The Vision
Our vision is to see a custom built centre in operation by the end of 2007. This will make Family Focus much more effective than waiting several years for the necessary funding. Please join us in praying that this might become a reality.
The Potential
This centre will help us more effectively provide some of the training opportunities that are now difficult without adequate premises. It will also open the door to many more which at present are not practical. This includes regular seminars on a range of topics, overnight children's camps, marriage retreats, missionary workshops for children and residential training of leaders in many areas of life and witness.
The Need
Prayer and wisdom: Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain.
(Psalm 127:1 NIV)
Funding:
The total cost for the project will be around £90,000 not including the land already purchased. It would be good if many people were able to share in realising this vision through small regular donations rather than depending on a few large gifts. We have a great God and are looking to Him to provide for his work among families and churches in Peru.
Finding Out More
We are looking to the Lord to provide through His people. Can YOU help in any way? We don’t expect anyone to give sacrificially without being properly informed, so we have a number of informative, visual resources to help you grasp the bigger picture. To receive these, or to find out more about our work, please get in touch! It is a great opportunity to play a significant part in God’s work in Peru and experience the truth of Jesus’ words:
It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35 NIV)
How can I help?
If you would like to give to help Family Focus encourage Peruvian believers to be salt and light and therefore better witnesses for Christ through the development of this centre, please send your donations to the nearest SIM Office marked: “Family Focus Ministry Centre Project PE91548”. If you are a taxpayer, you can download a Gift Aid declaration form below. This increases the value of your gift by 28%. N.B. Cheques should be made payable to “SIM”, NOT the project. For the UK:
SIM-UK,
Wetheringsett Manor,
Wetheringsett,
Stowmarket,
Suffolk
IP14 5QX
Family Focus Ministry Centre Project
Background
We have spent the last 9 years in Peru as missionaries with SIM concentrating on a ministry to children. This has included training leaders, producing teaching materials and running evangelistic clubs and camps. This time has helped us to gain an insight into the real needs of Peru and in the light of that develop a strategy for the future expansion of the ministry. One step we have taken has been to establish Family Focus.
This is an evangelical, interdenominational, non-profit organization registered in Peru and directed by a board consisting of ourselves and four mature Peruvian Christians. So far it has made available: Weekly children’s club material, 5 holiday Bible club packs, songs and visual aids, evangelistic leaflets, children’s devotional material, discipleship manuals and children’s ministry workshops.
Changing Lives
Pastor Adam Llamoca is working among 14 congregations along the southern coast of Peru. Although a pastor there for 16 years he feels he is just beginning to see a real breakthrough. The constant struggle against grinding poverty all around and the lack of basic resources makes his job so much harder than it need be. One important area of his work is among children like these whose happy smiles disguise the poverty they live in. Each week they, and others like them, hear the Bible taught at one of several children’s clubs which have operated since April 2002.
However, there is a great need for materials and leadership training. Family Focus is helping to meet some of these needs. Amidst all the suffering there are many hearts open to the gospel and it is these Pastor Llamoca is reaching with the good news.
Pastor Llamoca’s situation is not unique. Many men and women struggle valiantly to be salt and light in this poor but spiritually open country. Pedro Cornejo and his wife Cecilia, who is the Family Focus secretary, are working in a middle class church in Arequipa. Even among the better-off, there is a serious shortage of training and resources for outreach. The materials now provided by Family Focus have been warmly received and widely used throughout Arequipa over the last few years.
Milagros and her younger sister Gabriela are now using the devotional notes produced by Scripture Union in Argentina and distributed by Family Focus to help them have a daily quiet time.
A Major New Project
To build on what has already been achieved and to more effectively help people like Pastor Llamoca, Pedro and Cecilia Cornejo, Milagros, Gabriela and many others, land has been purchased to provide a custom built resource centre, library and Christian training facility for use by all the evangelical churches of Arequipa, a city of around a million. The benefit of material produced and made available by Family Focus will be felt throughout Peru and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. However, to adequately develop, produce and distribute the materials suitable premises are required.
