to direct him. We delivered a total of 2800 Bibles to be shipped on a barge upstream to jungle pastors waiting their arrival.
On the weekend of August 11-13, our Cajamarca Church celebrated its 12-year anniversary! We were blessed with guests from at least 8 churches to help us celebrate! Our guest speaker, Pastor Dario Balcázar, and his family, taught a class on creation and dinosaurs. The ladies’ enjoyed a special meeting just for them. We received some solid preaching from the Word. We also enjoyed a church picnic with friendly (I think) competition in volleyball and soccer. Praise the Lord, we saw three souls saved and other decisions made!!! We have seen a total of five saved in our churches recently! God is still working!
On our second jungle trip, just last week Carla and I delivered the first six of the doctrinal books we had translated into the Awajun Indian dialect. The first two were used as we presented a pastor’s training conference. We also provided reading glasses for several pastors who needed them, and Bibles for all pastors and their congregations. The leader of the conference called afterwards to tell me how the pastors felt so blessed through this. * Remember, anyone who supports our ministry and/or prays for us has a big part in this and we truly appreciate you.
Bible Ministry- As I write this letter, we have just driven back from the Ecuador border, where we delivered over 500 Bibles to another missionary. He will be delivering them to several pastors in that country. Previously, we told you that Venezuela and Uruguay were the only two Spanish speaking countries in S. America where we have not provided Bibles. PTL! We now have a contact and request from VENEZUELA!!! We will be shipping them soon! AND, we now have either delivered or promised ALL the Bibles from this shipment!!! The container is empty once again! This time, it took only six months to get them all out.
Speaking of the Bibles, it is not often we get to see or hear from those who receive them. Recently we were blessed to hear from a few, first-hand. While in the pastoral training conference in the jungle, it was a blessing to see their faces full of gratitude and hear them praise the Lord for the blessings they received. Also, in another town and church, we were introduced to a young man who received his first Bible 4 yrs ago (from our 1st container). It was one of several that we had sent to a church to help with their ministry. That young man has now been called to preach! He is active in open-air evangelism and other ministries of his church. We visited another church this week that has received Bibles. The pastor and congregation were very grateful for the difference it has made in their ministries.
PTL! On August 27, we had our first two baptisms at our new church on the coast! Bro. Hector and his son Mateo entered the baptismal waters as our first official church “members”. I thought it was great that we performed the baptisms below the “Puente Libertad (Liberty Bridge)”. I told the church about an English song that tells how Jesus built a bridge with only 3 nails and 2 pieces of wood “With one rugged cross, Jesus built a bridge”. That bridge gave us liberty! (Pics of this and other activities listed here are on our website)
We are now actively planning our next furlough for February thru July 2018. I have already been contacting the supporting churches that we weren’t able to visit on our last furlough. As we’ve explained, the laws have changed in Peru, only allowing us short furloughs. Therefore, we must visit some on one furlough and the rest on the next. If your church would like for us to come, please contact us through email (donrichperu@gmail.com) or call us at 678-921-5116. The calendar is filling quickly!
* Some short but heart-felt parting words… Help wanted! Is God calling you?
Thank you for your continued prayers and support,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
A Cause for Celebration!
A Cause for Celebration!
July 1, 2017
First, let me highlight this letter with a great milestone in our lives and ministry. On April 23rd, Carla and I celebrated thirty-five years of marriage! What a blessing it has been to love and serve alongside each other for these many years, and we look forward to many more. Not enough has ever been said about the impact a godly wife has on a ministry. It is a joy to be married to someone who loves the Lord and serves Him with all her heart.
Speaking of Carla, in just three more days, on the 4th of July, she will be celebrating her ??th (I don’t have a death wish) birthday! She loves the holiday that is celebrated each year on her special day. We don’t get to celebrate it in our native country often, but she always has some red, white, and blue around to remind her of our homeland.
