Peru Ministry to Children with Compassion

This has been an experience of a lifetime. We have been so welcomed everywhere we go with the beautiful smiles of the Peruvian people. They love the ministry of Compassion because it has made such a huge difference in their lives. We have come from Canada representing the churches and the people who have supported them and they cannot express their gratitude to us enough.

Many of them have so very little but they have been so generous to us. Everywhere we have gone we have revived gifts of homemade scarves, homemade chocolates, crafts, and pottery. They make these things in order to sell them at the market to make a few soles to live on.

The first home visit that we made was to a family living in a shack with a makeshift roof of cardboard and metal and a dirt floor. They had a cat to keep the rats away and 4 kittens with fleas. There was a chicken running around the house and they were raising a guinea pig, not as a pet but I found out later that they were raising it to eat. The mother had lived in this shack for 23 years and her youngest child was 7 years old. Her second oldest still lived with them with his daughter as well. The entire area was bit mire than 500 square feet to house 8 people. She was so appreciative that we visited and so happy to talk to us about her life and the difference that Compassion made for them.

We have visited the Compassion projects where children are cared for and taught from a young age about hygiene and life skills, spiritual development and social and personal care. Compassion teaches each child about Jesus, and the teachers all love Jesus and see their work as a ministry in caring for the children. Many of the compassion children have gone on to work at Compassion or to fill leadership roles in Peruvian companies.

I have been able to share my songs in Spanish and they have loved hearing music in their own language telling of the love of God. The project directors have Cd players and they have promised to share the music with the children and to tell my story of God's healing even when I have gone back to Canada. I am so grateful to be able to share the love of Jesus with these people and I have received far greater blessings in return.