MMI works in the Aija Valley Peru, just south of Huaraz, which is located 420 km northeast of Peru’s capital, Lima.  The Aija Valley is a rural area of Peru made up of a series of small, isolated villages, with a total of approximately nine thousand people living in the whole area. Most of the people in the area are Quechua people, the largest ethnic group in Peru.

An MMI team first went to Peru in 2004. The team included current MMI Peru Director Tony Giesbrecht who, with his wife Catherine, leads MMI’s work in the Aija Valley.  Today, MMI works in several main villages, including La Merced, Colca, Llanquish, Succha, and Mallacayan.

Local Partnerships

MMI carries out its work in the Aija Valley, in partnership with Huaraz Baptist Church, an evangelical church just north of the valley.  Bible training takes place at the church and the leaders cooperate with MMI workers to serve new converts.

MMI develops local leadership within the Peruvian culture ensuring new believers are getting discipleship, prayer, and holistic care. Through donations from Christians in Canada, MMI supports workers with a small salary to ensure they are free to visit and disciple believers and community members spread out across the valley

Church Planting

MMI conducts occasional discipleship and Bible Training in the Aija Valley for its workers and other believers in order to prepare them for church leadership, and to ensure they can pass on Biblical teaching to their communities. As a result of this training and support from MMI, evangelical churches are being planted in villages across the Aija Valley.

Church buildings are important to discipleship in the Aija Valley, as the people are not culturally open to the concept of house churches. MMI rents space in the first floor of a house in Colca and Mallacayan for the local church to meet. Current church building plans are underway for both villages. MMI’s projects will be completed with the help of short-term mission construction teams.

Evangelistic Campaigns

MMI has held evangelistic campaigns in the Aija Valley since its first short-term mission team visited the region in 2004. The people have responded very positively to the preaching, film, and public worship events, with whole villages often in attendance.  In addition, MMI holds prayer campaigns, sending believers out to villages to pray for residents in their homes, based on requests collected beforehand.   The campaigns have resulted in some villagers choosing to follow Christ and publicly confirming their decision through baptism.

Children’s Ministry

MMI is reaching children with the Gospel and care in the Aija Valley, representing a holistic approach to evangelism. Short term childrens’ ministry teams hold Daily Vacation Bible School (DVBS) in elementary schools over a couple of days in July. As part of these school initiatives, children are given school supplies, without which they are unable to attend school.  MMI has also taught sexual integrity in secondary schools that has been well received by teachers. MMI has been invited to return to the school to expand the teaching.

Medical Clinics

Medical clinics have been held in the Aija valley by MMI  short-term medical mission’s teams in response to the needs of the community. MMI teams provide education to help improve the overall health standards in the community. Health care packs, purchased through the generosity of donors in Canada, are distributed to help residents get started with new health practices.