Mission Moments: Peru

Back to work in the Andes

Crossing a snowy pass to reach a village in the Peruvian Andes. (Photos by Edwin Milla)

Edwin Milla resumed the work of Climbing For Christ three months after the death of long-time indigenous missionary Jaime Servat and one month after he’d accepted the call to follow in his friend Jaime’s footsteps.

Edwin, a professional guide, has the ability to GO farther than Jaime could in his eight years serving with us. He will seek the lost in the most remote of locations in the Peruvian Andes.

He proposed a 2020 plan to visit villages near his (and Jaime’s) hometown of Huaraz as well as return to villages reached on past Evangelic Expeditions and explore new routes in the Quechua region of the Ancash. We saw this as a God-directed plan, and Edwin set out to start it in late November with a visit to the village of Quilcayhuanca.

“In this place I found an old woman in a totally chaotic state,” Edwin reported. “The Lord touched her heart and she did not hesitate to receive (Jesus).”

Feliciana Huarac, a woman with spiritual and physical needs served by Edwin.

The woman, Feliciana Huarac, who Edwin estimates to be in her late 90s, was captive to the syncretism of Catholicism and folk religion. “Now she is a (true) believer,” Edwin confirmed.

“She can’t see well. She can’t walk anymore. She’s abandoned. She’s totally poor.”

But she received the riches of Jesus.

In mid-December, Edwin returned to “visit the old woman carrying some food and some clothes, especially ministering with the Word of the Lord.”

In late December, Edwin visited other villages and ministered to farmers. To reach them he and his brother Marco crossed a pass covered in deep snow.

Ministering to farmers where other missionaries won’t go.

Two more trips are planned for February, and – Lord willing – there will be many more outreach opportunities in the months ahead.

“I am very excited and grateful to have given myself the opportunity to be part of your C4C team and together serve God,” Edwin said recently. “Meeting you (in 2011) was not a coincidence; it is a purpose of God! And I feel fortunate and blessed to serve Him through Climbing For Christ. Reaching lost souls through this ministry has been a very rewarding experience for me.

“I pray to God to continue to guide and use us as an instrument and give us strength to continue taking the outreach to the furthest places. To glory and honor. Amen!” 

The final Word

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” – 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)