Rich Family Prayer Ltr Nov 2020
Socks and Monkey Business?
November 1, 2020
Hello from the Andes Mountains of Peru!
Good news! The strict quarantine here in Peru was lifted on Oct. 1. We are still under some restrictions such as masks, social distancing, and public building occupancy limits. Our valley of around 300,000 people went from having well over 2-300 people reported infected per day and many deaths to now averaging daily around 45 reported infected and only one death or less. Although any death is sad, we are praising the Lord that the numbers are finally going down. Also, direct international flights are scheduled to open today to several countries including the US. They will be limited and with restrictions, but it is light at the end of the tunnel.
As for our churches, we are still preaching online. The Peruvian government recently announced that only special church services such as baptisms, funerals, and weddings are allowed and with a maximum of only 30% of the building occupancy. But we have heard that the president is talking with evangelical leaders and will possibly allow regular church services by mid-November! We are sure it will be with restrictions, but it is a start. Our church buildings have been shut for eight months. Please pray that we will be able to open the doors of our church soon.
Cajamarca church – Carla and the ladies of our church came together to start a Saturday on-line kids’ class. Some of the kids came by to pick up books and crafts to take home and use during the classes. We hand-delivered several also. We have seen a great response. The kids record their memory verses and answers to questions asked during the live FB broadcast. They then send them in to the leaders. Next week, we will be delivering prizes to those who have been faithful to attend virtually and complete their “homework tasks”.
Guadalupe church – Pastor Juan Carlos has continued to improve and is around 100% now! We were able to briefly visit with them last week in their home on the coast. It was the first time we had seen them in a year because of my knee surgery, then the pandemic.
On October 18th we celebrated the fourth anniversary services of the Guadalupe church! The services were held online with Pastor Juan Carlos preaching the morning services and me (Don) preaching the evening services. Our Cajamarca church cancelled their online services that day to be able to participate in their sister church’s celebration. We had a great online attendance.
Food Distribution Ministry – We continue to make food deliveries to those we know who are struggling without jobs because of the pandemic. This includes several families from Venezuela who originally moved to Peru to escape the poverty and terrible government that they were under. Sadly, many arrived here not long before the quarantine and job shutdowns. This has caused serious hardships. We recently received more great donations to help with this ministry. It is a continual blessing to those we help, and we love seeing their faces as God blesses them through our ministry.
More good news! Our Bible Distribution ministry will be back in full distribution mode beginning this week! Enough of the bus lines are open for shipping that we will now be able to receive and fill requests. We have almost 1700 cases of Bibles and Roman’s booklets in our distribution building. Please pray that they will go out quickly. The Word of God does no one any good in storage.
Christmas is coming quickly. Carla had a great idea to make sock monkeys for the kids in our church this year. Do you remember sock monkeys? She and the ladies will be working hard to complete at least 50 before the holiday arrives. It only took several hours, around seven stores, and one open market to find all the socks, buttons, cloth, etc. needed to make them all. It will be a lot of work. It is estimated to take around five hours for each monkey. So, I guess you could say that there will be a lot of monkey business around here for a while.
We saved the best for last. We have seen two salvations in our Guadalupe ministry this month! God continues to work and bless our ministry. We want to thank all of you who have a part in praying and/or financially supporting the work that God has placed in our hearts to accomplish.
May God bless each of you for your continual faithful prayers and support of us here in Peru.
Don & Carla Rich
This entry was posted in Newsletters.