If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing...(1 Cor. 13:2b)

Connecting Resources and Needs

Last month I spent some time waiting at Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport. Invariably, I witnessed short-term mission (STM) groups, identifiable by their T-shirts coming and going. It is likely that about a third of all STM participants from the U.S. travel to somewhere in Latin America. There were Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Methodists, Pentecostals, and Mennonites. I was there to learn from our Latin American director, David Quispirroca, where MMI has a very successful (STM) ministry in large part due to David Q’s giftedness.

The primary reason that STM groups travel from the U.S. to Peru (rather than vice-versa) is economic. These groups travel from materially wealthy Christian communities to partner with Christian communities that are often numerically and spiritually as vigorous as their own, but are, by comparison, materially poor. Only 8.5 percent of pastors in Lima receive pastoral incomes of more than $500 a month. 72 percent are paid less than $250 a month, and 41 percent receive less than $125 a month—an income reflective of that of their parishioners.

Peruvian evangelicos are part of lower, lower-middle, and middle classes that—in contrast to Protestant church members in North America—live under incredible economic constraints. The cost of living in Lima is not low. It is difficult to provide healthy diets, health care, or education for one's own children and difficult to pay for expensive church buildings, seminary education, or musical equipment on an income of $125 to $250 a month. A typical North American STM member traveling to Peru and serving for two weeks will spend $1,800 on expenses related to their voluntary service.

A function of short-term mission trips is to create links between Christians with more material resources to those with less. One common pattern is for visiting groups to participate in the construction of a templo (a church building). The visiting group may or may not include professional builders, but it will definitely bring resources. For example, one group of Peruvian churches that I observed this summer arranged for high-school-age groups to live in their church facilities as they helped with construction and outreach activities (teaching English, visiting schools, etc.). Each group member provided their host church with $260 for their food and lodging for ten days and $285 toward the costs of construction. This, of course, adds up.

A smaller group of fifteen provided $4,275 toward construction costs. A larger group of thirty-three provided $9,400. The church that received this larger group is located on a strategic plaza with a property—now valued at more than a million dollars—that was built over the years through the collaborative aid of twenty-eight visiting short-term mission teams. This is simply one example of a way in which resource-sharing occurs. All over Lima one can find church sound systems or music sets provided by visiting short-term mission groups.

The STM teams that David Q organizes and brings into Peru teach English, perform dramas, or sing songs. They provide a means for Peruvian evangelicos to establish connections or to open doors for service and witness. These STM trips are underpinned by humble service, sacrificial stewardship, and wise leadership, and they potentially make important contributions to the global church. This is the ministry of Mountain Mover, David Quispirroca.