On the 15th of this month, Carla and I will be celebrating 14 years on the field as missionaries! We have seen God’s hand busily at work in our ministry in that time. What a privilege it is to serve such a wonderful God, who has provided our every need, watched over and protected us, and has enlarged our coast many times. We came to Peru with a desire to serve Him in whatever capacity that He would reveal to us. He has allowed us to train national pastors, plant two churches, help other missionaries start their own works, and encourage national pastors in existing works. We have seen many people saved and baptized, with several of those now serving God in the local church. We have been able to serve in the Andes mountains, the desert coastal region, and in the jungles of northern Peru. We’ve been blessed to serve as the distributors of the Spanish Bible throughout South America and have now delivered almost 75,000 Bibles into seven countries. We are always in amazement as to how God has provided, and what He has been able to accomplish through us in the time that we have been here.
Our coastal church in Guadalupe has started to see faithfulness in two families and several individuals. They are growing in the Word. One man stated that he has been a Christian for some time but has not been baptized. We will be taking care of that soon.
Our Cajamarca church will be celebrating their twelve-year anniversary in August. We will be sharing more on that in our next letter.
The Bible ministry has been going strong. We are very close to emptying the container of the almost 25,000 Bibles that we received in March. Each week, we receive more requests for ministries throughout S. America. I have contacted some missions agencies and a few missionaries in Venezuela and Uruguay and are waiting for their reply concerning getting Bibles into these countries. These are the only two S. American countries where, as yet, we have not sent Bibles. If you know of a Baptist pastor or missionary in either of these two countries who could benefit from our ministry, please let us know or have them contact us.
We have now completed the translation and formatting of seven doctrinal books from Spanish into the Awajun jungle dialect. We sent two of those books to the printer this week and will be setting up our first conference soon to teach the first book. Many jungle pastors are in dire need of solid, Biblical, doctrinal training. Since we have created these books in digital format, we will be able to provide them to any pastor or missionary working with the Aguaruna tribes, so that they can print as many as they need. Please pray that this work will help many advance their ministries.
As you can tell, we are staying very busy. For some time now, we have been praying for the Lord to send us a like-minded couple or family to come alongside of us in the ministry. There is still plenty to do and ministry doors continue to open. Please join with us in praying for God’s will in this prayer request. Who knows, it just may be you!
As a final note for celebration, we have had at least two more people saved in our church plants recently! Glory be to God!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
His Word Will Not Return Void!
His Word Will Not Return Void!
May 1, 2017
Greetings from Cajamarca, Guadalupe, and a few other places,
Carla and I are excited to share with you how God has blessed these past two months. The first week of March, our Cajamarca church presented VBS to a large group of kids, along with a class for parents. We were blessed with 23, including both kids and adults, who made public decisions for Christ! There have also been three others saved in our church recently and three baptized! God continues to grow His church!
Much of the country, especially the coastal region suffered great loss in property and lives during unprecedented flooding. The desert coastal area normally receives about one to two inches of rain per year, so they were unprepared for the deluge. There were mud and rock slides, homes, businesses, roads, and bridges destroyed, and several lives lost. Our Guadalupe church, on the coast, had water seep in but was not damaged, and the pastor and his family fared well also. Our Cajamarca church pitched in to help some in the affected areas who had lost so much.
Carla and I were privileged to make a three-country trip to distribute Bibles. Our friend Worth Johnson came to travel with us from North Carolina. We felt God’s protection as we drove approximately 7000 miles and delivered 2800 Bibles. We were able to meet and personally deliver Bibles to five missionaries. One of those, missionary James Pittman’s ministry, will now serve as our new distribution point for Chile. We crossed mountains, drove for days through the Atacama Desert (the most arid desert in the world) and saw the amazing beauty of God’s creation. We encountered llama, alpaca, vicuña, horses, goats, a fox, and some interesting large birds. We also saw ancient hieroglyphics in the deserts of Chile and Peru.
After delivering Bibles to pastors in Bolivia, one of them contacted me. He told me how, on their bus ride back to their church, they won three ladies to the Lord and gave them Bibles to grow in their faith.
