Amuid Vargas and I (Pastor Bill) left Monday, January 20th on our most recent trip to Peru. The purpose of the trip was to meet with the church leaders of Contamana to plan the upcoming Pastor’s Convention that will take place September 25-27th, as well as to visit a very remote village named San Jose.
San Jose is nineteen hours down the Ucayali River from Contamana.
While meeting with the chairman of the committee that puts on the Pastor’s Conference, we learned that eighty-three pastors registered for last year's conference! They were largely from many different denominations. This resulted in establishing this conference as an interdenominational conference with the purpose of blessing and equipping the church at large in this region of Peru.
Next, we traveled hours down the river on the large ferry boat to the village of Juancito where we were picked up by Pastor Hender in his small river boat. He took us three more hours to his village of San Jose (population 400). This dear pastor and his wife, Juliana, treated us like royalty for three days in their home. They have been pastoring the only church in their village for TEN years. The church from the neighboring village joined us for the service that night. God’s presence was with us in a marvelous way and everyone was greatly encouraged in the Lord!
The village of San Jose has no water source other than the river, which is over 700 meters away. This is their rainy season so everyone was collecting rainwater from the roof in barrels. We want to return as soon as possible and drill a community well for them. Please pray for us that we can work out the logistics of returning with a mission team to the village of San Jose. Pray for Pastor Hender and his wife, that they might be strengthened in their hearts to carry on the work of the Lord in this remote village!
Written by: Pastor Bill Courtnay
Want to be more involved in the Peru Ministry?
- Homes for Hope has a great volunteer opportunity coming up on February 29th! Contact Pastor Bill at 360-852-3498 for more info or to get involved.
- If you're interested in joining Pastor Bill on his next trip to Peru, you can contact him by phone via the number above, or send him an email at billc@rockwa.com.
- If you'd like to sow into Peru Missions financially, you can do so here (just be sure to choose the "Peru Ministry" fund).
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