Good News in the Andes

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”  –Isaiah 52:7

This is a happy occasion for Julio and his wife Estela. They are traveling in the mountains bringing good news to children in different villages. Thirty years ago they traveled those same mountains but not in happy spirits. Because of the Shining Path terrorist they had to flee from their village and leave everything behind. I remember when we welcomed them at our Bible Institute in Huancayo and had to keep them hidden.

I don’t know what year they were able to go back, because we had moved on to work in Bolivia and later we came to the United States. Today Julio is a pastor and a social anthropologist. For several years we have emailed each other.

His latest emails have come with photos of a favorite activity, to bring the good news of salvation to schoolchildren in several villages in the Andes: New Testaments from the Gideons and The Book of Life from One Hope. Enjoy the picture show.

 

 

These pictures are from Sucre. All the schools in the Province of Sucre in Ayacucho received New Testaments. For some of the students and teachers it was the first time they had the Word of God in their hands.

Julio, with New Testaments at one of the school.

Children use uniforms. Here they are, from the school in Tintay.

The teachers also received New Testaments.
Julio with one of the teachers.

Here is a school from the jungle. No high walls. No air conditioning for sure.
This is an area declared “red” because of the drug terrorism.

No walls at all here! This is exciting for me, that the Book of Life (Book of Hope in English) has reached them. Many years ago I worked with Life Publishers in Florida, during the first years of launching this book. It has now gone around the world reaching millions of boys and girls. Even to the jungle in the Andes Mountains of Peru.

Pray for Julio and Estela and their ministry based in Ayacucho, where the terrorists were very strong in the eighties. Pray for the boys and girls that for the first time have received the Word of God. One day, when they grow up, they will be bringing the Good News over the mountains.