| February 8, 2007
Remnants of the past, hope for the future: Ayacucho,
Peru
Dear Friends,
Jacob Goad (far right) with other PC(USA) missionaries who completed
orientation in January 2007.
I arrived in Lima, Peru, last month, the day after the PC(USA)
mission orientation was complete. I spent the first couple of
hours greeting some old friends who I’d met from previous
short-term trips.
At the first chance, I made a phone call to the president of
the General Assembly of the IEPRP (Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian
Church of Peru). He was surprised that I was already in town.
Without hesitation, he matched my surprise with a surprise of
his own. “Let’s go to Ayacucho,” he said. With
those simple words of invitation, he connected with my reality.
In the Young Adult Congress for the IEPRP in Huanta, Ayacucho,
Jacob learned an important lesson: When you lose UNO to four
girls, you receive the deserved punishment.
The invitation to Ayacucho struck me as particularly providential
because my friend Noé Juarez Loayza was born there. In
2001, I met Noé while I was staying in Moyobamba. Alamance
Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, sent Laurie
Camp and me to partner with IEPRP in that city.
Laurie and I were active in the young adult fellowship at the
church. As a result of that involvement, she got to know her future
husband Noé.
I remember there were a few uncomfortable times when I was squeezed
between Laurie and Noé in the back of a rickshaw. Each
would ask me to translate things that suggested their mutual romantic
interest. I remember there was one late night when I said to Noé,
“No voy a traducir eso.” (“I’m not going
to translate that.”)
Noé and all of his family are blessed with gifts of music
and embracing their culture and native language, Quechua. Noé,
a great example of the mutuality of mission, uses his gifts to
serve in churches and in the community of Greensboro.
When Noé was a boy, his family was forced to flee Ayacucho
because of political violence. This reality has shaped the way
that Noé and others like him understand the gospel, Jesus’
way of eternal justice and peace.
While I was in Ayacucho I spoke to an elderly man named Vicente.
Vicente said that 20 years ago people were “entre la espada
y la pared,” which means “between the sword and the
wall.” The socialist doctrine of equality was being promoted
by the Shining Path. This ideology was particularly appealing
to the historically oppressed Quechua-speaking population of the
south of Peru. However, if you chose to side with the Shining
Path, you would be killed by the Peruvian military, but if you
sided with the military, the Shining path would kill you.
This vicious cycle of violence has played itself out among the
most marginalized people of Peru since the 1970s. Vicente spoke
out against this injustice in his day. One of his daughters is
currently a national leader for the denomination, and she is blessed
that her father is alive to see her work for the kingdom.
I also met a young man who lost his father to political violence.
He, like many others who have lost their father or mother, is
a leader in the church. He has a tested and tried faith in God
that manifests itself in the family of faith. He currently leads
music at his church in Ayacucho.
Peace,
Jacob Goad
Lima, Peru
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