Rich Family Prayer Letter Jan 2021
“I was GLAD when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord”
January 1, 2021
Praise the Lord! Psalm 122 has never been more true! On Nov. 15, after 8 months of online services, our churches were allowed to open up with certain protocols to follow. Both of our churches are now having Sunday morning services and our Cajamarca church has also added Wednesday prayer meeting. We are seeing good attendance at both churches.
With the opening up of bus lines and other businesses we were able to begin deliveries of the Bibles and Romans booklets that we received at our facility back in July. In just 3 weeks, we delivered all 8000 Bibles and once again ran out. We continue to deliver the orders for Romans booklets to pastors and missionaries throughout the country.
This past year was a sad one politically, not only in the US but also in Peru. Peru’s sitting President was impeached in November. The president of Congress was then named interim president. There was such an uproar over the choice that protests broke out for five days throughout the country resulting in two young men being killed. The interim president subsequently resigned. Congress took two days to find another that they could place in the office of President until the April 2021 elections. The president that was impeached was actually the former vice president who took the office when the former President of Peru resigned under allegations of corruption. To say that the politics in this country is challenging is putting it lightly.
Last month I had the privilege of conducting the wedding ceremony of a young man I won to the Lord fifteen years ago when he was only 12. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony as Gerson married a precious young lady, Yesebell. They both love the Lord, and we pray God’s best for them.
Both of our churches were able to enjoy Christmas services with a time afterwards of giving gifts to the kids. Our church in Cajamarca enjoyed the traditional “chocolatada” in an untraditional way. Because of social distancing, everyone received their fruit bread (panetón) and hot chocolate as they left the service instead of sitting and eating together in the church.
Our 15-passenger van became the ‘big green sleigh’ as we were blessed to deliver food, the Word of God, and gifts to several families and around 160 poorer kids in our area. At one point we went to a small city square and gave a child a gift. That one kid told another, they passed the word, and soon we were looking at a line of children and mothers with babies. The gifts and Romans booklets were gone in about 20 minutes. All of this was made possible by some special donations from some of our supporters. What a blessing to see the kids’ faces as they received a small token of God’s love through His people.
We want to give God praise and ask for prayer for two situations: My (Don’s) mother was diagnosed with Covid around the middle of December. She was retested this week and it was negative! She is still weak but gaining strength. Also, Carla was diagnosed last month with lupus by a doctor here in Peru. We sent the test results to two doctors in the US and were told that she does NOT have lupus. We will be following up when we visit the US later this year, Lord willing. Thank you all for your prayers.
PTL! We have recently seen ELEVEN SOULS SAVED between our two churches. One family of five Venezuelans in Guadalupe came to escape political problems in their country. They told Pastor Juan Carlos that they felt that demons were in their home. He went to counsel them and won them to the Lord! Now the only “spirit” in their hearts and home is the Holy Spirit!
We have recently added more photo albums to our website, www.rich2peru.com. Take a look!
May God bless each of you in this new year for your faithful prayers and support.
Don & Carla Rich
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