New Opportunities in Uruguay
Mission to Uruguay
Missionaries Mark & Jenni Richline, and Steven & Catalina Payson are proclaiming Christ in Uruguay. They are sent and supported by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Surprise, Surprise!
I will never forget it. As I finished having my devotions in our living room, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to see our girl, Julie, decked out in her flight attendant uniform waiting to embrace me! Next, I saw her mom off to the side filming my state of shock. Julie departed three months ago to begin her new career and had recently schemed with my wife to return unannounced and give me the surprise of my life. We three enjoyed eating out, shopping for her, and catching up on some movies. One night, four of her friends joined us in our home for their first-time, full course Thanksgiving dinner. So thankful for those special days with our daughter!
Thanksgiving Celebration
The day after we sent Julie back to work, Jeni and I celebrated Thanksgiving with long-time missionary friends on their farm in San Jose. In God’s providence, each of us couples finds ourselves in the same phase of life, trying to care for our aging parents and love on our grandchildren the best we can, all from a country far, far away. How encouraging to spend the afternoon over delicious food, blessing one another with talk of God’s faithfulness and his biblical counsel to us in our challenges.
New Members from Maldonado
Salvos Por Gracia praises the Lord for joining three new members to our church body. Carla testifies how convinced she was that God, and not herself, had drawn her to Christ and saved her from sin. Another married couple, Andrés and Andrea were both saved by grace when they were young and have grown to know the depth of their sin together with the freeing power of God’s forgiveness in Christ. As this couple became convinced of reformed doctrine, they started looking for a church of like-minded faith. They were prepared to move from Uruguay to find such a congregation, but then the Lord sent them to us! We are all excited to see how the Lord grows us together over the years in his gospel grace.
From Montevideo to Maldonado
Our three new members are all from San Carlos, in the coastal city of Maldonado about a two-hour drive from Montevideo. Accordingly, we are laying plans to begin a core group Bible study with them in their area early next year and then wait on the Lord to raise up another church for his glory. Thankfully we have already made a few connections with others in Maldonado who are convinced of God’s sovereignty in all spheres of life, and have strong leanings toward reformed faith and practice.
Other New Works on the Horizon
While we lay plans for a new church plant, our sister denomination, the million member Brazilian Reformed & Presbyterian Church (the IPB) is also hard at work continuing to plant new churches. Back in 2010 their missionary Mauricio Rolim started a church in Montevideo. A couple years later, that church helped start another work in Mercedes near the Argentine border. Recently the Brazilian Church has sent several other missionaries who are working with our brother Mauricio to start Bible studies and establish new churches. Like our OPC plan for Maldonado, those missionaries will work with Montevideo church members who currently travel long distances to form core group Bible studies in their own home cities. The shared goal of the OPC and the IPB is to bring all these works together into one unified, Uruguayan Reformed and Presbyterian denomination.
Please continue to seek our Lord:
- To raise up a pastor for Salvos Church.
- To grow Salvos to become financially self-sustaining.
- To direct our plans to begin a new Bible study in Maldonado early in 2024..
- To grow and lead the other new Presbyterian & Reformed works taking root in various places in Uruguay.
- To unify the current and upcoming church plants so that a presbytery begins taking shape by next year.
- To raise up another full-time missionary to work with our OPC mission.
THANK YOU for partnering with us in this gospel ministry. Keep on the look-out for this newsletter in your email every third Saturday of the month. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.
We would love to have you visit our Facebook Page Mission to Montevideo where you will find Uruguayan cultural tidbits, ministry updates and current prayer requests.
https://www.facebook.com/LovingUruguay