A letter from Sara Armstrong and Rusty Edmondson serving in Peru
Summer 2016
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Individuals: Give online to E200530 for Sara Armstrong and Rusty Edmondson’s sending and support
Congregations: Give to D507510 for Sara Armstrong and Rusty Edmondson’s sending and support
Churches are asked to send donations through your congregation’s normal receiving site (this is usually your presbytery).
It is often hard to judge the impact of what we do. This year we celebrate five years of work in a small church near Cusco and we are reflecting on the impact of our short-term mission teams in that region.
In March of 2011 we got to know Pastor Leopoldo Aguilar Quispe. He has been a pastor with the Iglesia Evangélica Peruana (IEP) Church in the state of Cusco for many years. The IEP is a global church partner of the PC(USA). He and his wife, Jesusa, were sent by the Iglesia Grau, (the ‘mother church’ and the largest in Cusco) to begin a new mission church in a ‘pueblo joven.’ This new community of internal migrants is located on the hillside overlooking Cusco. It is off a dirt road on the way to the city dump.
We arrived in 2014 with a team from Houston, Texas, to help build the kitchen, bathrooms and add on to the sanctuary. Here is what the church looks like then and now.
Pastor Leopoldo has trained many of the young men in the area to work in the construction trades. This training helps these men find work in Cusco, which is currently in an economic boom. These same men are donating their skills back to the church, which now has the best-looking structure in the neighborhood and is one of the most attractive church buildings nationwide.On a trip with a team from First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Tenn., in 2015 we built wooden furniture for the Sunday School program of this church. On a day trip that team met a member of the IEP, a brother who despaired of never being able to obtain a prosthesis to replace the leg he lost in a farm accident. A podiatrist who accompanied the team felt the call to help. He and the senior pastor of the church in Jackson approached members of the medical community there and asked for support. They raised the funds to get Teodoro Ccolque walking on his new prosthesis leg. When Jackson’s team members returned to Cusco in 2016 they heard Teodoro’s testimony, and that of his son, as they both marveled at what God could do to fulfill dreams.
Pastor Leopoldo also has a vision of a seminary to train commissioned lay pastors who live in the high Amazon, east of the Andes about a five-hour bus ride from Cusco. He walked this entire region in his youth sharing the gospel and, now in his 70s, he is looking for others to take up this ministry. Meanwhile he has issued an open invitation to help build La Convention Bible Institute and conference center. First Presbyterian Church (FPC) in Bryan, Texas, has sent teams the last three years. This August the youth from Avondale Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, N.C., partnered with FPC. The Bryan members constructed walls, installed doors, windows and electricity to complete the building. They also provided bunk beds for the students and faculty to sleep on. Next year the kitchen will be finished with God’s help, and the classes, which moved there before the walls were constructed, will continue to train local men and women for service in the high jungle.
Leopoldo’s wife, Jesusa, is seminary trained, one of the few women to accomplish that in Peru. In fact, she met Leopoldo at the Sicuani Bible Institute south of Cusco. They have worked as a team for years and raised four children together. He supports her dream of a Presbytery of Cusco school for Quechua-speaking women. Together they raised money to underwrite the costs of producing curriculum and in faith they started the classes. Now 56 women have attended the first 4 (of 12) classes, and another group of 20 have just begun to study. The courses will be forming leaders with a basic theological background to minister in the Women’s Leagues of the churches around Cusco. They will be reaching out to the women who are immigrating from the more rural areas of Peru, women who are native Quechua speakers with little formal education, and welcoming them to be a part of the churches in the large city of Cusco.
Our role is to come alongside these visionaries and help them to make these dreams for ministry within the IEP church a reality. When, for a few days, faithful people who are ready to work come alongside our Peruvian partners with some tools and maybe with some extra funds, this act can be the spark to ignite the dream for ministry.
We want to thank you so much for your partnership, because your support and God’s grace are the means by which Leopoldo and Jesusa build up the body of Christ in the Cusco region of Peru. If you want to come alongside our partners in Peru, let us know. If you are able to support our work with your gifts, wisdom or ability, we would be delighted. Meanwhile, thank you for your faithfulness to us and for our shared work in Peru.
NOTE: This year, as in recent years, a group of committed Presbyterians has pledged to match all gifts sent for mission personnel support, up to $74,500, before the end of the calendar year. Your gift will garner a matching gift for all mission personnel. Please consider supporting us, our partners, and our brothers and sisters in faith in this special way. When you give online, simply write “matching gift” in the comments field. Here is a link: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/donate/E200530/
God bless!
Sara G. Armstrong
dos_zapatos@yahoo.com
U.S. Cell: 719 580 0321
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