Archive for 2017

December 2017 Prayer Letter

December 15, 2017 4:15 pm

Dear Praying Friends,
Merry Christmas! In my last letter I told about the 18 who were saved on my Africa trip; however, I only gave details about Ethiopia. I also visited Tanzania and Zambia. Since then I have spent time at a couple of Christian colleges representing BIO.

Tanzania

Photo of me with the pastor and his wife.

Pastor Frank and Deborah Laurent

I was with Bro. Frank Laurent on my trip. Bro. Frank is a Tanzanian national who came to the US for Bible college and then returned to Tanzania to start deaf churches. Frank is Deaf and a man of God. The Sunday I was with Frank we met in the church’s new auditorium. The building is not complete, but it is usable. We saw 13 Deaf give their lives to Christ that day. Several of them have been baptized since then.

Bro. Frank mentioned again and again how important it is for Christians to visit the field and see the work for themselves. He is strongly convinced (as am I) that a trip to visit a missionary will change your life and your view of missions. If you would like to visit Frank, or any BIO missionary, please contact me and I will do what I can to help equip you for such an opportunity.

Pray for Frank and his wife Deborah. On December 11 Deborah gave birth to a baby girl. This is their first child. I pray God will use Frank and Deborah to mold baby Priscilla into an honorable servant for Him.

Enjoy pictures from the Tanzanian portion of my trip.

Zambia
Zambia was a refreshing time with missionaries Yohannes and Kidist Getaneh. Bro. Yohannes is an Ethiopian national who has been working with the Deaf in Zambia for almost 17 years. The Lord has used him to train more than 2 dozen deaf pastors who have started churches throughout the country.

After one service with the Deaf, we all went out to the main road in front of the church and handed out tracts. In a short while the Deaf brought out some chairs for Bro. Yohannes and me. The ones passing out tracts would bring the hearing folks from the street to talk with us. We saw 3 hearing people saved as a result of that ministry.

Colleges
Dr. John Yingling (President of BIO) and I represented the board at Pensacola Christian College for the Campus Church’s missions conference. I am thrilled to think of what God will do with the young people preparing for various ministries through PCC. I trust we will see many on the mission field in the future.

At Ambassador Baptist College, Bro. Terry Childers (General Director of BIO) and I had a wonderful week sharing our burden for missions with the students. I absolutely love the opportunities I have had to befriend the Ambassador students over the last several years.

Italy
Our son James and I will be visiting BIO missionaries Shane and Kathy Rice in Italy. Pray that we can be an encouragement and help to them during our trip from December 31 to January 12.

You can download a PDF copy of the letter for printing.

September 2017 Prayer Letter

October 2, 2017 1:34 pm

Dear Praying Friends,
On the heels of a wonderful trip to the Philippines, I spent three great weeks in Africa. There were 15 Deaf and 3 hearing saved on my trip. Others were challenged to be a witness to those God brings their way.

I am going to talk about each of the three countries that I visited in Africa in three successive letters. This letter starts in Ethiopia where I preached 4 times in a 3 day conference.

Prayer and Thanksgiving Conference
Eighteen deaf churches in Ethiopia gathered for three days of preaching and encouragement. This was the 28th year of the conference that the late Pastor Bizuayehu Assefa started. However, it was only the second meeting since Bro. Bizuayehu passed away just over a year ago. Of the 18 churches present, 16 were ones that Bro. Bizuayehu either started or trained the pastor who started the church.

For more pictures from Ethiopia visit: dpeach.com/ethiopia

Letter From Tsehai (Bizuayehu’s Widow)
Sister Tsehai sent a good letter summarizing the conference from their perspective. This is a letter being sent to the ministry’s current supporters. I wanted to send it to you as well. I appreciate you taking the time to read it. The picture to the right is me with Bro. Bizuayehu’s family.

Your Help Appreciated
Thank you for praying for my trip to Ethiopia. I encourage you to consider supporting the churches in Ethiopia. One of the churches in particular, the one that Bro. Bizuayehu was pastoring, is in need of continued support. In Addis Ababa, where the greatest concentration of Deaf in the country live, buying land is cost-prohibitive. Practically this means the church must rent a space for services. Currently their rent is a little over $300 a month. As with any place, that amount will continue to go up over time.

The church receives about $150 each month in support. This is about half of what they were getting when Bro. Bizuayehu died last year. The church is struggling to come up with the additional funds for rent and other expenses. I ask you to consider helping this ministry. As with any missionary endeavor, any money that comes in above their normal expenses will help them do that much more ministry in other places. I have a list of 18 names of men from the main church in Addis Ababa who are either ready to pastor a church or are in training to do so. What they lack is money to help them travel to towns and villages so they can get new works started in the country. Any money received above the expenses of the church can go towards a bus ticket to send a man to investigate the possibility of starting another deaf work and reaching their country for God. Your $20 a month can make a difference in reaching the Deaf in Ethiopia.

