Archive for 2007

Update – December 2

December 2, 2007 8:25 pm

Today was a special day at church. We had our first baptismal service. We had two baptized. The first was Eduardo who was saved just a couple of months ago. He is the older of two brothers who have recently been saved. The younger brother would like to be baptized too, but they are not able to come to church on the same day. Because of the neighborhood in which they live, they never leave the house empty. We are not sure when we will be able to have a baptismal service for Memo, the younger brother, but it should be soon.

The second person baptized today was our son. It was my privilege to be able to baptize James. He was saved several years ago and followed the Lord in baptism today.

As with all churches, we are battling many different parties and events surrounding the holiday season. We have been down a bit on attendance on Sundays. Wednesdays have continued to stay steady. Thank you for your prayers for our ministry.

Happy Thanksgiving

November 22, 2007 9:43 pm

Today we got together with some other missionary families and had an enjoyable day. We started off with the men and boys gathering at the park this morning to play some football. There were 17 of us and we had a great time.

We then went to the house of one of the missionary families and had a feast! There were 48 of us (if my count was right). It is just like getting together with our family back home. Some of the people we know very well, while others are mere acquaintances. We enjoy getting to catch up with those we know well and get to know the new families.

After the meal we sat around and talked and shared what we were thankful for. We also sang some songs and, of course, watched football. Most people stayed around and talked for several hours after the meal. It is a lot of work and way too much food, but it would be nice to do this three or four times a year just to get everyone together as a family of missionaries.

This has never really been limited to just the missionaries. We have invited other American families to join us who are either church members or good friends of the missionaries. This year we were joined by a family from the US Consulate as well as a few family members who were in town visiting the missionaries.

May God bless you as we move into the holiday season and remember our Savior who brings us together as one family.

October 2007 Prayer Letter

November 1, 2007 9:29 am

Dear Praying Friends,
The last few weeks have been amazing. It is great to be a part of God’s work and see how He is touching and changing lives.

We had an evangelistic push in our church during the month of September focusing on bringing visitors to church. During the month we had 20 visitors and 2 salvations! Many great contacts were made during this time.

One Deaf teenage girl who had just started coming to church with us in August was saved on a Sunday morning early in the month. Towards the end of the month a Deaf man in his late 20s was saved. He is a man whom I mentioned a couple of letters ago. We had been invited to the house by his mother. His mother and sister were saved the night we visited and a younger Deaf brother was one of the ones saved in August after camp. The last week of September the older brother (who we originally went to visit) came to church for the first time and received Christ that morning! He was very resistant to coming to church when we first started visiting in the home. Now he is very excited about being in the Lord’s house and learning the Word of God. After his salvation his younger brother, who was saved the month before, has been teaching him how to look up verses in the Bible.

During this time we saw our Sunday morning attendance double, and in the first couple of weeks of October we have continued to have visitors and great attendance for all our services.

While all this spiritual excitement has been swirling about us, we have also had some less fun excitement. I spent a few hours in a Mexican jail! They called it a “waiting area,” but the doors were locked from the outside and I was not allowed to leave. I was involved in a traffic accident where someone was injured. In Mexico you are guilty until proven innocent. After spending several hours in jail my innocence was proven and I was released with no further problems. I thank the Lord for good friends who helped advise me each step of the way.

It his hard to believe that we have been here in Mexico for over 3 years. We are less than 1 year away from returning to the US for our furlough. We are eager to be able to see many of you again and tell you all about what God has been doing here in Mexico and in our lives personally. Pray with us as we schedule meetings with supporting churches and new churches. We need to raise some additional support as we prepare to return to the field the following year.

Continue to pray for our ministry here. We are excited to see how the Lord is blessing and are thrilled to be a part of what He is doing.

David Peach

Update – September 30

September 30, 2007 3:41 pm

God has continued to bless and we continue to have visitors with us each service.

