The Grace Church Mission in Peru started with a desire that God put into the heart of Pastor Rick many years ago, as a young man, to one day go to the Amazon jungle. This dream became a reality in January of 1997 when Pastor Rick Long, Pastor Jim Malouff, and another Grace Church pastor had an opportunity to travel to the Amazon rainforest of Peru. It seems God often works through a desire that He has planted into our hearts. During the nearly one-month long trip, these men were introduced to the Shawi people and fell in love with the people of the rainforest. Before leaving to go back to the United States, they made a promise that they would return and that they would equip the Shawi people to reach their own nation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This commitment would involve Grace Church partnering with this indigenous people group by providing full-time staff, empowerment trainings, and teachings so that the people of this nation are able to evangelize, disciple, and serve their own people as well as neighboring tribes. This initiative started with 3 Shawi pastors and has grown to over 60 Shawi pastors being trained and serving at one time or another within their people group. Praise God for all he has done and all he has empowered Grace Church to do and so much more yet to be done!

Our mission and goals for the work in Peru are the same as those of Grace Church here in Arvada - to provide hope for everyone and a home for anyone in all of our local churches. We strive to live out the five purposes of God; to equip every believer with the knowledge of their spiritual SHAPE so that each one can do their part; and make heaven more crowded with many of the 56,000 Shawi people living in the jungle. While we are accomplishing that goal and surpassing all of our expectations, we are constantly equipping the people of Grace Church with the knowledge of the mission in Peru. Pastor Rick has personally led over 360 members of Grace Church on mission trips over the last 26 years, averaging 14 people a year. On many occasions, we led a team almost twice that amount in one single short-term mission trip. Our desire is to preach the clear gospel to every single Shawi and have the privilege of seeing them all come to Christ. Today we have baptized well over 10,000 indigenous people and planted dozens of churches. We are constantly keeping this vision before the people of Grace Church.

Maybe you, like Pastor Rick many years ago, have had a desire to go to a mission field to serve the Lord and a people group. Maybe that desire is a seed that God has planted in your heart. We are praying for a married couple who might be willing to travel to Peru and consider taking over as the full-time ministry staff in the jungle. This will all be done in tandem with Doug and Blanca’s return to the United States in 2025 to begin our Spanish-speaking church in Arvada. If you are interested, please submit an application.

Will you be the next Grace team member to share God's love with the people of the Amazon?