What is happening in Pacifico at the moment?

What is going on in Pacifico?

Even though we are now not meeting in Pacifico on a Sunday we still have a regular presence there on a weekly basis. In addition to this we are doing a church outreach there every 4-6 weeks on a Sunday morning rather than meeting formally in our house. Our first one was on the 18th November and we will be doing one this week for Christmas. Hopefully, future blog posts will follow about both of these events!

So what are we doing on a weekly basis in Pacifico?

Llilda, Karina and Elisabeth in the Bible Study

We currently have a weekly meeting on a Wednesday that is slowly growing in number. Attendees vary in number from one week to the next; with between 10 to 35 people in attendance, aside from the leaders.

Steve teaching at the interactive Bible Study

Three Wednesdays a month an interactive form of Biblical teaching is done, in this meeting, which is covering Bible stories in a visual, picture-based forn. We are using this form of teaching, because it helps both adults and children engage. In addition most of the people involved in the group have little or no education, and reading and writing is of a very low standard.  Every participant is encouraged to draw the different elements of the story in a symbolic way to aid processing and understanding of the story and to lead them to application. Think non-academic note-taking! 

This has been a real success and we are excited for the future of this study, not just in Pacifico, but also how this style of Bible teaching to groups of people with low education levels can be used in the jungle.

Nancy, Jane, and Karina buying supplies for Color de Esperanza

Once a month Karina leads the Wednesday meeting with her new ministry Color de Esperanza (Colour of Hope). This is an evangelistic and creative ministry connected to Jane Savaas, a wonderful lady who visited in February this year.  Jane brought a creative ministry with her and Karina has been able to carry it on since her return to the UK.  We are in the early stages with this ministry, but there is no reason why Karina cannot use this ministry all over Peru. She has already been to churches in Chiclayo in the north of Peru. The vision Karina has is to help people work through issues they have had through testimony and creative workshops. The workshops she has begun to do have been very powerful and well received. 

Some of the Pre-teens

On a Saturday Ronald leads our most healthy group/ministry, the pre-adolescents or teens group.  Rosa and Gabriel help him in the leadership. Ronald visits the core pre teens during the week and now has ten regular disciples in his group with maybe another ten who come less regularly and less faithfully. These pre teens are not just growing in their faith in Jesus, but also the practical outworking of this. See this link to see Joana’s healing testimony. In addition to this many of these pre teens are prophesying on a regular basis, evangelizing to their friends in Pacifico and at school. It is very exciting to see how God is using them!

As well as helping lead the pre teens Rosa leads the only other small cell group we have, which happens on a Monday, afternoon and is co led by Llilda. It is exciting that Llilda is helping Rosa, as is one of the first leaders from Pacifico. They are currently doing the Alpha course, which is an excellent tool for discipleship rather than evangelistic tool, as it is used in the UK. (Unlike in the UK, people here often make decisions quickly to follow  Jesus (they already believe in God) but the fall out rate is high - in the UK people are often slower to make a decision but more committed when they do.)

Finally, in addition to all this we also do a lot of visiting of people that are involved with the church. Nancy, as head of pastoral care heads this up, with Ronald and Lili doing a large share of the visiting too.