Recently I mentioned that there was a teenage girl, Karen (Deaf), who had been with us for a couple of weeks on Wednesday nights. She has continued to come and also comes on Sundays with us now. Last Sunday morning Karen asked the Lord to save her!

In our June prayer letter I mentioned that there was a family that we had visited at the request of one of the sons, Eduardo. Though we went to visit several times, we had trouble catching him at home, but, as a result, his younger brother Memo started attending the services with us. Memo was saved at the end of August. Today, Eduardo (the older brother) attended the Sunday morning services with us. He watched intently to both services and seemed to comprehend the Gospel message. After the service Bill and Jennifer Green, the other missionary family who works in the ministry with us, took Eduardo and his mother home from church (Memo is home sick with severe asthma and bronchial infection). Bill was able to spend more time with Eduardo at the house and helped him accept the Lord as Savior!

On our first visit in the home, Bill and I led the mother and sister to accept the Lord. Both are hearing. Now the two Deaf brothers (approximately 28 and 22 years old) have been saved as well. There is one other hearing brother that we have not had a chance to meet, but would love to see him accept the Lord as well.

In the month of September we had about 20 visitors who had never been to a Sunday service join us for our special emphasis on evangelism. On Saturday night we took the church to hand out New Testament Bibles in the main square. It was a thrill to us and the church to see people sitting on the benches reading the Bibles we had given them. We were able to pass out more than 350 Bible in about 15 minutes.

Thank you for your constant prayers for the ministry.

Update – September 13

September 13, 2007 3:35 pm

God has blessed our ministry with many visitors over the last two weeks. In the last four church services we have had 10 visitors. Many of them have now been with us more than once.

Last night at church one deaf teenage girl and her mother were visiting us for the second time. The mother said that from one week to the next the daughter had not stopped talking about how much she enjoyed being in church with us. The family attends another good church in town, otherwise the daughter would have been in church with us last Sunday. The mother asked us last night if we would allow the daughter to attend even though the rest of the family attended another church. Of course we would be happy for the daughter to be with us. We have already made plans to pick her up Sunday morning.

Though there are four members of this family who are saved, the mother asked us to pray for one of her sons and this daughter who was with us. She asked if we could visit in the home and try to lead her son to the Lord. Though he has been in church, he still has not made a profession of faith. The mother understands that her daughter will need more time to understand the Gospel as she has never had the Gospel explained to her in a way she can comprehend.

Two of the visitors that we had this last Sunday were invited by one of the visitors from the previous Wednesday evening service! They plan to be back with us again this coming weekend.

There is an excitement in our church that God is working. Of course this thrills us as the missionaries, but the church is feeling this energy too.

Thank you for praying and helping us to minister to the Deaf God has called us to.

September 2007 Prayer Letter

September 1, 2007 3:22 pm

Dear Praying Friends,
We had an adventurous trip to camp this summer. We left town with our truck not running quite right, but we had already been to 5 mechanics that were not able to find the problem. We made the 3 day trip to camp running a bit rough, but arriving by the grace of God.

Camp was wonderful! We had 93 people at camp this year. Though it is not significantly more than we have had in the last few years that our family has attended, it is the largest number of campers in several years we were told. There were 3 who accepted the Lord as their Savior! I would like to express our thanks to those of you who prayed for this week of camp. God truly blessed in that special time.

After camp, since we were so close, we headed up to the border to do some shopping. Our truck was still running rough, but eventually we were able to figure out the problem and make the repair ourselves. It was the fuel pump that gave us so much trouble. An interesting side problem cropped up on our way from camp to the border though. Our transmission went out! We had never experienced any transmission issues and were very surprised to have to rebuild it. God provided the right people in the right places and we were able to get our truck towed to a transmission shop to get us back on the road. Of course it was not as simple as it sounds, but God did give guidance and we have a new story to tell the grand kids.

After spending a few days at the border, we returned to Mérida without any car problems. We did have a 3 hour detour because of a closed road, which took us miles out of our way, but kept us moving towards home.