We entered Argentina and smuggled several Bibles across to two missionaries there. The border officials give them a hard time when they try to bring Bibles into the country, even though they have applied for paperwork to allow it.
At the Chilean border crossing, I had the opportunity to witness to a truck driver and others who were listening. The driver and the owner of their company volunteered to help us as we encountered problems entering the country with a truck load of Bibles. The owner, a Christian, even drove me to the next town when I realized that our bank cards and credit cards had been blocked for use out of country, although I had notified my credit card company ahead of time. It is too long of a story to tell here, but suffice it to say, God supplied these two men at just the right time to help us get the Bibles in. He is always on time!
We delivered some of the Bibles to missionary Nate Saint in Chile. In a recent prayer letter, he said that during a Bible study with a lady named Cecilia and her family… “She was absolutely thrilled” to receive her first Bible. It is great to hear how God is already using His Word as it is made available to many who have never had a Bible.
While in Chile, a Peruvian national, working as a missionary in southern Chile, left a message on our truck. He had seen the Peru truck tag and our church logo and wanted to contact us. Long story short, he will now be receiving Bibles for his ministry! Coincidence? Nope.
We have so many more stories that we could tell, but no space to tell it. Please take a look at our website photo album of the trip to get a small idea of what we saw and how God blessed.
As of this writing, we have already delivered over one-third of the Bibles that we recently received. It appears that they will be distributed quickly, as we continue to receive requests in Peru and other S. American countries.
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY! Calvary Children’s Home in Powder Springs, GA is needing a good Christian couple to serve as house parents. The home was started by our pastor’s father 50 years ago. Our pastor, Rev. Snyder Turner, is the current administrator. If you or someone you know are interested, please contact him: s.turner@calvarykids.org
Thank you for your continued prayers and support,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
God’s Protecting Hand and the Bibles Have Arrived!
Hello from the beautiful Andes Mountains,
We’ve been off and running in the first two months of the new year, with no signs of slowing down. I think that you will see that God has been blessing.
On January 11-16th, we took twelve of the youth from our Cajamarca church on a mission trip. We traveled to Guadalupe to help our new church on the coast with its first VBS. Our youth passed out tracts and invitations in the city, decorated, cleaned, sang, performed skits, and taught classes. They did a great job and we had 7 decisions for Christ as a result! Two of our young men gave devotionals in the evenings. These youths are our future leaders-in-training and it appears that the church will be in good hands.
On Sunday night after VBS we used the Mobile Unit in the street next to the church to show a Christian movie. We had around forty-five in attendance. Two adults made decisions for Christ that night!
We also had nine souls saved at our Cajamarca church in the past two months for a total of 17 between the two churches!
Our Guadalupe church is seeing growth. We have one young family and several adults who have become faithful. We are also seeing more kids excited about church and even coming early to each service! What a joy it is to hear them outside playing before the services and singing songs they learned in church. On February 5th, we inaugurated our first evening service. There were nineteen in attendance. That morning, we had 37 in the pews!
BIBLE Ministry update – The Bibles arrived here in Cajamarca on March 1! As of this writing, we have already delivered 120 cases (1680 Bibles) to pastors and missionaries who have been waiting. We continue to receive requests daily. Carla and I leave tomorrow, March 4th, on a trip to deliver 2800 Bibles to pastors and missionaries in Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Please pray for us as we travel thousands of miles delivering the Word.
This ministry has grown so much. Within a week of announcing that the Bibles were on their way, we received requests from Peru, Columbia, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico. Some of these are not even in S. America and we had to refer them to other ministries for their needs. God is getting His Word out!
JUNGLE Ministry update – We now have 6 books translated into the Awajun dialect and formatted for printing and we are planning a training conference in the month of July for many jungle pastors.