If you would like to support this ministry, send a check made out to BIO with Assefa in the memo line.

Thank you for your continued support!

A PDF version of this letter can be downloaded for printing.

Ethiopia Conference Letter

1:32 pm

[This letter was written by Mrs. Tsehai Mulugeta (the late Pastor Bizuayehu’s wife).]

Dear Friends,
Love and many greetings to you and your dear family in the most holy name of our Loving Lord Jesus Christ.

Part of the crowd for the conference.

Praise the Lord for the wonderful conference we had throughout the three days of August 25-27. The meeting was great and was a blessing to us all. Deaf groups from the region of Oromia (towns of Ambo and Nekemte) were unable to come due to rioting and lack of transportation. From other regions of the country more than 250 Deaf were gathered together and attended the conference. We thank God and glorify His name for Brother David Peach. Brother Peach was preaching and teaching the Word of God wonderfully. All the Deaf were so blessed and glad for him to come. They were filled with the blessings they received as they talked with one other. We thank God for bringing Brother Peach to us and allowing him to be a blessings to all. Everyone was very glad and praising the Lord. God is always good.

Two new Deaf accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and converted! Praise the Lord for the more than 10 backslidden Deaf returned back to the Lord. After the last sermon more than 30 Deaf stood and promised to witness to other Deaf in their home areas who have not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord!

Brother and sister, this is a result of your prayers that the Lord has done great things in our Deaf ministry. Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support as well. We have received the gifts you have sent. May our almighty God bless you more and reward you many fold for your daily needs. Amen!

Please continue in prayer and stand by our side for future ministry as we do all for the glory of God together.

God bless you richly.

With Love, yours in Christ,

Mrs. Tsehai Mulugeta

 

August 2017 Prayer Letter

August 18, 2017 1:22 pm

Dear Praying Friends,
In the church service I was in Wednesday night, the pastor mentioned that the Pacific Ocean was a large place. I leaned over to my wife and said, “Don’t we know. We flew over it twice in the last couple of weeks.”

Photo of the teachers at the teacher training session.

Filipino Teacher Training

Philippines Trip
We just returned from visiting Chris and Carol Woodley, BIO missionaries to the Deaf in the Philippines. They are doing a great work through their church and school. They hosted a seminar for teachers of the Deaf. There were teachers from 4 different schools. One of the teachers is still in need of salvation. We are praying that she will soon recognize her need and trust the Lord. Pray that the Woodleys can maintain a relationship with her through their mutual connection of deaf education.

Bill Rice Ranch
As mentioned in our previous letter, I was given the wonderful opportunity to speak and teach at the Ranch for 3 deaf weeks this summer. We were privileged to see 25 deaf young people trust the Lord as Savior!

I have no idea what I was saying at deaf camp with my arms crossed.

Training School
Nestled between weeks at camp we had our annual Training School for BIO missionaries. We had 13 missionaries, both hearing and Deaf. As always, this is a great time of fellowship and getting to know one another better. It is exciting to hear testimonies of veteran missionaries as they encourage the ones just starting out.

Africa Trip
I leave on August 22 headed to Ethiopia. Will you please pray that the Prayer and Thanksgiving Conference at Ebenezer Baptist Deaf Church (August 25-27) will be used by God? Besides speaking for the conference, I will be learning how I can better help the deaf churches in Ethiopia. Our friend Bizuayehu Assefa, who was instrumental in training many of the deaf pastors in Ethiopia, passed away last year. The churches are doing well but need some encouragement and maybe a little direction.

On August 30 I will fly to Tanzania to be with missionary Frank Laurent. Bro. Frank is working on building a second deaf congregation. He is also constructing a building for their church at this time. I’m excited about seeing the work and being a blessing to Frank and his dear wife Deborah. They will celebrate their 1 year wedding anniversary while I am with them.

I then go to Zambia on September 6 to be with missionary Yohannes Getaneh. Bro. Yohannes is an Ethiopian national who has helped to train pastors and assist them in starting over 20 churches for the Deaf in Zambia. What a wonderful work God is doing through him!

Though Stephanie was able to go with me to the Philippines, I will be making the Africa trip on my own. I appreciate your prayers for her and our daughter while I am away. I will return September 13.

You can get a PDF version of this letter for printing.

June 2017 Prayer Letter

June 14, 2017 3:29 pm

Dear Praying Friends,
What a wonderful whirlwind of activity since I last wrote. April started with a trip to West Coast Baptist College. Since then I have been to 3 other colleges representing BIO and being encouraged by the young people who are looking for ways to minister. We also interviewed a couple of new missionaries working with the Deaf who have applied to the mission board.

