PERU MISSIONS 2004 - TESTIMONIES
Seung Hee Kim

Gloria a Dios! It was truly an honor and privilege to be used by God to minister to His people in Peru. I could really sense that God had a special place in His heart for the Peruvians and was moving powerfully in this country. This trip was most eye-opening in the sense that it changed the way I look at missions. God showed me that missions is a lifestyle, not just a one time trip to a foreign country. As we traveled to different places we had the opportunity to meet and spend time with several of His lay workers. There were a couple that particularly stood out.

Missionary Jon and his wife Rebecca came to the city of Lima two years ago with their four children to serve at the ‘Camino de Vida’ church. They are currently involved in a wheelchair ministry overseeing the delivery of wheelchairs to some of the most severely handicapped people in the city. The couple was born and raised in the United States, so relocating to Peru certainly must have come with its difficulties of adjusting to a different lifestyle, learning a new language, and getting to know the nationals in the context of their culture.

Yet, the couple seemed to have only a heart of thankfulness for the ways He’s provided for their needs and directed their every step. Their lives were overflowing with joy and peace because they knew that they were in the center of God’s will. It was truly humbling to see their whole life being committed to the work of God.

During our stay in Lima we also visited an Orphanage called ‘Hogar para niños’ in the outskirts of Lima where we met the pastor who was overseeing the Orphanage. He took care of the 35 kids who were there as if they were his own children. While we were given a tour, one of the girls in the orphanage ran right up to the pastor and wrapped her arms around him as if to let him know how much she loved him. Some of the children had truly heartbreaking testimonies of how they were abused and abandoned by their parents.

If it hadn’t been for the orphanage, they most likely would have ended up in the streets with no prospects for the future. But in this orphanage, I could hardly tell that these children were without parents. The pastor was not only committed to serve in the orphanage but He poured out everything He had for the kids. He wanted them to know that just because their parents abandoned them didn’t mean that they weren’t loved. He wanted to point them to Christ who loved them far more than they could ever imagine. This same heart of wanting to share God’s love was also seen in a local missionary in Pucallpa.

During the boat trip down the Ucayali river, we met a missionary who had been ministering to the small villages down the river for almost 30 years. The boat trip was pretty tough and some people from the team will claim that it was the most physically challenging part of the trip but this missionary had traveled like this for 30 years! Not only that but he sold watermelons during the other half of the year to support himself. It seemed like no sacrifice was too great for this missionary when it came to doing God’s work.

These are only snapshots of some of the missionaries and pastors I met in Peru. There were also so many others who were making a direct impact in their communities and being powerful vessels of God’s love in a dark and depraved world. What all of these Christians had in common was that they knew God’s heart.

They knew that His heart breaks for the lost and needy and that living according to His ways is far greater than their own. These people were able to go the extra distance and live out such radical lives because they knew that what God had done to save them was a far more radical action. It was simply their response to the awesome love of God they had seen and accepted.

Maybe they would not reap the fruits of their labor or receive the recognition here on this earth but it was the knowledge that their life was being used to build God’s kingdom that gave them a heart of contentment.

Working alongside these people, seeing their life and hearing of the struggles and victories they were experiencing on the field has given me a far greater insight and understanding of mission work. All in all, the experiences from Peru have given me a greater desire to invest my life in making an eternal difference in the lives of others.

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