God’s hand of protection is ever with us. Every weekend, Carla and I drive to the coast to our new church and return on Monday morning to Cajamarca. There are only 2 ways to enter Cajamarca. One bypasses the city (our normal route) and the other takes you directly into the city. This past Monday, we returned as normal, but we had the national pastor with us who needed to see a dentist here in the city. Because of that, we chose the other route. We learned later that at the very moment that we “would have been” on the other road, there was a tragic accident involving around 8 vehicles resulting in 4 deaths. Carla and I would like to say ‘THANK YOU’, first to God, then to all of you who pray for us. You will never know how much your prayers for us are appreciated as we constantly travel for our ministry. We covet your prayers for safety and wisdom. May God bless each of you who remember us in your prayers.
As you can tell from our letters, we are very busy, and there is still much to do. We are still praying that God would send a like-minded family to work alongside of us here in Peru. Please help us pray for God’s provision.
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
Finishing Strong in 2016
Finishing Strong in 2016
January 3, 2017
Greetings and blessings to each of you,
As we finish out 2016 and begin the adventure that will be 2017, Carla and I have been traveling back and forth between our two churches. Each week we are experiencing a difference of around 9000 feet in altitude, and the stark difference between a dry hot desert and the seasonal cool rain of the Andes Mountains. As we make the drive, we enjoy seeing God’s creation from the rice, corn, and cane fields of the coast, to hillside farming, interesting rock formations, mango plantations, eucalyptus tree farming, plenty of farm animals, and even an occasional tarantula in the road. Life is anything but dull as we close last year’s chapter of our ministry and look forward to what God has in store for us in the new year.
Our men’s meetings have been going well with a good attendance at each in the months of November and December. It is encouraging to have several of the young single men of our church faithfully attending these meetings also. These future leaders of our church and of their own families will have a solid foundation.
We praise the Lord for three more souls which were saved in our ministry. Two were saved at our Cajamarca church. Also, I had the privilege of leading a 68-year-old man to the Lord during visitation in Guadalupe.
In November, our Cajamarca church took on its first missionary, a young family working in Pachacutec near the capital city of Lima. It is great to see the growth of our church with a heart for missions.
On December 5th, we watched the celebration of the Virgen of Guadalupe, for which the city is named. It was sad as we witnessed different ones singing and reciting a poem to “the image”. People were kneeling, praying for blessings from it, crying as they touched and kissed the idol. They paraded for hours through town. Then they made their way to an entrance to a larger image on the mountain. They walked up hundreds of steps, with up to sixteen persons at a time carrying the heavy image on a wooden platform. We couldn’t help but remember Psalm 115, where the scriptures warn of worshipping idols with eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, hands that cannot touch or help, and must be carried. We passed out many Gospel tracts to the large crowd that day.
Thanksgiving in Peru – Carla and I invited five families from our Cajamarca church and two other visitors to experience the joy of our American tradition in our home. We all thanked God for the privilege to serve Him.
We had a great first Christmas service in our new church. We had 33 in attendance in Guadalupe! Lidia, a lady that told me in September, “I want to go to your church” finally did! She showed up for Christmas and brought someone with her! We celebrated with the traditional “chocolatada” (fruit bread and hot chocolate) and gifts to the kids. It was a great time of fellowship.
We have mentioned this before, so bear with us as we share again this prayer request. Since the other missionaries in our area left a couple of years ago, we have been praying for God to provide a like-minded family to work alongside of us here in Peru. There is so much work to do. As it says in Luke 10:2… “pray ye therefore…that he would send forth laborers into his harvest”.
Carla and I pray that you will all enjoy a blessed new year. Thank you so much for praying for us and supporting our ministry. Together, we will make an eternal impact on the lives of many in S. America.
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
Introducing – Iglesia Bautista Calvario (Calvary Baptist) of Guadalupe!
Introducing – Iglesia Bautista Calvario (Calvary Baptist) of Guadalupe!
November 3, 2016
Greetings from the Andes Mountains of Peru! The end of the year is in sight, but slowing down is not an option. Once again, God has filled our calendar with His work to be accomplished.
