About Ica, Peru

Ica is the capital of the Ica Region in souther Peru. Founded in 1563 by Spanish conquistador Geronimo Lui de Cabrera, it had previously been inhabited by indigenous peoples. The city suffered major damage and loss of life during the 2007 Peru earthquake.

The vast majority of Peru’s population identify as Catholic (76%), while 24% identify as Evangelical Christian. Amerindian religious traditions also play a major role in the beliefs of Peruvians. Catholic festivities like Corpus Christi or holy week and Christmas sometimes blend with Amerindian traditions which show the unification of the indigenous peoples’ impression with the Christian faith. Amerindian festivities which were celebrated since pre–Columbian times are also widespread throughout the nation. Inti Raymi, which is an old Inca festival, is still celebrated. The majority of towns, cities and villages have their own official cathedral or church and patron saint.

Call to Ministry

In 2009 we retired and created a charity called the Latin American Missions Association (LAMA) focused on helping the people of Peru, Lily’s home country, specifically because of a devastating 8.0 earthquake just a few years earlier. We received a donation of a well–placed parcel of land right in the center of town of one of the most severely earthquake’damaged villages north of Ica. We have gone down there annually (lately twice annually) with outreaches (taking eyeglasses, dental items, clothing, toys, sandals, Bibles, tracts, and more) to help the residents and have had many legal, engineering, and planning meetings on developing the property.

