Saved, Saved, Saved!
March 6, 2014
On January 6-10, we had our VBS and saw 9 saved! Our high attendance total for this event was 109. Our church members did a great job and all the kids had a great time learning about our Savior and His Word.
What a week we had February 4-9! We were at a pastors’ conference in the jungle for three days teaching, preaching, and delivering the last 1750 of our Bibles to 53 national pastors. We found that most pastors from this large tribe, called the Awajun, had only a New Testament and did not even own a Bible. After preaching the first day, five PASTORS received Christ as their Savior! That night, after showing a Christian film for them, another PASTOR was saved! It was incredible! Doors are opening for us here in the jungle and we will have to pray as to how to proceed. The trip had other interesting aspects: We almost ran over an iguana, we had bats flying around us as we showed the film outside, and we saw large monkeys swinging through the trees as we traveled to another area of the jungle to preach and teach for another national pastor. We were requested by some missionary friends to show a Christian film in a park on Friday. We saw three more saved that night! God is good!… Always!
Several of our adults cooked for and served dinner to 25 young people at our Youth Banquet that was held on Valentine’s weekend. The youth also sang, watched a touching video and heard a message from our youth pastor. We had three saved that night! It was a great way to show just how much we love and appreciate the youth of our church.
On February 22, Yonar, a mototaxi (taxi built from a motorcycle) driver turned left from the right lane (a common occurrence) and hit our van. We got an estimate on the repair cost which would be 600 Peruvian Soles, around $235. This 19 year old man could not afford such a cost and asked if he could pay me in payments. I had him come by our house to talk a couple of days later. I explained to him about ‘mercy and grace’. I talked to him about God’s grace as I walked him down the Romans’ Road. When I finished, he asked if he could receive Christ right then. He bowed his head and humbly prayed for Christ to save him. I then asked him to come to church with me on Sunday. Not only did he come to church but he brought his cousin Juan Carlos with him! As I was explaining grace to Juan Carlos, Yonar was so surprised as I told him that I was going to forgive him his debt, just like Christ forgave us. Add to all of these, three others who have been saved since our last letter and three more baptized! God’s amazing grace! How sweet the sound!
We recently had a wedding in our church, the first in our completed building. It was great timing as we have just built eight new pews. After years of using our original six pews and many plastic chairs, it is a beautiful sight to see wooden pews. You can see pictures of this and more new albums on our website, including additions to our baptism album.
Our Bible distribution point in Chile was able to get Bibles into Paraguay recently. That makes at least seven countries inside of South America that the Bible distribution ministry has reached! We are “getting the Word out”!
Our container now sits empty of the 23,000 Bibles that once filled it. In January, we mailed out DVD’s to all of our supporting churches concerning the Bible campaign. We hope that you received yours and will pray about showing it in your church, if you haven’t already. We also sent an email with a link attached so that many others could see it. The response has been great and of the $56,000 needed, around $20,000 has been raised in just a little over a month! We and Victory Baptist Press are very encouraged and are praying that the entire amount will come in quickly so that we can get the Bibles into the hands of those who so desperately need them. If you haven’t seen the video, you can view it here. Please make sure that all donations are sent to Victory Baptist Press with a note that it is for the Peru Project.
We have another great blessing that we will be sharing with you soon. For now, you’ll just have to wait to hear how God continues to “enlarge our coast”. Thanks to you all for your faithful prayers and financial support.
Serving Him for You in Peru,
Don & Carla Rich
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