I came from a very poor family.  I never owned a pair of shoes until I was nine years old, and that was only when I was sent away to work in a restaurant in exchange for food, accommodation and a chance of a better life.  I was treated pretty badly by my employers there.  When I was 17 I decided to go and find my father in Lima.  He'd left us a long time ago, to marry another woman and have more children.  But when I met him, he wouldn't acknowledge me.  He said, "I'm not your father and you're not my daughter."   This was a huge rejection for me.  Because of my loneliness, I turned to the Catholic church.  But this just confused me even more, with its golden altars, candles and images of Mary and Jesus.  I just wanted to know who is God, and who is the right God.

When I was 20 years old I began a relationship with a young man.  I became pregnant, and he left me.  My mom, back in my village, didn't want anything to do with me because I was pregnant, and wouldn't take me back home.  One night I was standing on a bridge, wanting to jump off.  I asked God, "Why am I here?  What do you want me to do?  What is this suffering for?"  When I looked up, the first thing I saw was the light in the window of a job agency.  I applied there for a job as a maid for an American family.  This family looked after me well, and I stayed with them up until the last day of my pregnancy.

When my son was born, I went back to my mom, who took us in.  Three months later, a group of Christian missionaries from Lima came to our village.  They preached about a God of love, and about a Saviour Jesus Christ.  My family and I went to their meetings, and it was there that I met God for the first time.  It was the love of the heavenly Father that really touched me.  I was overwhelmed because I'd never know love from my own father.  I accepted Christ into my life, and dedicated my baby son to Him.  My whole family also came to know the Lord. 

My life didn't become easy after that.  I married a local man who promised to care for me.  But three days later he began to beat me.  I lived for three years with his abuse and alcoholism.  This only ended when he met another woman and left us.  For years after this, I lived in fear of drunken men in the street.  Little by little, God freed me from this fear, and comforted me by the words of Zechariah 4:6 '"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit', says the Lord Almighty."

I moved to a nearby village, to work in a tomato farm with a group of other women.  A group of us believers began to meet in houses to study God's word and pray.  This group grew and grew.  Unfortunately, a religious sect came into our town and caused division.   It broke my heart as more and more believers left our church.  Eventually, the only remaining believers in our church were my mother, brothers and I.  But we clung to the promises of God and our village church is building up again.  I've now studied 3 years of theology by distance in Cotahuasi to prepare me to evangelise and disciple in other towns.  I want to teach women to walk in the ways of God and minister to those who have been through abuse like I have.  I lived in a dark world.  Now with God I live in the light and it's wonderful… I want to bring the light to other women in the same situation. 

Women's evangelism and discipleship, hospitality, and accounting for ministry projects.

Rosa (9-30-55) has suffered a lot; abondoned by her father, sent away to work at the age of 9, and abused by an alcoholic husband.  She received Christ through a Christian missionary.  Her heart is now to reach out to women and abandoned children.  She suppots the church in her home village.  Rosa has adopted an abandoned 3 year old boy whom she found in a remote village.