Shortly after we got back home, we started putting things in motion to hold our first camp here in the Yucatan. We were not able to do a week long camp where the campers would go to the campground and sleep, therefore we had a different number of people each day. All total, there were 25 people who attended camp in the 4 day event.

There were no salvations at camp, but we knew there were 2 who attended who had not made a profession of faith. I had been working with them in our church trying to help them understand the Gospel. Both of them are new to sign language and do not have good communication skills. I am very pleased to report to you that they both accepted the Lord this past Sunday morning at church!

God has been gracious in providing our needs for all the traveling we did this summer. Even the unforeseen expenses of car repairs, particularly the transmission, were taken care of by our loving Father. As you continue to pray, He will continue to bless.

I am sure many of you were aware that we had a hurricane come through our back yard August 21. Hurricane Dean passed just south of us but caused little damage here in town. Thankfully, though it was a very strong category 5 storm, there were no deaths in the peninsula. It miraculously passed through a lesser populated part of the Yucatan.

David Peach

Two salvations!

August 26, 2007 3:43 pm

In my update for August 18 I mentioned that there were two who attended camp with us who were unsaved. We have been working with them specifically helping them come to an understanding of the Gospel. I am pleased to report that this morning in church both of them received the Lord as their Savior!

Mirna is an older lady who is just learning to communicate through signs. When I say older, I mean that she is well over the age of the average Deaf person with whom we work. Since sign language is relatively new to this area of Mexico (12 years), most of the Deaf who know it are either school age, or just over. Mirna, at just under 50 years old, is the oldest Deaf person we have been privileged to lead to the Lord.

Guillermo ‘Memo’ is a 22 year old man who has not had much opportunity for an education and is thankful for what he has been able to learn. He is helped by having a Deaf older brother who was able to learn signs and teach him. Memo is in school too now, but is studying well below his age.

God gave both Mirna and Memo an understanding of the Gospel this morning. Pray with us as we continue to teach them and see them grow in the Lord.

Update – August 21 – Dean has passed us

August 21, 2007 6:49 pm

Thank you for your prayers. Outside of some strong winds, we had very little excitement today. We never really had any strong rain. It was mostly just water being carried around by the wind. All in all it was a very mild in comparison to what it could have been.

The peninsula had little damage to populated areas. The latest reports I heard said there were no injuries or deaths in Mexico being reported at this time.

Update – August 20 – Hurricane Dean

August 20, 2007 5:16 pm

We are preparing for the arrival of hurricane Dean. We should start feeling the effects of the storm within a few hours. We don’t seem to be in physical danger, though we could lose electricity for an extended period of time. I will either update this space in a few days if we have power, or have someone do it for me.

Meanwhile, if you would like to contact my parents for the latest information they have, you can email them and they will be glad to share that information. I should be able to get messages back to them through the wonders of radio.

Update – August 18 – Camp and Hurricane Dean

August 18, 2007 4:01 pm

Camp went well this week. Since we had a day camp, we did not have a consistent number each day, and there was some turnover in the people who came. That said, we had 29 different people during the 4 days. That is a great number and about what we had anticipated. This is our first year doing camp in Yucatan.

There are two who attended camp who, as far as we know, are unsaved. I started working with them very specifically about their salvation recently. They are both very new to learning and using sign language. One is in his 20s and the other in her 40s. Pray for Memo and Mirna as we work with them.

Hurricane Dean is sighting us in. We are not concerned that our house will be severely damaged (you get a strong sense of confidence from a solid concrete house), however we know that there is no way to keep water from coming into the house. As solidly built as these houses are, they are not at all weather-proofed.

Currently we are planning to stay here to be able to start clean up as soon as possible. If we leave it could be quite a while before roads would be cleared enough to get back into town. We will keep our gas tanks full and probably become more fervent prayer warriors over the next several days.