la Misión ? What are we about?
What is “LAMA la Misión” All About?
- Who/What/Where: If you are interested in more of the “bigger picture”, such as where in Peru, who we are or why we are ‘here’, you should first look at this link for that info.
- Overview Mission: Here is a good (6 minute) video which gives you a great visit of the location, ourselves, facilities, dreams, needs. It’s 2018, so already dated!!
- Missionary information: And after reading this page and all of the above, if you would love to come down and join us for a short or long missionary trip, please do!! This info is aimed at a week or two group visit. For something longer, or individual, which we highly encourage, lets talk!!!
- Map info: Just looking for some basic map directions to find us (once you are in Peru) by car or bus. And
- What’s in Ica? From a tourist perspective, what else is located near us.
The above additional sources aside, to speak specifically about ”la Misión”(simply spanish for “the Mission”), let us give you some idea of what we do here.
We encourage working with outside churches to bring missionaries to these villages. We have had churches come down for a week or two, individuals and families come for weeks or 1 to 3 months, year or more. We strongly are encouraging people that wish to do mission work and commit to this area for 1-5 years as well. Our mission is equipped for short or long term mission visits
Our primary focus is evangelizing with the children, and also their family needs. We teach them God’s love via drama, exercise, music, dance, sports, arts & crafts, and more. We have a tremendous number of children that we work with in the surrounding villages.
- The local government helped us do a census in 2015 and we initially came up with about 450 children between the ages of 2 to 12 in 4 of the villages. The census did not cover Olivos, the large village to our north, where we estimated another 350+
- The local government has been encouraging us (with facilities and contacts) to also work in San Juan Bautista (a short car ride south of us, about 7 kilometers) and we have been doing so since 2017. Recently we also added Quilloay, a small occupation area just before we get to San Juan. These two areas add easily another 650 children (ages 2-12) to our total.
- We estimate that we also have 5 to 700 teenagers in same geographic distance to mission.
Of the above mentioned 7 villages that we visit, 5 are in immediate walking distance, 2 are nearby that we drive to. Activity photos with children at these different locations are visible in many different location specific albums on our facebook page:
- El Carmen (where “la Misión“ is located), and
- Invacion (which is immediately next door, where we have had on and off home bible studies),
- San Pedro (only village that is a gravel road walk away but closest to “Cristo Blanco“),
- El Olivo (to our north, a large very active with children village),
- Altura (closest to our north and where the clinic is located),
- Quilloay, our newest location to our south about 4 kilometers, and
- San Juan Bautista, a large village, by request of the mayor, that is 7 kilometers south of the mission. (we need to take a car ride to get to both of the last two sites).
We had 160 children in 2017, and 200 children in 2018. From that program, where you are required to give the shoebox out at the beginning, we had great follow-through with the 12 weeks of ‘Gran Aventura” training which followed, with graduates of 40 & 60 respectively.
In 2019, our 3rd year, we had a lot of teaching material left but no shoeboxes since Samaritan Purse wasn’t in our area. So, we put together our own shoeboxes of gifts. God was with us since he had one missionary bring us a dozen soccer balls, two other young missionaries from opposite sides of Canada, brought us a lot of school supplies. A church group from Illinois brought us a suitcase full of stuffed animals. God provided. We also, being in full control, changed the program to give the shoebox at the end of the training and we had a far better graduate percentage with 40 of our 50 students. God was really blessing us.
In 2022, we had our 4th year, starting with 60 children, and are already signed up for 2023 (our 5th year!).
- We ran AWANA (OANSA in spanish) programs for ages 2 to 12 for two years, and followed with a year of a home grown Bible School similarly modeled, all before we adopted the Samaritans Purse training. We have just received training for an OANSA teen program to teach. We hope to start a teen center on the 3rd floor very soon (bought a foosball table! looking for air hockey next).
- We have other Vacation Bible School teaching material that we are also working with.
Education Opportunities
in language, music, school studies, prep school work, reading, computer skills, sports and more. Most of these children get a basic schooling in a government school nearby and few have any more opportunities in front of them other than to default into labor work on farms near by. If you have teaching skills, we have the children that you can work with.
SPORTS!!
- Kids love to play soccer, basketball or volleyball with visiting missionaries. With a new Venezuelan resident pastor, and a 2019 gift from a USA church, we are introducing baseball to the youth. (Didn’t know that baseball was popular in Venezuela and basically unknown in the rest of South America!) The children are really enjoying it but again we are ‘staff challenged’ in working with the hundreds of children that we have interest in what we can do.
- Most of these children grow up with a wrongful image of life, since both parents usually work and a large number of children are home alone most of the time. Mothers nurture but are home one day per week, fathers are gone and home once a week but often out drinking with other fathers. We seek to provide the children a second home, a safe environment.
- We just completed setting up a theatre room (with surround sound audio) so they can enjoy movie night once a week. We put this audio/video equipment to use mostly for worship and teaching as well. If using videos is a key tool for your ministry efforts, we have two projector rooms and a portable projector to take on the road.
Adults
We have many cell sites for bible study (Cabildo, Altura, etc) in homes that we run during the week. Adult counseling opportunities are of great importance for the mission as well. We have had regular weekly meetings with women who have a passion for knitting and crocheting now for 4+ years. We are our first men’s retreat in 2022, and want to expand that ministry as it is greatly needed. We have had many events and unscheduled individual opportunities for couples, un-wed mothers, pregnant teens, marriage, families, etc. We are focused on bringing Christ to each and every family in the area and representing Him in all that we do.
