It's been almost 2 years since a small group of leaders in Peru led by John Fransisco and Oswaldo Medina,
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Peru TC Director Oswaldo Medina (left) with Norbert Schenhals
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took the first steps to start a Teen Challenge in their country. They reached out to Global Teen Challenge for direction. Norbert Schenhals, a GTC International Representative together with Duane Henders, the GTC Regional Rep for Latin America and the Caribbean traveled to Lima, Peru on separate trips and helped the leaders of Peru establish a strategic plan that would enable them to establish a new Teen Challenge ministry.
The key steps of that strategic plan included their mission, objectives, prayer, identify a leader for the ministry, begin evangelism and outreach among the drug addicts in their region, setting up a board of directors, registering the ministry with government, establishing relationships with
pastors and key community leaders and key training for leaders and potential staff.
The initial focus for Teen Challenge has been in one of the most difficult neighborhoods of Lima, Villa El Salvador. This is a poverty stricken area with a crowded population of over 600,000 people. Thousands of children and teen-agers are addicted to coca paste and gather together nightly on the streets within Villa El Salvador smoking coca paste. Gangs rule the neighborhoods and savage fighting and murders are almost a daily occurrence.
By the close of 2010, Teen Challenge had advanced to the point where they had established a Day Program for addicts in Villa El Salvador and currently they are working with about 24 men on a daily basis in a small house which was rented for TC by a local pastor and his church.
However, the director, Oswaldo Medina recently contacted Norbert to say that several of those in the TC Day Program were just not able to make it on their own, and needed a place to live so they could stay drug free as they went through the program. So they have started their first residential program, providing housing for 5 of these men in this same rented home.
God is doing a work of transformation in the lives of the students in Teen Challenge. The daily schedule includes chapel, classes where they are teaching the Group Studies for New Christians courses, and evangelism on the streets including using The Cross and the Switchblade movie in the neighborhoods.
One of the greatest needs is to raise up new staff for this ministry. They are believing that God will raise up leaders from some of the men who are currently in the TC Day Program so when they graduate from TC, God will call them to fulltime ministry helping others find freedom from addiction and the power of sin.
Plans are underway to open a larger residential program in 2012. We believe the ministry of TC in Peru can be the setting where many new miracles of transformation take place.
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Students, staff & and volunteers of Teen Challenge Peru
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