AYACHUCHO MISSION

 

This year I had the amazing privilege of joining Pastor Gustavo Rodriguez’s church in Lima on their mission’s trip to Ayacucho, in the Andean mountains of Peru.  Ayachucho is one of the three poorest states in Peru.  This region has seen much grief and destruction at the hands of the terrorist movement ‘Shinning Path’, where in 15yrs 65,000 people were killed or disappeared.  During our trip there three more people were sadly added to that number.

The focus of our trip was to work with the local churches in training and equipping their children’s workers.  We held teacher training classes during the day with street work, teenage and children’s outreach meetings in the evening.

I was assigned, along with seven others, the task of organising our youth outreach programme. With this we had to develop a theme and foundational message for the teenagers we were going to work with.  We decided upon ‘Christ gives value to your life’!  Many children and teenagers in Peru are discarded or ignored by families, society and even the church, resulting in many turning to adult relationships at an early age in order to fill the hole within their hearts. Many are just simply love starved!  Among the teenage girls there are many single mothers. We wanted to teach them what true love is, what it looks like and our primary example was the Cross.  Through the outreach many heard of Jesus and His love for the first time. Many came and received Christ and His love into their hearts.  The Pastor of Vilcashuaman apologised to the youth for not seeing their need and made a promise to them to teach them in the way of the Lord to the best of his ability.

 

My second night in Lima I was asked to preach to the young adults group of Pastor Gustavo’s church.  I shared from John 13 of Jesus washing the disciples feet as our example of all ministry, how He calls His disciples to do the very same and how it is the Fathers desire to work in every believer this ‘Servant Heart of Christ’.  Little did I know that this would be the theme that God would show me the whole way through my time among these people.
The Lord showed me what it truly takes to be a King, or even the servant of the King- it’s bending low to wash the nations feet. John 13v16 ‘Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are the messengers greater than the one who sent them.  Now you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them’

Looking back I consider it an awesome privilege to have ministered to these people, to have sat with them, to have listened to them, to have prayed with them and encouraged them in their faith.
Many, many children, teenagers and adults came to know Christ as a result of the ministry there, with many church workers and Pastors receiving much needed aid and encouragement.

Thank you to all who supported me and made it possible for me to have this wonderful time of ministry in Lima.
God Bless you all.

Carol Kelly.

 

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