Evangelism
in the mission or on the street is always well received. We have specific tracts printed for the Mission, and are giving them out often in the villages or in Ica as well. We have many gospels of John available, as well as new testaments and complete bibles. We desire to get a bible in every home and help them understand or implement a good study or discipleship program. Prayer walks, evangelism, getting out and meeting and inviting, teaching one on one bible, gifting bibles to hungry households who are interested. We can never do enough in these multiple ministries that are focused strongly on making disciples, and outreaching to the needy as disciples.
Homes of Hope
We have many homes that need repairs, a new wall, window, bathroom, ceiling, etc but getting into construction needs requires advanced knowledge if that is what a team desires. Here is a link on our website of our current and past projects. Here’s also a photo album of our recently completed (2019) project in Altura for a local widow. Here is a video of our earlier 2016 completed project for a single mom and two children.
We are very much in need of construction leadership and teams in this area. This is one of our three primary goals with the placement of this mission where it is. We are finding some new partners in this area and if you would like to know more, have ideas in this area, please email or call us as we would love your assistance.
Music
Music is a passion that we would love to press forward on, just recently getting a few local volunteers to help us. We have a synthesizer-keyboard (KORG), two guitars, drums, speakers, mixer, microphones, two portable PA systems and we often have different attempts at youth choir work. We have many different church friends in Ica we can use as an incentive for the children to perform after they learn and practice a song or choreography presentation. We only need a consistent leader to help. We are recently blessed with two fantastic local volunteers in this area and we pray for this ministry to grow. We are very much in need of construction leadership and teams in this area. This is one of our three primary goals with the placement of this mission where it is. We are finding some new partners in this area and if you would like to know more, have ideas in this area, please email or call us as we would love your assistance.
Dental Hygiene & Dentistry
is a new area for us. Monica Dunn, a blessed hygienist, recently (2019) come down for 8-10 days and spent 6 of them, with a staff of two and a translator, cleaning 150 mouths. What a blessing! The local clinic who we are now having a great relationship with, was most enthusiastic and we now plan to expand on the program annually.With the Covid crisis mostly behind us, we are currently planning to bring multiple hygienist AND multiple dentists. We have a strong need here in these villages, and clinics who need the help to fulfill it. We are currently looking for someone to direct this ministry.We are working to also bring equipment, working on the grant applications to acquire it. We would then keep the equipment at the mission and continue with annual visits if not two or three times per year, moving around to different clinics around the geography. This ministry has just started. Interested in joining our 2021 dental team? click here!
Medical
We just started discussions with a missionary doctors group and have had preliminary meetings in our village with both the school principles and local clinic, exploring a parasite reduction program as well as full medical team visitations.This is still in the early stages and we were delaying due to the Corona virus pandemic but the need is great. We also would be working with local schools to help set up a parasite control program, starting hopefully soon. For Medical team plans or volunteering, click here!
Farming!
YWAM/JuCUM:
Seeing that we were doing locally, was very much in parallel with what was being done by others globally, we have recently (2018) joined with Youth With a Mission, (more information), having our first Discipleship Training School in 2019, followed by June 2021 & 2023. We have our 4th scheduled for January 2024.
Different than a lot of YWAM bases, we are ALSO co-resident with a 12 month per year missionary operation, since first and foremost we are here to serve the people of the surrounding communities. By partnering with YWAM, we hope to build long term staff with the mission service as their primary purpose, but running an annual YWAM discipleship school as well. The school will help us source future staff. The children we service here love missionaries, and YWAM is a great source for many.
- We are meeting and talking with a much smaller YWAM base in Pisco, up the road about an hour but closer to the ocean. They have been working with their ministry since the 2007 earthquake, and only recently had a major reduction in staff going home to Brazil, primarily due to the 2020 Covid outbreak. We are excited about the opportunities we have to combine efforts of our two sites to serve both areas, assisting each other where needed. Of course we are immediately challenged to help them build up new staff where we can, as well as build a stronger relationship with our Brazil peers who founded the Pisco base.
- For more information on YWAM, use the above links. For specific info on the Discipleship Training School (DTS / EDE), please visit YWAMIca.org/DTS. This will take you to an understanding of what a DTS is and an application if you are interested in attending our next one which is Jan-May 2024!!
Lodging
Volunteering at LaMision is no charge! We welcome all. To help with the lodging, we do have very affordable dormitories or private rooms. The Ica Mission is equipped with 2 dormitories which sleep about 14. We also have 3 futon queens, convertible classrooms into bedrooms, 12 private rooms created for longer term private staff that are available, as well as 2 new ‘mini-dorm’ bedrooms (sleeping 4 each) added in 2023. Internet is available base-wide. Short term and long term pay a modest lodging fee. Meals are also available for modest cost.
We welcome your inquiry and would love to answer any specific questions. We do have a USA phone number at the base that we can talk over (858-203-1120) while at the mission, or that we can put you in touch with our host family if you would like. Our US & Perú contact information is also listed on our website. WhatsApp is a primary way we communicate over social networking (+1-858-539-3048 espanol, +1-310-849-4015 english). Otherwise we can continue to connect worldwide via Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom or Facebook messenger. We also have a Peru phone number (when we are down there) and our resident missionaries have cell phones as well if needed to reach.
Hopefully the above gives you a better overview of what we are all about on a daily, weekly or current basis.
