Still Busy and Growing!
Still Busy and Growing!
July 1, 2019
In May we had a youth day trip to a mountain zoo with hiking to a nearby waterfall and a picnic afterwards. Except for them making a wrong turn on one of the trails and becoming lost for a few minutes, everything went well. It was a great time of fellowship for them all and the Word of God was preached to them during their hike.
For two weeks in May we remodeled Carla’s kitchen. It had been needing a facelift and some repair for quite a while (sanding, painting, varnishing, adjusting doors and drawers, replacing a counter top and sink, etc) Our intern Darren had a background in carpentry and construction and he was a big help in getting this job done. Oh, and Carla is very happy with the results. Mama is happy! That’s always a good thing.
As many of you have probably heard, we awoke to an 8.0 earthquake around 2:40 a.m. on May 26. The epicenter was in the northeastern jungle of Peru, but it was the strongest earthquake and longest lasting in many years. It woke us up with the bed shaking and we felt it for at least a minute and a half. Dishes were rattling, alarms were going off, dogs were barking, and we could hear our neighbors in the streets. We had no damage, and no one hurt in our area, but we saw on local news that there was at least one death, several injured, and homes and businesses destroyed near the center.
It just so happened that the quake occurred one day before we had planned a trip to the jungle. This was our intern Darren’s first trip to that area. We traveled to distribute John & Romans booklets to a ministry there. We also gave them a box of girls’ dresses that a dear friend in the states made by hand. The dresses are to go to the poor young ladies in that area. We were also able to hand out hundreds of tracts to people as we traveled through the jungle. Praise God for His promise that His Word will not return void!
Also, at the end of May our Cajamarca church had a testimony service. Ten members gave testimonies, along with a visiting Peruvian missionary pastor. We had a long service and still had others who wanted to testify of God’s goodness in their lives. Pastor José will be giving more opportunities for testimonies in the coming services.
On June 11 our intern, Darren Townsend, left Peru. We were all sad to see him go. The Saturday before, we had a youth gathering at our home to say goodbye. He is returning to the US to finish his studies then begin his deputation to come to Peru as a missionary. Please pray for him as he begins this process. Also, please pray that God would supply him with the perfect help-meet to serve by his side.
Our Bible distribution center building is now complete and the shipment of the container of Bibles left Victory Baptist Press on Wednesday, June 26. They are scheduled to be at the port in Lima on July 25. From there, it will take about a week to get them released from customs and truck them up to us in Cajamarca.
We have seen one more saved in our works since our last prayer letter. God is still in the soul saving business!
God continues to enlarge our coast. The Conversion Center, a tract printing ministry out of Maryland, contacted us at the end of June and wants to send us tracts to distribute. This makes three different ministries that will be supplying us with tracts, Bibles, and other evangelistic materials. I hate to sound redundant but… HELP WANTED! Surely God is calling a missionary to come alongside of us and help with this growing ministry.
The Bible Conference we mentioned in our last letter is now set for May 20-22, 2020 at our church here in Cajamarca. We are excited as we are already hearing from several who plan to attend. It will take lots of work and planning, but it will be worth it when all of the pastors are here in a great time of fellowship around the Word.
May God richly bless you all,
Don & Carla Rich
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