El Indio

There are three churches we are currently investing in, here in Peru. One of them, called El Indio, is a settlement in the city of Piura, and is rather unique. The church is comprised of mostly young people; around twenty-five youth and only fifteen adults. Our sons enjoy interacting with the youth, giving music lessons and helping run retreats. More peculiar is the fact that, in this church, the members are all related to each other. They are literally one, big family. 

Being related to everyone in church poses some challenges, as you can imagine. 

Recently, we offered to spend an entire month with this church, however they wanted or needed us to serve. We started out by meeting with brother Martin, the encargado (overseer) of the church. (He has not been given the title of “pastor”, which is a whole other topic!) As we spoke with Martin and some of the other leaders, we learned more about the church’s painful history.

“There have been repeated moral failures in our leaders,” Martin told us. “This has left our church with a bad reputation in the community. What can we do?” 

Listening to him share, we realized that the church members were carrying a lot of shame—shame for what other leaders had done in the past. Also, they had never had the time to process how it felt to see their leaders fall. We sensed God saying that this issue needed to be addressed, before doing anything else. 

Over our weeks with them, we provided space for them to talk through their own emotions and unload that heavy load of shame that they had been carrying for years. They talked, cried, and named their fears, anger, shame and even guilt. Through it all, we prayed with them, inviting them to surrender everything that had been holding them back. It was a powerful time, and Martin and the leadership team expressed feeling free and excited about moving forward. 

We know that one month is not enough time for healing, and hope to continue walking with them. There is vision for a special service to be held at some point, where the church can ask the community for forgiveness for the sins of their past leaders. Please pray for God to continue to bring healing and reconciliation to the churches of Panama.