Dear friend,
In 2012, Becky, a missionary in Peru read a news letter from a Love UnVeiled leader in S.E Asia. She was amazed by the stories of transformation, freedom and multiplication among the women in this closed country. She wanted to bring this spiritual transformation to the women of Peru. In January 2013, Becky attended her first LUV workshop in Orlando, Florida,where the Lord began a deep work of healing and freedom in her own heart. Becky has just completed her third LUV workshop.
When Becky returns to Peru she shares what she is learning with women there. Her heart is broken for women and children to experience the healing and freedom they desperately need. I asked her some questions to help us understand how we can pray and support her:
1) What are the conditions for women and children in Peru?
My husband and I work mostly with the poor people of Peru. The women often are abandoned and working to raise their families on their own. Couples in Peru often do not marry but live together as partners. Marriage with the civil ceremony, religious ceremony and expected celebration afterwards is too costly for most Peruvians. When a partner is unsatisfied with the situation they leave and the woman doesn’t have any help to care for the children. There is no government aide here. Work is difficult to find, also.
Victoria, a friend we have worked with for several years, has 6 children. Her partner, Percy, has worked hard in construction over the years. She runs a little store in her home, cooks fried chicken and potatoes to sell in the evening and sometimes works in the mandarin fields. Recently Percy got a fungus in his hands from working with the wet cement all the time and so he could no longer work. Now Victoria leaves early in the morning and goes through garbage along the street to find recyclable materials to sell. She is able to earn 30 soles (about $10) a day doing this to help feed her family and pay for the transportation for her children to attend school. They live in temporary housing on the outskirts of the city which does not have running water or sewage drainage. Two of her children have fungus in their fingernails and spots of their hair have fallen out. At least one other has lice. They do the best they can with what they have.
Other women work in the asparagus fields and factories packing asparagus to export to the US and Europe 10-11 hours a day. One mom, Monica who also has 6 children, gets up early to work in the fields. She gets home in time to do the laundry by hand, fix dinner, go to bed and get up to do it again…6 days a week. Her partner is a drug addict so is not much help with the family income. Her children miss her.
The stories are all a little different but all have great basic needs:
- Life is hard. There is little help and not much opportunity to improve their situation.
- There are thousands of years of pagan beliefs and superstition which affects them as well.
- Witchcraft is widely used.
- It is a Catholic nation but that is mixed with the pagan beliefs.
- The country is full of idols.
2) What is your heart and vision for reaching women in Peru?
I want to help the women discover and believe in Jesus as their friend and their lifeline. I don’t want them to just have great knowledge of God or the Bible or be hard workers for God, feeling an obligation to be good. I want them to get to know
Him personally, one on one. There are many Bible studies and good Christian books, but we need to get a right relationship with Jesus first and then continue growing in that the rest of our lives. When God touches our lives and changes us, we learn to trust him and find freedom for our whole person—body, soul and spirit.
Women fear all sorts of things and we work hard to please others but those things enslave us.
The Butterfly Story and Workshops help women understand these things and work to build a foundational rock on a right relationship with Jesus. With an intimate relationship with Jesus and a free spirit, we can then serve Him with our hearts, giving Him our all.
The women here can be freed from generations of fear, hate, and poor choices in their lives. They can begin to trust and have hope. They can learn to be content because they have the best gift of all in Jesus. They can begin to treat their children with love and special care. They can leave all their burdens at the feet of Jesus and let him transform them into beautiful people of God. They will have a good Father who cares for them and will never leave them. God will make a difference in their lives, then their family’s lives and others as well.
3) How can LUV Partners pray for you and for Peru?
- Please pray for the women to have open hearts and desire to know Jesus.
- Pray the Lord gives me (Becky) opportunity to share the Butterfly Workshop with other women who will in turn share it with more. I have shared it in Lima and in Chincha and there is interest in Trujillo now, too.
- Pray for God to continue to work in me and help me share clearly always pointing to Him as the answer for all our lives.
- Pray that spiritual and religious bondage among women in Peru will be broken.
- Pray for the urgent translation of the remaining LUV curriculum and tools still to be translated into Spanish
- Pray that God will raise up LUV leaders in Peru under Becky’s leadership who will unveil His love, teach His truth and bring Spiritual transformation and healing to women all across Peru.
Dear friend, may our prayers open the windows of heaven to pour out God’s love on Peru! May God unveil His love and freedom through Becky and her butterflies!
Liz
Liz Dickson
Founder & Executive Director
Love UnVeiled
www.loveunveiled.org
407 385 5796