In the first part of September, our church in Cajamarca held a married couples’ conference with thirteen couples attending. It was a great night of fellowship and learning from God’s Word of our responsibility to our spouse.
Also in September, pastor José baptized three between the ages of fourteen and thirty-five. The baptistry has been busy so far this year with a total of ten baptisms.
God continues to bless our church in Cajamarca with spiritual and numerical growth. We have seen seven more saved there in the month of October!
On Oct. 9, our Cajamarca church celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day. The church did a wonderful job honoring God by honoring His man in the pulpit. I (Don) had the privilege to preach for the occasion. There was special music, poems, gifts, a cake, and a wonderful skit performed by the youth entitled “The Pastor’s Shoes”. The pastor was humbled at the love shown by the church.
There is a reason that I continue to refer to “our church in Cajamarca” and “our Cajamarca church”. It is because we now have two churches, both named Calvario! On the weekend of October 16, we had the inauguration of our new church on the coast of Peru in a town called Guadalupe! We had a group of six from our Cajamarca church come to help in passing out tracts and cleaning the building on Thursday. The next morning, we took them out to the ocean about twenty minutes away to enjoy the sights and a nice breeze. On the way back, we had to dodge a three to four foot iguana that ran across the road! On Friday night, we presented a movie with our Mobile Unit in a nearby park to announce the opening of the church. Then on Saturday, we had an open house and had over fifty neighbors come in to visit with us in the church facility. Our first service was on Sunday morning. Pastor Juan Carlos did a great job preaching the Gospel. We had eleven visitors and five decisions were made for Christ that day! It was a great start and brought back memories of starting our church in Cajamarca over eleven years ago. We have now had three services and continue to see new faces each week. Pastor Juan Carlos and his wife Karen stay busy visiting, following up, and knocking on doors to help the church grow.
On November 1, Perú celebrated the pagan holiday called the “Day of the Dead”. Many go to the cemeteries on this day each year and sit next to gravesites of deceased loved ones. They bring food and drink for the deceased and pray to them for blessings, and also for curses on their enemies. On this day in both Cajamarca and Guadalupe, our pastors and several others from our churches passed out hundreds of Gospel tracts to those visiting the cemeteries.
Jungle Ministry – On our last furlough and in earlier prayer letters, we told of the translation work we are involved in in the jungle. The first three pastoral instructional books are now translated into the Awajun dialect and we are planning a pastoral training conference for 2017! Felino, our translator, is still working on other training books to be printed later. What a great open door to train jungle pastors!
Bible Ministry – As the requests for Bibles continue to arrive in my email and by phone, Victory Baptist Press is busy raising the funds to complete the new container of Bibles for shipment. They have over 77% of the funds needed. If you, your SS class, or church would like to help us in getting the Word out, please send all Bible printing support to:
BFSA P.O. Box 766 Milton, FL 32572. PLEASE make sure that all support for this project is sent with a note that it is for BIBLES FOR PERU. Their website is victorybaptistpress.com. Giving can be done online there also.
May God bless each of you for your prayers and support! * Don’t forget to take a look at the photos on our website! www.rich2peru.com
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
Praising God Through Mixed Emotions
September 6, 2016
Carla and I praise God for a busy two months with much accomplished since our last prayer letter, but it has not been without its trials.
In our last writing, we told you about the new church plant we are starting in Guadalupe. We have been busy since then, moving Pastor Juan Carlos and his family to a rented apartment near the new church, and preparing the building that we will be using to start the services. It needed some plumbing, electrical, and carpentry work, a metal security door, window panes replaced, much cleaning, and painting. It is coming together well. Carla and I moved a bed into the former kitchen area so that we can save on hotel costs when we are there for services, etc.
Before moving him to the coast, Pastor Juan Carlos lead the kids’ club one last time in Puylucana. We had 26 kids in attendance for this special time. They are sad to see him and wife Karen go, but excited about what God is doing in their lives. We also had a special send-off service in our church in Cajamarca.