Photo of Pastor Rubin Ruffin and David Peach.

Pastor Ruffin and me at camp last year.

I am encouraged by the young people from the various schools who are preparing to serve the Lord. Some of these young people I have known for several years. It is a blessing to see them grow up with a developing passion for God. During this time I have also been blessed to see older friends who continue to serve the Lord faithfully. This last weekend I was in a church that is pastored by a friend I met 29 years ago during my freshman year in Bible college. He surrendered to serve the Lord in ministry as an adult and has continued to be faithful to the Lord.

I am honored again to speak at the Bill Rice Ranch this summer. Pray that God will use us to impact the eternal lives of deaf young people. I will be at the Ranch June 12-16, July 10-14 and July 24-28.

As soon as our last week of camp is over, Stephanie and I will go to the Philippines to visit missionaries Chris and Carol Woodley. The Woodleys are involved in church planting and deaf education. While there, I will speak to public school educators about how to more effectively teach the Deaf. This will be from a Christian perspective and I will use biblical examples so that I can incorporate the Gospel in my presentation. I will also preach to the Deaf in the church. This trip will be August 1-12.

Shortly after we return from the Philippines I will travel to Ethiopia, Africa to preach and teach in the annual Prayer and Thanksgiving Conference that Pastor Bizuayehu Assefa started. Bro. Bizuayehu died last summer and I long to be back with my friends during this conference to see how the churches are doing without our beloved friend. We expect more than a dozen churches to attend this meeting. These are churches that Bro. Bizuayehu had an influence in either starting or training their pastors. Pray for this conference from August 25 to 27.

While I am in Africa I am trying to work out a short trip to visit Bro. Frank Laurent in Tanzania. Bro. Frank is a young deaf missionary who has done a wonderful job in witnessing to and training his fellow deaf countrymen in Tanzania to do the work of the ministry. That trip will probably be immediately after the conference in Ethiopia.

Beyond praying for the spiritual needs for these trips, will you also pray with us for the financial need. Plane tickets alone will be $5000. Pray that God would provide the needed funds and consider that He might want to provide for this need through you.

Important Note: Any regular support or special gifts sent to BIO on our behalf must have BIO (or Baptist International Outreach) in the payee portion of the check. This is because of a change in bank policy. Soon checks will have to be returned to you if they are made out to us personally.

You can download a PDF version of this letter for printing.

March Personal Update

March 29, 2017 10:17 am

Thank you for taking the time to read this longer personal report. In my regular prayer letter I had a really good story that I wanted to share. As a consequence, all the personal stuff got bumped out. So here is the all family news and ministry info that didn’t make it into the regular letter.

January—Back to PCC

We took James back to Pensacola for his 4th semester at PCC. While were there we enjoyed time with family and friends. It is always an encouragement to see people who have been serving in their places for 20 years or more. God doesn’t call everyone to stay in the same place for such a long time, but it sure is refreshing to see those who continue to eagerly serve the Lord where they are.

After the Florida trip, I was able to preach at Calvary Baptist Church in Sparta, Tennessee. Pastor Yockey is another one of those faithful servants of the Lord. We met about 20 years ago and he continues to faithfully serve the Lord. It was at Calvary that I preached a two-sermon series based on the same story that is in my latest prayer letter.

Eli and Katie Guiltner: Missionaries to Japan.

Missions Conference

We greatly enjoyed the missions conference at Faith Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Tennessee. We were not there as guest missionaries, but we were sure blessed to be a part of the week. This is the church we attend when we are home at the mission board office. At the conference we were reunited with old friends and made new ones. Ron and Sarah Smith are BIO missionaries serving in Cambodia. I love Ron’s consistency through the years that I have known him. The church already supports their ministry

Eli and Katie Guiltner were new missionaries for the church, but not strangers to our family. I met Katie several years ago when she was just starting to raise her support to go to Japan. You should take the time to listen to an interview I did with her in 2009. Though she’s now married and has a baby girl, her energy for ministry and passion for the Lord has not changed since we did that interview.

SMART training with missionaries and church members.

The Essentials of SMART Computing

At the Faith Baptist conference I taught a SMART class on basic computing. This is a ministry of our mission board to equip missionaries with the knowledge they need to be long-term servants of God. In the class I taught various things, but the biggest emphasis was on using a computer more efficiently and protecting the work they have already done so that the missionaries can be more productive.

A Temporary Good-bye

I had been concerned about the salvation of a friend. When he told me that he was going to go into Hospice care, I knew that was the best time to talk with him about his salvation since he was already thinking about eternity. When I asked him about his relationship with God he replied, “I’m good with God.”

