NEWS FROM HQ

Partners With The Rickers In Guatemala

December, 2021

To all our dear brethren in Christ,

            We sing a chorus of Psalm 145:1-3 in our churches and we are reminded to bless the name of our God continually. “I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” We thank the Lord for all of you who pray and support the ministry here in Guatemala.

MINI-DEPUTATION TRIP

            On August 25th we departed Guatemala for Florida to visit doctors and take care of some medical appointments at the Veteran’s Hospital before heading north.  We scheduled out time to visit churches in the month of September, traveling in a 2000 model RV motor home. A planned stop at a church in upstate NY had to be postponed as the elders there had a schedule change and would not be present to hear our mission presentation. Just as we were leaving Florida our plans changed again when we received word that the pastor’s wife, and others in an Ohio church, were taken down with the virus and their mid-week meeting was cancelled. Our sovereign God is in control of these changes as all things worked together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.

            We also encountered some unforeseen repairs to the RV that took extra time to fix. We had to replace three tires before heading north on September 7th. After traveling north twenty five miles we had a blow out and decided to return and buy another three tires! We finally left the following afternoon and practically drove straight through to Grand Island, NY. Here, the folks at Bible Fellowship Center put us up in a beautiful RV Park with many great facilities, and we were able to rest for a few days.

            All the churches wonderfully received us and took care of our needs both physically and spiritually, for which we thank and praise the Lord. We had great fellowship together and marvelous times at the meetings.  Even though we traveled in a motor home, one family put us up in their own home where we enjoyed blessed fellowship for five days. Traveling by an RV has its benefits as we do not have hotel or motel bills and our schedule is much more flexible.

            We are grateful to God and all the brethren who took such good care of us in Grand Island, NY, Apollo, PA, Charlotte, NC, and Bradenton, FL. Lord willing, we will visit other supporting churches in April, 2022. We returned to Guatemala October 7th, strengthened and encouraged, praising God for his protection for the 3,004 mile trip. To God be the glory.

DEACON HECTOR OF THE CHIMALTENANGO CIEF CHURCH

            Many of you remember Brother Hector who was shot by mistake in a barber shop.  He was paralyzed from the waist down, yet we praise the Lord he can now walk with the help of a cane. He had three operations and a fourth was scheduled, but had to be postponed as he came down with a cold, and his family had the virus.    Through this lengthy process he has grown spiritually and is looking to fulfill God’s will in his life. The operation will be paid for by the government healthcare, but expensive medicines will be needed for months after the operation, as in the previous surgeries.  He is still not working, but with the Lord’s help he has kept his family of five fed. We thank the Lord for the gifts that have come in to help him; he sends his heartfelt thanks. If you would like to help, gifts can be sent to the Board marked, “For Deacon Hector, Guatemala”. 

  REFORMATION SUNDAY

            Praise the Lord for the CIEF of Guatemala as it celebrated Reformation Sunday, October 31st, in our Montserrat Church with music and two short history notes of the successors of Martin Luther and John Calvin.  Hal gave the history of Philip Melanchthon, who worked with Luther on the famous Augsburg Confession of Faith and carried on Luther’s work.  Brother Baldomero gave the history on Theodore Beza who helped Calvin at his seminary and carried on for him after his death. Stephen gave the main message on the “Persecution of the Reformers.”  Bibles and Christian booklets from the Trinitarian Bible Society were set up in the back of the Church for the visitors to purchase.

CIEF – GUATEMALA

            The executive committee of the Confederation of Evangelical Fundamentalist Churches of Guatemala (CIEF) met on November 6th to formulate a theme and study on “Sacred Music in the Church”.  All the men believe in having good sacred spiritual music in the churches, and not fleshly worldly music.  When this is fully formulated by CIEF, we will have various conferences on this theme in the different CIEF churches and other Christian churches that have interest in this subject.

            We are also ready to submit our second set of documents to the government for our CIEF “CIVIL ASSOCIATION” registration. Please pray that all will go well and we receive a quick approval.

JACK SIN’S BOOK

            “A Christian Perspective of the Coronavirus Pandemic and Biblically Related Themes Examined”. We want to get this book into the Latin American countries to help them concerning the virus.  Many people continue to have fears and phobias.  We now have a special offer that will get the books quicker to these countries via Copa Airline Courier from Guatemala. We will pay the full cost of freight and transportation. Pray for the brethren that they will take advantage of this offer.

DR. BRAD GSELL’S ARTICLE IN  “REDEEMING THE TIME”

            “A question for Evangelicals: What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?”  We translated this article into Spanish and are ready to distribute it. A great majority of churches in Guatemala are members of the “Evangelical Alliance of Guatemala” which is a member of the “World Evangelical Alliance”. In Dr. Brad Gsell’s article, there is a picture of Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, the General Secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance, together with the Pope.  He also works with the ecumenicals of the World Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and also Islamic and Buddhist groups. Pray for the churches and pastors who receive this information, to have their eyes opened and that they will separate from the local and World Evangelical Alliance.

TRINITARIAN BIBLE SOCIETY AND BOOKSTORE OF GUATEMALA

            Pray that many people will purchase Bibles, hymnbooks, and Christian books as gifts during this Christmas season. The best Christmas gift is the Bible.

            Praise the Lord we were able to repeat and publish a 1,000 more of the children’s catechisms in English for the Independent Board for Presbyterian Home Missions. They are now in the USA and ready to be distributed to the churches and families that want them.

            The Trinitarian Bible Society of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has paid to print 5,000 scripture calendars here in Guatemala. These calendars will be distributed door-to-door together with tracts. Pray with us that the Word of God will touch hardened hearts, bringing them to repentance and that the Holy Spirit will lead and give opportunity to those distributing them to share the gospel of Jesus Christ verbally.

MONTSERRAT AND LOS ANGELES CHURCHES

            Would you pray particularly for revival in our Sunday Schools, as some of the brethren come very late or only come for the morning worship service? This pandemic has led some of the brethren into bad habits, and seems to be a worldwide problem.

            We praise God that Biblical missions are still in effect and God wants us to fulfill the Great Commission proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His dear son. Pray for us as we strive to be faithful in this endeavor.

            As the day quickly approaches that we celebrate the birth of our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we would like to wish you and your family a blessed Christmas season and a very happy and wonderful New Year filled with spiritual blessings for all.

Yours missionaries for Christ,
The Rickers
Hal, Stephen, Juanita, Samuel and Joshua