Long-Term Results. How?

A letter from Sara Armstrong serving in Peru

April 2016

The question always remains: How do we engage in short-term mission and achieve long-term results? Here’s one example: As Presbyterian mission workers in Peru we have been very involved with the Sicuani Bible Institute (SEBIS), a school related to the Evangelical Church of Perú (IEP), our partner. Sicuani is in the Peruvian highlands (altiplano) on the road south from Cusco to Puno. The altitude is over 11,400 feet; the air is dry, and the ground is fertile, both for the crops and for the gospel.

SEBIS was started by European missionaries 70 years ago. It is the only IEP school to educate Christian leaders in Quechua for service to hundreds of rural churches in the southern Peruvian states of Cusco and Puno.

When the European missionaries left, the Institute was not prepared to stand alone. The campus infrastructure is antiquated and the mission to educate lay pastors with a residential program was increasingly out of step with the rural reality in Peru. Even young people who feel called to the ministry find moving to urban congregations more economically viable than pastoring in a rural village that has no jobs to offer.

Over the last four years Rusty and I have visited SEBIS several times a year, sometimes with teams. A team from Avondale Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C., helped rebuild the chapel into a multi-use building and make the bathroom facilities function. SEBIS put out the call for an ayni—the ancient Quechua custom of hands-on work as a community toward common goals. In this case, the ayni consisted of Peruvians working alongside U.S. Presbyterians. We’ve been amazed to witness how Peruvians will travel for hours to join in these community work initiatives. When SEBIS puts out the call for an ayni, people gather from far and wide to pitch in!

Woodlands Community Presbyterian Church (WCPC) near Houston, Texas, helps each year with scholarships and is offering an agricultural plan that could help to sustain the Institute financially. Kingwood Presbyterian Church in Kingwood, Texas, and WCPC have been working with Peruvians to help build a new kitchen/dining room and women’s dorm project. This is urgently needed since the current buildings for those purposes are deteriorated.

IEP and SEBIS have expressed the need for a long-range strategic plan for the school, but they didn’t have the resources or technical skills to develop one. Fortunately, another Presbyterian ecumenical partner in the region specializes in helping churches do long-range planning. The Regional Ecumenical Center for Advocacy and Service (CREAS) in Buenos Aires (www.creas.org) has worked with many of our partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to develop strategic plans. They are well respected for their ability to help churches and church-related institutions plan for the future. The director, Humberto Shikiya, agreed to work with SEBIS as they developed a long-range plan that includes a process of monitoring its implementation. We shared this offer with Kingwood PC, and they agreed to fund the planning process. We had not thought about participating ourselves until various partners asked us to be present at the first gathering in March.

It was a fascinating experience to participate in this three-day process as we sat with many of the Peruvians who have an interest in the future of SEBIS. One frail elderly couple had been part of the school since it was founded. Members of the synod and the presbytery took part. The most vocal participants were the students. Classes started this month with 30 young people, almost double the number of residential students the prior year. (The summer student program also saw a big jump in numbers this year.) The students took enthusiastic part in the workshops, in the worship, and in providing music for the SEBIS Assembly to start the school year.

One serendipitous event was the presence of the new president of IEP’s National Executive Council (CEN). Pastor Alcides Franco was elected to take over the huge responsibility of guiding the work of the 2,000+ IEP churches at their national Assembly in January. A landslide on the central highway left him stranded in Lima for several weeks as he was unable to return to his home in the central Andes. Because he was available, we invited him to travel with us to Cusco and Sicuani. He participated in the three-day event at SEBIS and was able to meet for the first time, in a formal way, with many IEP leaders in southern Peru.

Rev. Franco preached and took part in the workshop. We were delighted to discover that not only can he play the zampoña, charango and guitar, but he also composes music. He shared his music with us in worship and in the pick-up music groups in the chapel and on the seminary lawns. We enjoyed three days of really fun music!

CREAS will compile and systematize all the information gathered at this consultation and return a draft of the new strategic plan for reviews in April and June. In July U.S. teams will be arriving at Sicuani as will Peruvians from distant Quechua-speaking communities for more aynis. Sicuani is a ministry where an Argentinian, numerous Peruvians, and U.S. short-term teams are faithfully working together to achieve long-term results.

And that is how short-term mission groups can participate in achieving long-term results!

Your gifts continue to encourage us and keep us focused on the future. Thank you! If you are called to give to our work you can do so here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/donate/E200530/.

Your prayers strengthen our resolve. Thank you again! If you want to know more about our work you can find out here: www.pcusa.org/sara-armstrong-and-rusty-edmondson.

May God continue to guide and strengthen us all as we strengthen the work of SEBIS through prayers, presence and giving.