Faith and Family Festival in Peru

We live in the Vitor Valley of Peru at Camp La Joya. When we first came to Peru, one of our goals as the camp administrators was to host a family event. We wanted this event to include many area churches that were not represented or were too small to have a voice. Recalling the beauty of the Better Together campaign, we set out to host an event that calls evangelical churches to unite and work together. There is great disunity in many of the Peruvian churches, thereby creating an “us versus them” mentality in the differences in teachings. Incidentally, we were invited to a meeting a few weeks before this with some of the area pastors, as well as other missionaries. We discussed the possibility of uniting the evangelical Peruvian churches and displaying a solidarity in our desire to work together and grow the church. This meeting reinforced what God had laid on our hearts to do. We even offered up the title of the moment to them as Better Together.

We pushed forward with this festival idea in hopes that it would the beginning of bringing this unity to our churches. We started planning it with the focus on music. We had heard that nothing like this had happened before in Vitor Valley. So on June 24th, the Faith and Family Festival took place. We had five Christian bands from different churches perform, games to play, a parrillada (BBQ), open pool, and a message given by one of the area pastors. 

We expected a team from Florida to arrive the day before to help set up the stage, decorate, and prepare for the game stations. Unfortunately, there were several travel delays for the team. And we added a last minute band to the day. It all added to a somewhat stressful, but joyous time.

We feel so blessed to have it all come together with over five area churches represented, and a handful of others that represented churches from Arequipa as well. Through all of this, Jesus’ name was made known and all glory belongs to Him. We are grateful that people have requested more and we pray that God will use this to further His kingdom and unite His people.

Thank you for your prayers for us at Camp La Joya. Please continue to pray for what God is doing through His church in Peru!