Peru

Partner with Local Missionaries in Peru

Peru’s varied landscape is home to a diverse number of ethnic groups, some of which are completely isolated from the rest of society in the dense forest of the Amazon. Approximately one third of Peru’s people live in the coastal region along the Pacific Ocean, where the capital city is located, and around half of the population lives in the highlands of the Andes Mountains.

While Peru’s overall economy has been growing in recent years, extreme poverty exists in rural areas. Many children drop out of school to help support their families. Up to one third of Peruvian children between the ages of 6 and 14 work, often performing dangerous mining or construction jobs.

The Quechua people comprise the largest of the ethnic minority groups in Peru. Descendants of the wealthy and renowned Inca people, the Quechua people battle acute poverty and alcoholism.

Christian Aid Mission assists indigenous ministries working in high-altitude Quechua villages. Indigenous missionaries often travel by horseback, donkey, or on foot to deliver desperately needed food, clothing, and school supplies to these villages. They also provide free medical and dental care and share the message of the gospel at multi-day evangelistic events. Collectively, they have planted hundreds of Quechua churches.

One of these ministries has successfully spread the gospel to entire Quechua families through its feeding center, where approximately 100 children receive a daily nutritious meal—often their only meal of the day—and learn God’s Word.

Another ministry is successfully planting churches among the Ashaninka people who live in the Amazon forest and are fearful of outsiders due to past oppression. When this ministry first began working among the Ashaninka, they discovered a disturbing and pervasive practice. Witchdoctors often accused children of bringing bad luck upon entire villages, ordering parents to abuse their own children or expel them from their village to die alone.

Through the ministry’s compassionate care and persistent witness, many Ashaninka people have accepted Christ as savior, and as they’ve grown in God’s Word and been set free from the fear of evil spirits, they have abandoned their old cultural practice of child abuse. Today, the ministry trains Ashaninka believers to reach their own people for Christ.

Sources: Joshua Project, Wikipedia, Etnopedia

32.4 million

Population

14.4%

Evangelical Population:

104

People Groups:

Unreached People Groups:

How to Pray for Peru

Pray that God would open doors for indigenous missionaries to reach Peru’s last remaining unreached people groups—people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ.
Pray that God would raise up many more missionaries among ethnic tribal groups who will spread the gospel to their own people.
Pray that God would grant continued wisdom and guidance to indigenous missionaries who are developing curriculum and training ethnic tribal believers as church leaders and missionaries.
Pray that God would provide the resources requested by indigenous ministries to grow their outreaches, including funding for a mission base and classrooms in the Amazon forest region, boats to reach people living along the Amazon River, support for their workers, and assistance to continue providing the poor and needy with compassionate, life-saving aid.

More stories from Peru

Help Form and Strengthen New Christians in Peru

Local Christian workers praise God for opportunities to work among new tribal communities. Visiting homes and sending biblical messages to those they’ve met through WhatsApp, they have seen villagers begin to attend area churches with their families. “Thanks to God and to the dedication of our missionaries, we have had many converts in different rural communities,” the leader said, adding that recently more than 100 people put their faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. Workers need donations to proclaim Christ and follow up with new believers. Pray for the Lord to protect workers from illness as He opens doors for them to proclaim Christ’s salvation.

Help Start Churches in Peru

A husband and wife with a native ministry walk many hours three times a week to help shepherd remote congregations and proclaim the message of eternal life, and they are winning souls to Christ. In another area, seven workers travel through the Andes, braving hunger and cold to bring the gospel to places inaccessible to most people. Closer to the coast, a worker is leading many people to Christ, baptizing and discipling them. “With joy we share that our ministry has managed to plant 17 new congregations during these past months,” the ministry leader said. Donations of $25 or $50 are sought for such gospel work. Pray that new Christians’ love for one another will grow.

Help Bring Critical Aid to the Poor in Peru

Through Bible studies, Sunday schools and other outreaches, native Christian workers are proclaiming the Good News. A 15-year-old girl at-risk from a troubled family came to a ministry’s orphanage and recently accepted Christ. “We have been able to share the gospel with her, and her life has been transformed,” the ministry leader said. Another girl, 13, has been attending a ministry church with her father for two years. “Her love for the Lord makes others strive to seek to meet and feed on the Word of God,” the leader said. Donations are sought for such gospel work. Pray the Lord would open more people’s hearts to their need for the Savior.

Send The Message Of Eternal Life in Peru

After praying and fasting to discern where the Lord would send them, local missionaries recently set out to proclaim Christ and planted 17 congregations in the mountains, jungles and on the coasts. At the same time, their radio program daily reached about 200 towns in one area and 121 villages in another, with listeners calling into the station for prayer and some trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior. In one area, 50 young people received the Lord’s grace. Workers need donations of $25 or $50 for such gospel proclamation and follow-up. Pray that grace will produce spiritual fruit that would glorify the Lord.

Help Form Well-Rooted Christians in Peru

Suffering stomach pains, a mother of four who made offerings to an earth goddess and was addicted to coca leaves visited a native missionary’s church. She accepted Christ, and after the worker prayed for healing, her stomach pains subsided a few days later. The woman now seeks to travel to share her testimony with other Quechua- and Spanish-speaking communities. “We are praying for more female missionaries like her who patiently listen to the difficulties of other women and help them in prayer, fasting and biblical counseling,” the ministry leader said. Workers need donations to undertake such gospel outreach. Pray for continuation of the ministry’s Bible institute.

Transform Lives with the Gospel in Peru

A rural villager who belonged to a sect opposed the gospel, saying only members of his religion would be saved. When he fell ill, he accepted a worker’s invitation to attend a church service, where he responded to the gospel with tears and gave his life to Christ. “The man realized how wrong he was in that sect that had not brought him genuine repentance and forgiveness of his sins,” the ministry leader said. “He began to share his new faith in Christ and has shown with his actions the great change that took place in his life.” Donations are needed for workers to share the gospel and disciple new believers. Pray that more unreached people will know the Lord.