As many of you know, Grace Church has a strong connection with a community of churches in Pisco, Peru, stemming from both long time missionary support to the late Dorothy and Alejo Quijada as well as through our church’s numerous mission trips to Pisco in the wake of a devastating earthquake in 2008. I also have my own personal relationship with Pisco through a summer music program I ran for three years through my own separate nonprofit organizations, Notes for Change, Inc. I wrote about my own personal journey and work in Peru in a previous Grace Upon Grace publication. Our church has not had a mission trip to Peru in about ten years, yet our relationships and impact continue. Last spring, Grace Church sent $6,000 to the Evangelical Church of Pisco. Here is a report on how we got reconnected and the impact of our support.
Reconnecting with IEP
In summer 2022, I reconnected in person for the first time in nine years with the church in Pisco where I had run my music programs, the Evangelical Church of Pisco (IEP- Iglesia Evangelica de Pisco). This was also one of the churches that Grace had helped reconstruct after the earthquake 2008, situated in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Pisco called La Pascana. I met with my dear friend Katty from this church who was so essential in running the Pisco Music Program with me. Since I had last visited, they had expanded their modestly sized one floor sanctuary into three floors. It was clear that their programs and impact had grown since I last saw them. IEP provides youth programming to the neighborhood where the majority of young people do not finish high school or go onto any kind of post high school study. Lack of education, food insecurity, and drugs are major problems in La Pascana. However, IEP has a vibrant youth program where they not only engage the students in activities after school and on weekends, but they also mentor them and encourage them to pursue degrees after high school, with the majority of the youth preparing for careers after high school. As I walked through the street of La Pascana with Katty that summer, children would run up to her giving hugs and saying hello. It was clear that Katty and her church were making an impact in their community.
Doing A Lot With A Little
I was so inspired by what I saw in summer 2022, that I appealed to the Grace Church session to provide the money needed to finish their third floor space which they didn’t have funds to complete on their own. This space is dedicated to the high school students for their after school and weekend programming. In April 2023, Grace Church sent $6,000 to a church in Pisco and since then, they have completed the third floor! They still have work to do on the space, but are using the resources they have to run their programs. This past month, they ran their Vacation Bible School, serving 50 children!
This is a church that knows what it means to do a lot with very little. I have shared with Grace members a few times in the last months that at Grace, we can relate to the story of the fishes and loaves, where Jesus took five loaves and two fish, and turned it into enough to feed 5,000. What might feel like a small congregation, without a building and in transition, continues to generate life, community, and programs. We can do a lot with a little. This metaphor is even more alive within the church in Pisco. They are a small congregation, with almost no financial resources, who live in a neighborhood with overwhelming physical and social needs, yet they continue to make an impact on their neighborhood and nurture their community of faith.
God Uses Ordinary People
I hope we can find ways in the future to continue to support this congregation in La Pascana, Pisco. The people who run this church are not paid. They did not go to seminary. They are ordinary people who have great faith and commitment to God and their community. They face enormous obstacles given the economic and political reality of Peru. Yet, they continue to inspire me as they demonstrate persistent faith, trust, and abounding joy in God.
Liz Moulthrop