Current Ministry and Future Laborers

There are zones still high in the mountains where there is a lot of witchcraft. One of the towns in the higher zones of Pacaipampa is called the Devil’s Cradle because it is filled with wicked practices. The people there need the Lord. In one of the towns high in the mountains, Plenas Huaritas, we have held evangelistic campaigns, even though that part of Pacaipampa is much more difficult because of the rains and the cold climate. The people are also very aggressive. On many occasions they have attempted to harm individuals who enter their town, so now we do not go into those places alone. When we visit the town to preach the Gospel we go in groups of ten or fifteen who stay close together. We do not really go from house to house there, but rather we stay in one larger group in the streets. That way, when someone who would otherwise do us harm sees us together, they no longer are daring enough to approach us. But if we were alone, then the people there would likely harm us. Even still, those very people need the Lord and they need the Good News. It is a region filled with witchcraft, and the beautiful things that the Lord has created in that region, like the lake and the mountains, the devil has used to turn the idolatrous people against their Creator.

There is one town in particular that we are trying to reach that is about ten to twelve hours away on foot. In that town there is not a single believer, and almost nobody from the outside enters the village because it is so far away. Pastor Nicomedes and I are wanting to go at least three or four times this year to that town, since nobody is going there. We have traveled there once before to preach the Gospel, and though there does not seem to be any conversions, the people were willing to listen, and they even want us to return and teach them more.

We also have a church plant in a town called Palo Blanco, which is only a two-hour walk from Plenas Huaritas. We are now helping a group of about thirty-five believers there, and they are growing little by little. In addition to the witchcraft that is so common there, the people themselves are very bad. The majority of the people are always carrying firearms, and when they are drunk they begin firing. It is dangerous there. This is another region in which we are focusing our efforts in order to proclaim the Word of God, and we need the believers who read this to be praying for us. Pray for one of the pastors of the church close to those towns. Since he is a little closer to those places, we are coordinating with him to help him reach the people. We send him New Testaments, and many other resources that might be helpful to him as he tries to reach those people with the Gospel.

The Lord is raising up many more pastors in Pacaipampa, and our prayer is that we can begin providing these younger men with some form of seminary, maybe through our brother Javier Carhuapoma, who has already helped us in a lot of ways here; he is always ready to come and teach us when we are in need of instruction. The financial situation for the pastors in Pacaipampa is difficult, and they are not able to travel to a seminary to study, or come to Lima for the HeartCry courses throughout the year. While there are some years when the agriculture is very fruitful and the men have a little more money, most of the time they are not able to afford to travel into cities such as Piura in order to devote time to study. However, if we were able to offer a seminary in the mountains for them, it would make studying a possibility by eliminating the need to travel.

The regions that we have to travel to are difficult to reach, and we are getting old. Soon, we will not be able to travel to those places and the younger men will need to take over that work. The only option we have is to make disciples and raise up pastors. There is a large group of young men that we are training to be pastors now. They have more energy and strength in order to meet the needs of the region. The reality here is much different than in a city like Lima. In Lima a man only needs to get on a bus and go wherever he wants, but here it is not like that. Here if you want to travel to a town, you carry your backpack and everything else you need, and you get there by walking, going high into the mountains. The work here requires a lot of strength. For this reason we are praying that the Lord would raise up more laborers.