On July 15, Carla and I celebrated 13 years as missionaries living in Peru! What an adventure it has been and we look forward to the coming years as we see what God has in store for us and our ministry. On the 17th, just after celebrating our milestone, we baptized six in our Sunday services! It has been worth it all!
On a sad note, on July 27, our national pastor’s mother-in-law was struck and killed by a motorcycle while crossing a road. This is the first funeral of one of our church members in the eleven years since we started. Blanca was a sweet lady who was always early for church and had a smile and a hug for everyone. She will be missed dearly.
Our church had a “fogata” (bonfire) for the young people the end of July. There was a big turn-out for the fun, food, fellowship, and the study of God’s Word. Before the night was over, one young man accepted Christ as his Savior as we sat around the fire!
In the beginning of August, we had a couple visit from one of our supporting churches in North Carolina. Rodney and Alisha were a blessing as they helped us clean and paint the exterior of the new church building in Guadalupe. We also visited several ministry opportunities in our area, as they are praying for God’s direction in their lives.
We celebrated the 11th year anniversary of our first church plant on August 12-14! It was a great reminder of just how God has worked in our ministry. We had a twenty-six-year-old man saved on Saturday night! We fed around 250 on Sunday! We enjoyed good preaching by Pastor/Missionary Jesús Altuna. He and his wife Tracy have been friends of ours for years. We are so pleased to see how the church continues to grow and serve.
Just after the anniversary services, we had to make an emergency visit back to the US. Carla’s dad’s health was deteriorating rapidly. Carla was sitting with him when he went to be with the Lord on Aug 20. He was 83 years old and had said many times that he was “ready to go”. He will be missed greatly, but we rejoice in knowing we will see him again in Glory.
While in the US, God opened the door for me to preach at our home church, and speak to a Spanish class at a Christian School in AL. We also enjoyed fellowship with family and our home church. When Satan tries to give you lemons, God has a way of squeezing out sweet lemonade.
Bible Ministry – Victory Baptist Press has purchased the large rolls of paper needed for printing the 25,000 Bibles! The printing has begun! We are praying that God will continue to provide so we can get those Bibles out soon!
* Take a look at all the new photos on our website! www.rich2peru.com
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
Glory Hallelujah, His Truth is Marching On!
Glory Hallelujah, His Truth is Marching On!
July 2, 2016
The past two months have been very busy as we’ve celebrated with a Mother’s Day banquet, and a special dinner and service for Father’s Day. Our men’s meetings continue with a faithful group enjoying the fellowship and learning God’s Word. Just last night, we had a 20 year old visitor accept Christ as his Savior at the men’s meeting!
We had a team of twenty-two from Saks Baptist in Alabama visit us the first week of June. What a blessing they all were! The team included our daughter, son-in-law, and our three grandchildren. We had a great time passing out thousands of tracts, performing puppet shows and singing in public schools, and much more. We had over one hundred in attendance as we did a mobile movie presentation on a local town square. There were three decisions for Christ made during the service that our son-in-law Stephen preached. Our church had ten visitors the following Sunday after the team left. There were two adults and eight kids from the area where the team did puppet shows in the schools. One parent said that her kids “insisted” they come to our church. One parent had asked to use the church’s restroom during our VBS, was invited to church, but never came. But when her child told her that our team had visited their school, the family came and visited Sunday AM & PM. Before they left, one of the young ladies in the Saks team told us she felt called to missions! We are praying that God will direct her heart and life into His perfect will, and hopefully back here to Peru. God really used this team to encourage our church and us as missionaries.
Then, just three weeks later, we were blessed with a visit from a young couple from Way of the Cross Baptist in GA. They were a blessing as Haley taught our church kids and sang, both gave their testimonies, and Cody preached on Sunday night. After his message, Petronilla, a first time lady visitor, accepted Christ as her Savior! We had a great time sharing the Gospel with tracts at several locations and visiting local historic sites.
