December 2009. Board member Aristoteles Melgarejo has just returned from Peru. He spent nearly three months there initiating training programs in various locations. Every session involved scores of pastors, the majority of them from Indian congregations.

Aris spent weeks in Ventanilla, a working class settlement built in the sand dunes north of Lima; in the city of Huancayo, located at 9000 feet in the Andes mountains; and in Pucallpa, down in the eastern jungles of Peru. His students were all pastors and leaders who, in spite of the leadership roles they fill, have had little or no formal training in Bible school or seminary. They were anxious to drink in all that he could teach them.

 

Aris will return to Peru in the spring, expanding the locations to be covered with the training. Already dates have been set for a series of three day sessions along the Marañon River in northern Peru, among the Aguaruna, or Awajun, communities. An Aguaruna colleague, Jacob Shajian, has given us a very complete planning document for this project, detailing 69 Awajun communities, dividing them into three groups, and pinpointing the best location for each session, the one that will allow the largest number of pastors and leaders to attend.

 

Jacob comments on the importance of this training: “The church has played a very important role in bringing harmony to the communities. Now development is coming, and the church must be the ‘motor’ of the development in the communities, because they represent the spiritual leadership the people will need.”

 

Thank you for being a part of this outreach.