NEWS FROM HQ

Partners With The Rickers In Guatemala

September, 2021

Dear prayer warriors for the Lord’s work in Guatemala,

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1Corinthians 15:57-58

       These wonderful verses teach us to give thanks to God for the victory that we have through our Lord Jesus Christ as we labor in the His work.  We are exhorted to be steadfast and unmovable as we abound in the work of the Lord. We know God has a sovereign plan and so our labor is not in vain.  He is our victory!

TRINITARIAN BIBLE SOCIETY GUATEMALA

        August is Bible month in Guatemala, and the last Sunday of August is the day when many preach about the Bible. The Trinitarian Bible Society and Bookstore of Guatemala posted discounts for Bibles and other Christian literature.  Praise the Lord many more people came into the bookstore last month as compared to the years before the pandemic. Some even requested Bibles to be sent, by freight, to various parts of the country. We thank the Lord for answering prayer. We are awaiting answer from the Trinitarian Bible Society in Michigan to see if they will publish 5,000 more Spanish scriptural calendars to be distributed in here in 2022. Also, our office e-mail was hacked again, but this time it was done quietly and specifically. We are sorry to say someone was deceived resulting in the loss of money.

CIEF GUATEMALA’S YEARLY BIBLE CONFERENCE IN AUGUST

            Praise the Lord that the Bible Conference was held Saturday, August 14th. We did not know if we would be able to have it this year due to the virus.  The CIEF pastors thought we should try to have it, and praise the Lord, we did. There was a morning and afternoon service, with a lunch served between the two services. There was also good fellowship around the tables. We had a wonderful time with a lively program of music from various groups from the church singing, including my grandsons Samuel and Joshua. The music prepared our hearts for our two preachers. The theme was “The Effects of the Pandemic on the Faithful Church”.

GUATEMALA’S INDEPENDENCE DAY

             Guatemala will celebrate 200 years of independence from the Spaniards on September 15th.  This year will not be as lively as other years before the pandemic.  Previously we had young runners departing Guatemala City and carrying torches to other cities. This will not happen this year. Guatemala has a one-house Congress of Deputies for their Republic. The President of the country is now in difficulty and many are calling for his resignation due to allegations of personal gain and corruption. The man who brought the accusations has fled the country, but the President has not publically defended himself, so everything is on hold.  Due to the delta variant we are under a curfew from 10 o’clock at night to 4 o’clock in the morning.

CIVIL ASSOCIATION FOR CIEF GUATEMALA

            Our name “CONFEDERATION OF EVANGELICAL FUNDAMENTAL CHURCHES” was refused by the government.  A couple of our men are to meet with the Government authorities to see what name will be acceptable to them before we correct the legal documents. Apparently, they cannot accept “CONFEDERATION and CHURCH”. Can you imagine such a thing?  An agency of the government saying they don’t like the word “church” in our name and title. On our part, we believe it’s a soft persecution of the Church. We thank the Lord for some of you who sent gifts to help in the expenses to get our association registered. There will certainly be additional expenses due to the rejecting of our name.  So, pray.

CIEF GUATEMALA BIBLE CHURCH OF CHIMALTENANGO

            Firstly, we ask for more prayer for Deacon Hector. He was ready for his forth operation but had a cold and the operation was postponed. Church services for the last two Sundays in August were cancelled due to three large families of the church coming down with the virus. Hal was ready to go to preach with a special Bible message, but was not able due to the cancelation. Our brother Hector still can’t work; he still needs help to support his family of five. We thank the Lord for those who have given to help this family in difficult times.

JACK SIN’S BOOK

            Praise the Lord for those who have read Jack Sin’s book on the coronavirus and have recommended it to others. The book helps people get direction and peace from the Word of God as they navigate through the pandemic. Many people still have fears and phobias and are in need of help. Guatemala still does not have regular postal service so we ship the books from the United States, which is rather expensive. We have offered to pay half of the postal rate to send the book to all of the Latin American countries.  Pray that the brethren will take advantage of this reduction in cost.

SOWING AND EVANGELIZING

            We try to make the difference between these two words.  Sowing is to give out the Word of God in gospel tracts, New Testaments or complete Bibles, and asking the people to read them. This is wonderful, but it is even more wonderful to evangelize with the Word of God, explaining the way of salvation and showing them they are sinners in need of the Savior. The gospel is the Good News that Jesus saves sinners and changes them to live a godly life by giving them faith to believe the free gift of God. The elect will come to Jesus to be saved and the Lord uses His people as instruments to carry the seed to be planted in good ground.  Recently, in our church, we challenged the brethren by weekly giving them each ten gospel tracts so they may reach the lost on the streets and by evangelizing and explaining to some of them the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

SHORT VISIT TO THE U.S.

           We hope to see some of you at your home or your church as we go on a month-long furlough during September. We plan to visit upstate NY, western PA, Ohio and NC.  At the end of the month will have the privilege to visit at the Faith Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian Church, and also give a report to the IBPFM and the IBPHM, who will also be meeting at Charlotte. Lord willing, we will also have another month-long furlough in April 2022, to visit churches and brethren in some of the northeastern states. We look forward to visiting some of you and having fellowship in the Lord.

            Pray for us to be a blessing and to receive blessings as we strive to serve the Lord.

Yours missionaries for Christ,

Hal, Stephen, Juanita, Samuel and Joshua