New church plant! When we arrived in Peru in 2003, our goal was to be church planters, along with ministering in any other capacity that God directed us into. Since then, we have started our own church and helped two other missionaries start churches. We took over one work when a missionary left the field. We have wanted to plant another church for quite a while, but the Lord has had us busy with other ministries, such as the Bibles and tracts, jungle ministry, and the Mobile Unit. It has also been very hard to find people who have a pastor’s heart to start a church with. At the end of last year, the Lord put it on my heart that 2016 was the year. After searching God’s will while visiting at least seven different cities, He has directed us to the city of Guadalupe and has opened the door for us to start a new work there. It is about three and a half hours from where we live and is situated in the coastal desert region. We will be placing our current youth pastor as the pastor of this church. We are excited to be starting another work and appreciate all of your prayers as we reach and minister to the lost souls of this area.
Bible Ministry – We announced last month about BFSA, the new arm of Victory Baptist Press, which was specifically created to raise monthly funds for getting a constant flow of Bibles to South America. They have told us that if they can get 270 supporters at a minimum of only $20 each month, they could send a container per year (50,000 Bibles) for us to distribute throughout S. America. If you’d like to be a part of this great opportunity, please send your support to Bibles For South America, or just BFSA and mail to PO Box 766, Milton, FL 32572. If you’d like to know more, visit their website at victorybaptistpress.com/bfsaletter/.
Email change – For reasons such as excess spam, etc, I am changing my email address from don@rich2peru.com to donrichperu@gmail.com. Please make the change in your files. Sorry for any inconvenience.
* Take a look at the new photos on our website!
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
Enlarging the Coast!
Enlarging the Coast!
Another couple of busy months have passed with no signs of slowing down. We are glad to be able to share with you how God is moving here in Peru.
In March, we had a men’s dinner in our home to encourage the men of our church. We had a great group of nineteen come to hear the Word preached and share a meal. Carla’s spaghetti and garlic bread were a big hit. They ate it up and all of them wanted more bread. It is still talked about two months later! What can I say? I married a great cook!
We have now visited at least five cities or areas as we are praying for God’s direction to start our next church. Each area has different needs. Please pray that God will lead us to His perfect will as we continue to pray and search.
Our bus route into a small pueblo near us called Puylucana has been very productive. We normally pick up around twelve to twenty youth and kids whom climb aboard to come to our church each Sunday morning. We also have a kids’ club in that pueblo each Saturday morning.
We recently had the privilege of delivering a van load of items to a small mountain city named Chugur. A Peruvian who served God as a pastor in the US for many years, gave us funds to help out the city. He was born and grew as a child there and has always had a love for his home town. We were able to purchase everything from wheel barrows and work clothes for city workers, a stove and office supplies and chairs for the police department, a computer and printer for the local school, many medical supplies for their local clinic, and other items too numerous to list here. We also placed a Bible in each governmental department office. While there, we had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a group of city workers, including the mayor. They all stated they had made decisions for Christ in this meeting! Only God knows the impact that was made because of someone’s love for their homeland.
Last Sunday, we had another baptism, baptizing a teen girl in our church whose family joined a few months ago. We praise the Lord that we continue to see souls saved and watch them be obedient to Christ’s command!
When we arrived back in Peru in January, after our short furlough, I notified many pastors and missionaries that there were still some cases of tracts available. The orders came in quickly. On March 24, we shipped out the last few cases of the 9 million 250 thousand gospel tracts that were sent to us by Fellowship Tract League! These last boxes went to the coast and into the jungle of Peru. What a blessing it has been to be a part of getting these Gospel tracts into the hands of pastors and missionaries in three countries. We are praying for a great soul harvest from this work.
