Salvation, Baptisms, Holidays and More
Salvation, Baptisms, Holidays and More
January 1, 2026
Carla and I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and most importantly a God-filled New Year!
The last two months of 2025 were full of ministry and fellowship, and the Lord has been blessing. In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving in our home here in Peru. Each year we invite different families from our church to celebrate with us. This year we invited the first three families who were saved in our church over 20 years ago, our two national pastors, and one other family. There was a total of twenty-one around the table. We all gave reasons why we are thankful, then we prayed and enjoyed a great meal that Carla prepared. It was a great time of sweet fellowship.
Since our last prayer letter a young lady in our church, Pilar Sánchez received Christ as her Savior. She was baptized November 23. The two brothers, Jefferson and Denys, who received Christ in October were also baptized one week before on November 16. We are very happy to have them as new members of our Calvario church.
Our church in Mollepampa, Iglesia Bautista Ancla (Anchor Baptist) has seen some growth in numbers attending. One young lady named Margarita had received Christ a while back and was baptized on November 16. Missionary Darren Townsend and I preached a few times at “Ancla” in November to give Pastor Juan Carlos a break, something that all pastors need from time to time.
In the second week of October, Darren, Carla and I traveled to Iquitos, the jungle capital of Peru to present a Pastor’s Bible Conference. Each of the twenty pastors in attendance received Bibles and John/Romans booklets for their ministries. Before leaving, we took a small river boat up the Amazon River to Monkey Island, a place where rescued illegally captured monkeys are rehabilitated for release back into the wild. We also ate gator tail and venison at a restaurant near the river one night. Serving God is always a privilege and presents interesting opportunities to enjoy His creation. The week after we returned from the jungle, Darren and Rachel flew back to the US, awaiting the birth of their second child.
The Christmas season is always busy. This year we hosted a multi-church Christmas Kids program in our Calvario church. Four churches were represented as we had games, refreshments, teaching from the Word, and gifts were given to each child. On Sunday of Christmas week, we had a special service at our Ancla church and a cantata and drama at our Calvario church. The ladies Bible Study group also had a Christmas gathering. On Christmas Eve, Carla and I, along with a mother and son from our church took around 100 gifts and over 100 New Testaments and tracts to a pueblo in the mountains nearby. We began to pass them out to kids we saw on the side of the road. The road quickly filled with children and parents waiting to receive a gift. In just around 30 minutes, all the gifts were distributed and many happy faces thanked us for the blessing.
Bible Distribution Update: On November 1st we received our third container of Bibles for this year. This was the second container this year sent by Victory Baptist Press and makes a total of four containers of Bibles and other materials. Around two and a half containers have already been distributed, and we are busy shipping out cases each week. There has been a big demand for Bibles in the country of Bolivia. We have sent shipments there in the past and plan to be sending around 2000 more Bibles in the next two months.
FURLOUGH: We have been busy filling the calendar for our upcoming furlough. We have already heard back from many of our supporting churches and some new ones that asked us to come by. As I wrote before, this will be our first “full” furlough in 18 years because of past government restrictions. This time, we plan to be in the US for nine months instead of just two or four. We only have a few dates left. If your church would like for us to give an update, please call or email us so we can put you on the calendar.
ph: (GA) 678-921-5116 email: donrichperu@gmail.com
There are several NEW PHOTO ALBUMS on our WEBSITE!!!
Thank you all for your prayers and support. May God bless each of you as we enter 2026!
Don & Carla Rich
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