• 2012 – with a clear breakthrough that could only be from above (adding 50% more to the donated property), we were able to finish demolishing the old structure and clearing it for construction the following year.
• 2013 – We had two trips this year and on the second trip we succeeded in completing the 1st floor of what would eventually be a 3–floor building. In working closely with a very Spirit–filled church in Ica, we had a church plant on site, with the first service being in October 2013 and weekly youth programs.
• 2014–2015 – With two trips each year, we built out the 2nd & 3rd floors of the property, and this was a significant effort. We also had a year of OANSA (Spanish for AWANA) that was quite well received at the mission. We were ready for occupancy and welcomed our full time Missionaries in October of 2015. We worked with them for a month before leaving them on their own. They worked side by side with the volunteers coming up weekly from Ica to run the OANSA a 2nd year, which had 45 active children.
• 2015 Christmas – From the USA, we also worked with the missionaries to have a fantastic Christmas for the villagers. We worked with the local government to do a detailed census, coming up with names of 400 additional un–churched children, far more than the 45 we already had active at the mission. We also knew of another 4–500 in a village only 2 kilometers to our north. We have no idea how it worked but we were able to touch with a gift or treat up to 900 children that Christmas. What a great opening for the mission which was newly occupied and running.
• 2016 – We have returned twice in 2016, a total of 5 months, and watched the activities grow immensely at the mission with 4–5 home fellowships going on in the homes of the villagers, active youth program being now run by the missionaries. Weekly church services moved to Sunday with an increasing attendance, fantastic relations being planted and growing. We welcomed the San Diego Hearts and Hands knitting & crocheting ministry in August of 2016 and there has been weekly knitting activities at the mission ever since. In late 2016, we broke ground on a second building for a youth center and permanent missionary housing. Also, Irma Reyes joined the Sanchez’s as a resident missionary in November of 2016. Her contribution to the team effort has been significant.
• 2017 – With the Peru floods early in the year, we funded food and water and provided clothing and sandals for an outreach. Although ‘our side’ of the river was spared, many homes, villages, jobs and crops were washed away on the other side. What was most impressive was that the missionaries organized this outreach with villagers helping villagers. Much more help is needed. Just an example of the reason we are there. San Diego Hearts and Hands returned for a well received 2nd visit to the mission.
• YWAM – We started meeting with Youth With a Mission, finding out that we were very similar in outlook, desire to plant more churches, working with children, a mission perspective, outreach, discipleship, and attracting many to work with children and teens. YWAM was most helpful with translation with Hearts and Hands during their visit.
• Samaritans Purse – After two years of meeting with Samaritans Purse in USA, and Lima Peru, we were successful in getting them to look south of Lima for the first time. This year we reached out to 160 unchurched children with this program, with it’s gift box and 12 week witnessing program. We also did a significant amount of work on the 2nd building in early 2017, opening up the childrens center. We finished the building in it’s entirety later in 2017. Sadly at the end of 2017, our 3 Mexican missionaries went home. We had a missionary friend from Mexico come to the mission for a month of overlap with our exiting team, and on his own to cover for holidays the last month of the year.
• 2018 – We returned first of the year for our longest stay ever, 8 months. I applied for residency visa. We pursued further our relationship with YWAM, striking up a relationship with a pastoral couple (Sosimo & Yannirett Borriga, with 7 year old son Samuel) from Venezuela who were highly qualified and most interested in our mission efforts. We started our second year with Samaritans Purse, this time with 200 children. I also spent 3 months with YWAM getting qualified for turning our mission into a potential future YWAM site, the 7th in Peru. We had missionary visits from Cusco, Lima, Australia, Portland Oregon, Washington State.
• 2019 – Returning late 2018, we had a very productive 8 months (through July) running a YWAM Discipleship Training School (5 months) which included 2 months outreach to Bolivia, south Peru, Ica & Lima. We did 12 baptisms in 10 months (Aug 2018 to May 2019) with 2 Canadians, 1 Venezuelan and 9 Peruvians. We did our 2nd major residential project for a local widow who needed a kitchen, bathroom runng water, walls, windows and more. We introduced a dental hygiene ministry to the village, cleaning 150 mouths; introduced baseball with a large equipment donation (children love it); We were so blessed by visiting missionaries from USA (CA, ID, IL, OH, OR, PE, TX, VA, WA), Australia, Canada, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Belize, Switzerland and more. We pray that God gives us the right opportunities to turn many of these short term visits into long term missionaries that see what we see in the people of these communities.
• 2020–2021 – Covid years, we got locked down like the rest of the world, but dug in and resumed construction, this time on a farm house with 2 hectares of property, to initiate an agricultural ministry. We did a lot of work online, working with children with a ‘network’ we created, and gradually as the restrictions released, we were bold enough to have our 2nd Discipleship school in 2021. This time we did our outreach to the north of coastal Peru as well as Ecuador. The border was closed due to Covid but God found a way. We initiated a home building project that was going to take 2 years for a single mom of 4 children.
• 2022–2023 – Our ministry was going full in 2022, rebuilding and re-establishing our weekly visits to the 5+ villages that we had to stop during Covid. We completed the 2 year home build project we started in 2021. Little by little, we built ourselves back up in ministry to where we were before. We had our 5th Samaritan’s Purse in 2023, our discipleship program for the children. We also continue to grow the teen ministry, and are making great inroads with cellular bible study, individual adult ministries, ministry to women and others. We purchased 3 small lots in 3 different villages to establish footholds of ministry with these families. We have more building costs in front of us to outreach with these new properties.

So much more to do, as we are just starting to get a teenage program underway, we have successfully reached out in a big way to the large village to our north (el Olivo) but we definitely need another full time missionary or couple to make this success sustaining. We desperately need a means of transportation as we are walking everywhere in support of 6 locations, need to be able to transport children to the mission for many activities, picking up and dropping off visiting missionaries, and more. We are halfway through raising funding toward raising $30,000 to acquire. The youth are turning into mission volunteers, as they become teenagers and love working and visiting at the mission. We have become the ‘place to be&squo; for the youth when they are not at home. We promote activities, board games, movies on Friday, knitting, chess, music lessons, english teaching, homework assistance, internet for schoolwork, Samaritans Purse “Great Adventure” training, and far more. With earthquakes that brought us here, floods and more that keep us busy, evangelism is our number one goal. If you can’t come, help to send and support those that can. There is so much to do, so much need, and every bit of support is used most wisely. Our missionaries are supported by their local churches, some not as well as others. We all pay our own way as to travel, lodging and living expenses, so that 100% of all resources that are provided can go toward the needs of the villagers. God bless you for reading this, for forwarding to others, and for your prayers and support. “The harvest is plenty but the workers are few.”

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