Once again, God is enlarging our coast. As you know, our ministry has already received and distributed around fifty thousand Bibles to pastors and missionaries in seven countries. Victory Baptist Press (VBP) is still in a campaign to raise funds to send us a third container. We will use these to get Bibles into all nine Spanish-speaking countries in South America and we would appreciate your support as they work toward that goal. The Lord has now led VBP to start a new arm of their ministry, called “Bibles For South America”. Instead of having future campaigns, they are raising “monthly” support for this ministry. This will allow them to send us Bibles each year, as the funds are available. If you’d like to be a monthly partner, please send your support to Bibles For South America, or just BFSA and mail to PO Box 766, Milton, FL 32572. If you’d like to know more, visit their website at victorybaptistpress.com/bfsaletter/.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support to the ministry that God has entrusted us with.
* Don’t forget to take a look at the photos on our website! www.rich2peru.com
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.
Back Home in Peru!
March 5, 2016
It’s hard to believe that we have been back from our short furlough for almost two months. We returned to find the church doing well. On the Wednesday after our arrival, a large group in the church took us out for “pollo a la brasa” (Peruvian style rotisserie chicken) after the service. On our first Sunday back, a 25-year-old man received Christ in the morning service! We have seen several more saved and two more families have joined our church recently!
We have been very busy since returning. The last weekend in January we enjoyed a Men’s Bible Study Breakfast in our national pastor’s home. We also had a women’s’ meeting and a youth group gathering where Carla and I cooked and served burgers to a hungry group. We had a church picnic with volleyball, tug of war, and relay games on the Monday of Carnival (Mardi Gras), when all power is shut off in the valley for the annual parade. I (Don) spoke at a couple’s banquet at our church on Valentine’s Day. As I write this letter, we are enjoying a visit from a dear friend, Bro. Ken Benge from N. Carolina.
Two weeks ago, the national jungle pastor with whom I am working to translate some doctrinal books from Spanish to the Awajun dialect, came to visit for a week. I invited him down to go over the translated material that we have so far. While here, the pastor told me that his “typewriter” is not working well anymore. The ribbon is out of ink and he can’t find any. Also, some of the keys are rusting because of the jungle humidity. He had told me before that he had what he needed to do the translation. I never knew he was talking about a typewriter! Through a gift from my son-in-law Stephen, we were able to provide him with a computer for use in the translation. I had our youth pastor teach him the basics (he knew how to email). He is now working on two of the files so that we can get them to the printer soon.
While in the US, a dear supporting pastor heard how we had helped a few jungle churches replace their thatch roofs with tin. He told me that his church wanted to help one of the jungle churches also. I contacted a Peruvian missionary that I know and found that a jungle church was recently demolished by wind. They will rebuild the wood structure but can’t afford the tin roof. We were able to match them up with the US pastor to get the roof for them. God is always on time and in the right place.
We were amazed this year as we started our VBS. The very first day, we had 211 kids, 55 adults, and 19 teachers! By Friday, we had 322 kids! Two hundred and forty-two of them received school notebooks for being there at least 4 of the 5 days. There were around 450 total in attendance on Friday. We had a bus route which had to run 3 trips each way by Thursday. I have been informed that there were around 100 decisions made, including several adults. When so many adults came and stuck around, we started a pastor’s class for them.
I was contacted by a Peruvian missionary I know in the jungle asking about the price of a wheel chair for a young lady whose legs and spine didn’t develop correctly. I spoke with a lady in our church who is the mother of a child with Spina bifida. I asked about purchasing her daughter’s old chair. She gladly donated it. It is great to see God meet needs through our church members.
The Lord has laid it on our hearts to start a new church. We are now visiting several locations to find God’s will for the new church plant. Please be in prayer as we pray for wisdom and move forward in this decision.
For those supporting churches and individuals that we did not have time to visit on our short furlough, we have placed our presentation update video on our website… www.rich2peru.com. Under the “Intro” tab, click “Presentation Video”. You may have to wait a minute for the video to load. We hope you will enjoy seeing what God is doing here in Peru.
We have so much more to share but so little space to write. It will have to wait until the next letter. God bless.
Serving Him for you in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.