The Pachacutec Project
Every day new people from rural areas of Peru are arriving in Lima to find work and begin a new life. The government encourages new arrivals to settle in designated areas where they are provided with basic housing.
Pachacutec is one of those areas. The housing provided is very basic. Families are established in simple, one room, wooden shacks which would make most of our garden sheds look grand. Electricity is available but there is no running water or sewage. At present more than 50,000 people are living there.
People who work hard can make enough to improve their lot. Through time the area will become more prosperous and the housing provision will improve as families are able to build more permanent structures. The Los Olivos area started out in much the same way in the early 1980’s.
As you can imagine there is a lot of poverty and there are all the social problems that go with it. What is more, there has been little or no evangelical witness.
God Is At Work
Toward the end of 2007, Edwar and Sandra and a small team of people from the Jasmines Church, which is backing the project, began to reach out to the people of Pachacutec.
120 square meters of land was purchased with help from supporters in Ireland and a temporary building was erected on it. When the building was completed a bar-b-que was held to let people come and see what was going on.
Since the team held their first service in the new hall on Sunday 11th November 2007 the number of local people attending the services and the weekly Bible Study has steadily increased.
In December 2007 a Sunday School started and that was followed by the commencement of a Bible Club on Fridays and a young people's meeting on Saturdays. Then in January 2008 Sandra and Edwar started free English and Maths classes as a way of contacting local families.
The success of these ventures has been amazing. God is indeed blessing the new church in Pachacutec which continues to grow. It is now four years since the first meeting was held in Pachacutec. Already it has received a group of new believers into membership.
Follow the links opposite for more about Edwar and Sandra and how the Lord has been working in Lima.
