March 30, 2006
Dear Friends and Family,
300 million; that is the estimated number of deaf and hard of hearing that are around the world today. I wonder how many of them have ever had someone give the gospel in some form. The deaf and hard of hearing population is a little larger than the population of the United States. They need to know of the Saviour. A missionary in Thailand recently told me that every time he walks down the streets of Bangkok he sees deaf. He then went on to say that he doesn’t think there is one deaf ministry in Thailand. I wonder how many more countries that are just like Thailand – no one there reaching the deaf. The only other comment this missionary made to me was “get with it.” We would ask that you all keep praying for us so that we can get our support raised and get to Peru. We want to reach the deaf for Christ and train others to go out and reach the deaf of Peru, South America, and beyond.
This past month we were able to keep fairly busy with meetings. We had a great time with our home church during the annual missions conference. It was good to see and then later hear what God is doing in our church both in Pensacola and in worldwide missions. We then had several good meetings in Louisiana and Texas. It encourages us when we visit other churches who are involved in missions and are taking an interest in missions for the deaf.
Our family is doing very well. We thank God for the good health that He has given us. The older two girls have adjusted to traveling for the most part. There are times when sitting in a car seat is not really what they want to do. Olivia is nearly five months old and starting to cut teeth and to “talk.”
The ministry in Peru is going well. School is again in full swing. There is a couple from Argentina training at Efata to go back and work with the deaf in their own country.
Here again are some prayer requests.
- We still need more, many more meetings this year.
- Pray that our support will continue to increase.
- Pray that God will give us strength through the stress of continual traveling.
- Pray for a deaf boy from the school at Efata. He was separated from his mom in a market in January and has not been seen since.
Thank you again for your part in our ministry.
Serving Christ with you,
Cory, Melissa, Amanda, Elaina, and Olivia Ricker