Bible Distribution in Peru

On 12th October 2013 23 Gideons, [17 from the US and one each from the UK, Finland, Germany, South Africa, Japan and Australia] met in Lima, Peru to carry out a 2 week distribution of God’s word, expecting to give out 600,000 copies. The first week was to be in Lima, the capital city, and the second in Arequipa in the south of the country where many tourists make a stop-over before going to visit the Inca mountain centre of Machu Picchu. Being at over 7,500ft Arequipa helps tourists to acclimatise to the higher altitude of the mountains, but is a challenge in itself with its more rarified air. My own journey was delayed as a result of a mechanical problem with the aircraft in Heathrow, so I missed my connection to Lima and had an unplanned visit to both an hotel in Toronto and the airport in Bogota, Colombia, both of which gave opportunities to give personal testaments to a number of individuals. Meanwhile, my luggage went to Santiago in Chile for a few days.

Peru is a country blessed with rich mineral deposits but still shows evidence of the struggles which took place in the period of 1980 to 2000 when the communist “Shining Path” terrorists caused havoc. Many people were driven from their jungle homes to the relative safety of the cities, but they still live in abject poverty on the edges of cities and on hillsides with no running water or sanitation. Others simply lived in fear. The country is still heavily affected by the illegal drugs trade which involves a number of countries in the region. Lima is a city of great contrasts; the centre is a typical modern city with all modern conveniences but the suburbs are desperately poor. Many of the schools we were to visit were based in these areas. Some were run by the Catholic Church, some privately funded, but many are provided by the state with limited funding. Their relative conditions displayed the disparity in the sharing of resources in the country. The poverty of many areas was a factor in the high crime levels and precautions that people had to take with their homes and possessions. Finding the entrance to many of the schools was made difficult as a consequence of the security fences and manned gateways around neighbourhoods which were designed to protect people’s homes.
In such conditions, the local evangelical churches strive to meet both the spiritual and social needs of the people.   

The local Gideons had done some tremendous work preparing opportunities to visit local places such as schools, hospitals, universities and prisons, securing the necessary authorities to attend and distribute scriptures. There was some minimal remnant resistance from a small number of Catholic schools, denying us access, but otherwise there was a warm welcome in both cities and a total of 1,087,623 copies of God’s word were given out; 832,313 in Lima and 255,310 in Arequipa. We pray God will speak through every copy as individuals read them, and draw people to Himself.

Jonathan Longstaff

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