There are 110 towns in Pacaipampa, and of those 110 towns, about 40 have a church. We have the goal of advancing into all 110 towns, and in order to accomplish this, we are carrying out evangelistic campaigns. We are also having prayer meetings with the other churches in the region, and we often fast together. Before we carry out an evangelistic campaign in each town we meet to pray diligently together. Usually the campaigns last three days, involving between twenty and twenty-five pastors. We often rent a place to sleep and pray together, or stay in a house together in one of the villages, and then beginning in the morning we divide into groups of three and go house to house.
In some cases, they invite us to return. Recently, we had an evangelistic event in the town of Tauma. There was a group of people that responded to the preaching of the Gospel and we were meeting together with them, but another group preaching a gospel contrary to that of the Scriptures entered in and led the group astray. In some towns, the people respond, but they need time to grow, and people need to visit them constantly and teach them, which requires a great deal of dedication and time. It is not as simple as just going and saying, “Well, they have responded to the Gospel; now the group is established.” We have to continue going, visiting those who receive us. When we have these campaigns in the villages and there seems to be fruit, then one of us stays behind in that village to continue teaching the people and helping them become established. Most of the time either myself or Pastor Nicomedes commits to visiting the town week after week, every Sunday. Usually we begin with two homes or three homes, until eventually there is an established group of believers in the town.
We are currently visiting a group of believers in a town about three hours distance up the mountain. There is also a new group of believers that we are visiting in another town high in the mountains, which we can only reach by foot, since there are no roads in that part of the region. It usually takes us about four or five hours to get there. We often leave early Saturday morning in order to get there in the afternoon and rest. Sometimes in the evening we have services that begin at seven o’clock and last until two or three in the morning. The next day we return back to our homes.
The people are usually found either really early in the morning or later in the evening, because during the day they devote themselves to their labors. The majority of the people work in agriculture, so a lot of times when we go to evangelize in the daytime, we find only women in the homes, and in that case, we have to go with our wives to visit them. However, our wives cannot walk to most of those villages because they are far away, so usually we wait until the evening in order to invite all of the men after they return from their labors. We tell them that we are going to have a night service in the church, and we encourage them to come. We pass out tracts to them, and many of them come to the service. And if they do not come, then the next day, which is a Sunday, we go house to house throughout the village to speak with them about their need to believe the Gospel.
