We met in Bozeman in 2003 while attending Montana Bible College and got married in 2004. Our desire from before we were married was to take God's Word to the unreached, so in 2006, after finishing Bible college and a short visit to Bolivia, we spent 2.5 years in extensive tribal missionary training. During our training and support-raising process, God blessed us with three little girls: Anne (Oct '06), Addison (Dec '08), and Lydia (May '10)
In February of 2011, we moved to Bolivia, South America. At this point, we are living in Cochabamba, high in the Andes. Our main job right now is to learn Spanish, so we can effectively live here. However, once we finish with Spanish, we plan to move down to the jungle to live among the Guarayo people, an indigenous tribal group. The vast majority of the Guarayos are monolingual, and although there is a New Testament in their language, there is no indigenous church, and no one is ministering in their language. Our desire is to learn their language, then teach, disciple, and grow up an indigenous body of believers.
To follow our adventures, go to www.UnaVidaParaCristo.org!
Michael Mhoon:
MICHAEL MHOON,
CAMPUS BAPTIST PASTOR
P.O. BOX 1335
DILLON,MT 59725-1335
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA WESTERN CHAPTER
BAPTIST COLLEGIATE MINISTRY
The Doherty Family:
Current Work
We are currently in Costa Rica for language school. It is very important to learn the language because almost no one speaks English where we are going in Peru. Without knowing Spanish, we will be unable to live and function, let alone minister and preach to the Peruvians.
We study Spanish about 6 hours a day and then use it as we live in the culture. Along with Spanish learning and our Families, we are active in street evangelism in downtown San Jose. We have also started a Sunday evening bible study at the language school for English speaking students and their families. I also am privileged to preach during the school's chapel service during each trimester.
Future Work
When language school is complete in August of 2012, we will move to Peru. Obtaining resident visas is not easy in Peru. We have a connection in Lima and may have to spend several months in Lima obtaining visas when we arrive in August.
After we are ingrained into the culture and speaking fluently, our goal is to initially plant two biblical churches, God willing, in Cusco and in a small town about 2 hours outside of Cusco called Limatambo. Limatambo is essentially unreached. There is no church in the town of 2000 people and there is no Christian presence in anyway. Our Peruvian partner, Walter Gamarra, will work with us in starting the main church in Cusco and then the church plant in Limatambo. Walter will move to Limatambo to pastor the church full time with Tim and I or both as elders who will help teach, preach and train leaders.
We are also partnering with another native Peruvian named Wehrner Pancorbo, through HeartCry Missionary Society. Wehrner is a native of Cusco and now pastors a healthy church north of Lima. He has been praying for 5 years for the opportunity to move back to Cusco and start a church but everything failed until God providentially brought us together. Wehrner will pastor the church in Cusco and Tim and I will train leadership, teach theology, evangelize, and preach.
Our goal, God willing, is to have the church in Cusco be our base operations where we will train other pastors and missionaries to be sent out to other regions in Peru. While in Cusco we will travel to the high mountain villages in the more remote areas on scouting trips to see the needs of the area and to help teach believers. The outreach work will consist of moving into some of the unreached regions, which have no church of any kind, to make contacts, evangelize, start bible studies and eventually, by God’s grace, establish a biblical church with the goal of having God raise up national pastors.
Although we will initially be starting the church, our goal is to see God save Peruvians and raise them up into leadership positions and eventually take the church over. When God works in this way and the church is sustained by the indigenous people, we will move into new regions as God leads but never leave the church starts without support and constant communication.
Our vision is not to see American churches planted and sustained by Americans, but to see God work amongst the Peruvians to start biblical churches that are sustained by the Peruvians relying on the grace of God. We do understand that the Peruvian Christians are willing to evangelize and plant churches which is very encouraging to us. What they lack at times is training in sound biblical doctrine. A big part of our ministry will be to disciple the new Peruvian believers in these historical biblical truths.
God has opened many doors already in Peru for us to travel throughout the country teaching. Along with our routine duties at the church we will plant, we will also be traveling throughout Peru training Peruvian pastors and their flocks through conferences up to 12 times a year. There is such a great need in Peru for teaching biblical truth. Many Peruvians want to know sound doctrine and will walk 100 miles to a conference but they don’t have the resources and teachers to learn it.
Another part of our ministry will be facilitating short term mission trips for our supporting churches in the United States. We will be working with other agencies, like Reaching and Teaching (David Sills), in this area in order to handle logistics. David Sills is also mentoring us in our ministry and putting us in contact with all his contacts in Peru. He has been a tremendous help to us and is opening many doors up for us to teach and preach.
Location and People
The main language in the country is Spanish but the Quechua language is spoken in several regions. There a large number of minor Amazonian languages as well. The main occupations in Peru are agriculture, industry and services with 44% of the population below the poverty line.
Cusco has a mix of Spanish speaking Peruvians and Quechua Indians living there, while the majority of people in Limatambo are Quechuan and speak only Quechuan. Quechua is spoken by many of the Indian tribes across the Andes.
The city of Cusco sits high in the Andes mountains at around 11,000 feet in elevation. The population of Cusco is around 350,000 and has a rich history of the Inca Empire. The city of Cusco only has a 4-6 biblical churches that we know of.
The country of Peru is around 80% Catholic. There is also a history of animistic beliefs which are still held in the more remote regions of the country. The majority of people have synchronized their Roman Catholic faith with animistic beliefs to make a system of superstition and slavery.
The End
What is the end goal of our work in Peru? It is the same purpose we all have in life, which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We are not going to Peru necessarily to rescue lost and depraved sinners from a wrathful God. We are going out of a love for our precious Savior Jesus Christ and out of obedience to God to go to all nations, lead by Christ, to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:14-15)
We primarily want to see the name of our Sovereign God glorified and made great instead of being blasphemed in Peru. God has His sheep in Peru, which is why He is sending us their. We are confident in God that He will use the preaching of His Word to save sinners and bring the sheep into the fold. We understand that the Bride of Christ has been built by they blood of the martyrs and that anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. We have sacrificed everything for this move and pray that God will use our weak, lowly bodies for His glory and good.
Discipleship Ministry
Evangelism Ministry
Family Ministry
Teaching Ministry
Worship Ministry