I proceeded to lay out for him what the Bible said about being in good standing with God. He encouraged me to continue talking, but did not indicate either way whether he agreed with me or not. It was an awkward end to the conversation with him just staring at me and not responding. After a long stare he mischievously, in his ever playful manner, changed the subject with still no indication of what he was thinking.

I was very burdened and concerned for him, but while I consider him a friend, our relationship with one another has been a professional relationship. I had no appropriate way to see him outside of that relationship. When I heard my friend was back in the hospital (and it would be his last time), I drove an hour to visit him. I knew his wife was saved and that she would be at the hospital with him. I was pleased to talk with her and find out that she was confident in his salvation testimony. He was not in a lucid state when I visited, but his wife told me about when he was saved as a 12-year-old boy at a vacation Bible school class. I told her about the day I laid out the Gospel for him and that he would not respond either way. She assured me that he was playing with me and that he knew well what the Bible taught about salvation. I was relieved to get that information.

Getting ready to harvest goodies from computer printers.

Community Outreach

I had a good time earlier this month teaching a group of kids at our local library how to be hackers. No, not the kind you see on TV cracking into some secure network, but what I consider to be the real kind of hacker—a person who makes a piece of hardware or software do something that it was not originally intended to do. We tore printers apart and got motors and gears out of them for future robotics projects. I taught them a bit about what kinds of things can be harvested out of discarded technology so that it can be used and not sit rotting in a landfill. We did a class on basic electronic circuits and we made a couple of fun projects.

Though many of the kids at the classes were kids I had invited from church, we were able to build friendships with other children in our community that we can possibly minister to in the future.

Through previous community sign language classes that I taught at the library, we have seen a few visitors at church. This was my first time to specifically teach a community outreach class for children. I am excited to see how God might use it to bring others to Him.

California, Here I Come!

Bro. John Yingling (BIO President) and I will fly to California this weekend and spend a few days promoting missions and the board with the students at West Coast Baptist College. This is our first trip there and we are both excited about building this relationship with the school. I have several friends whose kids are at the school. I trust God will use this time to encourage the students to be involved in missions—whether it is through BIO or not.

Thank you for taking the time to come and read this longer (and less formal) version of my prayer letter. I know the official letter was quite a bit different than normal, but I have been so impacted by the life of Bro. Hamrick that I continue to think about those stories his children told even three months after I heard them.

Thank you for your prayers and continued involvement in our ministry.

March 2017 Prayer Letter

10:14 am

Dear Praying Friends,
At the end of last year I met a man, not on his deathbed, but at his funeral. I attended the funeral of a man I had never previously met—but I sure wish I had. Audley Hamrick was a career missionary working in New Mexico. I learned about him through stories that his five children told at the funeral. I wonder if these things could be said of you and me?

A Faithful Witness
Bro. Hamrick’s oldest son told the story of the hardest spanking he ever received. Bro. Hamrick spanked himself for an offense that the son had done. This was his way of teaching each one of the children that God took our punishment on Himself for our sins.

The youngest daughter told of a vacation trip she and her parents went on. She enjoyed a long, casual conversation with a stranger while her dad patiently waited beside her. As soon as she was done with the conversation, Bro. Hamrick stepped forward with a Gospel tract and began witnessing to the man. The daughter was convicted by the example of her dad’s concern for souls and how that she needed that same concern.

We should seek to use everyday events to share the Gospel of Christ with those around us. I had one such encounter last month when I witnessed to a friend who was near death but had never given me a clear salvation testimony. I was pleased to learn that he had accepted Christ as his Savior as a 12-year-old boy.

A Godly Example
The second child in the family told how patient and compassionate their dad was when she, in disobedience, led a group of other teenagers on a hike and got them stuck on the side of a mountain. In the dark, Bro. Hamrick climbed the rock face to rescue the group of kids. In his quiet, gentle way, he taught the lesson that God is patient and forgiving with us even when we are disobedient.

Another son told how, that as an adult who was frustrated and impatient with his co-workers, he sat down to read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Even in his low-level rebellion against his parents, he began to see how his dad was a shining example of everything he read in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. His attitude towards his parents and those around him began to change.

Finally, the third daughter told how that their parents were always willing to counsel the children and point them to the Lord—even when they crawled up in their parents bed in the middle of the night.

May we each look to God to help us be a witness and an example of what we learn in His Word. We should live out our lives in such a way that our children and the world around us can see that we are a child of God and seek to glorify Him. I look forward to meeting Bro. Hamrick in Heaven and thanking him for being such a powerful example for me.

For more personal news this month, please visit www.dpeach.com where I give a detailed report of the last couple of months.

You can download a printable PDF version of this letter.