We are just days away from starting our second week of training camps. As of right now we already have one team serving in Thailand. The next training camp involves our Real Life teams (these are teams with college age participants). It really looks like the next 9 weeks will be activity filled. Much of my life will be training, sending out, and then receiving teams back for debrief.
In the midst of all that activity I will be joining one of our Ambassador teams for the first half of their trip in the Highlands of Peru. The following is description of the location and ministry that we will be involved with in Peru.
CONTEXT
The Ambassadors will be working in the village of Musho and the surrounding communities. 
Musho is in the state of Ancash, about 12 hours north of Lima in the highlands. Musho sits at the foot of Peru’s highest mountain, Huascaran which is 22,205 feet high. The Andes Mountains are the second highest mountain range in the world.
The geography is stunningly beautiful and season when the Ambassadors will be there offers almost perfect weather. Apart from an occasional bout of rain, the skies will be mostly clear and the mountains in full view. Musho sits at about 10,000 feet. It will be hot in the day and cool to cold at night. The sun is really intense.
PARTNER CHURCH
We will be working with a small Assembly of God Church that is led by a devoted young pastor named Pedro. Pedro is single and is in his early 20’s. He grew up in the church and his father was one of the church’s previous leaders. He believes that the best returns in terms of benefiting the work in that area will be focused on young people. He is particularly interested in grooming future leaders. His priority is focusing on the youth and on nurturing leaders who can help share the responsibilities of the church for evangelism and discipleship.
THE PEOPLE
The people we will be working with are “highlanders,” people of the mountains. They are direct descendents of the Inca. Their native language is Quechua. Most of the men speak Spanish. Most, but not all, of the women do as well. The women are much more comfortable with Quechua than they are with Spanish. There are many different dialects of Quechua throughout the highlands of Peru. 
These people are very hard workers. They get up early, work in their fields all day and go to bed not long after sunset. They live life at a subsistence level and it is almost impossible for them to envision life outside of that paradigm. Their culture goes back thousands of years. They have been doing things in the same way for millennia. Change does not come easily.
Women do much physical labor in the fields as well as care for their families. They walk up and down the mountain sides on foot most of the time. They are small and strong and typically healthy. Their dress is very distinctive. They are lovely people with big hearts.
MINISTRY
Door-to-door evangelism, outreaches in the town squares, sports ministry, drama, movies, and other outreach ministries. There are also ample opportunities for service ministry. We can help with projects at the church. The World Race Teams actually helped some of the families in their fields to help build relationships. The possibilities are really very broad.
I hope this gives you a good idea of the Ambassador trip that I will be involved with in June. On another note, Connie will not be joining the team as previously planned but instead spending 2 weeks in Belize as support staff for her dad, Gary Lengkeek. She leaves June 16th and returns the 27th… and will be around camp for the 3 days prior to my departure to Peru. Please be in prayer for all of our training and the teams that will be in the field, for the ministries taking place…and our adventures with missions! Thank you!
