Rich & Ramona Wagner

Thank you for your prayers for Ramona and I as we were in Peru for the past two weeks. We experienced the presence of God’s Holy Spirit as we looked into possibilities for service there. We left with a very clear calling, and a new assignment! We have been invited to come to Cuzco Peru to be part of the Hinterlands Ministry!

This ministry is defined as church-planting through leadership development among non-Hispanic people groups throughout Latin America. The Hinterland ministry is presently concentrated in Peru and is working toward ministry models that will be applicable in other parts of Latin America particularly in other areas of Peru and in Ecuador.

There are 9 to 10 million Peruvian Quechuas who are virtually unreached with the gospel of Christ. Counted as descendants of the ancient Incas, Quechuas are often bound by superstition and geographic isolation. The goal of this team is to initiate and facilitate multi-cultural church-planting teams among four of the largest Quechua-dialect groups in Peru, producing a church-planting movement among these peoples.

Ramona will work with Ruth Powlison, in Quechua woman’s ministries, and “The Josephine House”, an orphanage for abandoned Quechua children.

Keith Powlison, the Regional Director for Hinterland Ministries, and I have already started thinking through strategies for reaching the remote Quechua villages with the Gospel and community development work.

There are three levels of villages that we will be working with. The first are villages that are reachable by four wheel drive truck. I have already started the process to purchase a truck there. The next level of villages are those reachable only by motorcycle. Keith has approved a $5000 special project for that motorcycle. That last level of villages are those we will only be able to reach by horseback.

Ease of accessibility aside, the strategies will be pretty much the same. We will be spending time in the villages building relationships; developing community development projects to provide food and income for the community, and sharing/modeling the Gospel in all we do. The villages do not have electrical power; many carry in their own drinking water.

My last community development projects years ago were chicken/worm protein projects, and Brahma cattle projects, when we were in the Colombian jungle working with Indians. I have fond memories of Don Williams and I herding cattle on motorcycles and horseback.

I’m still trying to get my head around how we will herd the 3000 animals that will make up each reproducible protein/income project with the Quechuas. Brahma cattle? Herefords maybe? No. The main protein/cash project will be . . . . . Guinea Pigs. It kind of brings the image of a cowboy on horseback, with cowboy hat, boots and a lariat to a screeching halt.

Peruvians consume an estimated 65 million guinea pigs, known as “Cuy” each year. The meat is high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol and has a distinctive flavor, similar to rabbit. It takes about 3000 cuys to make each project profitable and reproducible.

We will also be starting kind of a 4H Club type of project for hogs. Pork is common and fairly inexpensive. But importers charge large amounts of money for “honey smoked hams” and the fancier cuts of pork. Some of you may remember we smoked hams in the jungle for the missionaries, even burning down the smokehouse several times, Ramona reminds me. I think I’ve designed a smokehouse concept that will easily work in the villages, helping provide additional income and food options for the Quechuas.

This assignment brings with it some major challenges for Ramona and I. We will not be able to import the personal effects we took to Colombia and Mexico. We will only be able to take two suitcases each. Everything else that we will need to live and set up housekeeping and ministry will have to be purchased there. Ramona even has to leave her hairdryer, since the electrical system in Peru is 220volts 50 cycles, not 115 volts 60 cycles like we have in the United States. So we will be completely starting over.

Very quickly we were able to see the Spiritual battle we will be involved in. The backyard of the apartment where we will first live, butts up against the backyard of a tavern. In the tavern’s backyard was a short wall next to a pizza oven, that had human skulls on top of it. We learned the skulls were for burglar prevention. When the owners of the tavern are gone, the skulls talk to each other, fooling intruders into thinking someone is home. I found this to be common in the culture.

Ramona is gaining strength and her viral count is at zero. We want to thank you for your continued support and patience, as we have had to spend this time in the US for Ramona’s medical treatment. We praise God that He has so clearly led us to this ministry assignment. It’s time to go back to work.

Lord Bless,

Rich & Ramona