Up until ten years ago, I followed the customs of my Catholic mother and father.  We never knew fatherly affection or love as kids because our dad lived with another woman, where he had other children.  My mother raised us four children alone (3 boys and a girl).  When we were teenagers, my brother left and went to Lima to work.  A few years later he invited us to come, and so the rest of us moved to Lima where I went to high school.  My life was like anyone else's there, involving fiestas, idol processions, and alcohol.  My life was without direction.  For me, God was inside the Catholic church.  I had no idea that He was alive in heaven.  One day a Jehovah's Witness visited my mother and I, and talked to us about the things of God.  He invited us to his meetings and we went for three months.  But during all this time, there was no change in my life; I continued living

living as a sinner.  However, inside me I had a desire to know the true God.  Every time I passed by the door of an Evangelical church I felt drawn to go inside. 

I liked listening to secular music, and one day I happened to listen to a Christian radio station.  I heard one message after another, and also heard some worship songs.  I began to like listening, and through this station I heard the Gospel, and understood that it was sin to be without God.  I soon returned to my village to find work.  In the neighboring village there happened to be some Christians.  My family and I got to know them, and we became Christians.  We were baptized by an American missionary, who was working in the province in the 1990s. 

I didn't have much doctrine, but I started to share the gospel, and began to lead a small group of believers in my village.  A few years later, Brad Shaw and his family moved here to work in the La Union region.  They offered to support us with materials and studies, which was a huge blessing.  They prepared us as a group of workers to go out to the villages.  I want to thank the Lord for the support of the many brothers in the United States who have come and motivated us.  May the Lord bless them richly. 

Church planing in 2 remote villages.  Is an elder in his own village church.

Lorenzo (8-10-60) is local to the Cotahuasi canyon area.  From a life of partying, Lorenzo heard the Gospel through a Christian radio station, and was later led to Christ through a local church.  He is passionate about church planting in the rural villages.  Over the years, when many fell away in his village church he remained strong.