Introduction

Missionaries from the Evangelical Lutheran Synod first proclaimed Christ to the people of Peru in 1968. Focused on sharing the Gospel with children and families, the missionaries worked in the crowded city of Lima and in its dusty outlying barrios. God blessed that effort greatly. Today, seventeen congregations and preaching stations of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Peru are found throughout greater Lima.

Seminary

Peruvian national church workers were needed to serve these congregations and to reach out in other areas of the country. To meet that need, the missionaries first began training devout laymen to serve as leaders of newly formed churches. In time their training developed into preparation for the public ministry of Word and Sacrament.

Today ELS missionaries teach classes at the Lima Seminary where men study traditional theological disciplines such as Scriptural interpretation, the Lutheran Confessions, Church History and practical theology. Thirteen men have graduated and have been ordained and twelve vicars and students continue working with congregations and various groups. These students, in various stages of their education, work with groups of believers, preparing to preach God's Word as they are called to serve in the growing Lutheran Church in Peru.

Christian Day Schools

Just as Christian parents everywhere care for the spiritual education of their children, the fathers and mothers of the Peruvian church took seriously their obligations to train their children in God's Word. Sunday Schools, confirmation classes and Vacation Bible Schools were established in the developing congregations. Teachers were trained, materials were gathered, and students were recruited in the effort to reach out to the neighborhoods near the churches.

The Mothers' Club, a unique program in one barrio of Lima, provided educational and nutritional opportunities for the members of the congregation and its surrounding community. Eventually, a preschool was developed there, and a Christian Elementary School is now open, with an enrollment of nearly 100 students in grades one through six.

At the same time, in another community, a pre-school was opened and it was immediately filled to its capacity of 45 students. These schools were constructed with funds provided by the 2000 Years of Grace offering gathered by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

Spreading the Gospel in the Andes

Mountain Region

The Andes Mountains form a majestic backdrop for the congregations in the villages and towns in the Ancash district several hours north of Lima. For many years people of the mountains left their homes and moved to Lima in search of jobs. Those who became members of our churches in the city earnestly desired to bring the Gospel to their families and friends in the Andes. Missionaries began regular trips to small villages in the mountains, some of which are still accessible only by horseback.

The nation of Peru was wrenched by violence during the 1980s and into the mid-1990s, when communist terrorists known as "The Shining Path" sought to ignite civil revolution. The churches in the mountain villages suffered greatly. One town mayor, also a congregation member, was assassinated, becoming a modern-day martyr.

Today peace prevails, and the work in Ancash is expanding as more pastors graduate from the seminary in Lima. Eight congregations are served in this area, which stretches from the sea coast city of Chimbote to the mountain town of Huaraz. Seminary-education-by-extension is provided by the missionaries, who travel regularly to the region and teach classes.

Bringing the Good News to Jungle Villages

Some members of Lima congregations had come from the San Martin district of northern Peru, in the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains. Shouldn't the Gospel be brought to their hometowns, also?

A third center for mission work in Peru is now based in this region. In one large city, a congregation has been formed and a building constructed for worship. The cement and brick church serves also as a training center for seminary study in this part of Peru.

From this city, missionaries travel to the Upper Amazon basin, preaching the Gospel in cities and towns along the Huallaga River and its tributaries. With no roads available for travel, the missionaries travel the Huallaga by boat, as it winds through this vast region of rainforest. On its banks lies a village where the congregation has constructed a thatch-roof church.

Building relationships through a network of acquaintances and family members, missionaries now proclaim God's Word in villages deep in the jungle. In one isoloated village, a Christian Elementary School has been established with an enrollment of twenty-five students. Humanitarian efforts, such as providing dairy cows to assist with malnutrition have also begun. New opportunities for Gospel outreach abound as God leads into even more remote territory.

Many miles to the north, nearly to the border between Ecuador and Peru, is another small village. Here the village chief has asked the missionary to bring the Gospel to his people. After several harrowing journeys through the winding river "highways," each one to bring the precious Gospel to these people, God has blessed these efforts. The missionary arrived one day to find that the village had constructed its own church building, for the sole purpose of hearing the Good News preached and taught!

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